The complete guide to social media live streaming

The power of video has made it easier than ever to live stream on social media. And with over 3.6 billion social users worldwide, there’s a big opportunity to catch your audience in their channel of choice.

But going live isn’t easy. The thought of freezing on screen or rambling incoherently can make even the most seasoned influencer flinch. Engaging a social audience takes lots of planning, practice, and deep breathing.

If you’ve thought of social media live streaming one too many times, but weren’t sure where to start, you’re in the right place. This guide will teach you how to go live on social media — including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, and TikTok — and look like a pro doing it.

We’ll also share how to maximize viewership by simultaneously streaming across different platforms.

Additionally, we’ll run through how to perfect your social media live streaming so you can stop fretting the number of followers and start building an authentic connection with your audience.

What is social media live streaming?

Social media live streaming is the simple art of reaching your audience on channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin in real time. The purpose of a social stream can be to promote a brand or service, engage a target audience, or host a live conversation.

Three benefits of social media live streaming

There are plenty of benefits to streaming on social media. For the sake of brevity, we’ve distilled them to three important perks:

👉 Your audience expects and welcomes live content. In fact, it won’t be wrong to say that they love live content as 82% prefer live video over social posts from a brand.

👉 Social media streaming gives you the opportunity to increase brand awareness and build better relationships with your audience. How? By showing your brand’s human side in real time.

👉 Live streaming encourages engagement that increases your conversion rate. A Taiwanese fashion brand, Lulu, grew its conversion value by 64% by live streaming just one of their events.

For small businesses and entrepreneurs live streaming benefits your business.

How to go live on social media

Most social media platforms make it easy to go live as you’ll see in the steps below. The real question is: where should you live stream?

Choosing to stream on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok can leave you feeling utterly divided. Each platform offers a unique audience and perks, which can make it tougher to call the shots. Thankfully, there are two solutions:

• Go where your audience is

If you’re targeting a young audience under 34, TikTok is where you should be streaming live. If it’s business professionals you wish to connect with, LinkedIn live is your answer. In short, look at where your audience hangs out. Then, make a beeline to that platform.

• Simulcast to broaden your reach

Typically, your audience doesn’t use one social media platform. They’re at least on two different networks. To maximize your reach, try simulcasting or going live on both the channels at once with the help of Vimeo.

Not convinced? ClayShare simulcasted their 10-day live conference on Vimeo, Facebook, and YouTube using Vimeo’s live streaming platform. They even posted the content to their website with an embedded stream.

Similarly, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) increased its Facebook page views by up to 2000 views in a week. How? By using Vimeo to multistream their weekly policy seminar on their Facebook page and website.

That’s good, isn’t it? When you put in the work, you might as well reap the most of it. Read this guide to see how you can go live on up to five platforms at once.

With the option to simulcast open to you, let’s give you the low-down of how to stream on each social media platform:

How to go live on Twitter

With a super-engaged audience that’s hooked on value-based, witty content, there’s lots of potential in connecting with people by going live on the bluebird platform.

Take the following steps and you’ll be live in no time:

1. Select the camera icon from your composer (where you write tweets)
2. Tap Live at the bottom-right
3. Tap Invite guests if you plan to co-host a live stream or interview someone4. Hit Go live

You’ll also be asked to fill in the description and location. Those are optional. But, if you do fill in these details, Twitter will send out a tweet with your live broadcast’s description and location to your profile and follower’s timeline, helping increase your visibility.

How to go live on Instagram

As with Twitter, going live on Instagram doesn’t take much technical work.

Go live on Instagram in three simple steps:

1. Swipe right to open your camera in the app
2. Pick Live from the options available at the bottom of the screen
3. Click Live when you’re ready to stream

Once you’re live, you can access multiple options. For instance, you can DM your live video to someone, add a fellow Instagrammer to co-host the stream, add filters to your live feed , and post featured questions for viewers to engage with you.

How to go live on Facebook

Facebook Live attracts three times the engagement than typical social videos get. Top that up with the fact that Facebook has 2.7 billion monthly active users and you’ve no reason not to stream on Facebook right away.

To get started, follow these steps:

• Broadcast from your business page

Simply select post and hit go live.

You’ll also get an option to write a short description for your broadcast that’ll help newcomers understand what you’re streaming about. Plus, you can pick your audience by tapping on the three dots (check them at the top right of your screen).

• Go live from your Facebook profile

Head to your newsfeed and select live.Again, you’ll have the option to select your audience. This time around, you can make adjustments from the To: field that’s at the top of your screen. You’ll also see the ‘send notifications’ toggle here. It lets you alert your followers when you’re live.

Pro tip: Make sure you add a title of at least 255 characters to all your Facebook broadcasts. Not doing so can result in a failed stream according to Facebook itself.

