Live Streaming: Why You Need It and How to Get Started

 

Hey everybody, this is Kit Pang, and thank you for tuning in today because today we’re going to be talking about live streaming. And if you’re watching this right now it’s 2017. Maybe when you’re watching this, the information that I will be saved will be out of date already because things are changing that fast. So thank you for tuning in.

Why is Live streaming so Crucial?

Let’s talk about first why live streaming is so crucial in our lives today whether it’s for business to make a video coach or consultant to top of clients to this work. All of these things in live streaming is moving that way. There’s a study done by Cisco that said by 2020, 80 percent of the Internet’s traffic will be on video.

Are you flipping through Facebook? People don’t just post images anymore. Most content you see is video after video after video, and you get hooked into these cat videos or whatever else you see. You need to know how to hone your live streams right now. What’s the purpose of a live stream? How do you use it? How do you do these different things?

I will be talking to all about that today, but live streaming is so crucial for your business because right now in 2017 it is still new. Live streaming is so crucial because it will help you build your community and will help you get your face out there. People they want to see your face. They want to see your brand. They want to see your business. They want to see what’s going on behind the scenes.

If you are not using live stream, I know it is very scary for us going live. I like getting interviewed for videos. They can edit that video this all day long, but if I mess up right now on live streaming it’s going to go live. If I do something crazy, it’s going to go live. That’s a skill just like speaking in front of a lot of different people. You need to hone your skills on how to be behind the camera and how to be in front of the camera. We’re going to be talking about all of that today. So let’s get right into it.

When Kit Went On Live Stream

The first time I went on livestream I was super nervous. Even as a public speaker the first time on a livestream for you personally or for your business it is very nerve wracking. I felt like I didn’t know what to say. You know I’m just talking to you I have my phone on me. I felt like I was just talking to my phone. Is anyone even watching? I’m just talking to my phone! What am I going to say? Can I even fill up 10 minutes? Do I sound stupid? It’s a skill you form because it’s a whole other world today. You could be just talking to the screen. It’s like talking to this video right now and it feels like, “Who am I talking to? What am I saying? Do I have a purpose?”

It’s something that you have to get used to. The very first time that I went on, I was so nervous I got someone else to go on with me. I had to say, “Hey do you want to do an interview? Let’s come for an interview or just do an interview. I want to just go and do some random stuff and we’re going to do it on camera.” If you are thinking about going on live streaming and if you are nervous at first, just grab a buddy and say “Hey, we’re going to be talking about this today.” Usually I’m just going to say live streaming unless you have a big online presence already. No one will first go on your live streaming and stalk it.

Whenever people see me now they say, “Kit, I saw you in that live streaming.” Right now, live streaming is like kind of writing a blog, you can give your insights you might see people post their blogs but half of the time they might not read it when you post it but later on when they have time they may save it but they don’t want to watch it right then. But the most important thing about a live stream is you can go live AND people can watch the replay of it. If you are a consultant, expert, or business, live streams keep people in the back of their minds. When you go on live people are saying, “Oh, they’re going on live stream again,” or if you have an event coming up: “Oh, get ready for that event.”

Consistency is Key

Do it over and over and over again. Just don’t go on live stream once or twice. Nowadays you have to go on consistently. It’s like posting on Twitter now. So many people are posting will be drowned if you don’t post for example twice a day because people just cannot see it.

Don’t annoy them though! You have to give them good content. There’s a reason why you should be going on right now as a business. You have to think about all of these things. You cannot say, “Hey, I’m just going to go on just to go on.” Eventually people won’t think there’s any value for them. That’s what I learned by going on live stream.

At the beginning, I started interviewing people. It was maybe once every week. By the next week I was probably going on two or three times a day. People were coming up to me saying, “Kit, you are hustling. I found out about this other person because they were on your live stream. I found out about this product because you were talking about it on your live stream. I learned about your services. I learned about your events just because you were talking about it on your live stream.” On the flip side, some people said to me, “Kit, I never watched live streams before, but I’m very interested in learning how you get out there so much.” But there are different ways to use live streaming for your business.

How to I Go on Live Stream?

Now many of you probably have a smartphone. If you still have a stupid phone you can grab a friend’s phone and grab their smartphone as well. You can go on live streaming on almost every social media network. You can go on Facebook you can go on Instagram you can go on snapchat and you can go on Periscope which is for Twitter. So all you have to do instead of pressing post you press the live stream button. Every single social media network will break it down for you. Snapchat has stories. Facebook now has stories. Right. So it’s that easy to use any platform to go on live streaming.

How Do I use Live Streaming for my Business?

There are different ways to use live streaming for your business. One is that you can just go on live at any time just like this and you can tell people what you’re doing. So when you do things of this nature the people who are watching right now can say “Hey he’s going on live. I’m going to watch right now.”

Now it depends on the time of the day. Right. And you go on live streaming at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, no one in your network is going to watch. Play around with the times of the day. I know a few restaurant owners. Here’s what they say. They always go on live streaming at the peak hours during lunch and during dinner. Because during the peak hours there’s a lot of people there, and they want to show their restaurants right at the same time. They can also interview people. And show the insides of it. Right behind the scenes is one way for you to do livestream. You can show people the face of your business and your restaurant your manager. Here’s what’s going on. You can even interview. Live streaming is so crucial because it’s what’s happening right now.

