Social media has come a long way from its roots of MySpace and Xanga. Even at the beginning of the networks we know today like Facebook and Instagram, video wasn’t a principal component of the platform.
Nowadays, if you want to have a strong reputation that looks professional and noteworthy, you have to include high-quality video.
This goes for Instagram as well; even beyond video, people are now looking for live video, allowing your followers to engage with you directly on the feed.
The majority of social media networks have a Live option now, so you should find ways to use it and get comfortable doing so. Live video is here to stay!
It may be a bit daunting— maybe you’re just getting the hang of Instagram video content or have finally gotten comfortable posting videos on Instagram stories. Now you have to do it all live!?
What would you talk about? How does it work? How do you engage your followers and viewers?
These are all questions that are important, and we’re going to help you answer them. But know this: Live video is important on Instagram, and don’t rule them out.
Live videos are actually given priority in your Instagram story feed, appearing at the beginning. This is one clear benefit of going Live— you’re bound to get noticed.
We’re going to help you get situated with all of the key tips for using Instagram live. The tips will help you get your profile icon up to the beginning of stories with a Live video on Instagram.
Let’s get started with the benefits of doing Live videos on Instagram.
How Instagram Live Helps You
You can reach a wide range of users through Instagram live and can also connect with your followers in an interactive way that helps them to see you in a human way, not as a facade behind the screen.
Live Instagram videos can:
- Build Relationships: with so many possibilities and content types that you can offer on Instagram live, you can appear on a live story to build a direct relationship with your Instagram followers. No matter if you’re answering questions, demonstrating your products or services, having conversations, or giving a BTS look, you strengthen your bond through Instagram Live.
- Increase Visibility: it can be difficult to get your content seen by more viewers due to the new Instagram algorithm. If your followers aren’t seeing your content on a regular basis, it may not appear toward the top of their feed. When you go live, you’ll appear at the beginning of the IG story feed, helping your followers to see you and remember you. What’s more, they’ll also receive a notification that you’re on Instagram Live, alerting them to check it out.
- Develop Brand Identity and Reputation: when you develop a strong reputation and rapport with your followers with an active and present image, you also strengthen your brand identity and reputation on Instagram. You appear professional and add value to the IG community.
- Increase Engagement: isn’t it a cool feeling to be recognized or featured on Instagram? Imagine if your favorite celeb, influencer, or creator on IG responded to and answered your question? Instagram Live prompts interaction from your followers and viewers and gets them engaging with your Live feed and even your content.
So, there are some tangible benefits to Instagram Live, wouldn’t you agree?
Tips for Using Instagram Live
You’ve got to think about the stages of going live on Instagram:
- Before the broadcast
- During the broadcast
- After the broadcast
Here we’re going to break down our tips according to these different stages of Instagram live content!
4 Tips Before Going Live on Instagram
Here are four things you should consider before going live on Instagram.
1. Know the Purpose and Objective of Your IG Live
The first thing you need to do is understand why you’re going live in the first place.
Your Live broadcast has to offer value to your viewers and bring them something special that is not available in your normal content.
Here are some examples of how to deliver value through purposeful Instagram Live broadcasts:
- Q&A session: this is one of the most popular types of IG Live broadcasts, and you can use this to directly engage with your followers in real time. You can even hype them up and let them know in advance so that they can prepare questions to ask. It also shows you’re accessible to your followers.
- Feedback session: a feedback session on Instagram Live allows you to do market research in a way that benefits your online presence and builds stronger relationships. It also shows that you are open-minded and care about what your customers and/or followers have to say about your products, services, content, or whatever else you’re getting feedback on. Telling your followers in advance can also help them prepare some valuable feedback.
- Reveals: when you have big news, new products, services, locations, and the like, use the Instagram Live feature to drum up anticipation and make the announcement directly to your followers.
- BTS: people love to check out what’s going on behind all of the pretty Instagram content. Use the IG Live feature to show your followers what’s going on in your life, in the warehouse, do a beauty tutorial— whatever gives them an inside look at your brand and your niche.
