The top questions asked by new Happs broadcasters
A Q&A with Peter Bittner, Head of Community at Happs, about broadcasting on Happs
Why should broadcasters go live on Happs?
The top things broadcasters love about Happs is the ability to multistream to all their social channels, to multistream to their guests’ channels, it’s free, and it gives them a way to make money from viewers. Also, the powerful broadcasting tools that let you add graphics and our community that loves to collaborate.
Where can you use Happs to broadcast to directly?
Obviously, you can broadcast on the Happs platform. Then, at the same time, you can broadcast to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others, including up to 10 different locations on Facebook alone. So you can broadcast to any personal accounts, professional pages, or groups where you’re an admin. That way, you can really magnify your audience.
You can broadcast to the Happs branded accounts too. Happs has tens of thousands of Twitter followers and our YouTube and Facebook pages are growing fast too. We also have a partnership with Reddit and a lot of our content does really well there, especially experiential broadcasts that engage with the audience. We’ve seen millions of views through that partnership already.
You can broadcast to Happs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others at the same time.
So the broadcast goes live on Happs and other platforms at the exact same time?
Yeah, it’s simultaneous. We have a back end system that allows you to go live to the Happs app and, at the same time, any accounts you enable. You can actually toggle on or off specific destinations before you broadcast. So if you want to reach a certain audience on specific platforms or accounts, you can really customize that.
How can broadcasters use their live videos on Happs to create more content?
You could go live on Happs first and then stream it later across other platforms to supplement what you’re already publishing there. Every live broadcast you do lives on your Happs profile and you own the rights to it — you can easily download it with the click of a button, or even remove it if you want. In terms of using Happs broadcasts as part of your workflow, you could do a Q&A that follows your regular taped shows (or podcasts or whatever). You could do an interview that’s live and then, later, download it, cut it, and put it into your podcast or show as another asset. But going live allows you to take advantage of the Broadcast Studio, get more viewers, and engage with your audience directly. That’s what live is all about.
Do a lot of podcasters use Happs?
Yeah, creating a weekly show on Happs is a great way to promote a podcast. We also have a lot of podcasters joining Happs for segments that follow shows, maybe 48 hours after the podcast comes out. Podcasters often go live on Happs to cover additional bonus content where they update whatever was in the podcast since those are typically recorded in advance. Or they do Q&A with their audience; they can even record those and add excerpts into the next episode of the podcast. Also, if you’re not comfortable on camera, you can put on screen whatever visuals you want (just your logo or some other graphics) while still broadcasting audio. Sometimes, people are wary of the work required to launch a podcast and they use Happs to start building their audience.
How do sponsorships work?
Sponsorships are monthly recurring donations that viewers give as a direct reward for the content broadcasters create on the platform. People can discover your broadcast, click on your profile, and then support you monetarily. Every once in a while, your broadcast will feature a call to action via a chyron that says something like “Follow Susan on Happs, sponsor her work directly.”
And what about awards?
Viewers can also earn coins by using the Happs app and then award them to broadcasters, who can cash them in for actual dollars. (Read more about awards here.) Awards, as opposed to a monthly sponsorship option, are a one time, direct, live way to interact and essentially give a fun high-five to your broadcaster that are worth real dollars too.
How does Happs make money?
We don’t make any money until you do. We take 30% of monthly sponsorship revenue generated through Happs, and you keep the remaining 70%. So our interests are aligned perfectly. We’re here to promote your work and your brand as much as possible. Because when you succeed, we succeed.
What do you think is the biggest reason to go with Happs over competitors?
Happs is a lot easier to use. You’re able to customize the branded look-and-feel of the broadcast. You can quickly pop in any pre-recorded videos or photos. We have a specific full screen takeover option, where you can add in the logo for your show or your brand and put that on screen easily throughout the broadcast, however frequently you’d like.
And we have an advantage as a platform in and of itself, since people are coming to Happs and joining to watch videos here natively. Other streaming services don’t offer any additional audience or ways to get paid from it.
What do you recommend people broadcast?
There’s all types of content that does well on Happs. We now have journalists, podcasters, vloggers, artists, musicians, activists, and others all using Happs to connect directly with their subscribers and earn money.
There are regular morning shows about 15–20 minutes long that get tens of thousands of views. Someone like Alex Mohajer has guests and does political commentary on the headlines of the day. Since joining Happs Alex has nearly doubled his subscribers to 371.9k. We also have people who go live from the middle of hurricanes and wildfires. We have broadcasts live from the scenes of Black Lives Matter protests and protests in Hong Kong too.
In-the-moment engagement delivers viewer spikes; people gravitate toward experiential broadcasts. So think about how you can use that to really generate interest and virality in your content.
How frequently should broadcasters go live?
Start a weekly (or more frequent) show. Our most active broadcasters are going live 5 or more times per week. The regular cadence and rhythm of production is super important. It becomes a regular rallying point for your community. So I think it’s advisable to have a regular schedule and then supplement that with analysis and commentary on occasion.
Do I need to be a journalist to use Happs?
No, anyone can use our tools to broadcast to an audience. In the beginning, we were more journalism-focused, but recently we’ve seen terrific growth with podcasters, vloggers, artists, musicians, and activists using the platform. The only real requirement is that you adhere to our community guidelines.
What advice would give to a broadcaster who’s at home and interacting with a guest who’s live at the scene?
Learn about Happs’ Broadcast Studio. Using our Broadcast Studio from your laptop, you can essentially take any video that is sent to you from the field, upload it, and replay it. You can add a pre-recorded label to it if you want. The Broadcast Studio really has a wide range of capabilities (more than the phone app). You can have up to three people on a broadcast and you can change the camera view to show one person bigger than the rest or a FaceTime style layout. And there are tons of combinations of text and on screen graphics you can create too. You can also adjust the sound levels. It’s like a master control room, similar to the ones used by traditional news studios. But here, it’s at your fingertips for free. So, if you’re more of an anchor and/or managing correspondents in the field, it’s an ideal tool.
What kind of broadcasts are most likely to go viral?
It depends. If you’re a performer and you can go live on Happs with, say, a new song, that’ll do well with your audience. If you’re a journalist, the broadcasts that generally do the best and spread across social media are very visual and deal with hot topics.
I also suggest thinking about how you can leverage others in the Happs community, network, and appear on each other’s broadcasts. We have people all over the world doing all kinds of things and we’re happy to put you in touch with them.
Also, keep in mind the regular cadence and rhythm of production is super important. It becomes a regular rallying point for your community.
Can multiple people share a broadcast at the same time?
Yes. Every one participating can spread the broadcast to their social media accounts. That way, broadcasters can essentially leverage each other’s followings. Happs can send the stream out to all of your social media platforms as well as any guests you have on the broadcast, whether they’re on scene or behind their computer screen.
Have a question about broadcasting on Happs? Contact Peter Bittner, Head of Journalism Community at Happs, via email.
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