Live streaming has a pull like no other form of digital marketing. It gives your targeted audience:

• Insights into the people behind your brand
• A stronger sense of your business tone and positioning
• Access to an invite-only event
• Industry intel (for B2B viewers)

Accomplish a dynamite live stream session during your next trade show and become a magnet for new connections, whether those are:

• Social media followers
• Email subscribers
• Enquiries for business

The best part? Through live streaming, you are engaging not only with the event attendees but with internet users around the globe. It’s a valuable and inexpensive tool to increase engagement internationally and boost your exhibition ROI.

Gain a better understanding of how live streaming works, why you should use it and the tools required to broadcast well-executed live video. Your bounty is the ability to use a lucrative digital marketing platform for global influence during exhibiting.

Live Streaming Rundown

Live streaming is done through a digital platform like Facebook Live that broadcasts your footage online (more on that later). Individuals can watch your broadcast from their phones, iPads, laptops or computers. As long as there’s an internet connection your trade show staff can give them a first-person view of the event.

You’ll need most of the following to do professional live streaming:

• A camera for recording (webcam, phone or a digital camera)
• A tripod to record still video
• A microphone if the sound quality is important for the recording (for interviews etc)
• A professional backdrop (for product demonstrations etc

If you’re using an external camera, you’ll need encoding software to convert the video into a format your chosen platform understands.

Your Footage

Choosing what to record relies entirely on the type of exhibition you’re attending and your targeted audience. Just like the event itself, careful planning is required to ensure you nail your content. Do this by figuring out the following:

Who?

Who are you broadcasting for? Just as you would distinguish your target market for the exhibition, think carefully about your primary audience for live streaming to gain optimal engagement. Also, consider the viewers who could be watching from another country. Factor in time zones and how this will affect your audience if you’re exhibiting overseas.

What?

Let’s say you were exhibiting at a health and beauty show in Japan and your target market are independent beauty salons and beauticians. From a client’s point of view they’ll want to know more about your products, so footage such as live demos and product demonstrations would be of most interest.

Here are some other ideas for great video content:

Interviews with thought leaders – Organise the interview ahead of the trade show and ask the interviewee if they could tweet about it on their account, broadening the footage’s reach online.

Trade show tours – If you only talk during the entire live stream, your audience could get bored fast. Instruct your trade show staff to walk around the exhibit and be the audience’s eyes and ears. Ask users what they’d like to see and oblige for gripping footage.

News announcements or new product releases – Get permission first to record these events in case filming is prohibited. If you get approval you can give viewers exclusive access to exciting industry news.

With strategic content planned, your next step is to choose which platform to broadcast your live video though.

YouTube Live

If you have a large following on YouTube, you could benefit from great engagement using the platform’s free video streaming service for your trade show footage.

To do this, use YouTube’s live streaming events dashboard to schedule your upcoming broadcast. This can be located by accessing your channel page, opening your video manager, selecting ‘Channel’ and then ‘Create a new event’. You can stream to the following audiences:

Public – Anyone and everyone has access to your content.

Unlisted – Send a link to your video to anyone you want (they don’t need to have a YouTube account). Your live stream won’t be listed on your channel or on YouTube’s feed.

Private – As long as they have a YouTube account you can invite users to watch your live stream. Like the unlisted option, your video won’t appear in any search results or on your channel.

If you want to target a specific audience and don’t want your video to be shared by anyone else, pick private. This will impact your reach however, so use unlisted or public if you want to engage with a larger audience. Unlisted is a great option to get your content shared while keeping it exclusive. It enables you to direct users to a specific company page when you embed the video onto your site.

Facebook Live

If you have a company Facebook page you can share live video on it using Facebook Live. Or broadcast it from the CEO’s page if you or they are a thought-leader.

Facebook followers or friends will get a notification when you go live. They can send you reactions during the event and you can measure these to gauge the success of your content. Users can also comment as they would on a picture or post. Respond to these messages and welcome new users to build strong connections with your viewers.

Facebook recently altered its news feed algorithm to make live videos appear higher in the feed. The social media platform explained why they want live video to be more visible to users:

“People spend more than 3x more time watching a Facebook Live video on average compared to a video that’s no longer live. Facebook Live videos are more interesting in the moment than after the fact.”

Pro Tip: Take advantage of the video description and use an attention-grabbing headline to attract viewers. Also by tagging other Facebook accounts in your footage, you can broaden the reach of your video.

Periscope

Periscope is Twitter’s live streaming app. Like Facebook Live, it provides your viewers with a highly-interactive experience during an expo. Your followers will get notified the instant you go live. Once they join, they can send you hearts and comment on the events you film to express their thoughts.

You can broadcast footage to a specific group or to all the followers on your list. There’s also the option to make your video available for replay for 24 hours after the session.

Pro Tip: Get more followers to view your live stream by promoting the event on Twitter five to ten minutes before it starts. Also, tweet individuals who gave you great engagement during the video to form new connections.

Increase Your Expo ROI

Use lead generation forms if you want to get your viewers to do a specific action such as provide their email or fill a form. You can use these forms pre-roll (before the live stream) to gate your viewers into unlocking your content. This can also be done mid-roll (during your video) or post-roll (after your video) depending on your lead capture strategy.

You now know everything required to execute a quality live stream during an exhibition for great ROI. But do you have the right trade show staff behind the camera? Contact us today for unrivalled access to top exhibition talent and increase your trade show engagement