Ever since the pandemic, online streaming services have hit an all-time high. Everyone that’s anyone is trying to integrate themselves within this industry, and it’s easy to see why. If you are a self-start-up and feel like your content is worthy of people’s time but don’t have a lot of incoming funds, then streaming your own content is the way to go. However, a lot of people are not sure about where to even start with this process. Read on to find out more about a beginner’s guide to streaming your own content.
Preparation Is Key
A lot of people are under the assumption that because you are ‘’live’’ streaming, then everything you do is completely natural and impromptu. This is not the case and is not a trap that you should fall into. Top streamers in the world rarely ever go into a live without having prepared themselves, and this should be no different to you. Some steps that you can take to help you prepare before going live include:
Planning In Advance
Before you start your live, you should have an idea in mind about the time that you are starting and the general layout that you will follow throughout the stream. This is a sure way to gather an audience and retain them. It helps to keep your audience engaged and interested in returning to your stream when you next go live. Following a layout will enable you to reduce the risk of awkward pauses. Instead, a plan will help you to keep the conversation following. Of course, you can allow yourself to divert off track if it helps to keep the conversation flowing naturally, rather than feeling scripted.
Find Your Niche
Have you thought about what you are going to talk about? There are different niches that audiences find popular such as gaming, music, and sports. Soke streamers contact external partners to help them with their streaming career such as RedBee media. When you find your niche, you can create engaging content that helps you with drawing in an audience that enjoys the games and genres you are playing. You can use the niche gaming genre of your choosing to help you with planning the layout of what you will be streaming.
Set Yourself Goals
It can be difficult to set yourself targets, especially when you don’t know what kind of audience you will have or even the number of people that will be viewing you. Always ensure that you’re setting realistic goals, and don’t be disappointed if you don’t hit them the first time. Setting unrealistic goals can deter you from continuing to stream when you are not hitting the targets you have set for yourself. When first starting out in streaming, you will likely not be hitting thousands of views each stream, with endless interactions from viewers. As such, set small targets for yourself that you can gradually increase along with the slow rise in interest. This will help to keep you motivated and encouraged to continue streaming.
What Does A Basic Streaming Setup Require?
To even consider starting to stream your own content, you must have a basic setup. Firstly, ensure that you have a working camera. This can either be from the webcam that is preinstalled into your laptop you can upgrade if you have the funds and purchase a more powerful webcam. Secondly, a microphone; A good microphone is key if you want to succeed within this industry, if your audience can’t hear you correctly then they will just switch off.
Finally, a good internet connection may seem like common knowledge, but a lot of first-time streamers don’t realize the strength of the internet that they need to be able to provide a good quality stream. Streaming with a poor internet connection cause you to lose viewers in the blink of an eye. It is rare many would watch a streamer with a poor internet connection as the buffering and slowness can be off-putting.
What Platform Should You Choose?
Now that you’ve got yourself set up with preparations and purchased all the setup for your streaming, you must decide which platform you want to place your content on. If you don’t have any particular niche in mind and feel like your content is quite generalized, you should look at YouTube Live, Facebook live, Twitter lives, and TikTok live.
If you feel like you have a more specialized streaming service to offer, such as gaming, there are specific platforms that would work incredibly well. The main one is Twitch: Twitch is the most popular streaming platform for viewers hoping to watch content creators’ games. Due to the scale of the platform, some first-time streamers do find it intimidating, if you’re one of these people and wish to look somewhere else to place your content, you should look at YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming.
How To Continue Engagement?
Those fortunate enough to build a small following from their gaming streams should also look for ways that they can stay engaged with this community. Before you next go live, make a note to bring up any discussions that occurred on social media with your small following after the last time you streamed.
Additionally, this level of engagement can help with growing your platform. Other views will see how engaged you are with your audience, whether it be taking on feedback or remembering conversations, and will take interest. They become regular viewers of yours that engage with you on social media.
Final Tips To Consider
We’ll leave you with some tips to ensure that you’re live streaming is successful:
- Make your stream look as professional as possible with graphics that are appropriate and stand out
- Practice speaking so this reflects in your live streams
- Disregard any myths that you’ve heard about the world of streaming
Keeping these tips in mind, you will be effortlessly streaming your own content in no time.
