There is a very interesting thing that is happening in social media that is changing the game and it is changing the way bloggers must look at their own sites. That thing has been dubbed Social Media 2.0. It is live streaming. It took me less than one day to try it out after I had heard of it and less than a week to start my show, “Tasty Food Live” on Blab.im. Finally, the most important aspect of being “social” has entered “social” media, and that is conversation. This series walks you through my experience as a blogger entering the live streaming world and talks about how to start live streaming yourself. Throughout this series, we are going to talk about platforms, equipment, theory and practice.
I was introduced to live streaming when I met Joel Comm at IZEAFest 2015. Since then, the whole live streaming thing has taken off for me and I have been helping others develop live streaming into their own blogs, sites, and social media strategies.
I had an interesting meeting with a friend a few weeks ago. She had started blogging on and off in the past and wanted my opinion on how often to write a post. Any of you who have blogged for any time knows there is not one easy way to answer that. The truth is that there aren’t any hard and fast rules for how often you blog. But, I would’t do less than two posts per week. I asked her how long it took her to write a post. On average, she said it was about three hours. Then I gave her my pitch for live streaming. It goes something like this:
Rather than having to plan a post, write it, photograph it, and publish it (and I can tell you the actual time for me 5-6 hours with photography), by live streaming a person can now record a Periscope in 5-10 minutes or a Blab in half an hour. The broadcast can be sent to YouTube, embed it in a post, and then the blogger can write a quick synopsis and have the entire post done in under an hour. But there is more. Not only is the post a rich post with video, it is also interactive with viewers and highlights a bloggers personality, not just content. The video and audio can be utilized to make money on YouTube and as a Podcast and reach more people on Facebook’s video function. The extra distribution not only makes more ad money for a content creator, it also reaches new audiences and points those ever-important links back to your site. But did you catch how much time can be saved? I can whip out a Periscope and have it on my blog in 20-30 minutes. Buh-by to all those hours of typing (I just get a transcript), and publishing (to be fair, I still do very high quality standard blog posts too and am happy to take the time to do it), but now I have a new weapon in my blogging arsenal to keep me relevant, up to date, and in front of my followers. For my friend, this makes it much easier to get at least two posts per week done, and for me many more.
This is just the introduction to a much larger series. In upcoming articles I will touch on all of these topics and more. But I can’t stress enough how important live streaming will become to bloggers, influencers, and brands. Follow this series and learn how to start live streaming along with me.
