YouTube’s Newest Features: How Enhanced Live Streaming Can Help Grow Your Business
By both boosting your local presence and tapping into a worldwide audience, live streaming through YouTube Live can help your business engage with potential customers on a personal level in real time and grow your brand in the process. The second largest live streaming platform in the world (behind game-streaming site Twitch), YouTube boasts more than 2.7 billion monthly active users.
YouTube recently announced five exciting new features that will further help enhance the live streaming experience for your business: Live Q&A, Go Live Together, Live Rings, Cross Channel Redirects and Full Screen Mode.
These new YouTube features will provide your business with more avenues to expand your online presence and reach more potential customers whether you are hosting a webinar, workshop, product launch or other live streaming endeavor. While several of these innovative YouTube live streaming features are already in the testing phase, others are expected to roll out later this year.
1. Live Q&A Increases Interactivity in Live Streaming
With Live Q&A, a viewer will be able to submit questions during your YouTube live stream based on your specific question prompt. Questions answered by you will be temporarily pinned to the top of the live chat to increase interactivity by encouraging other viewers to submit their own questions.
Expected to launch in the next few months, Live Q&A will be yet another feature in your YouTube live-streaming arsenal that will help foster a deeper connection with both your customers and potential customers.
2. Go Live Together Encourages Collaboration in Live Streaming
A new and innovative collaborative YouTube live streaming feature, Go Live Together allows you to invite a guest to your live stream by simply sending a link. This enables you to create your live stream, as well as invite and screen your guests before going live to your viewers. Note that the guest channel and user information will remain hidden during the live stream. This may be the future of podcasting, where it is now easier than ever to broadcast an interview.
As a host of a Go Live Together stream, you’ll be able to view streaming analytics and YouTube analytics as you would with any other live stream. However, your guest(s) won’t be able to see any of these analytics.
3. Live Rings Redirect Viewer to Your Active Live Stream
Live Rings will help viewers identify when your YouTube channel is live by adding a ring around your channel’s profile picture to increase discovery and viewership. Tapping on your profile picture with the live badge ring will redirect the viewer to your active live stream. Although live rings can already be viewed on certain screens with mobile devices, the feature will be expanded across YouTube later this year.
4. Cross Channel Live Redirects Add Opportunities for Collaboration
If you have at least 1,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel and no active community guidelines strikes, Cross Channel Live Redirects will allow you to direct your viewers to a live stream or premiere (a pre-recorded video that publishes as a live broadcast) hosted on a different channel. Cross Channel Live Redirects will add more opportunities for collaborative promotion on YouTube.
5. Full Screen Mode Allows for Uninterrupted Live Stream Viewing
Full Screen Mode will take a split screen approach to allow for uninterrupted viewing during a live stream for mobile devices. The Full Screen Mode feature has already been launched by YouTube.
Get Help Optimizing Your YouTube Live Streaming Strategy Today
With the new and improved YouTube Live features, now is the perfect time to implement or enhance the live streaming strategy for your business. The experts at ROAR! Internet Marketing will help you develop a successful customized strategy to elevate your live streaming to the next level. Contact us today to schedule a zero-obligation consultation.