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During the days of TV’s dominance, everyone couldn’t peel their eyes off the screen when a program was “live.” People did so because they didn’t want to miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In addition, they wanted to be the first to know what would happen, something we know as FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
Today, anyone can do live streaming. Social media networks such as Facebook even highlight your profile and send your network a notification that you’ve gone live unless the function is turned off.
Nowadays, marketers consider it a powerful marketing tool. In fact, the biggest brands have used it to successful ends, just like GE’s Periscope drones when the app was still independent of Twitter for #DroneWeek.
The five-day-five-episode live event allowed audiences to feel the scale and impact of GE’s drone technologies. Their efforts helped them gain 3.22 million video views, 50.6 million impressions, and a total of 84.7 thousand live stream viewers per episode.
Live streaming is not just a fad. It’s here to stay and can be your ultimate tool for social media marketing success. Just look at the infographic below:
Source: Filmora Wondershare
1. Live Videos Vs. Text Content
More people love to watch rather than read. In fact, 80% of customers would rather watch live videos about a brand than reading posts. In addition, a continuous stream of text and image updates in social media can create fatigue for your audiences and your message gets lost in the clutter.
With live streaming, brands are able to show events as they are happening and capture the essence of the moment. With the power of smartphones and the Internet, it is possible for a single correspondent to give the full details of the live event. People are able to witness for themselves what is happening instead of receiving second-hand information via an article written later that leaves out a few details to make it more succinct.
The reason for the audiences’ unfaltering attention is because a video is an engaging format. One of the reasons why video is compelling is that the human eye is naturally drawn to movement. People are drawn to motion and familiar nuances such as a person conversing and relaying events as if they were at the event itself. It also makes use of audio, which is easy for people to understand and follow what’s happening. Here’s how to add audio to video and create a more unique experience for your audience.
2. Easy Opportunity-Based Production
About 41% of people in social media watch live events featuring breaking news stories. While most people are watching funny or entertaining live videos such as gaming conventions or live comedy events, most people will watch content similar to flash news. For example, it can be the launch of a new satellite, the wedding of a royal family member, or the unveiling of a brand’s newest product in a gigantic press conference.
If your brand has a new product it needs to launch, audiences who follow your page might consider it value-adding because it concerns their interests.
3. Millennial-Oriented
According to Marketing Profs, there are over 2.67 billion social media users in 2018 alone. Millennials aged 20-35 years old spend more than eight hours a day browsing through social media. As a tech-savvy generation, Millennials love the idea of live streaming with 63% from every social network watching live content when they receive a notification.
If your brand appeals to Millennials, then leveraging on live streaming is important to improve your social network presence and overall brand recognition. In fact, 42% of Millennials know how to create interesting live videos themselves making it a great channel of communication between brand and audience.
4. Personality-Driven
Influencers have made their careers through short videos. Their communities love watching their content. Niche-recognized influencers not only receive free products to review and endorse, but also grab the opportunity to live stream events whenever possible because they have a wide reach. Influencers bank on their personality to expand their communities and live streaming is one of their best tools to do so.
Therefore, a single strong-personality host for any brand’s live stream is enough to drive traffic. If this individual adds value to their audience, then they present the brand in a positive, entertaining, and reliable light.
5. FOMO-Powered
Remember FOMO? Majority of social network users have it. Just like at the height of television networks, missing a particular live event means you’ll have to wait for someone to tell you what happened and it’s nothing like seeing it for yourself. Live streaming, which sends notifications to audiences, initiates this particular feeling all over again, compelling audiences to tune in “RIGHT NOW”.
For example, a global audience means that not everyone would get to attend a particular gaming convention where new games are announced. With their fear of missing out, they will turn to social media for live coverage on the event such as on Facebook, Twitter, or others services such as live stream giant Twitch, which has over 10 million daily users.
6. Authentically Interactive
Social media videos allow users to watch content and consume it fully. However, if they have questions about particular topics, they can only make a comment or reply on the page. This form of communication is still an effective brand-building tool, but with live streaming, there’s an extra value-adding rapport created.
Live streams allow hosts or social media agents to respond to real-time messages that audiences send regarding the event, making the interaction between brand and audience more authentic. This allows them to answer questions, create discussions, and find value in the brand. It establishes rapport between you and the hundreds of thousands watching your brand’s live stream quickly.
Conclusion
Live streaming is an excellent tool for brands aiming to expand their reach and create value-adding communication with their audience. While live streaming is useful only in moments such as breaking news, product reveals, how-to-guides, and conferences, it has enough value that urges hundreds or even thousands of your audiences not to miss out on a unique or once-in-a-lifetime event. If you need help with this, feel free to contact us (we’re very friendly!) or you can also check out our social media marketing services here.
