If you’re a complete newcomer to live video streaming and you’ve never streamed a video before in your life, then you might find it somewhat nerve wracking going in front of a camera. This can be a very scary feeling as you’re going to be exposed and live on the feed and the whole process is quite unlike any other form of marketing. Where do you even begin? This guide will get you set up and hopefully confident to begin making lots more videos.
Getting Set Up
The first step is of course to set up your account on one of these platforms. Normally, the easiest way to do this is to install the app. Periscope, Meerkat and Blab each have apps on iPhone and Periscope and Meerkat also have Android equivalents. If you’re looking to use Blab and you don’t have an iOS device, then you can use it through the browser at blab.im.
Once you’ve done that, the set-up process is similar for each of these platforms. Simply decide whether you want to sign up with your Twitter account or your phone number and then enter a username and password if you chose the latter.
From here you’ll be able to choose whether you want to start following your existing Twitter contacts and in the case of Meerkat, your Facebook contacts.
Starting Filming
So how do you begin streaming?
Easy: in each of these apps there’s a button that should be rather self-explanatory (either an image of a camera or a button that says ‘Start Streaming’). You can also enter a title for your stream and in the case of Blab choose some tags as well that will define what category of content you’re creating. These are important features as they are what will dictate whether or not people check out your footage.
You might find that it’s a daunting prospect at first turning on your camera and letting anyone watch. A good place to start then is with a very small test – just point your camera at something and film. You’ll find that this alone is enough to land you a few new followers and it should give you the confidence you need to set up something a little more ambitious in the future.
It really is that simple and while there are many more options and things you can learn, this is more than enough to get you started!
