4 Great Ways Brands Have Used Live Video

With more brands taking advantage of live video, it’s clearly a rising star in the world of content marketing. Facebook Live and similar social platforms allow companies to get creative with their branding and engage with viewers in an authentic, less scripted way. Why Live Video Works There are a few factors that contribute to live video’s effectiveness as a content marketing tool: They’re Visually Compelling: We’re visual creatures so it’s no surprise that video often grabs people’s attention more readily than text. Opportunity for Two-Way Engagement: A live broadcast offers more opportunities for users to contribute comments or ask questions in real-time. FOMO: Social media has heightened our collective fear of missing out (FOMO). Live video taps into the desire to experience an event as it occurs, rather than watching it after the fact. Authenticity: With a live broadcast, there’s no editing and no chance for a re-take. Mistakes may occur, but those goofs tend to humanize a brand, making you more relatable. Brands That Are Getting It Right BuzzFeed You can’t discuss live video without mentioning BuzzFeed. The viral-content giant scored a video victory when they streamed two of their employees wrapping rubber bands around a watermelon until it exploded. At one point, over 800,000 viewers were watching the live stream and more than 9 million curious viewers have seen the video since then. This is a great reminder that engaging live videos will continue to pay off long after the original broadcast. BuzzFeed’s success also shows that brands don’t necessarily need slick, big-budget videos to succeed if they deliver exciting content that viewers want to watch. Dunkin Donuts A popular Valentine’s Day broadcast showed the construction of an enormous wedding cake made of donuts and brought in over 36,000 viewers. This figure might seem to pale in comparison to Buzzfeed’s audience, but then again, the donuts weren’t exploding. Benefit Cosmetics The makeup brand hosts a weekly Facebook Live broadcast called â€Å"Tipsy Tricks.† During these popular â€Å"talk show† sessions, the hosts sip wine while sharing makeup tips and responding to viewer questions. Benefit doesn’t create these videos to drive sales or push a particular product. Their goal is to build brand awareness by delivering a winning combination of education and entertainment that has viewers coming back week after week. Benefit has also put together a reliable strategy for promoting Tipsy Tricks. On the day of the broadcast, the brand publishes a Snapchat story and Instagram post that gives users a peek behind the scenes and reminds them to watch the live stream later. General Motors GM was the first automaker to take advantage of Facebook Live. They used the platform to introduce their new electric vehicle, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt, at the Consumer Electronics Show with about 24,500 viewers tuning in. While it was only a tiny percentage of Chevy’s 17 million Facebook fans, the goal of live video isn’t always to generate the largest number of viewers. The people most likely to view General Motors’ live stream were probably the consumers closest to purchasing the Bolt or talking about the electric vehicle with friends. Implementing Live Video Into Your Content Strategy If you haven’t yet established a live video presence for your brand, there’s no better time to start. The brands we profiled might be big players, but live video can deliver value for a small business’ content strategy as well. The key to success is to establish what goals you want to accomplish and plan a live event that will help you reach them. Your company does something really well that your target audience would likely be interested in. If you can figure out what would work well for an event or series, you’ll be able to take advantage of the awareness and engagement live video can create.