Google was onto something when they realized that people would enjoy engaging with their favorite brands via live-streaming, Google Hangouts On Air channels. It wasn’t long before other companies figured out there was future in real-time video interaction and developed their own social video streaming products, like Periscope and Meerkat. Mobile live-streaming is a hot new trend that you definitely don’t want to miss. So what’s so great about it? A lot - for example, adding streaming into your brand’s marketing strategy:

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How Mobile Live-Streaming Can Take Your
Social Engagement to the Next Level

2. Google was onto something
when they realized that people
would enjoy engaging with
their favorite brands via live-
streaming, Google Hangouts
On Air channels. It wasn’t long
before other companies figured
out there was future in real-
time video interaction and
developed their own social
video streaming products, like
Periscope and Meerkat.
Mobile live-streaming is a hot new trend that you definitely don’t want to miss.
So what’s so great about it?
A lot - for example, adding streaming into your brand’s marketing strategy:
Main image via Shutterstock

3. Taps into your customer’s love of instant video
- According to the digital strategists at Accenture, “90 percent of consumers
surveyed across Europe, North America, and South America currently view video
over the internet.” If you know almost your entire target demographic engages in a
particular activity, it makes good sense to use that as an opportunity to meet them
where they are. Jump on the chance to engage customers in a way you know they
already enjoy.

4. Gives you real-time feedback
- Services like Periscope provide viewers with a way to engage accounts via typed
messages that instantly appear atop the streaming video. Marketers can live-stream
an event, ask questions, and get an instant response from engaged, enthusiastic
viewers. On the surface, it’s a terrific way to have virtual face-to-face time with your
customers, but it’s also a subtle way to gather analytical data based on real-time
responses that allow you to pivot your approach as needed.

5. Allows your customers to be part of the story
– Passively viewing video content will always have its place in branding strategy,
especially for troubleshooting and how-to content. However, now more than ever,
customers want to be involved in your message, not just be consumers of it. Red
Bull's been tapping into this phenomenon for years with its Flugtag advertising
campaign/competition. Live mobile streaming takes this concept and kicks it up five
notches.

6. Lets your customers peek behind the scenes
– Consumers want to know brands care and that
there are real people behind the social accounts
they follow. What better way to show off your ace
marketing team than to bring viewers right into the
office during a coffee break or a group softball
game. Humanize the people who quietly make
things happen in your organization and give
customers a chance to see the people who love your
brand as much as they do.

7. Helps your brand be more innovative
- Don’t just rely on stock video to tell your story. "Live streaming is a new game
entirely because it is dynamic, not static. Once a brand goes live, their competitors
must follow. Customers will come to expect it. They won't want tired, off-the-shelf
archived videos," Ron C. Pruett, Chief Advisor to Al Roker Entertainment, told the
Huffington Post. "Live broadcasting on a cell phone is the missing link between TV
and social media. Period.”