In our last article, we discussed why live marketing is so effective for building audience relationships. But what is your brand supposed to talk about when you go live? Keep reading for some ideas to get started.

Q&A

If you’re just getting started with live video, a question and answer session is a great format to start with. Start by building a list of the most frequent questions you get from your customers. You know all the answers to these already, and there’s a good chance your followers will be wondering about them as well. Still, since the video will be live, give yourself time to prepare and practice. If it helps, consider keeping a cheat sheet of keywords behind the camera to reference if you get stuck. Just keep it to general themes and points, so you don’t appear to be reading from a script offscreen.

You can also get your audience involved in a Q&A. Use your social media following as a source for questions. A few days in advance, make a post asking for the questions everyone would love to hear you answer. If you feel comfortable with the kinds of questions you receive, ask users to submit questions live during the video, as well. You may not be able to prepare all the answers, but people will appreciate hearing answers in real time. Just keep in mind that you may not have a large audience at first, so it helps to have an existing list of questions to work from. The last thing you want is to expect a bunch of audience questions and get none.

Behind the Scenes

Another fun live video idea is giving a behind-the-scenes tour of your office, project or event. Showing your audience things they would never see otherwise can give a feeling of exclusive access that few can resist. Consider showing a day in the life of the people at your company to peek behind your polished brand. You could walk through different workspaces, peek in on team projects or show a glimpse of your manufacturing process if you have one. Ask team members questions along the way to get insights on their work or little-known facts about the company.

In the future, if your brand hosts or participates in an event, go live to show how your business is preparing for it and give sneak peaks of exciting moments to come. If it’s a free event, you could also livestream all or some of it for fans that weren’t able to attend, and even inspire them to come next time. According to a New York Magazine survey, 67% of users who watched a live video of an event went on to purchase a ticket to a similar event.

Fireside Chat

A “fireside chat” is an informal address that was first started by FDR and used by other presidents as a way to communicate with their citizens. They can also work for brands looking to regularly connect with their audiences. For a slightly more formal kind of live video, try filming one of these informative chats with the higher-ups at your company. During the video, you may want to talk about exciting new ventures, interesting industry observations, recent news or your hopes for the future of the company.

Your fireside chats may be formatted as an ongoing series with one individual, or rotate regularly among different executives. When working with live marketing, a series works well because viewers can plan to tune in to the video, just like they would with a TV show. For any live video you create, choose your planned time of day thoughtfully. B2B brands may want to choose a lunch hour time slot when their audience has a free moment to watch and consider your points through the afternoon. On the other hand, B2C companies might see better engagement during after-work hours. If your followers happen to miss the video, remind them that the video will continue to live on your profile. When your audience knows when to expect you, your brand is able to grow a loyal following and customer base.

Capture Your Culture

One of the biggest advantages of live video is how fun and personal it can be. To show off your company culture, try filming interactive games between employees or doing a panel of questions about their life at your company. Make sure your video is entertaining and fun, but also reflects the values you want your customers to perceive from your people. Your followers will be more interested in a brand that can have fun while working than a brand that’s a bit stiff or boring.

Live videos can actually help improve connections made within your organization as well. They may help break up your team’s day and give them something fun to participate in. If you let your employees act as faces for your brand, you’re also showing that you trust them and are proud to have them represent the business. You may even consider handing off live videos duties to an employee who really enjoys it or is well received by the audience. For both team members and social media audiences, a little bit of entertainment and transparency with live videos can go a long way.