Does Live-streaming work for small businesses?

Live-streaming may be the hottest new trend in social media, but the question is can it work for your small business? Well, there’s no better way to find out than to dive in and give it a go, and the businesses who start experimenting with live-streaming now will have a better chance of making it work for them.

So what is live streaming and how can the most popular apps can work for your business?

What is it? Live-streaming is the process of broadcasting real-time, live video footage or video feed to an audience accessing the video stream over the internet. The viewing device can be a smartphone, tablet, desktop, laptop, or digital screen at home or in a venue such as a theatre. The broadcast can be just video, audio or both and viewers can interact with the broadcast Host or guests or other viewers, through text chat, twitter feed, voice or webcam video.

Blab (my personal favourite), Blab is a live video streaming app that allows up to four people to hold an online conversation live. At the push a button you’re a talk show host! It really is the closest thing to face to face interactions in an online setting. The format that makes for a fresh, fun and feel-good atmosphere which lends itself to very direct and open conversations.  The beauty of blab is you can interact via desktop or mobile.

 

Periscope is a live video streaming platform which allows you to transmit a live recording of yourself to your Periscope and Twitter followers. It’s  broadcasting to a whole community or if you choose to just a group of people you select. Whoever’s watching you can comment and ask questions which show up on your screen whilst broadcasting making it easy to answer and interact.

 

 

Meerkat is a live-streaming video app that ties in closely with Twitter, enabling you to instantly broadcast live video from your smartphone. Meerkat will then automatically tweet out links of your broadcast to your Twitter contacts, instantly rounding up a live audience for you. Your audience can comment in real time, but once that live stream is finished it disappears.

The only way to find out which app will best serve your purposes is through trial and error, but, used well, each represents enormous potential for marketing your business, enabling you to:

• Engage with others – collaborating and building relationship within the industry allowing people to connect with you in ‘real time’

• Providing content that you can repurpose i.e. you can record the live stream and use it on other platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.

• Add value to your audience, help and support them and provide knowledge to help them, you will also be giving them a much better understanding of what you do!

• Showcase your products or services.

• Direct your audience to other things – your website, live classes, blogs and other social media channels.

Live-streaming is all about making your business up close and personal for your audience and it’s supposed to be spontaneous and “real”, not polished to perfection, so don’t be worried about making mistakes. Just make sure that your content is compelling and that it lends itself to interaction.

 

The bottom line is that live-streaming offers small businesses unparalleled opportunities to connect with your audience and show them just how great you are, so if you’re not already embracing the trend, it’s time to start!