How to Livestream Your Events — Tools and Technical Solutions
If you are reading this, you’re probably already sold on the idea of livestreaming your event. If you are here just out of curiosity, it’s going to pay off. Trust me.
Livestreaming your event is something that’s becoming more mainstream these days. Its popularity among digital marketers, for example, has spiked this year. The stats for gamers is even more insane.
For someone who already knows the tremendous marketing benefits of livestreaming, this comes as no surprise. But if you are still on the fence on the whole idea of streaming your events to your audience live, that’s alright.
I’ll give you a gentle nudge in a nutshell. Then we’ll dive into the ‘how’.
Why Should You Livestream?
People stream for marketing benefits like growing an audience online, improving customer loyalty, unveiling new products, hosting Q&A sessions, or a webinar… lots of reasons. But why should you care about it?
You should care because you can’t afford not to care. If you’re in business, and you’re not livestreaming, this is the edge your competitors will have over you.
Neil Patel, the outstanding internet marketing guru, said this on his site:
“Live streaming is going to be a $70.5 billion industry by 2021.
It’s growing with no signs of slowing down.
If you want to start taking advantage of the incredible, active user groups that are constantly watching live content, you need to get into live streaming.
There are millions of people watching live streaming content daily.
And beyond just the growth of users watching live content, it’s a great way to drive revenue for your business.”
Internet marketing is constantly evolving. Every couple of years, a new type of content rises to the throne. Right now, my friends, it’s video. Live video.
Tools You Need to Get Started
How do you begin to tap into the marketing juices of livestreaming? What’s involved? What do you have to do?
The whole idea of livestreaming (in this case, broadcasting your even to an online audience in real-time) is to get the visual and audio part of your event, at the same time it is happening, to a wider audience on the internet.
There are some ways to achieve this, ranging from easy and basic to pro and top quality.
Let me show you an example of a great setup:
- Connect a high-quality camera (say, Canon C100, or XC10) to your computer as a webcam.
- Then connect a regular HDMI to your camera and the other end to Blackmagic Design UltraStudio Mini Monitor Playback Device.
- Finally, plug in the device to your computer via Thunderbolt.
For your audio (when you have an event), you would want to be plugged into the house sound.
In other cases, I find it’s best to use a good external mic attached to the camera. Since the audio is coming from the camera. This is one way to deliver excellent quality video to your live audience.
Ecamm Live Software can stream to any online platform (more about the platforms below). For $14.99 per month, it lets you stream high-quality video from your camera through your Mac computer to any livestreaming platform.
So, how do your audiences reach you after everything’s set? There are tools, some free and some paid, to help you livestream easily. Let’s look at a few of them.
1. YouTube Live
YouTube is the most popular video-sharing platform, and also one of the leaders in live video streaming. If you are looking for a simple and straightforward setup to livestream your events, YouTube Live is a great option. Afford your audience the pleasure of a live chat, schedule events, and get up to 10 broadcasters with you on the livestream at the same time. All your audience needs is the link to hop in.
2. Facebook Live
Facebook remains the number one social networking site in terms of size. They are quick with developing new and innovative ways to keep their 2 billion users connected to each other. And that’s how they brought us Facebook Live. I can’t count how many times I’ve watched Facebook Live videos in the past, but it’s a lot. It’s a pretty cool and easy way to reach your customers in a very social setting — almost intimate.
Your audience can engage with you with the live chat feature, and you can track the number of your incoming viewers instantly.
3. LinkedIn Live
Although this service is currently being tested and only available to a select group of members, it’s going to be a powerful feature on LinkedIn. Once it rolls out fully, you’ll be able to stream live video to your LinkedIn network.
If you want to use this feature right now, you have to apply to LinkedIn, get approved and they will give you instructions on how to use the service.
4. YouNow
If you are aiming for a younger audience, go for the versatile and hip free livestreaming app, YouNow. It is described as the twitter of livestreaming. So easy to use and deploy at any moment. All you have to do is use a hashtag and introduce your video with a snapshot, then click “Go Live” and people will troop in to watch you. It’s compatible with a wide range of devices.
One thing to note is that these services I’ve mentioned don’t always need specialized high-tech equipment to work. You can use your smartphone to go live at any moment. Especially with the social media options I listed.
Livestreaming is not so complex. Once you get into it, it’ll come to you, like the first time you opened a Facebook account.
Although for the sake of branding and a great positive image of your business, it’s smart to put in your best effort to give your audience an incredible experience with your live videos. There are immense benefits to reap from getting professional help with livestreaming your event.
