Have you ever heard about YouTube Live? Do you want to learn how to use it and broadcast yourself live?
YouTube Live streaming is considered as a great feature to connect with your audience in a more personal way than traditional videos provide. Audience can easily view and leave their comments in real-time and creators are able to immediately respond to audience’s questions and feedback.
However, in order to take advantage of this feature, some preparation works are required.
For instance, you need to ensure that you have at least 100 subscribers. Moreover, it takes 24 hours to activate your account for live streaming.
In this article you will not only find out how to go live on YouTube, understand benefits of using YouTube Live, but also learn what types of YouTube Live videos are the best to grow your YouTube channel.
Here is what you need to know!
Why to go Live on YouTube?
There are 4 main advantages of using YouTube Live. Let’s review those!
- Potential reach: YouTube is considered as the second largest search engine with more than 2 billion active monthly users. In this case, you have an opportunity to reach a very huge audience, encourage them to become on of your YouTube subscribers and turn them into your customers. According to social media studies, 80% of people will choose to watch a live video rather than to read a blog post;
- It is costless: If you want to promote your brand’s products or services, you can use a YouTube Live video because this kind of advertisement is free;
- Easy to start: You should go through the several quick steps in order to be able to go Live on YouTube;
- Google marketing package: As YouTube is connected to a Google account, you can use its analytics tools, Google ads, display network (for re-targeting purposes) and much more.
Sounds great, isn’t it? These things prove that you definitely need to think about starting using YouTube Live streaming.
However, now it’s time to see how to set everything up in order to go Live on YouTube.
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How to go Live on YouTube?
Therefore, before I focus on what types of YouTube Live videos to create to effectively engage with your audience and, consequently grow your channel, your task is to figure out how to get started with YouTube Live.
Actually, it is a step-by-step process, which is relatively quick, but requires accuracy.
1. Verify your YouTube account
If you haven’t ever recorded a YouTube Live video, in this case, YouTube needs to make sure that your account is legitimate before you start you first live streaming. It means that you need to get your YouTube account verified to have an opportunity to stream.
Verification step is easy. YouTube will ask you for your phone number to check your identity. You can either get a message or a phone call with an access code.
Keep in mind that this process is pretty quick, it should be completed within 24 hours.
2. Set up your encoding software
While you might think that you are ready to start streaming, note that you are not quite able to do so yet. Before you start your first live video, your task is to download and set up the YouTube encoding software.
It is a tool which allows you to record live videos on YouTube. However, bear in mind that depending on what device you are planning to start streaming, you need to select a software which will suit your requirements. Some of the most popular softwares are: SlingStudio, Gameshow, Mobile Capture, AirServer and others.
3. Insert a basic information
Once your account is verified and an encoding software is configured, it means that you are ready to go live on YouTube. However, before you do that, you need to tell viewers what your live video is about by completing the section of a basic information.
So, you will be asked to add a title of your YouTube live streaming that will briefly and clearly present audience with the subject of your live video. Don’t be mysterious providing this information. What is more, you need to fill in a description field where you can write more details about your live video.
Remember, the only way how you can boost your YouTube Live video visibility is by adding several keywords into a title and a description.
Next, you need to choose a particular category characterizing your stream. There are options, such as music, sports, travel and events, entertainment, news and politics, education, science and technology, comedy and other. Actually, it shouldn’t be hard for you to find a fitting category. Just select it based on the industry of your business or what your video is about.
Finally, ensure that you set the privacy of your stream as a public. Because otherwise, you will not be able to reach a wide audience who would want to watch you.
4. Review stream options
Stream options control technical parameters that makes them important in terms of content performance.
First of all, it is recommended to enable DVR feature. Why it is important?
Just because not all of your audience can be present when you will start your YouTube live video. In this case, by selecting DVR you will provide your audience an opportunity to seek back up to 4 hours while you are streaming.
Secondly, you need to select one option of latency. There are suggestions, like normal latency, low-latency and ultra low-latency. It is advised to choose low latency if you want faster chat communication with your audience.
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The best type of YouTube Live videos to grow your YouTube channel
Now that you know how to go Live on YouTube, your task is to figure out what kind of content will be the most effective to stream.
Although there are lots of ways how you can use YouTube Live streaming in order to promote your brand, however, some are more profitable than others.
1. Product demonstrations
Organizing your brand’s product or service demonstrations through YouTube Live is as straightforward as it sounds.
Don’t miss a chance to arrange live streaming in order to show how your products or services work and create buzz around your brand.
This type of video is especially crucial when you launch your new products or services because in this way you will evoke audience’s curiosity by displaying what makes your brand better compared with your competitors.
What is more, YouTube Live videos that demonstrate features of your products or services help you to increase the likelihood that more people will be enticed to try them.
Overall, implementing this product demonstration strategy into your YouTube Live video will not only allow you to increase your brand’s awareness and see bigger number of subscriptions, but will also make your audience’s more engaged and you will drive more sales.
2. Live events
When is the best time to go live on YouTube? Actually, there is no right or wrong answer to this question, however, there are certain times when you should definitely go live.
One of these times is when your company is hosting or attending an event, your task is to stream it to your audience using YouTube Live.
Events live streaming is considered as an easy and effective method to add instant value to your brand. These videos provide your audience (who wished to attend but couldn’t make it) with an opportunity to see your event.
According to social media researches, around 70% of people who watched live videos are more likely to buy a ticket to a similar event the next time it is organized.
So, by broadcasting live events you can not only increase ticket sales, but also make your audience feel more connected with your brand.
However, an important part here is not to forget to interact with your viewers before, during and after live stream of your event.
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3. Host interviews
Actually this content idea is really great because it can provide you with a lot of advantages.
Firstly, it is advised to host the leaders from your business niche. In this case, you will be able to establish yourself or your brand as an industry opinion leader too.
Secondly, without a doubt your interview’s guest has his own audience, so, you will have a chance to receive additional exposure and encourage his audience become your YouTube channel’s subscribers.
Also, bear in mind that while making a live interview, you need to answer to your viewers’ comments.
And finally, organizing live interviews helps you to show your brand’s human side that, consequently, makes your brand more trustable.
4. Q&A sessions
Launching YouTube Q&A live videos is another effective method to engage with your audience because in this way you let people express their thoughts and ask questions regarding to a particular subject of a live discussion directly to you.
So, these Q&A sessions help you to make your audience feel more involved in your brand since you acknowledge users’ questions that are the most interesting and frequently asked.
What is more, as users are willing to wait until the end of a video in order to receive the answers to their questions, in this case, the watch time of your live video will be improved.
Overall, Q&A live videos give you a great opportunity to interact with your audience and, consequently, increase the engagement level.
5. Show exclusive content
And the last advice is to show your audience something that they can’t see every day.
For example, if you were attending or hosting an event, then you can show behind-the-scenes content during your YouTube Live video. In this way, you will provide your audience with a sense of uniqueness because they are able to see something special that other users don’t have an access to.
Furthermore, you can take your audience to your brand’s office and make them a tour around the facilities in order to show how all creative ideas are born. All this helps your audience to better understand how your business operates.
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Wrapping everything up, I hope that now you understand how to go live on YouTube & that it can be useful for growing your YouTube channel.
So, think outside of the box when it comes to your marketing strategies and try broadcasting on YouTube Live. Without a doubt you will notice that these real time interactions with your audience assist you in generating more leads and increasing number of customers.
What do you think about YouTube Live? Have you already tried to go live on YouTube? Please let me know in the comments below!
