Today, many businesses are starting to look into using livestreaming apps to help strengthen and nurture their relationship with their audience and customers. Video is popular and people are tuning into live video more and more. Smartphone use is making it easy to livestream, and it’s a tool businesses need to consider as part of their marketing mix. Using livestreaming could positively improve business revenue and ROI in the long run as a marketing tool.
What do we know about livestreaming apps? And how can we use for the benefit of our business and marketing goals? Let’s dive into some details!
Livestreaming apps help broadcast your video in real time and interact with your audience. It's like watching your friends talking on Skype. With many livestreaming apps, you can broadcast your video to many people at the same time. You can go over to Fire Stick Tricks to expand your options in streaming videos. Typically, you just need a smartphone and a good Internet connection to get started. It doesn’t have to be a professional production at all; the attraction is that it is LIVE! Here are some of the most popular apps for livestreaming:
Periscope is owned by Twitter. It works on both iOS and Android devices. Download it for free from the app store. Because it's owned by Twitter, you can connect your Twitter account and share your stream with Twitter friends and followers easily.
Meerkat was launched in 2015 and has become one of the most loved livestreaming apps. It can also be integrated with your Twitter or Facebook account. Whether Meerkat can stick around being so close, in terms of features, to the Twitter-backed Periscope remains to be seen!
Snapchat is one of the most popular social apps these days and not just for young people! Snapchat has live 1-to-1 streaming, and you can share a collection of “snaps” as a “story” that you can share with all your followers as a collective video. Think of stories as a collection of 10-second snippets that can be used to demo a product or showcase a new feature.
Skype is perhaps one of the oldest livestreaming apps. 1-to-1 live video calls, screen sharing and messaging are all possible on Skype. Used a lot worldwide for video-conferencing, Skype is not a main “livestreaming, one-to-many” tool….yet.
If you are an avid Facebook user, then this feature is for you. Live videos allow Facebook users to reach out to their friends and fans and share in real time instead of recording a video and posting it later. Facebook is giving top billing to live streaming in the News Feed, meaning your Page gets the best reach to fans if you use live video. As well, Facebook just launched a global map of where live streams are happening at any given moment...WORLDWIDE! See it here.
Google offered live video streaming on Google Hangouts years ago. It's good for smaller things like talking with friends and collaborating with your coworkers. However, by using the HOA (Hangouts on Air) version it becomes a public broadcast where you can go live and allow anyone to watch. It’s sort of like a webinar experience online for free!
Before 2015, most livestreaming apps were used for personal purposes. However, 2015 became a breakthrough year for livestreaming because many big brands, celebrities, and sports teams began using it to connect to and interact with their audience.
Have you used livestreaming in your marketing strategies? What successes have you had? Please share them with us in the comments.
