Livestreaming continues to gain traction as Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube ramp up their real-time video capabilities. While publishers have had success on each of these platforms, they’ve limited their reach by only broadcasting on one channel at a time. As a result, they have yet to harness the full potential of livestreaming.
Live video helps brands forge genuine, unfiltered, and real-time connections with consumers. As eMarketer found, 80 percent of retail executives say livestreaming helps them create more authentic interactions with their audience, and 60 percent say it helps bring a human element to digital marketing. Facebook also found that live videos are watched three times longer than regular videos on the social network—further proving the effectiveness of the format.
Various simulcast tools allow businesses to use one simple dashboard to distribute, manage, and monetize content on a full range of social sites, company websites, and mobile devices, leveraging the power of several audience touchpoints at once.
But then a new question arises: How can you engage each of these unique audiences through one live video, ensuring that you take full advantage of this opportunity?
Here are four helpful tips for livestreaming across platforms at the same time.
1. Understand audience behaviors on each channel
Every platform attracts different demographics. For instance, 75 percent of Twitch users are male primarily between 18 and 49 years old. Meanwhile, more than 50 percent of YouTube’s audience is female, and the amount of time adults over 55 years old spent on the platform tripled from 2015 to 2016.
This means you have to make sure your content offers something for each group, along with enticing ways for these audiences to engage with your livestream. Ask yourself: Do your Facebook fans favor certain topics, while your Twitter fans favor others? Do YouTube viewers comment more than viewers on other channels? Consult your analytics and answer these questions before you go live. This way, you can craft more relevant content for each user group.
2. Cross-promote your livestream
Audiences might prefer to view live video on a certain platform, or they might use different platforms at different times of day. If a viewer sees your promotion on YouTube, for example, she might still opt to tune in on Facebook; maybe she knows she’ll be on-the-go during your broadcast and she’s more comfortable using the Facebook mobile app than the YouTube mobile app.
Put the power in the viewer’s hands by cross-promoting your livestream and letting users know their options ahead of time. For instance, you can create social posts that announce where the video will be streamed, along with links to each unique platform.
3. Take questions and comments from each audience
If you only respond to questions from one platform, you risk alienating viewers on other channels and missing out on valuable feedback from multiple audiences. That’s why it’s important to plan out how you want to incorporate comments into your livestream.
You could assign someone to monitor incoming comments across all platforms, for example, or you could address comments from one channel at a time. For instance: If you want to take questions at the end of your stream, you might set aside five minutes for Facebook questions and five minutes for YouTube questions. This kind of planning will help you stay organized and drive audience engagement.
4. Place the video on-demand on your website
Once you’re done broadcasting, all eyes should end up in the same place: on your owned site. This will give you more control over the post-livestream user experience.
With JW Live, publishers can create live video once and easily distribute it to a variety of platforms—including their website. When the stream is over, they can host the content exclusively on their company site, where they can continue to drive traffic and revenue from their owned audiences.
Whether you’re using live video to build awareness, generate leads, or unveil a new product, don’t limit yourself to just one platform. Outshine competitors and harness the full potential of livestreaming by reaching viewers across the web all at once.
Businesses that don’t get on board with live streaming video are missing important brand and customer engagement opportunities. Contact JW Player today to talk about how to do it right and engage multiple audiences in real time.