Do you ever get a little bit anxious when you're creating live videos?
Or maybe you haven't even started creating live videos because you're afraid of
making mistakes, Well my friend I've got you covered,
because today we're going to talk about five very common livestream mistakes
that I see beginners and advanced streamers make all the time.
Hey streamers, it's Mel here. Before we get started, I just want to say,
don't forget to subscribe to our channel and click on that notification bell,
so that you get notified when we go live or when we create new content,
just like this. All right.
Let's talk about five livestreaming mistakes that you need to avoid. Okay.
Mistake Number One is not promoting your live video in advance.
So first of all,
even though people might be liking your page or subscribe to your channel,
they may not have the live notifications turned on.
So they're not going to get notified.
The other thing is that sometimes people need to know what you're going to be
going live about. It's going to peak their interest.
They may even put it on their calendar, so that they don't miss your live video.
And then of course, if they know that you are going to go live,
and then they do get that notification,
they're more likely to tune in because they already knew you were going live.
They kind of know what to expect. They're going to say, "Oh yeah,
Mel said she was going to go live today to teach me how to do a countdown timer
in Canva. I'm tuning into this one". The newsfeeds are busy.
So sometimes we need to know a few times in advance about what you're going to
be talking about. Okay.
So here are a few ways that you can promote your live video in advance. First,
I recommend that you actually schedule your live video in the applications.
Now StreamYard makes this extremely easy with the click of a few buttons where
you will actually create your live video,
say the day and time that you're going to go.
And then people will see that preview post in their newsfeed,
where they can select to get notified or set reminder. Now,
before we move on to mistake Number Two,
let me show you really quickly how easy it is to schedule a broadcast in
StreamYard. So we're going to create a broadcast, select our destination,
give it a title, give it a description.
And then right here, you're going to select schedule for later.
And then you're going to upload a thumbnail image for your broadcast.
(This is what's going to show up in the newsfeed).
And then you're just going to select your day and your time. It's very,
very easy. As you can see with a few clicks of a button, you're ready to go.
Now,
another way that you can promote your live video in advance is to create a post
saying that you're going to be going live on the day and the time.
You can also create an Instagram story or a Facebook story the day of,
or 24 hours in advance to give people that final reminder that they should be
tuning into your live show. Now,
another way of course is if you have an email list,
be sure that you're sending an email to your list and letting them know when you
will be live and what your live video is going to be about. Okay?
Mistake Number Two is not engaging enough with your audience.
So here's what I will say.
Engagement comes in the form of comments on your live video while you're live.
Now, your audience may need to be coached,
or you may need to prompt them to actually do some of this engagement.
So I always recommend have a few questions throughout your live video that you
actually give to the audience and tell them to respond in the comments.
Now make sure that you are addressing your audience as well.
You want to acknowledge that they're there.
You don't want to ask them to comment and then ignore their comments.
So one of the great features of StreamYard that I absolutely love is you can
also display these comments on screen,
which is actually going to foster even more engagement.
So when you're in StreamYard in the studio,
you will see the comments out to the right.
Simply select the comment you want to display on screen,
and then click it again to remove it from the stream.
I absolutely love pulling up comments because like I said, actually,
when you display comments, more people will actually start commenting as well.
So definitely give some shoutouts throughout your live videos to your viewers
and acknowledge the engagement that they're giving you. Okay.
Not so fast because mistake Number Three is over-engaging
with the audience. So what do I mean by over-engaging?
Over-engaging is when you actually let your acknowledgements of your audience
and the comments distract you from the content you are actually delivering or,
interrupt the flow of your content.
So an example would be you're in the middle of a really important point,
and literally mid-sentence you interrupt yourself by reading a comment like;
"Hey, okay,
the next really important thing I'm going to share with you is about... Oh yeah,
David you're right. I totally agree. Taco Tuesday is the best day of the week!"
I mean, Taco Tuesday is the best day of the week in my opinion,
but we can't let that get in the way of the flow of our content.
So you really want to be careful not to over engage.
Now you can also just completely overdo it where you're not really sharing any
value or any content. All you're doing is chatting it up with your audience.
Now there are, of course, some live videos that could be "partyesque",
that's exactly what your goal is. That's fine.
But be sure that when you are actually delivering value and delivering content,
that you don't let that engagement take over the stream.
So the best practice would be to welcome your audience towards the beginning,
have a little fun, go back and forth with them. And then you have,
let's say three to five key points. In between each point,
take a break and engage the audience.
Look at the comments, address them, display some on screen,
answer some questions.
This will really help you stay focused on the content and your audience.
And so that engagement isn't going to take away from the value that you're
bringing in your stream. Now this can be a really hard habit to break.
So I definitely suggest you avoid looking at the comments when you are
delivering those key points. Which brings us to mistake Number Four.
Now this mistake is not looking directly into the camera lens.
One of the best ways to avoid looking at the comments, as I mentioned before,
is to be looking into the camera lens, instead of the comments on screen.
You should be always looking into the camera lens when you are talking to your
audience. It's the equivalent of looking into the eyes of your viewers.
So let me show you the difference. Right now I'm looking into the camera lens.
Right now. I'm looking at myself on screen. And as you can see,
I'm not looking into your eyes. Now this can be a really hard habit to break.
So it may take some practice,
but I will tell you that this exact concept applies to not only your live
videos, but also any virtual meetings you're having,
as well as when you're FaceTiming family and friends on your phone.
Here we are at mistake. Number Five. All right,
now this one is not reading the comments or questions out
loud before responding.
So it's really important to recognize that a lot of your viewers might be
multitasking. Which means they might be listening to you,
but they aren't watching your stream.
So when you address a comment and you didn't read it out loud,
they have no idea what you're talking about or who you're talking to.
It also helps bring points home when you repeat it out loud before you respond.
So I highly recommend that before you answer a question, read that question,
or before you address a comment, read it out loud.
Now the other thing to keep in mind is if you're multi streaming,
your audience viewers over on YouTube cannot see the comments that are being
displayed or commented on, over on Facebook.
So this is another great reason why it's really important to read those comments
out loud before you respond.
And of course a pro tip would be to display that comment as well. Well,
there you have it,
Five livestreaming mistakes that you're now going to be able to avoid.
Now we've actually got a blog article where we have even more livesharing,
mistakes that you can avoid. So be sure to check that blog article out.
You can see a link down in the description of this video.
So I would love to know if this was helpful or if you've maybe made these
mistakes in the past, and now you're actually going to be like, "Oh,
I'm not going to make those mistakes anymore".
Let us know in the comments I'd love to hear from you. And of course,
as always make sure you're subscribed to this channel and click on that little
notification bell so that you get notified when we create new content.
All right, my friends I'll see you next time.
[inaudible].