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This is the fourth post in our Live Video Content Strategy series, helping you craft a strategy for your live videos.

I recently became a first-time homeowner, taking on all the responsibilities that this entails. My husband and I bought a flipped house, so there’s not much more work to be done immediately, save for one big project: salvaging a severely water-logged yard. The problem is, we know absolutely nothing about lawn care. Enter the MAGIC OF YOUTUBE.

After a single search, we came across a video of a sweet old landscaper with a Boston accent teaching a homeowner how to install an underground drain in his own water-logged yard. We found the video so calming and informative (maybe we’re weird) that we literally sat on the couch and watched three additional videos of the old Bostonian landscaper helping people implement different types of drainage solutions in their yards.

Now this is a man who has found his niche.

Whether you’re a veteran livestreamer or a beginner leveling up your video game, it’s important to consider the tools you need to create truly exceptional live videos. These days, a smartphone is really the only gear you need to pull off a live broadcast. There are dozens of platforms making it increasingly easy to go live directly from your phone.

Not all live videos are created with equal production value, however. Who hasn’t watched a video whose creator didn’t think to stabilize their nauseating hand-held camera? Or one in which the person talking is so far away from the camera that you can’t even understand what they’re trying to say? Or, my personal favorite, one in which the video starts out vertical and ends up sideways after the first 5 seconds? Then you have to lock your phone’s screen rotation and hold it funny so it keeps playing — I mean, are we all just supposed to lay on our sides to watch this?

With a few best practices, it’s not hard to create awesome videos with your smartphone, ones that will make your audience keep watching rather than throw their phones against the wall. Below I’ve covered the basic gear you need to create great livestreams, but don’t worry if you’re not ready to invest in any gadgets yet — I also convey several free ways to improve your videos.

Today we’re rolling out Switcher Studio 4.0, the biggest update in a year for the live video-creation platform. The rollout introduces user-requested extensions like Video Chat and Scoreboard as well as a number of user experience improvements. The Switcher platform is getting more powerful and more customizable, ensuring users go live with confidence. To take advantage of all the latest features, make sure your devices are updated to iOS 12.

This is the third post in our Live Video Content Strategy series, helping you craft a strategy for your live videos.

Being a good conversationalist is all about knowing a) whether the information you’re relaying is interesting and b) whether the person you’re talking to cares. Surely you’ve had the experience of being stuck in a conversation with a bad conversationalist, someone intent on relaying the minutiae of their obscure hobby despite your obvious lack of interest. If you’re like me, you nod politely while also sidling away from the talker slowly.

Most social media platforms contain a live video component these days. From Facebook to Instagram to Twitter, platforms that started as a way to share thoughts and photos are now being used to share live videos with family, friends, and fans.

Whether you're an active livestreamer or just learning about livestreaming, you may have seen the term RTMP and not known exactly what it means. Don't let the acronym intimidate you — RTMP is easy to set up. 

Before we set up an RTMP stream, however, we need to understand what RTMP actually is, what it connects with, and how it works.

Last week we covered the basics of building a live video content strategy, the first step of which is to define the business goals for your live video. Today we’ll focus on this step in more detail — covering how to identify your business goals and how to define them properly. This will set you up for success as you craft the rest of your live video content strategy.

Going live on Facebook is an amazingly fun way to connect with your friends and followers, but if you've never done it before, you might not know what to expect. Here I'll walk you through the two simplest ways to go live.

You can learn a lot about a person from their search history — like where they live, what their interests are, and what kinds of problems they’re trying to solve on any given day. I, for instance, have been searching for fingerless gloves today. This reveals a problem I’m trying to solve: My fingers feel like ice, but I need them to type.

Your audience also has problems, problems that you or your organization can solve through products, services, education, offerings, or whatever it is that you create and share with the world. And, like me, your audience members are searching the internet for solutions. Ensuring that they find you — and that they find you helpful — is what content strategy is all about.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube have their enormous user bases for a reason — they saw the future, and they ushered it in. So when all five of these platforms release live video-streaming capabilities over the span of just a couple of years, marketers better take note. Live video isn’t the future anymore — it’s the present. And its rapid growth tells us that audiences, and marketers, are loving it.