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March 2, 2022
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 min read

Streaming tips for everyone - A short guide to going live

Believe or not – now is simply the best time to pursue a streaming career. In this guide, we share the most effective streaming tips for how to become a pro streamer,

Now is simply the best time to pursue a streaming career. This is true for one main reason: the live streaming market is growing substantially with each passing month. By the end of 2022, live streaming is expected to account for 82% of all internet traffic! Streaming platform like Twitch continue to attract more and more new audiences. Moreover, around one in five videos on Facebook are already live. If you love numbers as much as we do, check out our article on live streaming statistics.

In this article, we will try to create an ultimate guide by answering some of the most common questions asked by every streamer. This guide consists of three parts to help and support you at each stage of the road to becoming a pro streamer.

The first part covers some essential starting points, which build a solid foundation for your career. The second part includes tips to look more professional on your stream. The last section contains some strategies on how to grow your stream.

🤓 How to get started: streaming tips for beginners

Streaming is not as easy as it may seem. However, it is definitely not that hard either. We are here to make it a bit less complicated. Let’s start with some basics.

1. Define your goal

Lots of people make the same mistake right at the beginning of their streaming careers: they do not set a clear goal. Before going live, It is essential to know for sure why you want to stream. Your goal might be something like to grow the audience, to build relationships with your followers, or simply to gain maximum exposure for your content.

2. Choose the type of your stream

After defining your goal, you should choose what you will do on the stream. You can’t just go live and do nothing, can you? Here are some popular ideas for you:

3. Set up your streaming equipment

You can’t live stream without streaming equipment. Well, duh. Moreover, every pro streamer would agree that it is vital to have your stuff properly set up. This, however, can be a bit tricky for those lacking technical expertise. Make sure you have enough bandwidth to maintain a stable connection.

4. Choose your software

Another big step is to choose the right broadcasting software. There are multiple cool apps on the market right now. Luckily, the best ones are free to use. OBS Studio is the parent of all modern streaming programs. It is free and open-source, supports every streaming platform, and offers high and stable performance. Streamlabs OBS is basically an improved version of OBS Studio. It offers fantastic custom themes, donation alerts for streamers, and it is also free to use.

5. Choose your streaming platform

Okay, now it’s time to choose a platform where you will broadcast your content. Keep in mind that each platform has its own particular audience. Therefore, the choice of your main platforms depends a lot on the type of content you have, as well as your objectives. For instance, gamers mostly prefer streaming on Twitch, Mixer, and YouTube Live. Travel bloggers may be more interested in Facebook Live and Instagram Live.

It is also worth mentioning that there’s no downside to live streaming on multiple platforms, besides high CPU usage and hundreds of open tabs on your browser. Restream can help you with that issue. It allows you to stream live to 30+ platforms simultaneously without needing to deal with the technical side of things.

6. Test everything before you go live!

This is the shortest streaming advice, but it’s probably the most important. Never underestimate the power of a simple test. It can prevent you from making unnecessary mistakes and get you on the fast track to success.

Let’s wrap up the streaming tips for beginners:

  1. Define your goal.
  2. Choose the type of your stream.
  3. Set up streaming equipment.
  4. Choose your software.
  5. Choose your streaming platform.
  6. Test everything before you go live.

Streaming tips to become a pro

Now that you know all the preparation steps, we want to share some live streaming tips for you to become a pro in no time. Most successful streamers have some things in common, so we want to highlight them for you.

1. Make sure you look confident on camera

Observe and analyze your favorite streamers. It’s no surprise that they look calm and collected. One of the most reliable (yet slow) ways to gain such confidence is through experience. The more time you spend doing something, the more confident you become in it. However, you can speed up this process a little bit with one simple trick. Sit as comfortably as possible, hold your shoulders back, relax your neck, and keep your posture straight. Try to sit like that for 15 to 30 minutes at a time to see a difference quickly.

2. Communicate with your audience

One of the main reasons people enjoy watching live videos is that they can communicate with streamers directly. Now that you’ve learned how to be confident, don’t forget to engage your audience. Just imagine you’re talking to a bunch of your friends and acquaintances. This, however, leads us to the next point.

