Common Live Video Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Treating every broadcast like a produced video

The most common mistake in 2016 was businesses approaching live video the way they approached a scripted commercial: storyboarding it, over-rehearsing it and losing the spontaneity that made viewers stick around in the first place. Facebook Live and Periscope both rewarded broadcasts that felt like something happening in real time, not a script being read aloud. The fix is simple: plan the topic and the rough shape of the session, then let the delivery stay loose.

Going live with no notice

Plenty of brands hit the live button with no warning, then wondered why only a handful of people showed up. Since Facebook’s full rollout of Live to all pages in April, the feature had gotten crowded, and audiences needed a reason to be watching at the exact right moment. Announcing a broadcast a day or two ahead, and again shortly before going live, consistently produced bigger, more engaged audiences than surprise broadcasts.

Ignoring the comments in real time

Live video’s biggest advantage over pre-recorded content is the two-way conversation happening in the comment feed while the broadcast runs. Brands that talked at the camera and never acknowledged questions or comments coming in were throwing away the one thing that made the format worth using instead of just posting a regular video.

Ending the moment the camera stops

Many businesses treated the broadcast itself as the entire strategy and did nothing with it afterward. On Facebook, a live video automatically becomes a regular video once the broadcast ends, and it kept collecting views and comments for days if a brand pinned it, captioned it properly and pointed new visitors to it. Letting it disappear into the feed the moment the red “LIVE” tag went away wasted most of the video’s remaining value.

Skipping audio and lighting basics

Live video forgives a lot: rough framing, an unscripted stumble, background noise. It doesn’t forgive audio nobody can hear or lighting so bad the subject is barely visible. A cheap clip-on microphone and a spot near a window solved most of the technical complaints viewers left in comments, and cost less than a single boosted post.

Not having a clear reason to go live

The broadcasts that fell flattest in 2016 were the ones with no real purpose beyond “we should try live video.” A product Q&A, a behind-the-scenes look at something viewers couldn’t normally see or a real-time event gave people an actual reason to stop scrolling and watch. Live video without a specific hook competed for attention with everything else in the feed and usually lost.

More from the archive: browse the Content Marketing category or see everything published in 2016.