What is everyone’s biggest fear when they put together a virtual or live streaming event? That you go live and no one shows up. Not only is it disheartening and maybe even a little embarrassing, but you also feel like you did all that work for no reason and just wasted your time, and the time of your virtual assistant. The good news is that you can avoid this and put your fear to rest. I am going to share with you how to make sure you have an audience for your next live streaming event.
7 Ways to Get People To Show Up to Your Live Streaming Event
#1 Have A Plan and A Goal
You need more than just the topic and talking points when you plan your live streaming event. You need to have a clear goal in mind and plan the event around that goal.
Decide what you want this event to achieve for you:
- Gain more opt-ins
- Grow your email list
- Drive traffic to website
- More YouTube subscribers
Then construct your topic, talking points and the entire event with a focus toward the audience that will help you achieve your chosen goal.
#2 Schedule It In Advance and Give Yourself Enough Time
It is never a good idea to wake up and decide you are going to live stream that day – or even that week for that matter. Instead, you need to give yourself plenty of time to plan and research what you are going to discuss because if you are not prepared, those that happen to show up for your live stream will know it. No one wants to listen to an unprepared speaker, and it will decrease the chances of them coming back for your next live stream.
You also need to give yourself time to promote your event. Avoiding the fear of no one showing up means making sure everyone knows about it, and it takes time to get the word out. Those that want to participate in your event will usually need to schedule their time in advance to be available to participate.
#3 Use A Platform You Are Comfortable Using
Your live streaming event is not the time to try out a new platform you haven’t used before. The chances of an error during the stream are much larger if you are unfamiliar with how a particular platform works.
If you are comfortable with Facebook Live then use that as your platform; however, you should do your research and be sure that your audience uses Facebook as their primary social media tool. You should always go where your audience spends the majority of their time.
If your audience is on a platform you are not comfortable with you can still use it for your event, you just need to make sure you work with it on your own prior to your live stream. In other words, you should get comfortable with it well in advance of using it for a live streaming event.
#4 Share the Live Streaming Event With Your E-mail List
You email list is ripe with people that have connected with you and are interested in what you have to say. Your first step in the promotion of your event is informing your email list. However, it is important that you do this is a way that does not look like spam. Take the time to make it more personal and give it a compelling subject line
#5 Share on Social Media and In Targeted Groups
Social Media, LinkedIn, as well as Facebook groups are a great way to send invitations to a targeted audience. Choose the groups that would be most interested in your topic, utilize appropriate promo threads with these groups that would best meet your chosen goal for the event.
You should also set up a promoted post for the day prior and the day of your event to remind those that you have invited, and to also pick up anyone that may have missed the initial invitation from you.
#6 Create A Page on Your Website Where the Live Stream Can Be Embedded
By creating a page on your website to embed your live streaming event you accomplish two objectives at once: you make it easy for your audience to find the event and you drive people to your website.
#7 Utilize Your Promotional Partners To Help Spread the Word
If you have JV (joint venture) or promotional partners this is a great opportunity to have them be involved or to help you share your information and events, while in return you share theirs. Live streaming events are the perfect time to utilize this motivated group to help you spread the information about your upcoming event to everyone in their network that is a fit for your topic.
The most popular live streaming personalities make it look effortless, natural and relaxed, but don’t be fooled. Effortless, natural, and relaxed takes a lot of preparation, promotion and yes, effort. However, with your goal in mind and these tips on getting your audience to show up, you too can make your live streaming event look effortless and natural.
How do you prepare for your live streaming events? Have some tips we missed? Please feel free to share in the comments below.
