I'm hungry. Got a hankering for turkey. And mince pies.
I've just finished watching Jamie Oliver's first Christmas LIVE Q&A - streamed on YouTube (his FoodTube channel) and Facebook.
In it he spoke directly to his audience, interacting with their messages (as has proved so popular with Periscope streaming), answering their questions, even controlling his own camera...
Yes. He's Jamie Oliver. Yes. He has a huge media team... but the reason this works well is because actually it's done on the cheap: it's raw, live, personal, authentic and there's no reason why you couldn't do it too. Read on to find out why you should bother.
I've embedded the video below, I clearly don't expect you to watch it all, so basically it runs likethis: hello - fun - wait for enough viewers to join - start answering questions - end with a plug for his magazine, TV show and upcoming live streams like this about Christmas.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
The recipe for Jamie's success is pretty simple. Get ready to share your knowledge, give tips, do short demos. Let's face it, this is really a cooler version of a webinar right? No powerpoint in sight.
It still helps if you have a theme or a topic (so here it was 'christmas showstoppers') to focus the video and inspire your audience.
WHY YOU SHOULD BOTHER
- You help build that connection with your audience: they're your customers/potential customers; engage with them.
- You show the human side to your business, literally, if you're friendly and knowledgable chances are we'll want to buy from you.
- In receiving questions you'll get an insight into what your audience actually wants to know; whilst you might not answer all of them live, you'll end up with a stack of content ideas for future videos or blog posts; it's like a collective brainstorm meeting.
- You will end up with answers/facts that you can use in further social activity and blog posts, either as text or shorter excerpts of the video, like this:
REMEMBER
It doesn't have to be perfect. This is Jamie Oliver, seasoned pro and it's not perfect, in fact it'd be boring if it was. So don't stress about it. Have a bit of a rehearsal so you know how the gear works and figure out how you'll filter questions, maybe have a few already lined up in case the interaction starts off slow.
If you don't try this, you'll never know.
Want help getting started? Get in touch. Especially if you've got some mince pies.