Though Instagram is popular as a photo-sharing social networking site, video is gaining traction and popularity, these days. With the inception of IG TV in the year, 2018 and IG Live in 2016, Instagram, as well as its users are adopting long-form and short videos. If you do not include videos on IG, data shows that Instagram videos receive 21.2 percent added interactions than single photos and another 18.6 added interactions compared to carousel posts.
Instagram Live lets you stream videos for your audience and connect with them in real-time, leading to interactions. You can create live videos but it calls for your budget and time, much of it, but then it appeals to your followers and audiences. Data indicates that 80 percent of online users following a brand prefer to see live videos than reading a blog.
According to an article published on https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com, there are creative ways to build engagement through Instagram Live. For instance, you can deliver consulting by live-streaming a video asking your followers to talk about the brand and what content type they require. Read on to learn about the six ways to be the master of Instagram Live to boost engagement.
1. Practice makes perfect
Your IG Live videos needn’t be overly rehearsed or scripted, and then you need to have some rock-solid plan to proceed. Before you post your live video, write a loose script to run through to figure out what you would like to convey through the video. It will reduce errors when you go live. Make sure you have a fair idea to understand the duration of your live video.
When you have rehearsed with the script a couple of times, take some test videos, you can next focus on aspects to improve your followers’ experience. While analyzing the test videos, you need to ask a few questions. These include:
- Is the video sound clear?
- Is the video background distracting?
- Is the video well-illuminated?
- Is your camera stable?
These questions will help you create and prepare professional live videos to delight your targeted audience and boost brand engagement.
2. Understand the purpose of your live video
When you want to connect to your followers through IG Live, you need to have a valid reason to ask them to follow your brand. Though IG videos are short-spanned, it is essential to understand the purpose of your video every time you go live. There are several reasons to host IG Live videos. These are:
- Publicize a product or launch of a collection.
- Organize a question-answer session with your followers.
- Elucidate how to use your products or services.
- Give your followers, a behind-the-scenes view of your business, an occasion, or a work-based tour.
- Interview a couple of people leveraging add a friend option.
- Organize a virtual sample sale.
No the purpose of your live video, focus on the desired activity you would like your audience to participate in and reminding them of the same through Instagram Live. Recognize the metrics you would use to monitor whether the live video was a success or not. Create stunning IG Live and videos and learn how you can garner genuine likes, by visiting blastup or similar platforms.
3. Configure the settings to save Instagram Live video automatically
You need to visit IG Story settings by clicking the gear an icon that you will find on the top left side of the stories screen. From here, toggle on or off the settings so that you can add a video to your stories, let share, save the video and then post automatically to your Facebook Stories. These features will help to enhance the reach of your IG video.
From the stories screen, you can prefer to share videos with specific followers. It is a smart strategy to implement if you have some exclusive or special content to share with some defined customers.
4. Leverage the add a friend option to interview in a live video
When you add other people to your live video, it helps in building an engaging user experience as well as lets you tap into another individual’s followers. It will help you to increase your Livestream reach past your own, targeted audience.
You can add a friend by tapping the two icons of smiley faces from the live screen to pop up a list of friends you have. Next, you will need to tap on an individual’s name to invite him or her to your live streaming. Ensure that you get your friend tune into your live video. You can only invite a person who is seeing your live streaming already.
5. Promote your live video stream
When you have finalized the time, date, and theme of your IG Live, your followers should come to learn about it in advance. It will help them to manage their schedule and find time to see your live streaming.
Instagram Stories is the best platform you can leverage for pre-live promotion, as the audience is familiar with viewing your business on their individual stories. You can also make the most out of all the other platforms to create buzz for live streaming. You can reap the maximum benefits out of email, more so, if you integrate add to calendar feature for the readers.
6. Share your live video to IG stories
Your goal is to generate maximum views for your live video and therefore, you can save the same to your stories. It will help those people, who have missed it and can watch it for the next 24 hours. You also have the option to create an IG post to inform your followers to see your video before it fades away. It is the best way to let all your followers watch the video live or later by saving it to your stories. It’s important to remember that, if you’d like to see other people’s stories anonymously, you can use Instagram private profile viewer.
Conclusion
These days, video is the top content, your followers and customers like to see on social media sites like Instagram. Live video, especially, has more potential to drive increased user engagement, interaction, and greater outcomes.
Author’s Bio: Walter Moore is a writer and notable management and digital marketing expert. He is an experienced digital marketer who has helped e-commerce businesses in all niches gain with his effective marketing strategies and guidance