- Special guests: doing an Instagram Live takeover is an awesome way to gain more viewership from other accounts; give your IG Live or stories over to someone notable for a day so that new viewers will tune in. You can also go live on Instagram to interview a special guest or get an expert to talk about something related to your brand.
- Do something unexpected: if you go live to show people something totally odd, weird, or unexpected, your followers will be there for it! You can create a sense of unpredictability and mystery when you do unexpected things on IG live. Maybe you go through the streets of your city and interview people in a fun way, maybe you show your typical routine after work. You decide!
Challenge: add 6 additional ways to this list on how you can use IG Live to deliver special content to followers and viewers in your particular niche or industry! The more variety you have, the better.
Being clear about the purpose of your Instagram Live can ensure that things go smoothly and you stay on track.
If you’re doing a Live about BTS and people keep asking questions, let them know you’ll have a Q&A session at a later date, enticing them to come back for more.
Don’t give it all away on the first Live! Know your purpose.
2. Promote Your Live Broadcast in Your IG Stories or Content
If you want to hype people up and get them in the mindset to expect some IG Live content from you in the next day or so, make sure you promote your Instagram Live in advance via your profile and other networks.
This is especially helpful if you’re going to do a Q&A or a feedback session; it gives your followers time to prepare and think about how they’re going to interact and engage with you, making your Instagram Live session more successful and valuable.
Cross promote on your other social networks so that people know how, when, and where to find you.
Pro Tip: don’t do your IG Live broadcast when no one is online; plan your broadcast for peak traffic times so that your broadcast is likely to be seen by more people.
Take a look at your IG insights as well as Simply Measured to get a good idea of when your audience is most active on Instagram.
3. Test Your Video and Sound Quality
Nothing is worse than going live and finding out that it’s not working right, that your followers can’t hear you well, that your connection is failing, or that your video is grainy and unclear.
Find that out before your Instagram Live so you can troubleshoot.
Here are some tips on how to optimize your Instagram Live quality:
- Choose a background that is clean and aesthetically pleasing, even better if it’s directly connected to your brand or niche. You don’t want your followers or viewers being distracted by a cluttered or unappealing background.
- Set up your broadcast next to a window or light source for optimal lighting. Do some tests to make sure that it looks clean and professional.
- Make sure that all your devices are set up properly and fully charged. Do some test runs to confirm that everything is working right and that the quality is there.
- Do your Instagram Live broadcast in a quiet area that has good acoustics with minimal background noise and auditory hindrances.
Even if you’re just doing your broadcast from a phone or small device, make sure that all of the elements are optimized to the highest degree so that your followers can focus on what you’re saying and not on all of the technical difficulties or shortcomings.
4. Create a Video Outline
The final thing you should do when you plan to go live on Instagram is to create an outline for your Live.
While you can’t always predict what’s going to happen, you can have a skeleton of the points you’re going to cover and where you want to end up at the end.
Having a set list of all of the most important topics and points to hit will help you stay on track and get back to the flow of your broadcast even when user interaction takes you on a tangent. You always want to be in control.
Having an outline or notes to follow is especially helpful if you feel nervous or unsure about your Instagram Live.
Even though we’re online, stage fright can be a real thing! Plan it out and don’t let it get the best of you.
Pro Tip: when planning your outline, always indicate potential moments to include calls-to-action (CTAs) such as “don’t forget to follow me on Instagram” or “leave a comment.” these are some examples, but you can ask your followers to do many things:
- Share content with friends
- Send DMs
- Screenshot and repost the Live broadcast
- Check out your link in bio
- And more
7 Tips for While You’re Live on Instagram
Now that you’ve planned and tested everything for your Instagram Live, the day has arrived! You’re live on Instagram, so what now?
Here are 7 tips to help you do an awesome, high-quality Instagram Live for your followers and viewers.
