Top 7 Live Stream Mistakes To Avoid

We all know that live streaming started spontaneously, often done on mobile phones without great image and audio quality. Rather, users simply enjoy the live video moment. Until recently, live streaming has generated a lot of buzz. It has become a very powerful communication tool. Many marketers are utilising live streams to spread brand awareness across different channels and to various audiences. Countless brands are jumping onto the live streaming hype train. However, we have an issue here - not all the live streams are living up to expectations.

Influencers, before you jump into the fun, it is very important that you could generate good results for your live stream session. In this blog post, SushiVid has some practical tips and tricks that not only will help you to get started but also avoid the most common mistakes made when streaming a live event! Now, you can start to create the live stream you’ve always dreamed of!

Planning your live stream is extremely important no matter how experienced you are. It is not that easy and you can't just simply wing it without putting much effort. When your live streaming session is very disorganised, you appear unprofessional. As a professional live streamer, you need to ensure that you are delivering good contents and bringing values to the brands. 

Make sure you have done enough study about the brand and products that you are about to promote. Think of all the possible questions that your followers may ask and prepare the answers in advance. You can also come out with something fun and interactive to ensure that your live stream session is entertaining enough. 

Furthermore, you have to prepare all the materials that you need to use beforehand. For instance, you might need some images or tools for products demo to get your message across. Always remember, once you have gone live, everything needs to be spot on.

Once you have the set-up in place it is good to check that everything functions correctly. We wouldn't want to have everything set up and ready to go only to find that your microphone does not work at all or your phone runs out of battery.

Make sure all the devices are fully charged. Plan your time accordingly and remember to conduct sound checks. Always to make sure that you perform a full device testing with your live stream. It's even better if you have a full idea of what your stream looks like on different devices such as mobile phones and PC.

You'll quickly lose your viewers if your live stream is lagging because people like to watch it uninterrupted. Always remember to check the live stream connectivity and your internet connections. Do not forget to conduct a speed test to your internet connection as well so that you will find out if it will be enough and suitable to support your live stream. 

SushiVid’s Tips: Always have a backup or spare equipment. Do not panic when things go wrong, try to remain cool and collected and get in touch with our SushiVid representatives, we are always here to help. If your problem is not resolved still, the worst scenario is to simply apologise to viewers and reschedule the live stream. Getting upset, anxious or nervous will put your viewers off. 

Human attention span is narrowing because the amount of information that is shown to the public has been increased. A recently published study from researchers at the Technical University of Denmark suggests that people now have more things to focus on – but often focus on things for short periods. Therefore, influencers must minimise the distraction to retain viewers during their live stream sessions. 

When you're doing the live stream in your messy bedroom, it can be a major distraction to your audience. So, having a backdrop will help your audience focus more on you and the products that you're featuring. 

Understand that when you might have just started out with a live stream and that you're doing it on a tight budget or perhaps you’re just not ready to invest in a backdrop yet. Well, it wouldn't hurt to at least tidy up your bedroom. Also, if you have a plain blank wall, use it! Get some wallpaper from Daiso or Kaison to decorate your wall. There are also a lot of D.I.Y tips and tricks, easy backdrop ideas on the internet that you can implement at an affordable price.

With a simple, easy background, it will help your live stream to get more attention, which means more eyes on you and more people hearing your message.

This mistake can be very serious and might cost you your whole live event. No matter how great the live stream is, it would still fail if nobody knew about it. 

To make sure your live stream can gain maximum exposure, promote your stream to your social media followers. Since they’re already interested in you, it is worth giving it a shot! And you need to promote it A LOT. 

Often, influencers will always think that by just mentioning it once, people will eventually show up. Unfortunately, in most cases, it’s not. You need to promote it as often as you can and send your audience a reminder when the broadcast is about to start.  

Think about it - What’s a live stream without an audience?

Shortly after you have “Go Live”, give some time for the algorithm to gather a crowd. Yes, we all know there are notifications but actually, these notifications don't all go out at once. We've seen it take as long as 15 minutes for someone to receive a notification that a page they follow was live.

Before jumping straight to the topic, do ask some warm-up questions and try to build awesome relationships with your viewers. This is crucial if you want your viewers to engage with your live stream and increase view duration. Also, it won't hurt to ask your viewers to invite others to watch your live stream. Let the audience know that by joining you live, they will get the opportunity to ask you questions to be answered in real-time!

There will always be newcomers that join in a different time. Therefore, keep in mind that it is important to do a few quick recaps throughout your live streaming session. Never assume people can always follow the story. A quick recap can help the newcomers to jump in without confusion and that they know what to expect from your live stream. 

One of the best things about live streaming is that you can always interact with your viewers. With this, you can answer their questions, check if your live streaming is interesting enough for them or just simply chat with your viewers so that you'll get to know more about them. It's never a good thing when your viewers feel ignored. Hence, once your viewers start to engage with you, you must acknowledge it and make all of them feel as involved with the stream as possible. 

Here are some examples of what you may say during a live stream session:-

“Hi Alina, thanks for joining me today.”

“This is the product that I've been using for my skincare routine, what about you? Oh, Joan says that she uses Brand XYZ.”

“Karen asks: Is this product suitable for sensitive skin? Yes, Karen. Great question. Yes, this product is made of all-natural ingredients...”

Making an honest attempt to interact with your viewer is the key to create an engaging broadcast. Answering your viewer's question can be quite scary but if you are well prepared, you don't have to worry at all. If you don't know the answer, just tell them that you will get back to them once you've found out. Be natural and be you, your viewers will know that you are genuine and are doing your best. 

Finally, practice makes perfect. The more you do it, the better you'll become. Take your time to avoid these live streaming mistakes, your audience will love it and you’ll achieve astonishing results.

Remember: Live stream is live, so do not expect everything can go according to plan. However, being well prepared can give you the confidence to deal with something completely unexpected.

Happy live stream!