How to find the right events and the right tools for Instagram Live
My newsroom experiments taught me to go into the field prepared and to cover more intimate events that allow for meaningful in-person interaction
News organizations are plenty familiar with going live — from radio to TV to streaming on Facebook and Twitter, it’s not exactly a new way to deliver the news. But with the introduction of Instagram Live, where videos disappear either immediately after the live stream ends or after 24 hours, many newsrooms might be trying to figure out what belongs in an ephemeral live video.
It’s certainly a question we had at Annenberg Media, a student-run news outlet at USC. So I experimented with going live at several on-campus events, ranging from a very small collegiate club event to the very large L.A. Times Festival of Books. I found that being at a medium-sized event struck the perfect balance for Instagram Live.
When I started my experiments, I felt intimidated because live social streaming allows for no re-dos or cuts. I felt out of my comfort zone at first, but I learned quickly. Here are some takeaways from my experience.
1. Have the right tools in your tool belt 🔨
It might be a no-brainer for you if you have live streaming experience or work for a larger news outlet, but as a student journalist, I was in for a wake-up call when I realized that I needed many more tools than just my iPhone to go live.
I learned that you must have a wireless hotspot to ensure that your video is uninterrupted. My first attempt at Instagram Live was a failure because I lost half my footage due to poor Wi-Fi. I strongly recommend using a personal hotspot device to avoid buffering or pausing due to a poor connection. Even though I was connected to a secure network, and also have 4G LTE unlimited data on my iPhone 8, it was not strong enough. I found that having a portable, personal hotspot allowed me to stay connected.
Another tool to help when the going gets shaky (literally) is a multifunction smartphone camera stand. Having the added stabilization will make for a more professional quality video.
And what’s worse than interruptions and shaky video? Suddenly disappearing and not coming back. Live streaming eats up battery life, so it’s important to come equipped with a charging case that will keep your phone powered without having to worry about plugging in.
2. Pin comments to orient viewers📌
Pinning a comment to the live feed helps viewers understand the context of what’s happening, regardless of when they tune in. Similar to a breaking news story on TV that orients you with a chyron, pinning a comment as I did in the example below helps viewers understand what’s going on in the video. Be sure to write out the comment ahead of time in the notes app, copy it to your clipboard and paste it as soon as you go live. Typing while you’re live can be difficult and can make for a shaky experience for your viewers.
3. Take your time⏳
While many ephemeral types of content such as Instagram Stories are taken in short 10–30 second intervals, going live for more time helps more viewers join the feed and experience the story as it happens. Going live for at least 20 minutes allows you to build an audience. Below, you can see the metrics of a 30-minute live video vs. an 8-minute live video.
The length of your video will affect the number of viewers who tune in to watch live. When you go live, it sends a push notification to followers, but it may take people several minutes to see this notification or to decide to watch. Creating a live video of at least 20 minutes allows for the users to tune and watch. However, on the flip side, if the video extends far longer than 20 minutes, viewers may lose engagement, as I observed in my 35-minute live stream.
4. Big events give you virtual engagement. Smaller ones give you in-person engagement — and better content
I experimented with Instagram Live by covering different types and sizes of events, and found that medium-sized events provide the best content. They attract a wide-enough audience, while still providing the opportunity for fruitful interaction at the event.
For my first Instagram Live experiment, I covered a small student organization putting on a letter-writing campaign in the quad on campus. There were maybe five students in the video and the video’s length was only about five minutes. The event was so niche that it did not attract a big enough in-person audience to make for an engaging story.
Next, I covered the L.A. Times Festival of Books. The draw of the huge event, which featured celebrities and authors, attracted many viewers and even sparked more engagement as viewers sent likes and comments throughout my live stream. If you are looking for strong viewer engagement, you should cover a larger and well-known event that will attract people who can’t make it in person.
But large events have drawbacks. As I tripped over debris on the grass and squeezed past other festival-goers, I realized that going live from a crowded event was not ideal. Later, as I held up my phone to live stream a panel, other people in the audience were pushing against me and telling me to lower my phone so they could see.
I found the sweet spot between intimacy and audience interest when I attended a medium-sized event. When I went to a math fair on campus, which attracted more attendees than the letter-writing campaign but far fewer than the Festival of Books, I was able to get closer to my subjects and interact more with event-goers. It also helped that there were a lot of hands-on visual demonstrations of mathematical concepts. For example, I could talk to a presenter as he showed me his mathematics table, demonstrating the difference between permutations and combinations.
Going live at this medium-sized event was great because I could really interact with the people at the event, giving viewers a close-up experience of being at the event and getting meaningful interviews with math enthusiasts.
5. But don’t let that IRL engagement distract you from your virtual duties!
In my final video, I took my eyes away for a bit because I was truly so engaged in the presentation that I was recording. That’s when my pen accidentally made an appearance in the live stream 😬
It seems like a simple lesson, but don’t forget to keep your eyes on the screen, regardless of how interesting the content might be.
If you haven’t tried Instagram Live but you’re interested in it, here’s my advice: Just do it, keeping in mind the advice I provide above, of course. I gained confidence and learned a lot from my experiments, and it was a benefit for our Instagram account: On average, the live videos I produced and shared reached at least 200 people, beating out our average for non-live stories. Take my lessons to heart, and I’m sure that your attempts at Instagram Live will run smoothly!
