After scouring the Internet for the best tactics to optimize
live social posting, there was completely nothing to be found. Even social
communities with an active member count of over 60,000 were left clueless when
asked, “Why is live social media important to their business?” For those of you
that don’t already know what live posting is or how it can benefit your
business, this is a much-needed entity implemented into your marketing
strategies and social campaigns.
What Is Live Posting?
Live posting primarily refers to live streaming or live feed.
This is the ability to transmit or receive videos and audio coverage from an
event (for example) through an Internet connection that is taking place during
the current time. Live streaming of events can be found on your computer,
mobile device, or even through radio with more options on the horizon with
technology’s innovation creation experiencing rapid growth.
When using live posting in regards to social media, this
refers to when a user posts in the present moment. Posting can be as simplistic
as replying back to someone who commented on a photo you posted, possibly
resulting in a (continued) conversation. Too often the conversational aspect of
social interaction are forgotten, due to being so caught up in the act of
posting itself, not keeping in mind who we are posting … who our viewers are.
How Does This Benefit
Me?
Through the use of live posting, engagement is created and
impressions increase, ultimately developing the formula for useful methods to
be applied in lead generation campaigns to incur revenues.
Twitter and reddit are two of the main live social posting
platforms used most often. Engagement typically spikes before, during, and
after an event of some sort. For instance, Khloe Kardashian hosted a live
Q&A session on Twitter to promote the new television season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Fans
were blowing up Khloe’s Twitter with a multitude variety of questions. Not all
questions pertained to the show, but that didn’t matter because anyone that
remotely mentioned Khloe’s name online boosted not only her following, but
validated keyword searches for the celebrity.
Other celebrities or technology masterminds will partake in
this seemingly worthwhile practice for promotional sake or to raise awareness.
For instance, Bill Gates contributed to reddit’s Ask Me Anything (AMA) forum
where fellow redditors could literally ask him anything. Some people find reddit
to be more valuable than Twitter concerning live streaming, but that will soon
change as Meerkat (the new live video-streaming app for Twitter released
earlier this year) grows.
Is There A Downside?
Not necessarily. Even though social platforms such as
Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, and other social networking sites do not
overly benefit from live posting, it’s not going to hurt to post live before
everyone else catches on. The problem of posting live on these sites is viewers
and followers are unaware of when you are actually posting live, meaning they
can’t really tell the difference between a live post, a post that is 3 hours
old, or a post that was scheduled days before actually going live.
The differentiation difficulty between posts that are live
and those that are not make it seem as though a high frequency of posts are
simply spam or a plead for another follower to boost personal social fame. Users
must devise a way for their social posts to be seen as actual live posts that
are relevant and interesting, not a massive, in the moment, blast of spam.
Event-wise, there is no going wrong with live streaming. When
hosting events and incorporating live streaming feeds of videos, audio, and photos,
you can create a community of people with shared interests, located in the same
place (an online community or website), all at one time. This is a great
opportunity for a business to leverage and influence consumers, in addition to
the added frequently overlooked benefit for data information retention and
virtual focus groups.
The Bottom Line
This untapped market will move neighborhoods online in the near
future. Don’t underestimate the significance influence of talking to people in
the moment. Acknowledge what live posting can generate and lend insight to. Live
posting creates a culture of people that gathers together. Being unified is a vitally
important and powerful movement.
