Live stream engagement is not just about viewership; it’s about creating an interactive and immersive experience that connects with your audience in a meaningful way.
Let’s face it: the plethora of informative and entertaining resources online makes most of us impatient when finding relevant and entertaining content. For most videos and articles, getting someone’s attention can be much simpler as they can be edited to just focus on the key points.
But how about when it comes to doing a live stream?
#Behind_the_stream Your first stream can be overwhelming; de-stress with those 4 key’s for a successful stream. 
When hosting a live stream, it is crucial to keep your audience engaged with your content throughout the event. No one wants to watch a live stream where the streamers do not interact or are unresponsive to live comments from their viewers. While you could always choose not to engage with your audience (depending on the event or content you’re broadcasting), live streaming is always about the live interaction between the broadcaster and their viewers. Live streams should prompt active participation from the audience and encourage them to add to the conversation. These types of compelling content stimulate curiosity, are worth sharing, and keep viewers coming back for more.
In this article, we will discuss a few tips and tricks to capture your audience’s attention and keep them engaged.
Capture your audience’s attention & increase Live Stream Engagement
With the number of competitions out there, it can be hard to stay ahead of the others. However, if you’re only starting, increasing the number of your audience in a highly technology-saturated world becomes more daunting. But it is never impossible.
Here are a few ways to attract the attention of your target audience and increase your live stream engagement rates.
Choose a niche
The easiest way to capture one’s attention is to be different from the others. But before you start streaming your first live event, you must choose a niche for your live video content first. This will help you narrow down your topic and your target audience.
Finding a niche will also help you create effective strategies suited to your audience. Whether you want to talk about gaming or cooking, your target audience must know what your channel is all about.
Finding your niche also makes it easier for you to know what others are doing in that area and be creative in your own live-stream event. This will also help build your personal brand and authority over time.
With the abundance of streamers out there, being different is sometimes the way to go. Ever heard of some streamers dressing up for their streams? It may sound silly at first, but it does the trick. Streamers, such as Dr. Disrespect, dress up and create alter egos just for their streams.
Now, you don’t have to do the same thing. You may start by developing some sort of streaming personality. But stay true to yourself. Take your time and find unique ways that work for you and your audience. You may play a bunch of horror games and just jump and scream [U1] [AY2] [AY3] at the jump scare moments (remember to lower your mic gain, though). More importantly, don’t try too hard and embarrass yourself in front of the camera!
If you haven’t chosen a niche yet, the following questions will help you:
- What are you interested in?
- What are you good at?
- Is the niche you choose something you plan on doing for a long time?
Use a clickbait
Clickbait can work wonders when used correctly. Before using one, you need to make sure it’s relevant to your content. Ever clicked on a YouTube video with an interesting title and thumbnail, only to realize the content wasn’t as interesting as the clickbait? Well, there you go. You just got clickbait!
Clickbaits have always been effective in luring potential audiences to your content and stimulating audiences to increase their engagement with your live stream. With engaging titles and thumbnails, it will be easier for your content to attract the attention of those who share the same interest. Just make sure to use click baits with precaution. Clickbaits can sometimes hurt your reputation, especially if your content doesn’t meet your viewers’ expectations. After all, you don’t want to be scourged as a “fake news” peddler.
Stream your title
Your stream title may make or break your live stream performance. In a nutshell, the stream title should sum up what your stream is about. This could be about the things that you’ll be doing or tasks you’re planning to achieve during the stream session. Whatever it may be, make sure your title is creative and excites your target audience. You can also add a fun headline to hook your audience and stimulate their curiosity.
Here’s an interesting live stream Halloween event from Tomcat, a rodent extermination company:
Title: “Facebook Not Live”
Headline: “Spoiler: They all die”
You could also mention some side activities you’re planning during your live stream, such as giveaways. You could also include achievements in your stream title to make the stream more credible and appealing to your target audiences.
Reward your viewers
Everyone likes getting free stuff. Providing giveaways has always been one of the easiest ways to lure viewers to your live stream. When they have a chance to win something during your event, they would more likely want to interact in your stream session.
