We’ve all been there, watching a livestream that just goes on and on without taking its viewers into consideration. If you don’t feel as if you are offering anything to the livestream, then why stick around? Engagement is possibly the most important factor when performing a livestream, without it, you won’t have the dynamic and enthusiastic audience that you need to grow.
So, how do you create an engaging stream? Here are 6 steps to boost your audience’s engagement.
Step 1. Monitor the comments
Keeping track of the comment section throughout a live stream is key. Viewers use this as an opportunity to communicate with not only yourself but with each other too. One of the easiest and most effective ways to increase engagements with the comments is simply by responding to questions. Whether it’s about something you have said or a completely different topic entirely, responding to a viewer’s question makes them instantly feel a part of the stream and creates a sense of community, knowing that you are interested in what they have to say.
Even members of the audience who aren’t participating in the discussion are still made aware of your effort to interact with them by seeing others having conversations with you, showing how interacting with your audience through the comments is a massive help to improving your livestream’s engagement. Remember, treat your live stream like a conversation, NOT a presentation.
Step 2. Keep your content exciting
Utilise a diverse and wide range of content to keep your audience engaged. Make the most of your livestream and the platforms capabilities to introduce videos for your audience to watch, images and graphics to go along with what you’re saying, or interactive activities such as polls to let your audience vote on something or give their opinions about a topic discussed on stream. These are all things that can help keep viewer attention and mixes up the pace of your live stream, so your audience don’t lose interest, and can all be achieved through utilising Quicklink Cre8, by simply adding the necessary sources and customising your production as desired.
Step 3. Know your audience
Knowing who your audience is and what their interests are can really help you engage with them properly. Understanding the needs and wants of your viewers can allow you to target your streams and content to them more accurately and make them much more likely to enjoy your livestream and maintain an interest in you.
Make the most of your chosen platform’s analytics capabilities, allowing you to observe the demographics of your viewers. Age, gender, location, and socio-economic groups can all help you cater your content and get an idea of how these different groups of people will respond to your live streams.
Step 4. Make it look professional
Investing in a high-quality camera and microphone can be hugely beneficial. Whilst this may not be possible, even just small improvements over your existing equipment can make a big difference to help give your streams a boost in quality. If you were to choose between two streams- one of which was a high-quality HD video feed, with crisp clear audio, and the other was pixelated and blurry with choppy audio- which would you choose to watch? We all would have the same answer to that, showing just how important it is to use the best available equipment. This is especially important when it comes to first impressions, the initial 30 seconds can allow you to gain an overall idea of what the stream is going to be like and can produce an image of how you see the creator. A professional looking livestream can elicit a significantly better response from the viewer and achieve better engagement.
Step 5. Set goals and stick to them
Before you start streaming it’s important to set yourself goals for what you want to achieve and the direction for your content. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Build a stronger relationship with your customers? Or simply just to promote your product? Once you know your aim, it’s important to stick to it. Switching between different intentions with your streams can cause confusion for your viewers, and even yourself, as they won’t be coherent with one another, and will constantly have different tones and success measurability. The key is to be aware of the value that your stream brings to your audience and use this to your advantage.
Step 6.Utilise Quicklink Cre8
Whilst these steps will all ensure an engaging stream is maintained, where do you start? With a professional, feature-packed live production tool of course! Whilst there are a range of options out there for you to choose from, we’ll help make it easy for you. If you want to create the most dazzling productions and live streams with ease, and have the ability to broadcast your production to multiple physical, digital and social destinations, then Cre8 is the choice for you. With the inclusion of lower thirds, third-party integration, and the ability to capture and introduce an unlimited number of sources, you can be assured that your production will keep your audience engaged. Find out more here.
Bonus Step. Be consistent!
Follow those 5 steps and you’ll be on your way to producing an engaging live stream in no time! However, don’t stop there. Being consistent with your uploads and content is crucial to maintain your engaged audience otherwise the viewer count will likely drop off. One engaging stream is not going to build a following for you straight away, you must be consistent with your uploads, set a time frame and stick to it so you don’t disappoint your audience or keep them waiting.
Now, once you’ve got all that in mind, get out there and start creating engaging live streams, made even easier with the help of Cre8’s multi streaming capabilities and unlimited sources to customise your stream exactly how you want.
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