3. Avoid inappropriate behavior

You might be surprised to learn how many streamers ruined their careers with inappropriate behavior. Foul language, sexist comments, and racist jokes can be fatal in the world of live streaming.

4. Learn from competitors

Find your competitors, analyze their content, and learn their strong and weak sides. Some of them may lack engagement, whereas others may be straight boring. Remember, the one with the information can avoid making crucial mistakes and do better than everyone else.

5. Use additional tools

It’s amazing how some simple but powerful instruments can significantly improve a streamer’s quality of life. One such tool is Restream Monitor, a stream monitoring system. This little friend allows you to monitor all the incoming and outgoing data on all your streams in real time. Restream Monitor can help you find any issues within your streaming sessions and quickly solve them.

Now, let’s sum up these pro streaming tips:

  1. Look confident on cam.
  2. Communicate with your audience.
  3. Avoid inappropriate behavior.
  4. Learn from your competitors.
  5. Use additional tools.

🤩 Streaming tips to grow your audience

Every streamer eventually faces one major question: how to grow the audience. Getting more followers and subscribers can be challenging, especially if you are doing things intuitively. Don’t be that person. Here are some proven streaming tips to build an army of viewers.

1. Promote your videos and channel on social media

Show the world what you are up to. Social media like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the best platforms to advertise your content and attract more viewers. Don’t forget, your titles and hashtags should be trendy and catchy! It is super efficient to promote your videos on every possible social media. After all, if billboards were free, wouldn’t you use them?

2. Encourage your viewers to like, share, and subscribe

It may not be that obvious, but people often forget to like, share, and subscribe, even if they enjoyed the content. So it’s your job to remind them. Don’t be too shy to ask your viewers to hit the bell.

3. Create teasers

Memes and GIFs are the bread and butter of any popular streamer nowadays. These can be used as small teasers for your live streams, as well as for your channel in general. You could also create exciting, engaging previews and post them on social media before going live. This brings us to the next streaming tip.

4. Always announce your live streams

Announcing your stream is like saying to your friends: “Hey, guys! I’m going to do something interesting here in an hour. Come join me!” Wouldn’t you want to let your friends know when your live stream is on?

5. Create SEO titles and descriptions

Often, people find new videos through search engines like Google or Yahoo. The same applies to live videos and streamers. If you want people to see your content in the top search results, you should create some catchy SEO titles and descriptions. Place your keywords in the title and description to make Google notice you.

6. Restream Events

Another cool option you’ve got is Restream Events. This amazing service allows you to reuse your old streams to broadcast them on other platforms. You can just schedule them for any time you want and enjoy your free time.

7. Restream Analytics

One of the best ways to grow your audience is to understand it better. We can help you with that. Restream Analytics provides you with helpful insights on your live stream performance. It allows you to understand what your audience enjoys the most. Moreover, it gives a new perspective on life in your chat by gathering statistics like trending emojis and top chatters.

8. Stream consistently

Finally, if you really want to grow your streaming brand, you should stream regularly. Create a schedule of your streams and do it consistently through thick and thin. You have to be determined and fully committed to this job.

Let’s wrap up the streaming tips aimed to get you more followers:

  1. Promote your stream on social media
  2. Encourage others to like and subscribe
  3. Create fancy teasers
  4. Always announce your live streams
  5. Use SEO titles and descriptions
  6. Try Restream Events
  7. Get insights with Restream Analytics
  8. Stream consistently

The bottom line

Live streaming gets more and more popular every day. People turn their heads toward live streams, and they absolutely love it. Even huge brands prefer to promote their products with live videos. So if you want to be a streamer, jump on board. It’s now or never! You don’t have to be afraid of the terrifying quantity of streaming tips we have just given you. Start with the basics and deal with new problems as they come. After all, live streaming should bring you both joy and money. Good luck, go live, and have fun!

Sharif Matar is a UX Director and design lead who has built software and digital products used by millions.

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