Jamilah Corbitt — August 18, 2017 — August 18, 2017
Live streaming can be an intimidating experience, especially if you’re a beginner with no audience yet. When I first began live streaming in 2015 on the app Periscope, I was always nervous that no one would show up to my broadcast. As a beginner, you go live and hold your breath in hopes that someone would be interested enough in your title to pop their head in.
Building an audience from scratch with Periscope positioned me as an influencer, and earned me stripes as an engaging live streamer. People came back to my broadcasts for my infectious energy and vivacious “BOOMs.” When I migrated over to Facebook, I brought some of my Periscope audience with me, in addition to cultivating an entirely new following.
I learned some key techniques over these past two years that’s helped me garner a repeat audience and thousands of views on my live streams. Considering I have a following of just under 10K, my organic reach and viewership are bananas.
So if you’re incorporating live video into your marketing strategy, swipe and deploy these methods to create an engaged community of viewers.
?? WARNING: This isn’t something that happens overnight. You have to be willing to put in the work and have patience for the process.
Be relatable.
The number one key to building an engaged live audience excited to join your stream, is to create an emotional experience. That means bringing the viewer into your story through a conversation, and making them feel what you feel. While I share business tips and marketing strategies, I’m also transparent with my process and entrepreneurial journey.
In essence, don’t be a stick in the mud. Loosen up a bit and allow us to get to know who you really are.
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. — Maya Angelou
Engage! Engage! Engage!
This is the most important tip I can give you. The experience itself creates an engaged atmosphere and a sense of community. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen people make is live streaming pre-recorded content. That defeats the whole purpose, and you’re potentially breaching the trust with your audience and destroying your chances of instantly building the know, like, trust factor.
Let me explain.
When you broadcast on Facebook or Periscope, a notification goes out telling us that you’re live. Your title is attention grabbing which causes people to flock to your broadcast excited to participate in the conversation. They proceed to talk to you in the comments. You don’t respond to anyone. Since your audience doesn’t know it’s pre-recorded, they assume you’re ignoring their comments. I guarantee if you do this a few times, people will stop coming to your broadcasts, and your engagement will massively dip.
Continuously abusing the live notification feature by using it to stream pre-recorded content as a live broadcast, will cause people to ignore your live notifications altogether. Congratulations, you’re now the boy who cried wolf.
The live experience is all about getting your audience involved in your broadcast. Say people’s names, thank them for being there, and bring them into the discussion. Build a connection and they’ll continue coming back for more.
Don’t be a bore bucket. 
Engagement Strategy
Take time at the beginning of your broadcast to thank the replay viewers and welcome people in. When you start your broadcast, the first 10 seconds are critical. Don’t just stare at the screen waiting for people to show up. Immediately begin interacting as though you already have an audience. Replay viewers will make up an overwhelming majority of your views, and you don’t want a first-time viewer showing up only to find you checking your teeth for spinach.
Furthermore, if you’re broadcasting on Facebook it takes between 20 seconds to over a minute before you to see your first set of comments, in addition to the 7–10 second delay from when a viewer types a comment until the broadcaster can see it. Use this time introduce yourself, thank the replay viewers, explain what the broadcast is about, and encourage a share.
Asking people to share/invite to your broadcast particularly on Facebook is one of the most effective ways to get new viewers. I personally prefer an invite over a share because the people you invite will get a direct notification, and are more likely to join your broadcast. When a person invites their network, that person transfers their trust of your brand to their invited friend — and we know word-of-mouth is the jackpot in marketing.
These simple tactics have helped me organically grow my community and has dubbed me as an educational yet entertaining live streamer.
Want to learn how to incorporate live video into your content marketing strategy to build a loyal community of buyers? Comment below and let’s talk.
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