Last year, webcasts cemented themselves as a key component of marketing strategies for many different types of business. This is set to expand further over the coming years as most experts seem to agree that we are on the verge of an explosion of video in all its forms from the live streaming apps such as Meerkat and Periscope to the standardisation of companies using video to communicate to their key stakeholders. Indeed, according to Cisco, video will account for 79% of all consumer internet traffic in 2018.

A September AV Online Survey reported that 75% of the corporate participants claimed they use streaming media at least once a week. A big reason for this shift is due to the availability and falling price points of video capture equipment, which means making high quality video is no longer the reserve of the large corporations or broadcasters. Also, and perhaps more importantly, if done well, video has the power to engage in a way that no other communication tool can.

Of course poor quality video content is all too common and tends to lead to an unengaged audience, however getting it right is not as complicated as it sounds. There are a number of ways to make webcasts more engaging.

Interaction

Interactivity has been a massive buzz word over recent years, and much as I hate to overuse it, when it comes to creating compelling and engaging webcasts, it is one of the most important factors. There are a number of ways to make your webcast interactive, such as enabling the viewers to submit questions to be answered during the webcast, or running competitions throughout the stream.

For me, however, the most engaging example is when you make the content itself dynamic. By using polling, you can ask the audience what they want to see, and actually change the content of the programme on the fly. Polls typically get a response rate of between 70-80% and so you are getting the majority of the viewers’ opinions. It could be a simple question of picking from a list of topics to be covered or getting the audience to give their view on what they want to see next.

Social Integration

When we are talking about engagement, then social media integration has got to be one of the first priorities. Video is no longer reserved for YouTube, with other social media sites making video sharing a huge part of their strategy.

For the marketer, social media is a massive part of creating engagement and getting your video seen and now live interactive video can be delivered into a Tweet or a Facebook News Feed post. It gives you an instant audience for your video, but it also gives you a platform to achieve that all-important interactivity, whereby the audience can share, comment, ask questions, or discuss your content, and of course that then gets seen by all their friends or contacts.

The other advantage when you are streaming into a social media platform in this way, and especially if directly into your timeline, is that your audience doesn’t have to leave the platform to view your video. We have found that this greatly increases the chances of them watching your video with the length of time a user views content being greatly increased over something just viewed via a website.

Make it interesting

Of course, it doesn’t matter how interactive and social your webcast is if the content itself is not engaging in the first place. There has to be a quid pro quo making sure that the viewers get something in return for giving up their time to watch. This is ultimately about the value proposition for the viewer. A dull corporate presentation is going to get people turning off almost as soon as they have joined (if they even join at all), so you need to structure the webcast in a way the makes the content and therefore the topic more engaging.

We are seeing an increasing trend towards the “watch it live, or miss out” style of webcasts, driving people to view and engage in in the best way possible. One recent example was Eastenders, which ran a number of webcasts in the week when we discovered who killed Lucy Beale. Fans (and even some who aren’t normally avid viewers) tuned in to the live episodes to follow the thickening plot line, and then engaged further with the characters with webcasts immediately after the live show. Of course, Eastenders already has a huge following and national appeal, but the approach can still work well for others.

In a B2B world, we find the webcasts which work the best take their cues from television by being more like magazine programmes. Of course editorially there are a range of magazine programmes from This Morning to Newsnight so it is important to get the appropriate tone. These type of webcasts should be made up of a series of connected but separate elements so you may begin with a one on one interview, followed by a pre-recorded video report, and a panel discussion. The different elements mean the content is always changing and so is more likely to keep a viewer’s interest as you can more likely have at least one or more sections to appeal to most of your intended audience. 

Quality

It is now easier than ever to get good quality equipment at an affordable price, and almost anyone can stream a webcast. However, with it being so easy to churn out videos, it is important to remember that if the quality of the recording is anything less than good, the result will be a poor webcast, and a poor image for the company creating it. Get the right equipment, shoot it well, and make sure it looks good!

I would encourage anyone thinking of doing a webcast to think through these factors before beginning. With a good production, the right content, right format, a good blend of interactivity, and social integration, almost anyone can deliver something which will be compelling and engaging for the intended audience, and the benefits can be huge.

 

By Jake Ward, Business Development Director at Groovy Gecko. 

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