Whether your ultimate goal is to succeed as a content creator or to promote a brand, product, or service, a live video webcast can be an unique and engaging way to connect with your audience. With the combination of a video being shared in real-time, and a space for audience interaction, both viewers and creators can benefit.

From digital marketing to building a personal brand, live webcasting can serve a broad range of purposes. Utilizing these few useful tips, your video webcasts can reach their fullest potential.

Top Tips for the Best Live Webcasts

Even though creating a video webcast is as easy as hitting the “Live” button, making a webcast that’s actually successful takes a bit more effort and know-how. Like any form of digital media, behind every well-received webcast is a talented creator with a solid skill set – so why not start building yours now?

Here are a few of our favorite tips for successful webcasting:

1. Spread the word before you go live.

Even the highest-quality webcast will fall flat if there isn’t an audience to see it. How can you expect your audience to tune in if viewers don’t know that you’ll be going live? It’s incredibly important to set yourself up for success by launching a marketing strategy to share information about upcoming webcasts.

How you decide to market a live video webcast will depend on your audience, purpose, and other factors. However, you can take advantage of a variety of marketing strategies, including social media and email newsletters. Devise a plan to capture the audience’s attention, while also making sure that they have the information they need to actually watch the webcast live.

For this pre-webcast preparation, it can be hugely helpful to have a basic understanding of the principles of digital marketing. That way, you can confidently navigate different advertising options, and be ready to craft a savvy campaign that brings viewers to you.

2. Invite specific viewers.

In addition to sharing event information with the general public (and your target audience), you might also want to consider inviting certain people that are important to your brand or project. For example, loyal customers might be included on the invitation list for a company that’s launching a new product. Or, a charity organization might send invitations to their longtime donors. By targeting the right viewers, you can make sure that your audience is interested and ready to engage during the webcast.

3. Have a well-prepared moderator in place.

Different platforms offer various forms of audience interaction, but a live chat is generally the most common. Keep in mind, if you’re planning to be the person hosting the webcast, it can be overwhelming to try to moderate the chat at the same time. Instead, consider enlisting the help of a second person to monitor audience activity. They can help you review questions, remove any disruptions, and make sure you don’t miss anything important.

4. Combine high-quality content with different types of multimedia.

Finally, your webcast should be designed to maintain the audience’s attention above all. This means that you can’t simply rely on being a “talking head” during the webcast, because that can quickly become very boring for viewers. Also, it will be important that you have the audio and video production capabilities to deliver a webcast that looks and sounds professional.

Think about how to incorporate different elements, such as slides, still images, and video clips, so that viewers constantly have something new and interesting to look at. There’s not necessarily a single “secret formula” for a winning webcast, so you’ll need to assess your specific audience, the topic, and other factors to decide how to make the content as engaging as possible.

Learn How to Tap into the Power of Digital Media

Webcasting is just one of the many ways that digital media can be used in a creative and purposeful way. And as the media industry continues to evolve at an exciting and rapid pace, the opportunities to create, engage, and interact with others will only expand.

If you want to stay ahead of the curve and make media work for you, it’s time to start building a solid foundation of skills and expertise. At the BeOnAir Network of Media Schools, with locations in Chicago, Miami, Colorado, and Ohio, you can study Digital Media Production, Audio and Video Production, Broadcasting, and more. Here, students learn in the classroom and in real-world settings, setting our schools apart from so many others.

Find out how you can join our digital media training programs when you contact us today!

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