How to Use and Leverage Live Video for Your Business

Your Dream Business

English - February 03, 2018 23:47 - 11 minutes - 11.5 MB - ★★★★★ - 34 ratings
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KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCASTVideo is a great way to put across who you are and what you do in a short space of time in a way people can easily understand.Live video cuts out all the middlemen! There’s no need for recording studios, video editors and others. (This also cuts out a lot of expenses tied to professionally made videos).Live video allows you to truly be authentic and make stronger connections with your audience.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Social media has changed drastically over the years. What was once run by text is now being taken over by video marketing. You need to make sure you start taking advantage of this marketing tool to remain competitive in the social media world.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISSLearn the stats that prove video is the marketing method of now – 03:42Sample ideas for you to record on live video – 04:17How video allows you to make more authentic connections via social media – 06:21Things you need to get right before you start recording – 07:30How to avoid the pitfalls of reading from a script – 08:19
LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODETeresa’s Facebook page Teresa’s Twitter page Belive.tv
Transcript below

Hello, a massive welcome to the first ever Social Media Marketing Made Easy podcast. I'm your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. I am so excited to have you here today. I can't wait to share with you some fantastic marketing and social media tips that are going to take your business to the next level. But before we get started, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Teresa, and I'm going to be your host on this podcast. This podcast is going to be kept kind of short and sweet. I'm not going to be going on for ages. What I want it to be, is some really good tips and advice, and nuggets of information that you can listen to quickly, and then you can take away and can use in your own business every single day.

The focus for today's podcast is going to be all around live video, and why you should be using it for your business today. But before we get started on that, I just wanted to really quickly introduce to you who I am. I have been working in marketing and social media for the past 13 years. I have a degree in marketing. I'm also a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketers. But about four years ago, I started to see the benefit of social media for businesses, and I started looking at how they could use it to market their business. I decided to go and find some of the most amazing people in the world who knew what they were talking about with social media, and I started to be trained by them.

I've done courses online with people like Mari Smith and Kim Garst and Amy Porterfield. I've worked really, really hard over the past few years to really understand social media and how it can benefit your business. I've also written a book, and I do speaking and training. I love it. It's one of the most fantastic jobs I've ever had, and it really does benefit businesses. I am so excited to share with you some of these great tips and advice.

Why am I so excited about live video, and so keen for you to do it in your business? Well, social media and marketing has changed phenomenally in the past few years. What started off as predominately text and then moved on to images, is now moving with the times, and video is the way to go. I love video. It's a great way of putting across who you are and what you do in a very short space of time, that people can quickly understand. Live video is even better because you don't have to hire a film studio, you don't have to get professionals, you don't have to make sure that it's edited and beautiful. Live video is very authentic, and it's open to everybody. That's the beauty of it. It doesn't matter what size your business is, whether it's massive or whether it's teeny-tiny, anybody can go live and do live video. It doesn't cost them a thing. You can put it out there and show people what you do and how you do it, and it's fantastic.

I'm going to take you through why you should do live video. I'm going to give you a few ideas around types of live videos that you can do. I'm also going to give you some tips and things to think about, that if you are going to do live video, some of the ideas that I've got that might help you do it better. Now, I've also put together a sheet for you with 10 ideas that you can use in your business that you can do Facebook Live with, or live video through Twitter. Please go back to the page and download those tips, and get started straight away.

Learn the stats that prove video is the marketing method of now

Why video? There are lots of amazing stats out there, like 70% of people that view brands in a more positive light after they've watched a video from them, and one minute video is worth 1.8 million words. There's no doubt that video is a really fantastic marketing tool, but also it gets a much higher reach than any other post at the moment. So if you put a video out on Facebook, then it's going to be shown to more people than if you just put a text or a link or a photo. What sort of things can we do on live video? Possibilities are endless. There are so many things that you can do.

Sample ideas for you to record on live video

You really want to personalise this to your business, but some of the really great ideas that you can have are things like, you can do a behind the scenes, so show people if you're getting ready for an event. If you're a cook and you're preparing for a dinner or whatever it might be, then show people, go on live and say "I'm getting ready for this. This is what's happening right now." Product demos. These are fantastic. If you've got a product and it's either a new product or it's a product and it's existing, go on and show people how to use it. It's a really great way that people can interact. Also, invite people to ask you questions about the product and about how you're using it. Questions and answers, these are brilliant. If you're in a service industry, if you're offering a service, this is something that I do, so please go and check out my Facebook page, and I go on and I do live videos where I talk and answer people's questions. These are great.

