- Hello, insiders.
I am Kyle, a partner manager here at YouTube.
So last month we announced a new integration
with Shopify and YouTube to give creators
in YPP aiming to sell their products on YouTube
a more seamless way to do so.
If you missed that video,
we'll link it down below.
Today, we wanna give creators
a more holistic view
of the Live Shopping experience,
and how to optimize.
Let's get into it.
So what is Live Shopping?
Live Shopping in YouTube lets you showcase
your products and exclusive offers
through real-time interactive experiences
that allow your community
to shop what they're seeing
without them ever having to leave
the live stream.
Live Shopping drives a unique sense of urgency,
and compels them to tune in for
can't miss out moments
like new product announcements, exclusive deals,
and limited time offers.
Eligible creators can showcase products
via multiple features
including tagging products to live streams,
pinning products to live chat,
and the use of the product shelf.
So who was eligible for this?
Well, all YPP creators
with their own merch store
or a storefront like Spring or Shopify-enabled
are eligible for Live Shopping.
But an important note.
Product tagging in Live Shopping is not eligible
for music channels while pinning products,
and shelf are still available.
For viewers, we'll leave a link down below
with more info on where Live Shopping
is available and where we're planning to expand
more in the future.
So let's dive a little deeper
into the Live Shopping features.
First things first,
you're gonna want to link your store,
and set up your livestream.
Once you have that set up,
you can enable product tagging.
Eligible creators can tag and organize products
from a store owned by them.
For example, if you have a creator website
a Spring account or a Shopify account,
you can then use that for the livestream
using the picker in YouTube Studio.
To select products for a livestream,
go to the live control room.
Below the livestream preview,
click on the shopping tab.
Next to open the customized tool,
click customize.
Search for any of your available products,
and then drag and drop up to 30 products.
If you wanna remove a product,
simply click the trash can next to that product.
Finally, click save and your changes
will be reflected in the individual
video level settings.
This leads us to our next feature,
pinning products to the live chat,
and the product shelf.
When a creator pins a product,
viewers will see that product
at the top of their live chat
during the live stream.
When a viewer clicks on a product,
this will open up a panel below the live stream
with more details and options
to purchase the product.
Now you want to start a live stream
using the live control room.
Click on the shopping tab below the livestream,
preview and select one item to promote.
Click and drag it to the pin products panel,
and then pin the product.
And then if you need to unpin an item,
simply click unpin in the livestream preview.
Now a few things to keep in mind
during your livestream.
Products you selected and tagged will be shown
in the view products label
within the product list,
and the product shelf underneath the livestream.
You can also pin and unpinned products
in the chat during the livestream itself.
Lastly, creators can also add
special discounts and promotions
to each pin product.
Next, let's talk about some best practices.
So here are a few ways
that you can optimize your audience.
First is to promote your live stream.
You can share the broadcast URL
on your own social channels
and ensure that users know
when to tune in at least 48 hours
before your live stream.
You can also create a channel trailer
or a teaser video
to help promote the event,
and then feature that trailer video
on the featured video spot.
It's also a really good idea to connect
your social media accounts to your channel
for easy sharing and to help inform fans.
It's also a good idea to create a live shelf
to display your upcoming,
and live events that are present on your channel.
We also recommend adding an associated website.
This website will help us improve the quality
of search results and verify your channel
as the official representation
of your brand on YouTube.
It's also a great idea to customize
your channel art,
to display information about the particular
live event and you can use cards,
and call to action extensions
to link to the live event,
and help users set reminders.
And lastly of course
is using community posts
to extend your social strategy.
Leverage polls and interactivity
to invite users to be part of the events
content itself.
Now a few more things to think about
during your livestream.
We recommend that you continuously interact
with users through the live chat and live polls.
We also recommend using live redirects
to build excitement and promote your live stream.
Once your live stream ends,
auto play will move your viewers
to the premier or live stream of your choice.
Leverage chat to keep conversations brands safe.
You can use YouTube features to manage the chat,
and keep the experience and conversation brand safe.
You can do this by creating
a list of blocked keywords,
enabling a hold for review,
and assign a human moderator for manual review.
You can also enable slow mode,
which limits how often each individual user
can comment by setting the time limit
between those comments.
You can also label live commentary
for invite only chat.
Another thing worth considering
is a subscriber-only live chat
to restrict posting chat messages
to only your subscribers.
You can specify how long viewers
need to be subscribed before posting.
There's a minimum of one minute here,
and that can be used to encourage subscription
from your livestream viewers.
So you did it.
Your live stream is over.
What next?
After the stream is over,
make sure to archive the live stream
to capture any buzz and allow for repeat viewing.
We also recommend adding chapters
to your livestream
so viewers can navigate around.
So we hope this guide gives creators
a better understanding of the features
that are available to them,
and serves as a way to optimize
your viewer experience.
We'll be sure to keep you posted
as we launch more features in the live space,
and as always leave your questions,
and comments below and keep it real.