Before the widespread adoption of high-speed internet, social media and smartphones, achieving an intimate connection with your customers was always an essential goal for brands, and today that challenge is much easier (albeit much more competitive to capture attention). Nowadays, brands have many new tools in their arsenal when it comes to communicating with their customers, and live streaming is one of the most powerful of all. With tools such as Periscope and Meerkat, you can broadcast live footage from anywhere, at any time.
Q&A Sessions
Nothing creates intimacy like a good Q&A session. Facebook has a new functionality that allows you to host a Q&A in the form of a live chat. Many celebrities, musicians and sports stars have used this functionality in order to bolster their brand image and create engagement. B2B and consumer brands can follow in their footsteps, so long as the content is engaging. Periscope is also a great tool for this. People love to have their personal questions answered, and this ultimately results in a sense of community being built around a brand. The more human connections you can stimulate, the better, and live streaming is a great way to do this.
Content generation
Scott Schoeneberger, writing for Bluewater Tech, states: “Can’t connect to watch the presentation live? Most streaming today goes well beyond just the initial broadcast, and this is one of the most important benefits of web streaming today. Almost all services include some type of archival process, allowing video to be used on-demand at a later date.”
While a live stream can be an excellent channel for communication, it can also double up for content marketing purposes too. If you have an interview with a thought leader which would work really well as a live stream (perhaps so that people can send their questions in and have them answered in real time), you can also archive the video and upload it to your site, or have it transcribed and publish it as a blog post.
Going behind-the-scenes
One of the best ways to build a brand is by injecting some humanity into your communications. Arsenal Football Club has been known to broadcast footage of what goes on at their training ground, as well as guided tours of the club. This helps to enhance the relationship between the club and the fans.
Twitch is a live streaming tool specifically for computer games. Although many people use it to watch professional gamers do battle with one another, celebrities use the tool to strengthen their relationships with their fans. Superstar UFC athletes Rampage Jackson and Demetrious Johnson both use Twitch to play online games with their fans and strengthen their personal brands. In regards to injecting humanity into your brand – Jackson’s Twitch username is “Rampageishuman”!
Seeing is believing
In the digital era where business can be conducted by two people who’ve never spoken to one another face to face, building trust is crucial, particularly when selling a product. It’s all well and good writing compelling sales copy about why your product should be trusted, but if you can show it off in real time and answer questions as they emerge, this will improve your trust levels exponentially. People determine how much they like and trust another by observing their facial expressions, vocal tone and mannerisms – live streaming provides all of this and more.
Recently, General Motors used Facebook Live to promote its revolutionary new electric car. The video gave viewers an amazing 360-degree view inside the car and this undoubtedly helped to ramp up demand by the time the car came to market.
Video credit: Periscope live video film by a GE-engineered drone flying from coast to coast
Tags: content generation, live streaming
