(Live) Video is King … for Now

Two nights ago I returned from a week in California.  The first part of the trip was to San Diego for Social Media Marketing World.  You know that present day culture has been taken over by social media when three thousand people from 55 countries attend such an event.  Wow.  (Then guesstimate how many people wanted to go but didn’t!)

So, what was the big takeaway?  It wasn’t difficult to quickly determine that live video is what everyone was emphasizing.  Should that really be a surprise, though?

Facebook has altered their algorithms (again), with priority now being given to anyone who is streaming video through them.  Facebook Live is one of three platforms that speakers at SMMW were highlighting last week.  Your content will be bumped up to the top of users’ news feeds any time you are pushing out live video content.  Quite the opposite of what has been done to business/artist pages, which are now being seen by less and less (and less) of the people who Like your page.  Sorry.  Facebook wants you to pay for such visibility (via Boost Post or an actual ad).

The other two platforms that received almost equal mention for live video were Periscope and Blab.  Like Facebook Live, there are features and benefits to each of those that their competition doesn’t have, but, of course, there are downsides as well.  Today’s blog isn’t intended to list out all of the pros and cons of each, but, rather, as a call to action for those of you who are sitting on the fence, or still sound asleep when it comes to video.

I once had someone call and ask me if Now Hear This could seek bookings for his band.  When I looked online, all they had was a website and a Facebook page.  Neither of those had any audio or video of the band, so I’m not sure how he intended to get booked.

Some of you are also putting way (way) too much pressure on yourself.  You are overthinking a lot of this, and as a result, you have little to no video online, or it has been a long time since you posted something new.

In fact, the episode of “Now Hear This Entertainment” that will be released the day after tomorrow (with Kris James from The Scheme) includes, coincidentally, a discussion about YouTube and the need to post regularly on there, in order to keep engagement up on your videos.

For the performers who are reading this, remember that there are already lots of performers doing shows (through live video) on sites such as ConcertWindow.com or StageIt.com, to name just two.

In other words, don’t think fully-produced-music-video.  The point that speakers were making at SMMW last week was that curiosity reigns.  People want to see what you’re doing – right now.  They don’t want to wait until you’ve got full makeup on or are all sound-checked and staged.  Pull back the curtain and give them a behind the scenes look at what you think might be mundane or routine, but they’ll think is exclusive access.