Live streaming hasn’t been with us for too long, but it’s quickly gaining traction

and attention of those who are always on a lookout for new and innovative ways
of delivering content. With the help of early adopters like Gary Vaynerchuk and
other high-profile influencers, the industry is projected to skyrocket in the
coming years, flipping the whole content production and consumption process on
its head.

This article will discuss the real power of live streaming and its effectiveness.

1. Users Consume Content On Your Time,

Not On Their Time
The biggest and the most powerful advantage of live streaming is that viewers
consume content on your time, and not on their time. This means that you are
only engaging with people who care about you, your brand, and people that find
your content extremely useful. You are automatically targeting content at the
people who are more likely to convert and follow you further.

No other content marketing channel is capable of doing what live streaming does.

2. It’s Not Yet Overcrowded

History repeats itself. Like with any other digital marketing channel, live
streaming will become over-populated very quickly. Although it hasn’t quite
reached that point yet, it is quickly gaining traction, and more and more people
are using it on a daily basis.

Take Facebook’s organic post reach drop as an example. [1] Timelines became over-
competitive, so Facebook had to make tweaks to their algorithm, leaving only a
tiny portion of people who get to see your organic posts. The same could happen
to live streaming.

Hence, if you wish to reach the necessary audience via live video, you should act
now.

3. Reaching Highly Targeted Niches

As we’ve learned previously, viewing live streams requires more commitment
from your followers, simply because they need to tune in on your time, regardless
of whether it’s the best time for them or not. Consequently, this determination
applies an automatic filter that keep unrelated audiences away.
⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄

How Fulfilled Are You In Your Life?

Take Lifehack's full life assessment and get a custom report
based on your unique strengths, and discover how to start living
the life you want and reach your full potential. It's a FREE
assessment!
Start the Assessment
⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄
Moreover, it’s very unlikely that people who are not interested in your topic will
join the conversation.

4. It’s Cheap
If you think about it, live streaming is incredibly cheap. In fact, it’s completely
free. You don’t need any special equipment, software, or hardware. All it takes is
a smartphone or laptop with a camera and an active account with a chosen
platform, be it Facebook Live or Periscope.

While traditional blogging and content production would usually require a set of
properly configured software programs (e.g. hosting & platform), live streaming
is accessible to anyone in a matter of a click.

5. Takes Less Time To Produce

According to research conducted by Hubspot, it takes approximately 2 hours to
write a 500-word blog post, and anything between 4-8 hours to produce a 1,500-
2,000 words article.[2] While a 500-word post would not be regarded as a
comprehensive piece of content and would not generate a lot of exposure, it can
be easily read in 3-4 minutes.[3]

The data varies when it comes to traditional video production like vlogs.
According to Make Use Of, it could take 2-3 hours to create and edit a simple
vlog.[4]

⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄

Become Mentally Stronger!

Grab a FREE Lifehack Guide to train yourself to be mentally
strong and take charge of life!
Become Stronger
⌄ Scroll down to continue reading article ⌄
Do you have a guess of how long it would take to produce a 4-minute live video?
You’re right, 4 minutes!
6. Real-Time Engagement
One of the biggest reasons why live-streaming is continuously making a dent in
content marketing is its ability to offer real-time user engagement and join a
direct conversation with the influencer.[5] Whenever you are reading a blog post,
you are reading the work of the past.

Not only does it provide real-time engagement benefits to users, it also gives an
opportunity for businesses to offer live support, Q&A sessions, and office tours.

7. The Ability to Repurpose Content

Although this point applies to pretty much any kind of content, live videos can be
easily transformed into other forms of content, be it a published video transcript
on your personal blog, an infographic on Visual.ly, or a reproduced video
on YouTube.[6] Your choices are limitless.

Nevertheless, it’s always advisable to repurpose content in order to broaden the

reach of your message.

To Conclude
As you might have noticed, live streaming is an extremely powerful channel for
delivering content. But, just like with any other marketing mediums, it comes
with its own share of pitfalls and challenges. Hence, before you jump headfirst
into live video, carefully weigh out all the pros and cons and decide whether it’s
suitable for your needs.