Mobile live streaming - what are the benefits to brands and individuals? And which tools should they use?
I put these questions to Krishna De, who is a digital and visual content marketing guru. She answered these questions and more - have a listen on iTunes, SoundCloud or keep reading for a summary of our conversation.
What is the key to success with mobile live video?
"I've actually been covering live-streaming and live video for several years in terms of case studies on different platforms and what I'm seeing now, in terms of actually going to mobile live videos, is really... well, I'll just give you five little steps that you can think about before you press the start button:
S - Strategic
"My S is for let's be strategic. Let's understand what you're trying to do in terms of using these platforms, what's the goal that you are trying to support? Maybe there's a communications goal, maybe there's a resourcing goal, maybe there's an employer branding goal. So let's understand what they are. Like anything else that you do in communications, how does this tie back to something else? It could be very small - you want to learn about this, you want to experiment, you want to be seen as an innovator. That's fine as long as you've cleared it up ahead of time."
T - Technology
"My second letter for you, 'T'. 'T' is about technology. There are a few things you need to take into consideration in terms of technology. Now, you can get started with literally a mobile phone and nothing else, but I would encourage you to think some things, such as the lighting. In the environment you're in, how can you make sure you get the best lighting possible? Maybe that's about the daylight that you have or maybe you need to accentuate it with some other source. Another thing to consider, because you're on a mobile device, is your battery power. I've seen lots of people actually fall flat because they've simply run out of battery. The third thing you might look at there is Wi-Fi or data. Live-streaming eats up a lot of data, so either go for an unlimited contract or make sure you know what your cap is there, particularly if you're going to do long streams. I've seen some people do, like, eight hours in terms of a mobile live stream. Others might do it just a few minutes."
A - Audio
"The third letter I have is 'A' for audio. People will be forgiving of some visuals, but they'll be less forgiving if you've got poor audio. A very simple thing you can do is this - most of you will have a headset that comes with it's own ear buds and a microphone that comes with your smart phone or your smart device. Use that because it can help reduce ambient noise, particularly if you're outside. I do have lots and lots of resources on my website which we can talk about later if people are interested, but the minimum you can get away with is just your ear buds that comes with your phone."
R - Rights
"R is for rights. Rights, for me, incorporate things like do you have the rights of the people and the agreement of the people to be able to actually show them in your live-stream? As an example, even if you had an in-house event, a good practice would be to make sure people know that you're going to be live-streaming it if they don't want to be on camera, because that content could be captured and recorded and published on all sorts of platforms afterwards. I've been at events where they've said that right up front. So you make sure you stand out of the way. The same in terms of the rights to the graphics and any brand imagery you're going to share, and also the rights to music. Increasingly, I'm seeing people are sharing music and if you're going to re-purpose your content you need to think about that."
T - Test
"And my last letter I have in my 'START' acronym is 'T' for test. We've covered strategy, we've covered technology, audio, rights. The last one is test. So before you even hit the start button, I'd encourage you to test. You can look at things like how am I going to title this? Have I got the right camera angle? How am I going to navigate through - perhaps you're doing a walk-through of something - and also what are people looking like on camera? What's the sound like? The other thing to remember is if you're using a smart device, you've got a front facing and a rear facing camera and that can affect the audio quality. So again, using those ear buds or using a separate microphone will also help that."
- Our tip of the week is: Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
- This week's big shout goes out to Martin Mosler of Hager Group
- Follow Krishna on Twitter @KrishnaDe
- Read the full article on the Link Humans blog
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