How to Choose a Live Streaming Platform

So, you have decided to ditch the Zoom and GoToWebinar links in favour of live streaming your corporate events to social media or another more engaging platform. However, you are unsure of which platform to stream to. This is valid, as there are so many options: Facebook Live, YouTube, Wowza, Instagram Live... the list goes on. 

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This stage of your virtual event strategy should not be overlooked. It is important to not jump into using whichever platform is easiest to use, or seems like it would generally be a good platform, without putting a lot of thought into it. You need to look into the audience persona of who will be watching your event, and go from there to carefully decide which platform would represent your organisation in the best way to them. 

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Here is a list of examples of how certain audience personas will relate to certain live streaming platforms, but this will depend highly upon your own organisation: 

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• If your audience has a busy working life, you might want to make your videos available for purchasing on-demand or as a subscription, by using a platform like Wowza. Instagram Live would therefore not be a suitable platform for this (unless you share the replay on IGTV).

• If your audience are graduates starting out in your field, they'll be quite used to (and possibly bored of) static lecture content - a YouTube Live stream which cross-fades between images and videos might be more engaging for them. Instagram Live would also be suitable to attract audiences of a younger demographic as it would notify them that you are live as they are already scrolling through the app. 

• If your audience are keen Facebook users, JW Live might be a good platform as it allows you to simulcast to Facebook Live. 

• If your audience is not made up of individuals, but rather of businesses, Brightcove would be a suitable choice as its features are geared towards B2B marketing.

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You might be put off choosing a certain live streaming platform if you are unfamiliar with setting up streams on there. However, this can be mitigated by hiring an external team of live streaming specialists, who can guarantee ahead of time that they can live stream to any platform of your choice. This will allow you much-needed flexibility, as you can focus on the content of your live streamed event (and make sure that it is relevant to your audience persona) while relying on the live streaming team to get that content onto your desired platform. Whether you are just starting out crafting a virtual events strategy and need support in figuring out where to host online, or you already know where to host it and you just need the technical aspects to be sorted out by an experienced team (you are an events professional, not a technician, after all), hiring a team of live streaming specialists is essential.

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To summarise, in order to choose a live streaming platform, you should look at the audience persona of the attendees of your events, and preferably book a consultation with a live streaming company who will be able to advise on the logistics, pros, and cons, of streaming to this platform, and will be able to carry out all the technical duties that are associated with this platform. 

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For a high quality live streaming company that can live stream events to any platform, get in touch with CPDonline.