A second way to use live streaming is to go behind the scenes. So let’s say we are taping. You are watching me right now and you can see the camera, but you are in a live stream. You can actually say, “Hey let’s go around and let’s see the room” Let’s say you’re going to go into a dance performance or you’re an artist. Wouldn’t it be cool to see the backstage of that performance? Wouldn’t it be cool to see what they do before they warm up, how they warm up, how you can see all the dancers go around and be crazy? You can see all these different things you did behind the scenes. But keep in mind why are you using live stream: it’s to grow your tribe and your community because you want to give them insights into how you’re doing these things.

A third way of doing it is you want to be able to teach a lesson. Of course it can randomly go on live stream but now days you can go on live stream and teach a webinar live. You can host a weekly live stream. For example, you’re watching BusinessTown right now. What happens when they bring it live? You can watch our live video session and you can engage with me. You can ask me questions and I can answer back immediately. So if you have it on a consistent basis how is that going to help you as a business. People say “That’s the next topic.” Maybe I want to learn about how to sell my services. Say “Next Monday we’re going to teach you.” You might even bring an expert in to engage your community.

Live Networking Events From Your Own Computer

People now might be too lazy to attend a networking event in person. They want to go jump online to ask questions because it’s the same exact thing right. So we have these three different ways. We can go on Google we can go on YouTube all day long and look up all these different ways. I would suggest that too. But pick the way that you like for us try them out and see if you have been doing this for a while already see which ones work for you. You want to vary it up.

Sometimes you just go on to very young people who never know when you get on. Sometimes people want you to be spontaneous because you always have a set of events. Sometimes they just like that human aspect of it. You cannot scale human relationships even if you go on live with me. I want to say “Hey welcome!” I’m still interacting as if you came in and said your name.

Welcome and say your name because once you know it’s fake. Right now if you’re watching a video recording, you know I cannot address you. That’s a power of live streaming and going on live. It’s like a workshop! You’re with me at the same time.

Equipment to Enhance your Live Streams

If you’re looking to make your lives doing that much better and give it a different variety. You can get a selfie stick for free. Nowadays we can go to some events people will give away a selfie stick for under $10. There are some high tech ones on Amazon. You can just find a selfie stick really quickly. When you use a selfie stick you can show your audience the whole room. You can show them a whole different view of things and here is the power. When you do this and you can walk around with it and do different angles. That’s when you can give your audience a different view.

You can buy one of these kits for example. Every one comes with a little iPhone stand. It also comes with a microphone so you can just go on Amazon days and type an iPhone case. The cool thing about this is that it is so good. I want to show you guys what it is right now. So they also have some things called lenses for your smartphone.

You can have a wide angle lens for photos. You can use this for live streaming. All you have to do is clip it on. A wide angle lens makes the room even bigger so you can have all of these different things you can put a little microphone onto it and you’re ready to go. I’m ready to go on live streaming. So these are some requirements that you can use for live streaming but I also want to talk about platforms. That’s what I think of that equipment as well. So if you don’t want to use your iPhone, you can use your computer platforms. I’m going to say for example there are so many webinar systems nowadays. Think of webinars as live streaming because it’s the same thing. You can set the time where you want to go on live.

There are different platforms that you can find on Google. I don’t care if it’s just in button Webinar platforms or livestream platforms on Google. You can have Webinar Jam you can have Zoom. I am using something called Crowdcast. You can set these times. For example, I’m going to give a shout out to Crowdcast because I’m using that when I go on Crowdcast. I can set a time this week and tell Facebook, YouTube, Twitter all at the same time to live stream. But I hooked it up on my computer, I usually do an interview with someone else, and I can blast on all of the social media networks at the same time.

Why Use Live Streaming?

“Why are you using live streaming, Kit?” You know it’s very easy to post with it. You just have to click and go. And we all have the equipment (you all have a smartphone). But why livestream? Use it because to grow in your community as a business. That’s one of the most important things to engage your audience to grow your community back and forth Q&A.

When you go the live streaming, yes it can be nerve wracking! But just try it we can take one action item away from today and never have never done any kind of live streaming. Find a friend if you’re nervous, go on livestream, find a good title and say “We’re going to be talking about this today.” If you have been doing it consistently on live streaming, figure out how can you build a better live stream experience for your audience so you can keep on growing that community. The content is going in the direction of video content for 2020 and moving forward in our lives. You have to be comfortable being in front of a camera whether edited or not. You have to get used to that.

We talked about all the equipment that you can use. Go on Google find all the equipment. We’ve talked about different strategies that you can use to use live streaming right. You can just go on randomly tell people what’s on your mind give them behind the scenes or you can set a weekly event. Again, Google and YouTube has all this content nowadays. Find out how you can use live streaming for my business. We’re just scratching the surface today, but live streaming is so crucial because it will help you grow your community and grow your business.

Final Thoughts

Thank you again for watching today. You can catch some of my live streaming this go on BostonSpeaks.com

If you want to watch more amazing video and more educational videos, or you can grow your thought leadership or learn a little bit more, go to Business Town. Do you know how many videos they have? Watch all of them! Professionally and personally, they have a bunch of good videos. I love Business Town. I’m watching them all the time. Right now I’m kind of in this live streaming mode. I’m just going off the cuff. That’s when it is right now. You have to get used to that because it will help you grow your business.

Thank you once again for watching. My name is Kit and I hope that we can stay in touch.

Again, go to Business Town and watch all the business videos. Thank you