How long does a live stay on IG?

Next, tap “Share” at the bottom of the screen to add your Instagram Live video to your Story so users can view it for 24 hours.

oberlo.com - The Definitive Guide to Instagram Live Video for Businesses

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It gets better.

And that’s just the beginning.

How can you harness this phenomenon to capture attention, make connections, and build your brand?

In this article, I’ll take you step-by-step through everything you need to know to produce a successful Instagram Live stream. You’ll learn all about Instagram Live’s features and settings, as well as how to plan and promote your broadcast.

Buckle up.

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Instagram Stories are shown at the top of the feed. Any accounts that are currently live will include the “Live” icon. To view an Instagram Live video, simply tap on the Story thumbnail. The image below of John Mayer performing on Instagram Live shows the viewer’s interface.

That’s a lot of eyeballs.

The platform has 1 billion monthly active users. Additionally, according to Instagram, 50% of users say they follow at least one brand on the platform.

But here’s the best part:

This is awesome.

This notification can be a huge help in exposing your broadcasts to more of your followers. Plus, your audience can submit their questions and comments on your video in real-time. This can be a great way to get insights and feedback directly from people who matter to your business. Before, it was overwhelming to go through all the questions in the comments during a live session, but now a simple question box allows you to easily sift through questions to answer throughout the live video. Once Live, tap on the “question mark button” at the bottom of your screen to start answering. Instagram Live video does away with the crevasse that sits between those who broadcast and those who consume. It provides intuitive real-time interactivity and collaboration. This means it’s the ultimate tool for building strong relationships with customers. It’s no wonder 80 percent of people would rather watch a live video from a brand than read a blog.

Sold?

First thing’s first:

Step 1: Set a Schedule

To reach more people and build strong relationships with your audience, you need to go live regularly. The best way to do this is to set a schedule and stick to it. For example, if you plan to go live every Thursday at 7 pm, you can promote this weekly event to your audience. Then, in time, your more engaged followers will look forward to each Instagram Live video.

Step 2: Identify Your Goal

In other words, what are you hoping to achieve from your broadcasts?

Perhaps you want to strengthen customer relations, grow your following, increase email signups, or boost sales of a specific product. And although you might like to do all of those things, it’s best to prioritize one per broadcast. That way, every part of your Instagram Live stream will be aligned with achieving your goal. It’s also important to make sure that your goal is in line with your overall marketing strategy. Once you’re clear about your aim and the main call to action that you’ll use throughout your broadcast, you can determine how long you want your broadcast to be, and which topics and themes you’ll cover.

Step 3: Choose a Format

Ain’t nobody got time for “ums” and “ahs.”

By sticking to a format, viewers will know what to expect and you’ll have a basic framework to keep things interesting and moving along.

→ Host a Q&A Session

Q&As are simple to execute and extremely effective. The entire format is about collaboration with viewers. By openly responding to questions in real time, viewers can find the answers to the questions they’re most curious about while getting to know the people behind the brand.

→ Launch or Announce Something New

If you’re launching a new product or service or announcing some big news, why not make it a party? You can promote the launch, interact with your followers, and maybe even give away some prizes!

→ Take Viewers Behind the Scenes

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Humans are innately curious beings, and we all love to know what goes on behind closed doors. Thankfully, there are tons of ways you can take viewers behind the scenes, such as:

Show your audience how things are made

Take them on a tour

Introduce them to the team

Show off the set of your latest video

→ Do an Interview or Collaborate

Collaborating is a great way to create engaging content and grow on social media. It’s a win-win situation: You promote your collaborator to your followers, and they promote you to theirs.

→ Do Something Unexpected

Or, come up with a competition during the broadcast and give viewers a chance to participate and win in real-time. Don’t just go live and hope people show up. Instead, whip up some excitement beforehand.

When it comes to promotion, having a regular schedule is extremely helpful.

That way, you’re not just promoting a one-off event, and you don’t have to drum up an audience from scratch every time you go live.

Okay, now let’s take a look at the nuts and bolts.

As I mentioned before, Instagram Live is a feature within Stories. To access the Story camera, tap the camera icon in the top-left of the screen or swipe right.

