If you’re a complete newcomer to the world of live video streaming and you’ve never streamed a video before, then you may be nervous going in front of a camera. This is a natural fear as you’re going to be exposing your true self live on the feed and the whole process is different to any other form of marketing. Where do you start? Hopefully this article will get you set up and hopefully give you the confidence to begin making lots more videos.
Setting It Up
The first thing you need to do is to set up your account on one of the 3 major streaming platforms; Periscope, Meerkat or Blab. The simplest way to do this is to install the app. Periscope, Meerkat and Blab each have apps on iPhone and Periscope and Meerkat also have Android equivalents. If you’re looking to use Blab and you don’t have an iOS device, then you will need to access it on your PC/Mac and point your browser to https://blab.im/
After you have created your account, the set-up process is similar for each of these platforms; decide whether you want to sign in using your Twitter account or a phone number and then enter a username and password if you chose the latter.
Now you can choose whether you want to start following your existing Twitter contacts, or, in Meerkat’s case, your Facebook contacts.
Roll Camera!
So how do you begin streaming?
To start streaming is quite straightforward; the app will have a button that says ‘Start Streaming.’
Give some thought when creating a title for your stream and with Blab choose relevant tags that will define what category of content you’re creating. These are important features as they are what will dictate whether or not people can find your live stream and whether they decide to check out your footage.
Don’t worry if you find it a daunting prospect when first turning on your camera and letting anyone watch. If you are REALLY nervous why not start with a very small test – just point your camera at something and film. As these are relatively new platforms you’ll probably find that this alone is enough to land you a few new followers and this in turn should give you the confidence you need to set up something a little more ambitious in the future.
It really is that simple and straightforward to start live streaming and while there are many more options and things you can learn, this is more than enough to get you started! And who knows, the camera may love you, and you love it!