We have been live streaming on Periscope (and now Facebook Live too) for almost two years and the best thing about it has been meeting all the great people we’ve met from around the world.  We continue to broadcast live 5-6 days per week and we continue to meet new people like Rachel Moore whom we met just within the last few months.  Rachel has a social media marketing company called Really Social in Colorado and she hosts a Twitter Chat and live stream show every Wednesday afternoon at 3 PM EST called LetsLivestream.  Once we connected she started inviting me to join the weekly conversations which then led to her asking us to be guests on the show.  We happily accepted and it was a great discussion on Live Streaming for small businesses which is something I’ve learned a lot about in the last couple years…

Our Appearance on LetsLivestream!

Here is the actual replay of the show from Facebook Live if you want to check it out:

The format of the show is pretty cool – Rachel asks 8 questions about the topic and then anyone watching the show can tweet their own answers to participate with an A1 – A8 and the hashtag #LetsLivestream on twitter.  Here is a Storify slideshow of the questions along with my twitter answers and some of the others that were tweeted if you want to just flip through:

Meanwhile just to summarize some of my main points (and a few follow up ones)….

How We Live Stream and What You Should Consider If You Are Thinking About It For Your Business

What is Live Streaming?

We have been live streaming now since April 2015 just one week after Periscope was launched by Twitter.  At its simplest form you download the app, login, give your broadcast a title, hit the “start broadcast” button and start recording with the camera on your phone.  Only you’re not just recording, you’re broadcasting LIVE to the people who follow your account, and they can make comments with their keyboard that you can see on your screen!  Completely interactive.  We’ve met people far and wide around the world doing this as our brand Frameable Faces – you can check out our channel here.  The same thing goes for Facebook when you select the “Live” option and you can broadcast to your Facebook friends, fans of your business page and even groups you’re a member of.  The options are many and they keep growing and morphing to other platforms as well (Instagram, YouTube etc.).

What’s the Strategy?

As our audience grew we started to develop shows and concepts, a schedule of broadcasting and ways of repurposing the replays on our blog and elsewhere to promote our studio.  On the LetsLivestream show I discuss various elements of the strategy including the benefits, how you can grow a community around your brand, how small businesses have a big advantage since you can do this with barely any budget and connect with your audience without five levels of approval and red tape that big corporations have to deal with.  Live Streaming as with other forms of social media is a way to promote what you do and drive traffic to your owned online assets such as a website and self hosted blog – in our case they are both right here at frameablefaces.com.

What Exactly Should You Live Stream About?

If you’re a small business share your expertise, be fun and be vulnerable – it’s LIVE so it won’t be perfect, and your imperfections can make you real.  People will see how you react to questions and situations and they will want to work with you if you acquit yourself well.  Involve your clients, show your process, go behind the scenes, highlight your partners, vendors, even your friendly competition!  Show variety and provide value!!!  Where many business owners who try to create content online fail is that they don’t look at their services and products as vehicles to tell stories and build community!  If you do this you won’t run out of things to say like so many do.  Your strategy will be sustainable when you look to your community for content and then give back to your community.  The cool part is you can build community fast with live streaming because it’s such a visceral and participatory experience.

Be social – DUH…

We didn’t really discuss this on LetsLivestream and it should be obvious but you.  Must.  Be.  Social.  On. Social Media.  With Live Streaming you need to network, network, network – go into other broadcasts and watch others.  Jump in and join in the real time conversation – other broadcasters are very appreciative when people contribute to their show with comments that are on point.  You’ll start to meet and connect with other people watching and commenting in the broadcasts who share your interests and you’ll join each other’s communities!  You cannot just be a broadcaster and reach the full potential for success, just like you can’t just post stuff on Facebook without ever commenting and engaging right?  It’s the same thing on Live Streaming but it’s even more important there because it’s real time!

Hope you enjoyed this and found it valuable!  Please let me know in the comments if you have anything to add!

**********************************************