Facebook is bringing Live Streaming to the Desktop and why is Live Streaming important

Live video streaming is hot right now.

If you want to be a broadcaster and speak to the world you have a plethora of ways of doing it – most involve your mobile phone with apps such as YouTube, Periscope and Facebook Live. The “experts”, who want a more professional setup are making use of better cameras and and superior sound quality than the cell phone can deliver so they are using systems such as Wirecast to be able to take control of their Live Streaming facilities.

The good news is that soon everyone will be able to broadcast live from their desktop without the technical skills of setting up Wirecast as Facebook is said to be bringing Live Streaming to the desktop.

According to an AdWeek article, Facebook is brining the Live video button to the desktop so anyone sitting in front of their computer will be able to broadcast live.

It is not clear if this system will allow for enhanced features such as being able to use an external camera ( or multiple cameras) or will it force the user to use only the built-in camera – but it’s a start.

So why is Live Streaming such a big deal anyways ?

If you are a company, then Live Streaming should be on your To Do List and it should be near the top and being able to do it from your computer is one less barrier to do doing it.

Here 4 quick reasons why Live Streaming is the hot new trend for brands:

1. FOMO– the Fear of Missing Out is strong. We want to be everywhere and know everything. So when a company is streaming their event live or their discussions live or even if it’s a live stream of their office, the customer gets a feeling of being part of the team. It’s a way to be on the “invite list” and see it all as it happens. That is a powerful connection that a customer makes to the brand.

2. Little Cost – In the past if a business wanted to stream live to their audience, they would have had to hire a TV crew, rent some  really expensive air time and hire an entire production team. Now, the cost is reduced that its possible for virtually anyone with a laptop and an internet connection to broadcast and deliver high quality feed to an audience that wants the information and is willing to watch a 2 hour advertisement. Not convinced ? Every time brands like Apple, Samsung, Microsoft launch new products, thousands of people tuned in live to watch. When Apple recently launched their iPhone 7 that was a 2 hour commercial and people were captivated.

3. Its Real – People don’t want perfectly produced canned show. They want to see the real you and in the real world things go wrong – so what? Live Streaming is about being professional and setting up the environment correctly but the audience can be very forgiving. In fact, people often jump to the company’s defense when things go wrong as they feel they are part of the journey.

4. Engagement – when you post a video online, people leave some comments. However, when you are streaming live and ask people to comment, the number of engagement goes up exponentially. People want to be heard and acknowledged and so they listen in, adding their bit to the conversation. All of which makes them connected in real-time to the company.

Some real examples:

Benji and Sean from Video Influencers use this technique whenever they stream, they ask people to comment with their name and where they are streaming from. They then ask people to leave their Instagram handles or Twitter handles and ask questions. Hundreds of comments are left as Benji and Sean select questions to answer.

Vincenzo Landino says that 92% of mobile video consumer share the video and recommends, among other things, that brands could broadcast a regular show. This allows customer to know that if they want all the latest info, they need to tune in. Vincenzo also host regular Live streaming where he chats about the Live Streaming world and its opportunities.

The team at Geek University host a live show on Facebook every day at 11.30am where they deal with Questions and Answers from their audience. This has proven to be very effective in growing their fan base who wants to learn.

So in Summary:

Regardless of your industry, Live Streaming should be a big part of your marketing plan. Especially now that Facebook has made streaming its priority and seem to favor it over regular text Facebook Posts.

Streaming not only allows the company to make that personal human connection but also allows the audience to grow as the video lives forever and is instantly shareable at a touch of a button.