Learn how live video can build and maintain marketing relationships
by Terry Brock
Terry Brock is a marketing coach who helps business owners market more effectively leveraging technology. He shows busy professionals how to squeeze more out of their busy days by using the right rules and tools. You can reach Terry at 407-363-0505, by email at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at terrybrock.com. Also, look for Terry on Twitter@TerryBrock.
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We live in exciting times! One of the greatest opportunities today is to develop relationship marketing through live video streaming.
We have had live video streaming for a while, with services like Ustream, Livestream and others. However, in just a few short years, we have seen a dramatic decrease in the cost and an increase in the quality and ease of video creation. Today, we have tools like Periscope.tv, Blab.IM and others. Recently Facebook added Facebook Live (live.FB.com) to the mix as well.
This opens a new level of relationship marketing for your business. Let’s take a look at how you can use this tool.
Periscope.tv. Periscope allows you to send live events from your smartphone to your followers on Twitter. When Twitter purchased Periscope last year, it effectively put the previous platform of choice, Meercat, out of the picture.
Periscope’s broadcasts, called “scopes,” are a great way to show your business in live, extemporaneous moments. This generates more excitement and puts a human face (literally) on what could previously be seen as a cold, uncaring corporation.
Blab.im. My current favorite is Blab. With Blab, you can have up to four video feeds on your screen and thousands of participants observing. Blab also provides an important live text chat on the right-hand side and messaging on the left side.
Just this week, I conducted two Blabs for two different organizations. In both cases, I had others joining me on the screen who had never seen Blab before.
Positive reaction
Every time I do this, those who see it have extraordinarily positive reactions to the possibilities. In my experiences this week, we reached several hundred people who are interested in what we discussed. We increased sales dramatically that day, even with only a few hours’ promotion notice. Needless to say, the sponsors were very pleased to do a Blab, which cost them nothing but their time.
In each of the Blabs that I did, we were able to bring on other people through video and audio. We were able to answer participants’ questions and to hear their comments and ideas. This greatly facilitated the collaboration that would not happen in other media.
Facebook Live. I have also used Facebook Live with great success. Facebook Live works beautifully, and gives instant access to people who are notified that I am conducting a Facebook Live event. Use live video to establish, build and maintain relationship marketing.
Opportunities and dangers
The idea of broadcasting live changes the way we interact with our world. Because your customers know that you can connect with them via live video, they’re going to want more. Transparency will be the new normal. Be prepared for the opportunities, and use this as a touchpoint to connect with key stakeholders in a powerfully positive way.
But be aware of the dangers. At some point, it is highly likely that someone could shove a smartphone in your face and broadcast to the world. You can turn and hide, and sometimes that would be appropriate. At other times, it would look like you are purposely avoiding contact, and that would have negative consequences.
The trend is for live video streaming to become much more popular in business. In the future, we will see regular broadcast events which can connect you with those who are interested in your business.
Think about how a retail store could demonstrate new products, new opportunities for using their products, and broadcast live events with video to encourage people to buy either online or to come to the store and purchase items. This also can be a great way to have private, one-on-one conversations to solve technical problems.
Sight Call is doing this now. I recently interviewed the company’s founder, Thomas Cottereau, and you can watch the video on my website. Then think about how you can use this and similar technologies to build your relationship marketing.
Yes, there will be some challenges, like being prepared for video at any time, any place. But I believe the good far outweighs any negative. Get to know these tools now. Seize the moment. Seize the video!