Type Live Normal Boomerang Music Focus Superzoom Rewind Hands-free

Use the sliding menu at the bottom of the screen to select “Live.” Before you go live, you’ll want to check your Instagram Story settings. To do this, tap the settings gear icon at the top-left of the screen. The first setting allows you to hide your Stories from specific people, and underneath, you can choose who can reply to your Story. As a business, you’ll want to make sure that replies can be sent by everyone, as this will allow you to better interact with your audience. If you don’t want to use up valuable phone space, just turn on the archive feature and you’ll be able to view your Stories in the archive when they disappear after 24 hours. Tap “Start Live Video” and Instagram will notify your followers that you’re live. To double-check that you’re live, look for the “Live” icon in the top-left corner of the screen. If you’d like to check how long you’ve been live, just tap the “Live” icon and it will show you the timer.

Step 9: Switch Between Camera Views

Today, nearly all smartphones are equipped with both front-facing and rear-facing cameras.

This is awesome.

When you’re live, you’ll often want to share what’s happening in the moment, and your reaction and comments.

So don’t be afraid to switch it up to keep it interesting!

Step 10: Go Live with Another Account

In August 2017, Instagram released the “Go Live with a Friend” feature. It enables you to add another Instagram account to your broadcast.

This feature is especially useful for conducting interviews or collaborations.

To go live with another account, tap the icon featuring two smiley faces and select who you’d like to go live with. Then tap “Add.” The other user will receive a notification telling them that you want them to be in your live video. They can then tap “Go Live with @yourusername” or decline the invitation. When this happens, you’ll see a notification for each request in the comments section. Simply tap “View” and then accept or decline the request. If you accept, you’ll have a moment to prepare before the screen is split in half and you are live together. The icon with two smiley faces will also have a red number showing how many requests you have. Just tap the icon to see both requests and current viewers. Here, you can either accept a viewer’s request or invite a viewer to join you.

Step 11: Use Face Filters

So, if you encounter a slow patch or you feel the excitement drop, take advantage of face filters. This feature lets you inject a little fun and humor into your broadcast.

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To use them, tap the smiley icon with the stars. Then scroll along to find new filters to try!

Sleep mask Bunny ears Love with heart-shaped darts Koala ears

So don’t forget to interact in the comments.

If possible, have someone dedicated to answering comments during the broadcast. If this isn’t possible, you can still ask viewers to submit questions and answer them as you go along. And don’t forget to address commenters and thank some individual viewers by name for joining the stream. Plus, you can try and use a few Question Stickers to see if it improves your overall engagement.

These simple techniques can be extremely powerful.

Not only will you receive more comments, the dynamic will become more intimate and you’ll also make viewers feel valued. At this point, it’s not you broadcasting to them – instead, it’s a collaborative conversation where you’re all hanging out together. While you’re live, make sure to ask viewers to share your live stream and invite others to join you. To do this, just tap the paper airplane icon and select who you’d like to share your Instagram Live with. Then add a message and hit “Send.”

Before you go, be sure to thank viewers for tuning in.

This can be useful if you think you might like to use snippets of the Instagram Live video in future content. Plus, after a few broadcasts, you can compile the best clips to create an Instagram Live trailer which you can use to promote upcoming broadcasts. Keep in mind that only the video is saved, and not interactions like comments, likes, and views. Then, they can tap your Story to watch the video and see comments and likes from the original broadcast.

Cool, right?

They can also tap the right or left side of the screen to jump forward or back 15 seconds or tap “Send Message” to reply. If you share multiple Instagram Live replays, viewers will see arrows at the top of the screen to easily jump between videos. Lastly, when watching your own replay, the number of viewers shown will include everyone who saw it live and in Stories. Whether it’s a yoga lesson, a recipe class, or a virtual concert – live video has become an important channel for creators and audiences to connect with each other. Given this increase in consumption of live video, sharing your content on IGTV is a great way to reach new audiences and extend the availability of your broadcasts. There’s no way to trim or edit your live broadcast before posting it to IGTV. Despite the few shortcomings, sharing live videos to IGTV is a great way to archive your content so your audiences can catch them more than 24 hours later.

Conclusion

And with live video becoming a larger part of people’s daily communications, getting to grips with this powerful medium now is certain to pay dividends in the future.

For best results:

Plan ahead of time. Make sure you know what you hope to achieve, what call to action you’ll promote, and what format you’ll use. Finally, have fun and don’t worry too much about making mistakes – remember, it’s live! “It’s important to remember that viewers aren’t expecting to see a Broadway actor recite a powerful monologue,” says Jasmine Star, a marketing and branding consultant. “Don’t feel the pressure of perfection (namely because perfection doesn’t exist in the online streaming world), and instead opt for: 1. Clarity of message; and 2. Approachability.”

Go for it!

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oberlo.com - The Definitive Guide to Instagram Live Video for Businesses

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