Hey man! Are you struggling to connect with your audience during your live streams? Here are some secrets to building real-time connections that turn viewers into loyal fans and clients.
Engagement and Connection: The Lifeblood of Live Streaming
Engagement and connection are the secret to growth. To make a connection, engagement is essential. For service providers, this builds trust and attracts the right clients, while for content creators, it grows a loyal community that shows up and supports your work.
Three tips to building stronger connection with your audience:
- Engagement takes place in three parts: before, during, and after live streams.
- Think about your stream as you’re creating content and structuring things. These are places where you can build in opportunities for connection.
- Prepare for the pre-stream events, during the stream events, and after the stream.
Connection Starts Before You Ever Hit the Go Live Button
When thinking about pre-live stream excitement, there are a couple of things to consider:
- Start promoting early.
- Connect with an attention-getting title and thumbnail. Research ways to make your title engaging and able to capture attention. Ensure that you are getting the maximum search engine optimization, and make sure your title is user-friendly. Your thumbnail should reflect what your show is about.
- Share teaser content. Share social media posts that have questions in anticipation of what the show will be about. Gather information upfront to know how to pivot and change the way you’re delivering content.
- Send a reminder ahead of time. Send an email or a reminder an hour or two before going live. This puts you in front of potential viewers.
- Pre-stream live excitement is important to begin the connection and engagement process.
During the Stream, Your Chat Becomes the Heartbeat
The chat is where you have discussions, where people ask questions, and where they comment.
Create engagement prompts:
- Ask simple questions where viewers can respond quickly.
- Give people an exercise or assignment to encourage interaction in the chat.
- Acknowledge people by name.
- Saying people’s names endears them to you, shows them that you care that they showed up, and helps people to be more engaged because they feel like you’re talking to them.
What if you’re just building things out and have yet to build an audience? Focus on that one person that could potentially be impacted by what you’re sharing. Showing up, putting on your best face, and sharing your best content will be impactful and of value to the person on the other end.
Chatting during the stream is the heartbeat of your stream. Having conversations in the stream, acknowledging people, answering questions, and saying their names gives you energy and shows up as social proof on your video. It turns into an interactive conversation.
After the Stream: Engagement Doesn’t End When the Livestream Does
What are you doing to engage after your stream?
- Follow up by responding to comments that you missed.
- Go back into your feed and answer questions, even a few days later.
- React to comments.
- Repurpose key points. Reshare key messages from your video.
- Ask your community what they want to learn about next. Listen for people’s questions around your niche and expertise so that you can create your next videos around that. Research other platforms like quora.com or Amazon to find out what people are talking about. Also research Facebook and LinkedIn groups.
Conclusion
Live streaming is a powerful way to connect with and nurture an audience. Engagement takes place before, during, and after the stream. Before the stream, promote early with attention-getting titles and thumbnails, share teaser content, and send reminders. During the stream, create engagement prompts and acknowledge people by name. After the stream, follow up by responding to comments, repurpose key points, and ask your community what they want to learn about next.
FAQs
What can I do to make sure people show up to my livestream? Notify people through your email list and social media posts.
What do I do if no one is watching my livestream? Focus on the one person who could potentially be impacted by what you’re sharing.
What do I do after my livestream is over? Follow up by responding to comments, repurpose key points, and ask your community what they want to learn about next.