by David Tyler | Apr 27, 2016 | Ad Agency, Art of Communicating Ideas, Branding, Broadcasting, Facebook, Marketing, Marketing Small Business, New Media, Social Media, Software, Technology, YouTube
From the looks of it ‘live’ video on social media has become a thing. And to help it not turn into a monstrous thing from the deep I’ve put together this list of 10 tips to make your live Periscope and Facebook Live broadcasts successful and help you connect with your audience.
1. Your Title Should Grab their Attention
Think of the title of your Periscope like a newspaper headline. Write a great title that tells the viewer what it’s about and what they will see or learn. It should entice them to tune in. ‘Untitled’ isn’t an option for success.
2. Don’t Waste Time
Don’t spend the opening seconds of the broadcast swinging the camera around the room showing us stuff, print out a copy of your company logo and slogan and shoot that as you welcome us to the broadcast and verbally tell us what’s going to happen.
3. Stay Calm
When you point the camera towards you don’t act surprised by the people logging in to watch, it’s what you were expecting so go with it. Likewise, don’t start giving shout-outs to viewers unless someone of note shows up…like The Pope. It could happen…
4. Don’t Wait to Start
You should be starting the actual content of your live video broadcast within the first :60 seconds, don’t forget that people who joined late will be able to watch the replay for anything they may have missed.
5. Horizontal Please!
It’s one of my biggest pets peeves. My eyes are side-by-side on my head, not one on top of the other. Also, be sure to keep your head in the middle of the frame with your eyes on the imaginary line between the top 3rd and middle third of the frame. In the case of Periscope, when the comments and hearts begin to fly we will be able to still see your head.
6. Have An Agenda
As a guy who spent 25+ years working in radio and TV Studios, and doing hours of show prep before each broadcast…please, please have an agenda. Before you go live, outline what you’re going to say and the points that you intend to make. Then follow that outline.
7. Do A Midstream Recap
If you notice a huge spike in viewers, it’s OK to do a quick recap for those who just joined you, but again remember they can watch the replay later. Be brief about it and unless your broadcast is going to be an epic, don’t recap more than once.
8. Questions At the End
During the broadcast, if audience members start asking questions let them know that you will take questions at the end of the broadcast. This will help you stick to your agenda. And unless you have a fantastic memory (I don’t) have them re-ask their question later. Just like your midstream recap be brief and get on with the task at hand.
9. Leave Them Wanting More
After you’ve finished your presentation stay on to answer a few questions from your audience but don’t let this drag on. A good broadcaster knows to leave on a high note. Let them know if they have any further questions to contact you by email or via Twitter.
10. Use Graphics
Any URLs, email addresses, Twitter handles, etc. that you mention during the broadcast should be printed out on a sheet of paper and held up to the camera for people to take note of. Finish off the way you started with your company logo and slogan. Maybe a URL for your product or service.
Bonus Tip
Make an appointment with viewers. Either do your broadcast on a regular schedule (though this may not always be ideal) or Tweet 30 minutes in advance to your followers and friends that you’ve got a broadcast coming up. Mention the title too!
It’s a brave new world out there and everybody has the tools to be a broadcaster. As I’ve said before, the artist, broadcaster or craftsperson knows it’s not about the tools…but how you use them.
Let me know if I can help you or if you have any other tips to add to my list.
by David Tyler | Jun 29, 2015 | Art of Communicating Ideas, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, TV News, Twitter, YouTube
On the surface social media has changed the way news travels, the prime example being the “Arab Spring” four years ago where street level news cascaded to a world wide audience in real-time. But lurking below the obvious trend, is a burgeoning maturation that will affect the way broadcasters do their jobs.
Social media as a source for news has been growing and like it or not it has changed the way people consume broadcast news…or at least what they are expecting from broadcast news.
If your TV station or network is still doing news the “old” way, which is to say assuming viewers are not exposed to top news stories throughout their day, how loyal do you think your viewership will be by the time you hit the air? Will they mutter “I already know this” and change the channel?
The Numbers
When you consider that 64% of Americans are using Facebook and half of those users say they get their news there, you’re talking about 30% of the general population who get their news from Facebook. That’s nearly 90-million people! Likewise, 51% of the population are using YouTube and some of them are even buying views to grow their channel as buying youtube views is a neccessary evil due to the endless competition on it. Out of those 51% a fifth of whom report that they get their news there, that works out to 10% of the population. While 19% of the population are using LinkedIn vs. 16% using Twitter, more twits use the site to get their news than LinkedIn users…about 8% vs. 3% of the general population. (Pew Research).
With growing numbers like that, if you haven’t already, you need to re-evaluate the way you’re presenting the news to your viewers.
The Big Question
The big question you need to answer is how can you use your resources, writers, researchers and talent to bring the viewer more than they could get through social media? How can you add value? Ask yourself what are viewers coming to see when they tune in, a rehash of what they already know or something more in-depth…more detail…more something?
Are you delivering? If you’re not, what can you do different?
Steps To Take
Here are some things to keep in mind:
- be aware of what news stories are trending on social media (local, regional, national)
- understand why those stories matter to your viewers
- decide what you can do to add value to those stories in a way social media can’t
Social media will never replace traditional journalism. Truthfully, social media as it is now is pushing journalists to do better and that’s a good thing for everyone.
How has social media reshaped the way you prepare and present the news? Leave your comment below.
by David Tyler | Jun 22, 2015 | Advertising, Branding, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Marketing Small Business, New Media, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube
When it comes to getting new customers my mantra has always been “stop communicating, start connecting” and there is no better streamlined tool for doing that today than social media, specifically Facebook and Twitter.
The problem starts when small businesses focus all of their attention on that aspect of marketing and push aside the other 80% of their marketing strategy! And so it becomes imperative of one to be able to perfectly elucidate the a company’s vision & motives. If you think what you write as the company’s vision isn’t upto the benchmark or upto your satisfaction, then you always have the option of hiring business plan writers online.
Rich Gordon, a professor at Northwestern University and Zachary Johnson, the CEO of Syndio Social released a study that suggests that 50% of small businesses website visitors arrive through social media means as compared to only 18% for large business websites.
What it may look like is that small business is using social media more effectively than large business but in fact what this data tells me is that when it comes to marketing themselves, small businesses seem to rely far too much on social media, only a part of which, constitutes what’s on this Salesforce blog explaining proper customer engagement.
How are large businesses attracting customers to their website the other 81.3% of the time?! Imagine how much you could increase your bottom line if you could learn to do the same thing….but on a small business marketing budget.
Bottom Line: Watch, learn and mimic how large companies market themselves in the offline world to increase YOUR bottom line.
