You could already be doing things that would make for excellent webcasts.
Making content is expensive. Videos, E-books, even blogs take time and resources. If you have tried and ultimately failed on previous content endeavours and you are not sure about how your business can use the new live streaming technology to reach larger audiences, for very little money, here are a few ideas.
Does your company hold conference events like shareholder meetings, developer conferences, divisional meetings or meetings at a distance? Those are prime time reasons for “going live”.
Are you a large service organization that often has far more members absent from social events than are present? Why not bring them into the fold? Informational events can even be monitized by putting the event behind a pay wall.
You can partner with a production company to produce your webcast or do it on your own. Creatively, why not partner with a live audience to give that webcast a great live feel? If you are reporting quarterly earnings or having a lunch and learn, you might invite financial experts who can ask questions and provide commentary, greatly augmenting questions asked by audience members themselves.
The interactive nature of a panel plus an audience and presenter makes a lively webcast almost guaranteed.
The goal for a live setting is to give the information, but also to capture and maintain the interest of the participant.
Some of our local journalists and broadcasters in Niagara and Toronto are taking to the airwaves by podcasting. They now have created an expanded audience beyond that of their “regular” listener/readers.
You may quickly realise webcasting is a way to extend some of your events and happenings.
For the very ambitious, why not hold a weekly “roundup” of the events in your company for your staff. It may be difficult at first, but with practice, it will become easier and more polished.
Typically, live streams are inexpensive, needing only one or two staff for simple presentations. Involvement of just a couple more can result in a much more highly polished episode.
The very entertaining or informative webinars have the added benefit of attracting advertising dollars to your channel through direct sales and schemes such as AdSense by Google.
Don't do a live webcast because you feel you have to. It must be interesting for your company and reasonable for you to be there - if it's not, then it's not!
Do you have a fantasy football league in your company or a charitable wing? These sub branded endeavours can add a human touch to a business report and serve as a breakaway from the topic without abandoning the branding of the content.
The path for taking advantage of emerging technologies is not always clear, but those companies that are risk-averse to new technologies and do not engage, proceed at their own peril.
OMNI Media May 2017