Things like competition launches or sneak previews. What a fantastic way to announce to the world you're doing something new. By telling people "Come on to the page at 10 o'clock tomorrow, and I am going to be sharing with you something very exciting and something brand new, never seen before," or "We've got something really fantastic to share with you," this is a really lovely way of going live and sharing some really good information with people.

You can also do things like interviews. If you're in an industry where you're an expert or you are a service industry, then you can interview other people. You can also interview some customers. What a great testimonial, that if you have just delivered a product or delivered a service to some customers, and you go live and they say to your audience "Yeah, that was great. It was fantastic." There is nothing more authentic than that.

How video allows you to make more authentic connections via social media

I keep coming back to this word "authentic". In marketing it's always been important, but now I think it's more important than ever. We are online so much more. We are interfacing with people digitally, and we're not seeing so much of one-to-one going into a shop, having a conversation. This is one of the ways in which we build trust to do business with people, is that if we feel they're authentic and they're real, then obviously we are more likely to want to do business with them. So going live, there is nothing more authentic than that.

Also, another idea of a live video could be a day in the life of. If you have a big business, or you have business with different roles, then why not let a member of your team go live and explain what they do?

What are some of the things that you need to think about if you're going to do a live video? As I said before, this doesn't have to be perfect, so don't think you need a studio or you need a big microphone or whatever it might be. It can be really authentic.

Things you need to get right before you start recording

But there are a few things that you need to just consider before you go live. Think about your surroundings. Try and have good lights. Obviously if you can get natural light, then that's great. Sound is really, really important. They will forgive other things, but if they can't hear what you're saying or it's muffled, you're going to lose them really quickly.

Also, think about being camera-ready. This could mean anything to different people. For me, it's things like, I like my hair to look tidy, I like to have nice make-up on. But I also like to think about my surroundings. What can you see in the background? I don't know about you, but I have watched many a video where I'm too busy looking at what's happening in the background, or that they haven't put away their dirty washing, to actually pay attention to what they're saying.

How to avoid the pitfalls of reading from a script

Try really hard not to read a script. Now, this isn't always the easiest thing in the world, and you definitely do need to plan what you're going to be saying, however I think sometimes when you're trying to read a script, you are trying to either remember it and therefore if you forget a bit it completely can throw you off, or people that actually read off something and it's obvious that you're reading.

Another key part of doing live video, is obviously having something interesting to say. Make sure that you have thought about and planned out what you're going to say while you're on live video, so a good intro, who you are, what you do. Then your content, so whatever it is you want to share with the world, and then obviously how you're going to close off, so that hopefully as people sort of drop in and out of the live video, they can get a real feel of whatever it is you're saying is really, really worthwhile.

The other thing that I think is so important to live video, although it is live, is perhaps telling people that you're going to be on. If you know you're going to try and do a live video every week, then tell people "Between two and three on a Friday, I'm going to go live, and I'm going to be talking about different things," so that they can try and plan into their time to come on and see you, because sometimes you'll go on and you'll do live video, and there won't be anybody on, or there might not be many people on. Try not to worry about that. If you just go on as if you're talking to one person, that's the way I like to think about it, I'm talking to one person right there, and as long as I keep that in my head, then it doesn't matter whether you've got people coming on or going, it keeps you focused.

Then one of the last things I'd suggest if you're going to do a live video, is to look at some of the third party systems that are out there. Obviously you can go live from your phone straight from your Pages Manager App on Facebook, or straight from Twitter, but there are some really, really good third party systems that will just add a different element for you. If you take a look on the Resources page of my website, you will see that I talk about a system called BeLive. It's a really cool system where I can use it on my Mac, so I'm sat at my desktop, so I can have some prompts on my other screen that tell me what it is I might be talking about, but then you can put up some text. You can also when someone comments or ask a question, you can also put up their comment and question. That I really, really enjoyed having a go with. I'll be using that again in the future.

Like I said, there is so much to live video, and it really is a fantastic thing to use. I really encourage you all to go on and give it a go. If you're going onto live video, then please come and drop me a message either on our Facebook or on my Twitter page, tell me when you're going to on live, and I'd love to come and watch you. I can't wait to see what brilliant live videos you guys come up with, so please do connect. I've got some great topics coming up in the next few podcasts, and I can't wait to share them with you. Have a great week, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Twitter Mentions

@theathwareing