If you’re looking for a way to stand out from the crowd, then look no further. We’ve broken down why you should stream live on YouTube!

There are a number of reasons why you might be creating content for YouTube. As the world’s biggest video sharing platform, it’s used by content creators and businesses alike. The opportunity to reach huge audiences for free makes it an attractive digital marketing tool. Ad revenue means creators can earn money through YouTube, if they can draw in a decent audience. The possibilities the site offers are numerous, and can be jumped on by just about anyone.

Besides creating engaging, entertaining, fantastic looking video content, there are methods to attract a bigger audience. You could get savvy with YouTube analytics, and nail your content’s SEO with clever titles or well-thought-out descriptions.

Another option is to stream live on YouTube. Livestreaming on YouTube became open to everyone in 2013, with the original requirement of having 1000 subscribers being eventually lifted. Livestreaming on the mobile app was introduces in 2017, a year after Instagram Live was launched.

After the event of the pandemic, livestreaming became incredibly popular. Real-time connectivity online helped reduce the feeling of isolation among many. It was also a great opportunity for creators, celebrities, and brands to present themselves in a more relatable and personable way.

Why Stream Live on YouTube?

With livestreaming having become more commonplace, it could be time for you to think about adding live content to your arsenal. It is a different ball game to filming video, though, and can be a little daunting at first. If you’re feeling undecided, here are some top reasons why you should get livestreaming on YouTube.

Build Trust

Going live on YouTube is a great way to build trust with your audience, as well as assert authority as a brand or business. Because the content is going out in real-time, viewers know that there are no clever edits, and no time for you to read up on something.

So, if you’re discussing a product or a topic, the audience know that you know what you’re talking about. As a business in particular, this helps to build authority and trustworthiness, which could result in more loyal customers for you.

Show Personality

People are far more likely to return to brands that they can relate to. If we, as consumers, can interact with a company or see a part of ourselves in it, we’re much more likely to shop with them. The same goes if you’re a content creator – viewers will love you if they feel you share similarities with them.

Livestreams on YouTube are the perfect way to show off some of your genuine personality. Sharing footage of you in a comfortable and familiar environment, just riffing off the cuff, can help people to understand who you are better.

Make Connections

Once you’ve shown off your authentic personality, you let the audience make connections with you. This links back to building trust, but also helps you to become a familiar part of someone’s online viewing habits.

Going live on YouTube also opens up more opportunities to connect with people on a more immediate level. Which leads onto the next point…

Interact

By enabling the chat feature on your livestream, you can see what your audience thinks about your content. Whilst live feedback might sound scary, it can also be a great confidence boost. But, more importantly, the chat feature means you can converse with your audience.

This is perfect for things like AMA (ask me anything)streams, or regular meetings like clubs and socials. People love getting a shout-out, so doing this will also increase the chances of your audience returning to your channel.

Gain Insights

When you stream live on YouTube, you get access to real-time and post-live analytics. You don’t have to be a marketing expert to understand and gain insight from this data. Keeping an eye on things like concurrent viewers and retention will give you a good idea of what works and what doesn’t.

Peaks in concurrent viewers indicates what drew a bigger audience in. Retention will tell you how much of your audience watched the whole stream, and average view duration also helps give an idea of how engaging your stream was. You can make changes on the go from this information, or you can take the information and implement it into your next livestream.