Live streaming is one of the most popular ways to pass along information, and it goes beyond news and television. Businesses everywhere are taking advantage of live streams in order to drive product and brand recognition, sales, and inform customers. Live stream platforms exist outside of social media, so you’ll be able to find something a bit more professional for your next presentation.
The key to successful online presentations is keeping the audience engaged. You can have the best SEO strategy, the best film equipment, and the greatest products, but if your audience isn’t engaged with your live stream, you’re not really achieving anything.
Let’s look closer at some ways you can generate engagement during your live stream events.
Your Title Matters
The title of your live stream even makes more difference than you might think. A long, clunky title can be all it takes to cause viewers to tune out or not click the link in the first place. The key to titles? Short, concise, and simple. For example, instead of saying something like, “I’m Going To Show You The Best Ways To Maximize Your Real Estate Investments”, say instead, “5 Ways To Maximize Real Estate Investments”. This is straight to the point, and rolls off the tongue a lot more smoothly than the first one.
It’s a good idea to optimize your title for SEO as well, just as you would a blog post. Provide a short description with optimized keywords so you can rank higher on search engines.
Tell A Good Story
Telling a good story is the most important part of live streaming. When you live stream your online event, you get a unique opportunity to reach your audience in a raw, uncensored way. Tell a good story that evokes emotions and makes both you and your brand feel more human. When customers feel connected to the products they’re buying (and the brand they’re produced by), they’ll feel more comfortable spreading the word about you and your products. Think of it as a trust exercise. You’re essentially trading raw honesty and a stripped-down view of you and your brand for the sake of building trust with customers. This will drive revenue, new customers, and potentially even expose your products to new people.
The Quality Of Your Video Feed Matters
Some businesses have been known to host live stream events that look as though they’re being filmed with a disposable camera (remember those?). Remember that the quality of your video and audio feeds matters when you’re hosting live stream events. If you’ve got grainy, choppy quality on either, your audience isn’t likely to stay tuned in.
We’ve all seen horrible videos on the internet that were filmed in a lower resolution than even 720p. Those videos aren’t exactly fun to watch, especially when the poor quality gets in the way of your message.
Interactive Content
The best approach to making your live streams more engaging is to encourage participation from the audience. When you’re keeping things interactive, your audience has more of a stake in what’s happening. Respond to questions, provide prompts, and encourage conversation. This is a good way to get to know your audience and your customers, as well. The better you know them, the more effective your marketing efforts will be overall.
Live streaming creates this sense of “missing out” among the people who aren’t attending, which is a good thing. Once your current attendees tell their colleagues how much they enjoyed and learned from your live stream, that fear can drive a new audience your way.
Use Closed Questions
Closed questions that have a yes or no answer are best for live streams if you’re short on time or have a very large audience. It’s more difficult to keep a large audience interacting with your live stream, so save the questions if you can, and provide questions with yes or no answers.
For example, instead of asking, “What are some things you’d like to learn about real estate investing?” say, “Would you like to learn the five secrets of real estate investing?” This helps you get right to the point and immediately lets everyone know what they’ll gain from attending the event.
Plant The Seed Of Curiosity In Your Viewers
Your content should be presented in such a way that it invokes curiosity in the audience. Give them just enough information to reel them in and keep them engaged, but leave with a call to action that will help them seek out more information. And where else would they go but to your brand for that information?
Live streaming is all about generating buzz. Plant the seed of curiosity by presenting information in an interactive and entertaining way. Let them know they can’t get by without the information you’re presenting. Make them feel like they need it.
