Top 6 Live Streaming Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Although live streaming may sound relatively straightforward, it’s not as simple as setting up a camera and a microphone and hitting “Go Live”. Avoid these common live streaming mistakes to maximize your gains from live streaming.

With the proliferation of live streaming as a mainstream video content-sharing tool, all aspects of our everyday lives are radically transformed. From product development and digital marketing to cloud gaming, live commerce, and distant learning, live streaming has marked a paradigm shift in consumer and organizational behavior. Live streaming today is a complex yet powerful communication tool that maximizes both your broadcast and audience outreach. Hence, avoiding the most common live-streaming mistakes remains the utmost priority for all streamers so you can make the best out of your streams.

We, at OneStream Live, continually strive to enhance the overall live streaming experience of our users. Hence, we recommend avoiding the most common pitfalls while streaming your video content to ensure you reap the highest success.

1. Inferior Quality Video

High-quality video is the prerequisite for an incredible live streaming experience. Since you are reaching out to a vast audience across geographic barriers, your video quality must be excellent. Blurry or dark footage that buffers will only disappoint your audience to leave the stream.

1. Make sure your live stream has full HD quality.
2. Ensure adequate lighting at the shoot location.
3. Stream at half the total upload speed so that viewers with slow connections on limited data can also enjoy your stream.

Here’s a checklist of professional live streaming to ensure optimal video quality:

Checklist for Professional Live Streaming

2. Low-Quality Audio

As important as the video quality, the audio quality is equally crucial for live streaming success. Live streams can be run with excellent lighting and full HD quality, but if the audience cannot hear you clearly, it’s a deal-breaker. And this is where the majority of the streamers lose the grab of their audience.

1. Make sure you check your microphone before setting up your live stream.
2. Invest in high-quality microphones and other audio-enhancing devices.
3. Use a wireless mic if the audio source is distant from the camera.
4. Keep the microphone as close as possible to the sound source.
5. Use noise reduction equipment for clearer sound quality.

6 Ways to Improve Your Live Stream Audio Quality

3. Poor Planning

“Proper planning prevents poor performance — Remember this as the 5 Ps.”

This proverb is the golden rule for live streaming success. Many people fall prey to overconfidence that they know live streaming well. However, it can be much more complex than it seems. You can experience device malfunction, screwed-up internet, or a power outage. There can be several areas of concern that must be adequately addressed through proper planning before going live:

1. Make sure the equipment is running efficiently.
2. Ensure you have a stable and uninterrupted internet connection.
3. Test the internet speed before going live.
4. Ensure your equipment is fully charged and you have a good backup battery and power supply.
5. Don’t forget to perform device testing of the live stream before going live.
6. Set the camera at the most optimal position to avoid frequent refocusing during live streaming.
7. Check the microphone and its connectivity with the camera.

4. Insufficient Promotion

Everything else done, insufficient promotion can lead to a failed live streaming experience. If nobody knows about your stream, there’s no use putting in all the amount of effort and resources. The web and social media are brimming with a plethora of video content, but if your clients are unaware of your stream, you can’t expect them to discover you through a magic wand.

1. Create a social media hype about the live stream before going live.
2. Create an event highlighting your stream.
3. Clearly enumerate the benefits your audience should anticipate from joining in.
4. Use web-based social networking ads to target potential audiences with specified interests.
5. Invite people to join in live streaming through email advertising, promotional messages, or social media engagement posts.

10 Effective Ways to Promote your Live Streams

5. Lack of Interaction

What use is a live stream if it fails to engage and interact with the target audience? Yet, many people conduct live streams as a one-way street and then complain about lack of viewership. If people wanted no interaction, they would prefer watching a pre-recorded video or reading a blog instead.

1. Take live-streaming as a two-way street that allows the streamer and the audience to engage and interact in real-time.
2. Add a personal touch to the live stream through interaction.
3. Conduct Q&A sessions, put up interactive quizzes, conduct informative webinars — then watch them return for more.

Top 10 Content Ideas for Live Streaming

6. Inconsistency

If you think you can live stream whenever you like and then expect your viewers to stick around, you’re badly mistaken. Inconsistency of streaming is one of the biggest and most common mistakes that streamers make. Why do you think TV shows air on the same days of the week at the same time slot? For the audience’s convenience, that’s to register the next airing time and keep them hooked to the show itself. It’s the same with live streaming.

1. Set up a live streaming time for particular days of the week, and make sure you stream on the same days.
2. Be on time and avoid being late.
3. Your audience must get the hang of when to tune in for your next stream.
4. Announce your next live streaming session at the end of your last session.

You might want to repurpose your old content to improve the consistency of your live streaming. This is a simple yet effective technique to multiply your views and reach new audiences. Simultaneously, it will maximize the value of your streams.

Repurpose your Live Streams: Restream Old Videos for Better Audience Outreach

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OneStream Live is a cloud-based solution to live stream across 40+ Social Media Platforms simultaneously. For queries and feedback, Live Chat with our team or write to us at care@onestream.live