The potential exposure to your channel when you provide giveaways is undeniable. Imagine you are browsing through hundreds of streams, and you saw a channel giving freebies. For sure, you would click on that channel to find out what the hype is all about.
However, you can’t always have giveaways in your events, unless having a lot of resources is not an issue for you. Still, having fun, creative and engaging video content is the best way to reward your viewers for their time.
Stimulate audience engagement to your live stream
Once you’ve captured your potential audience, it’s important to keep them engaged throughout your live sessions. There are multiple ways to do so. Here are the most helpful ones.
Be responsive
Nothing feels worse for the viewers than a streamer who is unresponsive. Rather than watching a live stream, which must feel more personalized, it might make them feel like watching a video that has no option to skip the less interesting parts. Hence, being responsive is one of the key elements in getting your audience constantly engaged during your live stream session. If someone asks you something, respond to them. If you’re streaming a gameplay, for example, you can ask for opinions on how to get through a certain level when you feel unsure or stuck. Use your audience to your advantage.
Add value
Another factor to consider is adding value to your live stream. Life is a constant process of learning, and live streaming is one of the most creative ways to share what you’ve learned. With live interaction, it is much easier to reach out to people and share your valuable knowledge and experiences —something VOD is highly lacking.
You can include tips, information, guides — you name it, it’s up for you to decide. If a viewer is unclear or finding it hard to comprehend your points, they can always ask you to explain further in real-time.
Adding value to others can also add value to yourself as a broadcaster. It’s not always just you teaching or sharing your knowledge with your audience. Depending on the type of content you’re broadcasting, the audience has the opportunity to share their thoughts and knowledge in the live chat as well. This is the beauty of live interactions.
Increase Live Stream engagement: Ask for your viewer’s opinion
Ever felt stuck on something or not sure what to do next during your live sessions? Why not ask your audience on chat for opinions?
Including your audience in your live stream is an effective strategy to make your event stand out from the others. You can see this often happening on Twitch, where integrations allow those on chat to determine the outcome of the streamer’s gameplay. Talk about viewer power!
Other downloadable software integrations allow these kinds of interactions, as well. Software, such as CrowdControl and InstructBot, allows your chat to take control of your gameplay. Your viewers won’t be able to determine how you control your character, but they will be able to control other aspects of the game, such as your luck, level of difficulty, and so on.
Use polls to narrow down what’s next
Having hundreds of viewers and people chatting during your live stream can be hard to keep track of. Let’s be realistic. There is only one “you” against hundreds of them, so you can’t fulfill everyone’s request.
Why not include a straw poll in your live stream? Filter out the two most popular suggestions and let the viewers decide what to do next. Aside from tailor-fitting your content to what your audience actually demands, you keep them constantly engaged by allowing them to choose what happens next in your live-stream session.
Of course, you need to keep in mind that their requests should be within your capacity and not impossible for you to fulfill. As long as they don’t get you into trouble or harm you in any way, feel free to accommodate your viewers. What’s important is to always be yourself and not go beyond your limits just to please the crowd.
Use professional platforms to live stream
Building your audience can be a slow process. But with the right platform, this becomes easier. To keep your audience engaged throughout the session, provide them with a professional broadcasting experience.
Unlike other live streaming apps, professional live streaming platforms, such as ViuLive, give you and your audience a different level of viewing experience.
ViuLive allows streamers to seamlessly stream and broadcast live events from multiple cameras, locations, and angles. It allows content creators ultimate flexibility to better capture and describe their stories. The viewers also have unprecedented control over how they want to view the content.
Conclusion
There are many ways to capture your audience’s attention and keep them constantly engaged during your live session. Let’s have a quick recap of what has been discussed in this article:
Capture your audience’s attention
- Choose a niche
- Use a clickbait
- Stream your title
- Reward your viewers
Stimulate audience engagement on your live stream
- Be responsive
- Add value
- Ask for viewers opinions
- Use polls to narrow down what’s next
Lastly, choosing the right live streaming platform is also crucial to keeping your audience engaged and growing your viewership.
Do you have other important tips to capture your audience’s attention and keep them engaged? Let us know in the comments below!