The LumaVox video live streaming blog category contains articles about video live streaming production.

9 07, 2019

Using Digital Video Marketing for a Small Business in PA

By |2019-07-09T14:14:06-04:00July 9th, 2019|Blog, Small Business Marketing, Video Live Streaming, Video Marketing|0 Comments

Using Digital Video Marketing for a Small Business in PA

How to Use Digital Marketing for My Small Business

The reality today is that if you’re not using video to market your business you’re falling behind your competitors. Video is perhaps the most valuable content in your marketing efforts. If your business is located in Pennsylvania, there are numerous opportunities to use video to showcase the amazing things the state has to offer. Understanding video production is key in using digital video marketing for a small business in PA. It is a powerful tool for growing your customer base.

High production value video is good, but what is most important is to publish video content that is relevant for your customers and leads. While it’s a blessing to have professional video equipment or even hire a video production company, you can, in fact, produce this content with a smartphone.

Regardless, video needs to be part of your digital marketing strategy.

Video for Google Posts

Google Posts is a feature in Google My Business that lets you publish your business’s information directly to Google Search and Google Maps. The Posts can be about your business’s Events, Offers, Products, and What’s New.

Google Posts now lets you post videos as well as photos.

This is a great opportunity to promote your product or service and get a leg up on your competitors. Best of all, it’s free!

Video on Facebook

Facebook is one of the most important social media channels. It’s key to helping with your business’s brand awareness and social media marketing. Here are some tips for using video to market your business on Facebook.

Upload the video directly to Facebook. While you could post a link to your video from Youtube or Vimeo, you’ll probably get more reach if you upload directly to Facebook. Reach is the metric for how many people will see your video in their feed. Also, you can autostart the video if it’s directly uploaded.

Keep your video short. In general, viewers don’t want to watch a long video. Some 80% of all video posted online is clicked away within the first twenty seconds. So keep it short Make sure your viewers know the point of the video within the first five seconds or so.

Use subtitles. If your video is autostarting, you should use subtitles. Let your viewers watch the entire video without sound and still get your message.

Live Stream Video

Live stream video is exploding in popularity. 80% of users would rather watch a company’s live stream video than read a text-based marketing blog post.

Quality matters to these viewers. 67% say that quality is the most important factor for them in watching a live stream video.

There are a number of solutions for distributing high-quality live stream videos, such as DaCast and Livestream. Production solutions include hardware switchers and encoders such as those from Black Magic Design. One of the best software encoders is OBS. It’s a software encoder you run from your computer. It’s open source software and it’s free!

So what type of content should you live stream? Make it relevant to your business. Make it interesting. Most importantly, make it real. Be yourself on camera. People relate to people. Don’t use a radio voice or protect a TV personality. Be yourself.

Also, make sure to caption and tag your live stream content with relevant keywords. This will help with search engine optimization.

YouTube Video

YouTube is the second largest search platform. That creates an opportunity for the small business owner to connect with their target audience. YouTube video will help you rank higher in search results.

The most successful YouTube channels are the ones that keep pushing out fresh content. It’s important to commit to a schedule. Once the early excitement of publishing video to YouTube wears off, you’ll need to keep pushing out fresh content on a regular basis. This content can be tied to your live stream video. Once the live stream is over the stream can be archived as a YouTube video.

Every YouTube video should end with a CTA, a Call to Action. Ask your viewers to do something. Make it simple and concrete. A CTA could be asking your viewer to like your video, subscribe to your channel, or visit your website. If your viewer has watched your video to the end they are primed to take some action. So ask them!

Afterword, you can repurpose your video in your email marketing and social media posts.

Start Creating Video

So get started!

Start creating video for your small business. Whether you hire a production company, have your own professional video equipment, or use a smartphone, you have the tools you need to share video content.

Be yourself. Share your knowledge. And most of all, have fun!

Featured photo courtesy of Hello I’m Nik.

23 04, 2018

Live Streaming Video Production for Philadelphia

By |2018-07-19T08:42:34-04:00April 23rd, 2018|Blog, Video Live Streaming, Video Production|0 Comments

Live Streaming Video Production for Philadelphia

Philadelphia Live Streaming Video Production

Live streaming video production is growing by leaps and bounds. But what exactly is it and do you need it for your business? LumaVox offers live streaming video production for Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. It’s been exciting to ramp up to this new technology and new way of helping our clients. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the video live streaming landscape and how to produce it.

