Brian Wallace, Founder & President, NowSourcing

Live video in today’s internet is changing the way people watch video as a whole and can be used to build your business. 8 out of every 10 people would watch video that is live rather than read a blog post or social media post. But what are people watching live now? 56% are watching breaking news, 43% of people are watching conferences and music concerts, and 30% are watching sports events. In 2019, YouTube’s live streams from Coachella garnered 82 million live views during the first weekend of the festival. 

Going live can capture the attention of many people as only 20% of people read an article completely, most only read the quarter of an article like this one, and 69% of users prefer video to text when learning about a brand. Live video can also be more effective at teaching potential customers in several different ways. Live streams have higher engagement as live streams draw 6 times the engagement of video on demand. 97% of consumers are willing to share live video on social media making live video have a much larger reach rather than traditional video, and 2 out of every 3 who watch a stream will purchase tickets to a similar even.

By 2022, video will be expected to make up 82% of all traffic across the internet, so how do companies use live video? Companies use live video in a huge variety of ways. Companies make live Q and A sessions, which builds a community around your brand by encouraging conversation among your followers, webinars, so you can educate your audience on something that you are an expert in, building top of mind awareness for your industry, live events, to stream your product launches and other significant events in your business to build more hype and reach more people, crowdsourcing, to try to obtain live beta testing or demo a new prototype, and let your audience tell you what they think is good or functional and what needs to be changed about it, and behind the scenes, to give your followers a peek inside the company, and demonstrate your trustworthiness and company and culture. Behind the scenes are also massively popular as 87% of internet users want more behind the scenes content.

Some live video tips and tricks to become better at utilizing it to its fullest extent are: to team up with influencers to expand your reach, showcase a product or service and offer a link to buy, after the live stream has ended, repost the content on demand, more than 2 out of every 3 internet users want high quality video - so quality is a very important part of the stream, high quality video will also continue to draw attention on demand, and consistency is also very important so keeping brand identity consistent throughout your live streams is essential.Find out how switcher can be an amazing tool for live video while you are live and how to take your business live here.

About the Author: Brian Wallace is the Founder and President of