As Snapchat has become more popular, other sites have thought how to hop onto the trend (as they so often do!) The big two, Facebook and Twitter, have come up with their own versions of on the spot video broadcasting – Facebook Live Video, and Periscope. (You may have also heard of Meerkat, which was the original livestreaming app in 2015, but they’ve pivoted away from that as competition from Twitter increased)
Live streaming is sure to be the next biggest thing in social media – but is it useful for bloggers? Of course! It’s a great way to be in touch with your audience and gives you longer than the 10 seconds Snapchat allows for. Another advantage of both Facebook and Periscope is that both sites will now keep your streams for viewing in the future – pretty useful so you can build up your presense on the platforms!
A few ideas of what you could use live streaming for…
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Q&A Sessions
It’s a great way to build interaction with your audience – both platforms mentioned here allow for live comments from viewers so you could answer stuff that is topical if needed
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Announcements
Perhaps you’re a parenting blogger wanting to announce a pregnancy, or you have a shop and want to promote a new line?
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Live streaming a blog post
If you’re a food blogger, you could live stream making a recipe that you’re going to blog. If you’re a fashion blogger, you could have someone live stream what goes on when you take photos for an outfit post. Travel blogger? Live stream a walk around a new city, or a tour of your hotel room.
Live streaming, as Snapchat has, will let viewers feel like they can get to know you easier. That is so important in the blogosphere, as it helps to build up your audience. Promotion of when you’re going to be doing a live stream is important as well, to allow your viewers to know when to catch you, but also to build up some hype!
It’s worth testing out both Facebook and Periscope to see what works best for you and your viewers – Facebook is a lot more accessible for casual viewers (most people will have the Facebook app on their phone so can watch anywhere, while to watch Periscope streams on your phone, you need to download the app). Periscope will tweet the links out which is useful for your followers, while Facebook will notify your followers when you’re doing a live stream. Facebook also have this pretty cool page where you can see all the public live streams around the world (which is what the header image for this post is made from) – check it out here.
Have you tried live streaming? Is it something that has benefitted your blog?
