Social media is one of the places that trend starts. There, interactions between friends, businesses, people and culture in general, are constantly changing.
When text posts were the thing, images started to occupy social media. Not long afterwards, audio and video came in and became popular. After they became the biggest appeal that made people to stick around longer on social media, then came live streaming.
It was born as a concept, but years later, it became a reality.
With live streaming, people can take videos in real-time and share instantly with others. This is practical, and essentially engaging with a high possibility to go viral. Although the initial goal for live streaming was centered in getting regular people to live stream life events and share them with families and friends, the idea rapidly evolved to become a strategy for businesses and celebrities.
So not anymore normal people. Everyone that use and loves social media, apparently likes live streaming.
Social Media In Popularizing Live Streaming
When Facebook began supporting live streaming to its users, it could have forced users to download a separate app for that. Like for example, a Facebook Live app dedicated to live streaming. But instead, Facebook integrated its Live feature inside the regular Facebook app.
The strategy is for convenience. This way, anyone that never live streamed before, can go Live anytime they want. And those that never see live streams, will see some that will appeal them.
Another big player is Periscope. Twitter's live streaming app works separately from Twitter's app. With Periscope, users can live stream similarly to the way they do on Facebook. But unlike Facebook, users need to be a Periscope users, not just Twitter users.
Periscope users can easily publish their post to Twitter, and Twitter is famous for its real-time and faster engagement if compared to Facebook.
Other competitors in the game include Instagram and Snapchat. The two image- and video-based platforms are also built to have their own live streaming feature. But they prefer the other way around, a similar strategy, but engaging in a different position.
Both leverage short video clips where users can post moments later. Short clips to some users are more convenience because they can imply a message in a short but powerful way. This advantage allows businesses to use them to create a huge impact.
YouTube live streaming is another big competitor and honorable mention. In fact, YouTube Live has a longer history, and it's technically older that Facebook and others. It was in 2010 when Google's online video giant had broadcast live events around the world. Live is available on different but related platforms, but they all work essentially the same.
But with YouTube starting out as a video-streaming platform, YouTube is seeing a lot more new streamers who are just starting out with livestreaming, and have not developed consistent livestream channels yet, if compared to others in the competition. The reason for this is because most people are still not aware of it. Google played a low-key on this feature, not promoting it as big as others in the competition.
Both live streaming and short video clips have their own advantages, and it all depends on their audience. While there are plenty of other services and apps that offer live streaming and short video clips, all appeal to their own respective audience.
The Interactive Broadcasting
Live streaming and short video clips are growing in popularity, especially to those people who are active on social media platforms. They have many cultural, social, and business implications. They can create impacts with their own ways to their own audience.
As customer service and customer interaction become a bigger focus on businesses, live streaming is one of the features that can intrigue customer experience in a way that is impossible using other means.
And since live streaming and short video clips became the way brands refocus their efforts on marketing, they are seeing benefits because on the internet, people don't actually sit in front of each other. We're all strangers, but we love interactiveness.