What Is Video Live Streaming?

Perhaps you’ve been producing videos for a while for your business and uploading them to platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Have you wanted to broadcast those videos live?

Video live streaming is about broadcasting your videos live and in real time.

The production process is similar to producing a video for uploading, but requires some extra considerations in your production planning.

The Equipment You’ll Need

The equipment you’ll need for video live streaming can be as simple as using a smartphone. Along with that you’ll need an internet connection and an account to a streaming service.

Of course you’ll need to use multiple cameras and professional mics for higher quality video live streaming.

Usually, some social media content is better then no social media content. Therefore, don’t let a lack of professional equipment, or the budget to hire a professional live streaming company, stop you from starting to live stream.

Always Test Your Setup Before the Event

You can produce video live streaming using equipment ranging from a smartphone to an elaborate multi-camera production. In every case, your audience will view the video stream live. Of course, that means that any glitches or mistakes will happen in real time.

Therefore, it’s essential to test out your equipment and workflow before you live stream your event.

For example if you’re setting up live streaming video production for Philadelphia events, try a test live stream at the event venue before the day of the actual event. Make sure the equipment is working properly, and that it connects with the encoder that will create the streaming format. Use the test to work out any problems with lighting and sound.

Obviously, it’s best to deal with any glitches and solve any problems before your live event.

Get a Video Switcher

If you want to live stream video will multiple cameras you’ll need a video switcher. The video switcher will allow you to switch between cameras. This creates a much more entertaining and engaging live stream.

Some video switchers have transition effects built in, as well as the ability to switch to graphics, lower third titles, and video content from a hard drive. With the right video switcher you can even live stream green screen effects. Think of the weather reporter standing in front of a weather map. That’s done using a green screen effect. The reporter is actually standing in front of a green background, and the weather map is then laid in behind the reporter using a special effect.

At LumaVox, we use Blackmagic Design video switchers with the ability to switch between cameras with transitions, switch to graphics as well as lower thirds, and with the ability to live stream using green screen effects.

Invest in a Hardware Encoder

You’ll compress and format your live stream video content in order to broadcast it on the internet. While you can do this with software in your laptop, it is best to have a dedicated hardware encoder. These hardware encoders have processing chips and software dedicated to compressing and formatting your video files. This will cut down or eliminate a number of problems. For example, a hardware encoder will help reduce the major problem of latency.

What is latency? Think of your video footage as water filling a jug. At the bottom of the jug is a spigot letting the water out. That water being let out is like your compressed video footage being broadcast on the internet. Compressing and formatting your video content with software on your smartphone or laptop is like having a very small spigot at the bottom of the jug. Therefore, your content stream will back up causing a time delay, or latency.

On the other hand, having a hardware encoder is like having a very large spigot that empties the the video content as quickly as the jug is filled.  So the live stream broadcasts in near real time.

The companies Livestream and Blackmagic Design both sell high quality hardware encoders.

Always Have a Contingency Plan

You’ll be broadcasting a live show, and things can go wrong during a live show. Therefore, you need to have a contingency plan.

Even if you’ve tested your live streaming video production for Philadelphia events for example, it’s best to have backup content to stream should your equipment fail during the broadcast. This could be as simple as a graphic with pertinent text on it either describing the event, or alerting your audience that the live stream will return shortly. Audiences want to know what’s going on, and a simple graphic can give them that information should something go wrong during your live stream.

Determine Your Stream’s Encoding and Distribution

You can broadcast video live streams with several encoding formats and stream the video to numerous distribution platforms. Each platform will have its own requirements for the encoded format.

Some of the most popular platforms are:

Pay Attention to Your Internet Access

Finally, you’ll need internet access to live stream your video content. For live streams using your smartphone, you can simply use your smartphone data account or wifi connection.

However, for higher quality live stream video productions we highly recommend that you have a hard wired internet connection. There can be a lot of glitches and problems with wifi connections and phone data connections. Therefore, it’s best to have a hard wired internet connection at your event location. Use a wifi connection or phone data connection as a backup.

Get Started Live Streaming Video

Live streaming video content is a very effective way to engage your business audience. If you have a smartphone and a Facebook account, you can start today.

If you have questions about  live streaming video production for Philadelphia area events, we’ll be glad to help. Contact us at LumaVox today with any questions you might have.

Happy live streaming!

Featured photo courtesy of Hello I’m Nik.

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