Not too long ago I wrote about top live streaming services for webcasts and live events. If you are only thinking about starting broadcasting and sharing with the world whatever it is that you have to say, please refer to that post for some ideas on how to go about this business. Otherwise, you might be already quite familiar with the whole affair, but now pondering over ways to spice up your webcast. Well, you have come to the right place, I got some ideas for you. Read on.
At first, running a webcast might seem like a piece of cake. After you jump over the initial technical hurdles, which frankly are not that high at all, you are pretty much in it and ready to go whenever you want. Now, getting your viewership is an obvious challenge in the early stages, especially if you do not link or build your broadcasts around an already existing (personal) brand, product, etc., however, in this post I would like to focus on ideas for expansion for already, more or less, prospering live streams. The suggestions presented below will not hurt absolute beginners either, it is just that they may not bring a lot of new audience right away. How to gather people around your channel might be a topic of a future post.
Tips on building your online presence
By now, most of the people who have not spent the last couple of years under a rock, who are somehow involved with the Internet, know that community engagement is crucial to any enterprise that wants to fluorish in the business world. Think about the Facebook page of your favorite burger spot, or idol athlete Instagram page, or the Twitter of an artist you cannot stop listening to. What do they have in common? The answer is great content, that people expect to be delivered regularly, and that they will be able to relate to.
Keep in mind that great content does not only mean neatly written posts. It starts with the brand that the community wants to associate with on a deeper, emotional level, then comes the provision of all sorts of media (text, of course, photos, videos, etc.), and finally comes interaction, which builds trust and further engagement. Customers, or any other people that you communicate with, love to be a part of what you are doing. Take time to answer their Facebook comments, upload a photo appreciating your Instagram followers or retweet your fans when they give you props on Twitter. I speak from personal experience when I say that everyone who is successful on social media is accessible and gets involved with his community a lot.
How to make the most of your webcast
Alright, but what does it all have to do with a webcast or a live event? Quite a lot, actually. The mechanisms for building great online personality are very similar across many platforms. Streaming video is just another type of content which, by the way, gives you a lot of room to experiment. Your personality or the name of the channel is your brand, and there is a way for you to interact with the audience live, as you broadcast.
Before we will proceed to the 6 ways for improving your webcast, I would like to take a moment to show you a tool that will not only greatly facilitate two-way communication between you and your audience but will also allow people watching your broadcast to talk to each other. If you are looking for ways to enhance the viewer experience, consider Chatwee – a live social chat with applications in many different lines of business. Take a look at the website to learn what options does it provide user and moderators with, and try it out absolutely for free.
Now, let us have a look at some ideas for making the most of your webcast, all of which can be enhanced by simple installation of a chat system.
Create your own brand, make yourself stand out, have a theme
Let us start with what may be the most important ingredient of success. The ever-growing seas of similar products and services are not easy to navigate and newcomers can get lost easily. Before you embark on your webcasting journey, think it through. What novelty will you bring to the table? Why should people watch you? What is it that you have, that will make your webcast interesting? You may have a unique personality that will come to the forefront even when discussing popular topics, you may have a great name for your channel, you may have a theme that will make your broadcasts fill in a niche. Whatever it is, try to be original. Do not reinvent the wheel.
Invite a guest
Change things up a little and prevent boredom by inviting new characters to chat with you. The online world is a vast realm so you should not have much trouble finding people related to the topics that you cover. They do not even have to be there with you with. Using webcams and Google Hangouts, you can arrange a chit-chat with people halfway across the globe! Your audience should appreciate a change of faces and you can easily get them engaged using a moderated live chat.
Do a review
Another way to make your webcast more interesting is to drop a review. If you have managed to build a certain level of authority among your community, they may look for your opinion on things like commercial and art products. People are looking for online reviews anyway. Give them what they want! The more expercienced webcasters, with large audience, can even take certain business advantages from reviewing products.
Run a contest/giveaway
People love getting things for free, that is a fact. Invest in a small, but by no means a corny prize, and utilize a live chat to collect answers, making the contest time-limited. If you will inform people about your giveaway in advance, you can be pretty sure that your viewership will surge on that day.
A little controversy will not hurt
I mean, give people some reasons to talk. Touching upon controversial topics is another way to raise interest in your broadcasts. I am not asking you to dive head-first into religion or politics, but I am sure every niche in the market has its share of controversy. A chat system will let your viewers talk to you in real-time, as well as exchange opinions between each other, be it in private window conversations or in public forum.
Interact with your audience
Like I said earlier, people want to know that they are being heard. Utilizing a live chat, you can let them vote on what they would like to see in the future, what changes would they like to be introduced to the format of your webcast and so on. You can run Q&A or AMA sessions. Let your community come forward and get to know them better.
Final word
As you can see, there is a number of things you can do to get the most out of your webcast or live streamed event. They are non-exclusive and can be applied pretty much right away. I also mentioned a tool in the form of a live social chat, that is affordable and easy to use, and that any webcaster could benefit from. Chatwee provides you and your community with new ways to engage in webcasting experience on many levels, so why not give it a try?