1. Relax and Be Yourself
It can be really easy to get nervous and unsure of yourself. Don’t let it get the best of you— always stay calm, relax, and have fun! People are there to see you, and they’re already interested.
Your goal is to show people what you’re really about and provide value about something you’re passionate about. Keep that in mind and always remember your goal.
A good thing about going live on Instagram is that you’re in control and you can engage with your followers and viewers as you choose.
Take your time, breathe, and focus on your purpose. The more you do this, the more valuable and authentic your content will be.
Remember— not everyone is going to love you, and you can’t please everyone.
If you’re true to yourself and your brand, you’ll have the highest level of success possible. People trust in authenticity.
2. Engage Viewers
The key to a successful Instagram Live is to engage your viewers through CTAs as we mentioned above. There are a variety of ways to do this, and you always want to remind them.
You not only want to remind viewers to engage, but you should also remind them why they are watching— tell them to keep watching because X information or feature is coming! Keep their attention and always keep them wanting more.
After you do that, you can continue to prompt engagement through asking them to do certain things.
One of the best things you can do is have a “screenshot” section where you ask viewers to take a screenshot and share it on IG stories with a particular hashtag or mentioning your account.
You can then share these later and people will be able to check out your Instagram Live after having seen it on their friend’s profile.
You can feature users and bring them into the Live video chat; this is particularly useful for Q&As and feedback sessions.
It encourages other users to participate and gives followers the chance to be featured on video if they so choose.
They’re also more likely to take a screenshot and share if they are part of the Live video.
Also prompt your viewers to comment, leave questions, visit your page, follow you, send DMs, and more.
Pro Tip: Use a specific hashtag for any UGC that can be tagged. If you’re looking for relevant hashtags that are going to get you seen by more people and even possibly featured on the hashtag feed page (content) or the story hashtag feed (stories), use a hashtag tool that will help you find the optimal hashtags for your niche.
3. See Who’s Watching
You should always be aware of who is watching your feed so that you can most effectively engage with your audience and even call out people to participate.
You can view who is watching your video from the top left corner of your screen. In the top left corner you’ll see an eye icon; this icon will then show you who is viewing.
Pro Tip: keep an eye out for repeat viewers. If it’s your first Instagram Live, this won’t apply, but as you continue to do IG Lives, you may start to notice familiar usernames that have been in other Live sessions.
Make a note of this and give them a shoutout; this helps to show that you’re aware and active in your feeds and that you truly appreciate your viewers!
This will make them feel special and build a strong relationship.
4. Pin Your Video’s Title
In order to help viewers that come in after you’ve already begun your Instagram Live, you can pin the “title” of your Live broadcast.
It’s a sort of unofficial title, as you are actually leaving a comment on your own video and simply pinning it to the comments section of the live feed. This is how you do it:
- Type the “title” of the video that describes what your video is about to provide context to viewers
- Tap the comment to pin it
This pin comment feature can also be used with other user comments that are relevant or important to your IG Live, keeping viewers on the same page and following along with your Live broadcast.
5. Kick off Any Trolls
As we mentioned earlier, you can’t please everyone. In fact, some people thrive on being the person who causes problems and creates drama on social media.
You can see these people in plenty of comment sections on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more.
These people are known as trolls, and you don’t want them polluting your Instagram Live with their bad energy and purposefully provocative attitude.
They can cause disruption and even disagreement or controversy.
If you find that your Instagram Live has been infiltrated by a troll, get rid of them. Click the X next to the user that is trolling you and mute the comments.
Pro Tip: it’s possible to turn off the comment sections on Instagram Live, but this really wouldn’t benefit you, as the whole purpose of IG Live is to interact and engage with your users directly.
It’s better to simply block the trolls and keep the comment feature on unless it’s a very particular circumstance.
6. Switch Your Camera View Now and Then
If you are able to, it’s a good idea to change things up and switch your camera view now and then. You can go between different subjects, products, people, or backgrounds.
It’s nice to be able to show your followers different things and give some variety in your feed instead of simply looking at one thing for the duration of your Instagram Live broadcast.
