It is rare for people nowadays to go through their everyday lives without seeing live videos on their social media feeds or elsewhere. Live videos have found their uses in businesses, marketing, education, and almost every other sector out there. From personal branding to professional assignments and meetings, live video streaming has become one of the most popular social media marketing trends in recent years. One such marketing factor is youtube live streaming.
People build their online communities with the help of live streaming strategies, especially using youtube live streaming solutions. Out of all the other platforms that now offer live streaming services, there are definite advantages of using live streaming on youtube. The benefits of live streaming on Youtube have turned out to be matchless with time and has helped various brands grow globally. Before getting to that, let us first understand the details of a youtube broadcast video.
What does it mean to go live on youtube?
We all know youtube as the most significant video watching and sharing platform online, but these videos were not always live. Till a few years back, these were only on-demand videos. However, to the times and the social media marketing trends, this company also branched out its services in the form of Youtube Live. And with this, Youtube live streaming has grown to become even more popular & prevalent.
To go live on youtube now means to stream live videos on the app to accomplish various purposes. One of the best benefits of Youtube live streaming is that it lets you reach your target audience in one go. In a live video, you can introduce new products, interact with your audience through Q&As, give information or cover events for your viewers, etc.
Due to this multifaceted work that live videos on youtube do, the platform currently enjoys 1.9 billion active users every month. This is a 75% growth from what the number was in 2017, causing even more Youtubers to earn through such videos.
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Who should use Youtube Live?
Youtube live videos can be used for both personal and professional goals. When talking about the viewers, they usually find topics of interest and then use the app like a search engine. In fact, Google’s ownership of Youtube often influences how your searches on both these apps intermixes.
On the other hand, when you talk about content creators, there are massive advantages to such live streaming strategies. One famous example of this is the most popular gaming channel PewDiePie with more than 96 million subscribers.
Benefits of Youtube Live Streaming Solutions
Once you recognise that you should be using youtube live, the next step is to know about all the advantages of it. So here are some of the key benefits of live streaming on youtube:
1. The monetization of live videos
WhileFacebook live is popular out of all the social media platforms that provide live streaming services. Youtube holds the trump card that is easy monetisation of the live videos. There are several options that streamers or youtube streaming service companies have to gain much-needed support some of them are:
- By allowing viewers to support you through Super Chat, it is a win-win situation as they get to promote themselves as well.
- You can enable pre-roll ads before your live video starts.
- During the streams, you can also add mid-roll advertisements.
- Although they may cover some parts of your stream, you can even have display and overlay ads.
- Get channel membership which takes a subscription fee from any users who have subscribed to your channel.
2. Cost-effective medium
As is the case for many of the live streaming services available online. You can become a user, a content creator and later earn from your youtube broadcast video without spending anything. Since the videos are live, there are no multiple-takes or post-production costs added to your budget. Most of the time, all the tools or features are available to you even at the beginner’s level, helping you save time and money.
3. Establishing your brand
In a survey by Hubspot, it was found that 70% of all youtube audiences make purchase decisions based on what they watch. That is why branded content and exposure to such videos benefit everyone in their personal and professional endeavors. It indicates that people want to find your videos online and suggested videos from
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4. Maximize your reach
Videos on demand do not get as high a reach as live streaming on youtube. It has been noted that the audiences on Youtube and Facebook prefer live videos far more than pre-recorded ones. This raises the chances of your live videos ranking higher in searches, ultimately reaching to more people.
5. Mobile live webcasting
What makes youtube the best live video streaming platform is that there is no need for an elaborate production or a lot of equipment. With just a smartphone and decent internet service, you can easily go live anywhere. Mobiles today certainly possess cameras of high quality that give good outputs videos as well.
6. Collaborate with others
Although Instagram live has launched the feature where other content generators can join in your live stream, it is certainly not as effective as making collaboration on YouTube live stream events. In fact, this often underestimated feature has a positive impact on brand partnerships and mutual growth.
7. Connecting with your audience
As you may have seen with many of the YouTubers, content creators online usually have a weekly schedule for posting videos or hosting live streaming sessions. These weekly YouTube live stream events not only build a loyal audience base but also create the anticipation for your content. This is a great way to create a connection with the viewers, leading you to have a better-established brand.
Disadvantages of Youtube Live
While the pros far outweigh the cons of YouTube live streaming solutions, you should know about the few disadvantages of live broadcast on YouTube Live, that can affect your work online:
1. Compromise on quality
One of the top reasons that stop YouTube from being the best live video streaming platform is the latency. The viewer has to choose between real-time engagement and video quality, as a better quality video would require more resources. Delay and buffering have not yet been left behind by youtube.
2. Lack of tools
Although Youtube Creator Studio provides tools for you to enhance on-demand videos, the same service is not available if you go live on youtube. Some features like picture-in-picture, multi-camera streaming, background audio playlists, etc can make a stream very interesting for the audience. Unfortunately, these options that enhance engagement are not yet provided by YouTube.
3. Difficulty in sharing
Without the help of YouTube streaming service companies, you cannot share a live stream on other platforms without being disconnected from the stream. This difficulty in the sharing of live videos hinders the building of a larger community online.
Though YouTube live streaming may seem like a big risk to take, with the right information in your hand, you can harness it to your advantage. Keeping in mind the social media marketing trends, it is a great way to build your brand and your business.