Pro Tip: if you decide to focus on one particular thing and not change at all, it should be you or the host of the Live broadcast.
Nobody wants to stare at an object the whole time; you can bring different objects or props into the frame, but you need that human element of your IG Live.
Make sure there is a person in your video unless there is a particular (and exciting) reason for there not to be.
7. Tell Followers to DM Your Account
If you start to have Instagram Live videos that have many viewers or an overwhelming amount of comments, it can be difficult to see them all and you may miss a bunch of them.
To allow your followers maximum contact with you, you can direct them to leave you a DM with their messages or comments so that you can contact them later.
You can also post an Instagram story with a question sticker so that they can leave their comment there and you can address many different responses all at once or through Instagram stories at a later time.
Don’t get too hung up on comments in the moment— answer what you can and do your best.
You can be transparent and apologize for not getting to everyone, or even letting them know that you’ll answer as many questions as humanly possible.
4 Tips for After You Go Live on Instagram
Whew! Now you’ve completed your Instagram Live. Congrats!
It seems like it’s all over, but you’ve got a few simple tasks that you can do after your Live has finished to solidify the success of your broadcast and keep your followers interested and wanting more.
1. Save Your Video Broadcast
Once your Live broadcast has finished, you have the option to save it. All you have to do is tap the save button and it will be saved to your camera roll.
You can then share the Live video to your stories, and later pin it to your Instagram story highlights, making sure that your followers have access to the content that you posted and shared during the Live video.
You can also then re-watch your video (I know, kind of cringe for some of us!) and take notes about what went well and what you could do better in the next opportunities.
2. Create a Post to Recap Your Broadcast
In the same fashion that you created promos for your Instagram Live, you can create a recap video that will help summarize what you discussed in your Live.
This helps followers to feel that you still care about them even though they didn’t make it to the Live, and it also allows you to encourage viewers to come and see the full Live next time so that they can get all the full details and see the whole experience.
A great way to do this is to encourage your followers to turn on push notifications so that they will be able to see when you go live even if they happened to forget or got too busy.
3. Follow up and Answer Questions
Remember that you asked followers to send you a DM or respond to your Instagram story with additional questions or messages— don’t blow that off!
If you said that you would respond or follow up, make good on your promise. You don’t want to be one of those “empty promises” people. Follow through.
You can respond to them individually or you can respond through videos on Instagram stories with common questions and feature the question stickers in your responses.
This is a simple way to respond and also make sure that all users get the answer.
4. Analyze Metrics
Don’t ignore the performance of your Instagram Live. You should always know how many people viewed your video, initial viewer counts, final viewer counts, and more.
Understanding and analyzing these metrics can help you to see which Live videos performed well and got better engagement.
This will provide valuable information on how you can continue to improve your Instagram Lives, do things that work, and nix whatever isn’t delivering results.
Pro Tip: when you finish your Live video, Instagram shows you the number of viewers. Take a screenshot and you’ll be able to see how many there were at the end.
If you pay attention to who is viewing your video throughout, you’ll be able to know how many people stuck around until the very end.
Wrap-Up
There you have it! All of the pro tips that will help your Instagram Live be as successful as possible.
You’ll feel more comfortable and get into the swing of things when you follow these tips.
Even if you’ve already done a few Lives, you can always find ways to improve and make your Instagram Live videos even more effective.
Instagram Live isn’t something that you have to do on a daily basis, but you should work it into your content strategy so that you can reap the benefits that we mentioned in the first section.
Accounts that do Instagram Live broadcasts are also seen as more professional and also more interactive on Instagram, which will help your overall engagement as well as reputation on Instagram.
If you’re still feeling doubtful, the best thing you can do is watch more Live videos by all types of accounts, especially in your niche.
That way, you get a feel for how things go and how you can model your own strategy after those experienced accounts.
What are your favorite types of Instagram Live videos?
Do share with us any helpful tips for using Instagram live you would give to someone doing their first Instagram Live video.