Once your Facebook stream ends, it’ll live as a video post in your feed – helping you get more viewers even after you’ve ended the broadcast.

How to go live on LinkedIn

Unlike social media streaming on other platforms, live streaming on LinkedIn isn’t as simple as selecting a few options and broadcasting instantly. Instead, it takes a bit of work – asking you to complete an application form for approval and requiring at least two monitors or separate browser windows to manage the comments as you stream.

Once approved, you’ll get a notification giving you the green signal to go live.

Next, follow these steps:

1. Register a third-party broadcasting tool to be able to broadcast on LinkedIn. Select from LinkedIn Live’s preferred partners – these include Vimeo. 💪

2.   Click the broadcast button on your third-party tool and film.

When the session ends, it’ll stay in your LinkedIn feed, getting more engagement.

Wondering if all this effort is worth the time? If your target audience is active on LinkedIn, walking these extra miles is completely worth it as LinkedIn Live videos get seven times the reaction and 24 times the comments than a native video.

Heads-up: Stream no less than 10-15 minutes – that’s the minimum per LinkedIn stream. Why? Because it takes viewers at least this long to join and engage with your broadcast. If you want to post videos no longer than 15 minutes, go for sharing short videos on the platform.

How to go live on Tiktok

Home to bite-sized videos, TikTok has grown to welcome 800 million active users in a short time.

So to go live here, follow along:

1. Tap the + sign at the bottom-center of your screen
2. Select the Live button
3. Add a title (limited to 32 characters) for your stream and tap Go Live to start rolling live

But hang on. If you want to tinker with TikTok’s filters, select the Filters and Smooth buttons that you’ll see above the Go Live option.

A little heads-up: silence your inner music junkie by turning off any music playing in the background to keep copyright disputes at bay. We aren’t going to stop you from listening to Dance Monkey once you’re offline.

Can’t see the Go Live button? That could be for two reasons. One, you might not be meeting one of the conditions TikTok has outlined for its ambitious live streamers. For example, your follower count might not be 1000 – a prerequisite to live streaming on TikTok.

Two, there might be lots of people streaming when you plan to stream yourself. In which case, waiting for a few minutes and trying again can help.

Social media stream ideas

Now that you’ve all the steps on how to go live on social media, there’s nothing that can stop you. Except, maybe the question about exactly what to stream. But, we’ve got your back.

Add these fun stream ideas to your social media live streaming idea bank:

Make an announcement

Do a product demo on LinkedIn like Hootsuite to capture your potential customers in a channel where they’re likely to be active.

Host an AMA session

Interview industry experts on the regular like Vimeo’s Working Lunch Series

Here are more examples of businesses crushing it on LinkedIn Live.

At the end of the day, your social live stream is all about keeping conversations flowing. If you’re racking your brain on other ways to get on the (streaming) stage, try one of these ideas:

• Do a BTS live stream, for example, show your workspace.
• Share tips or lay out how to do something.
• Share your thoughts on an industry event or trend.

Social media live streaming tips

Finally, here are six simple tips to help you rock at live streaming. If you’re looking to dig deeper, you’ll find these live streaming tips from the Vimeo team helpful. Plus, we’ve got a streaming checklist to help you keep everything on track.

1. Start with an outline

An outline is a must whether you’re someone who dominates at improv on the fly or if you’re someone who finds comfort in direction.  Without one, you might find yourself leaning on ‘umms’ and ‘ahs’ more often than you like. You might even find yourself in an awkward position where you completely forget what you were saying.

Going live means meeting audience expectations without any retakes. It also requires keeping the audience engaged with a flowing conversation and clearly defined content. For all this and more, an outline gives you much needed direction.

2. Practice before you go live

Again, zero retakes and the pressure to keep the show going takes work. Of course, you’ll get better with time. No matter if you’re a live streaming pro or total newbie, practice makes perfect.

Try recording yourself and reviewing the video to see how you’re presenting. Or host a live session to a closed audience of friends to get some constructive feedback.

3. Announce your stream ahead of time

Creating hype around your live stream helps you build anticipation, encouraging folks to join you as you go live. Want a better idea? Cross-promote.

Take a page from the Content Marketing Institute’s social media live streaming book. They invite folks from their Twitter chat to join their Facebook Live.

4. Offer context throughout the stream

Your audience will likely jump in and out of your stream at different times.  Remember toto what your topic throughout the stream as folks join in late. Alternatively, add a lower third to the bottom of your stream to provide clarity to viewers.

 5. Have a plan to engage with your audience

The best part about live streams is the ability to connect with your audience in real time. Take advantage of tools and host an ask me anything (AMA) session, send out a poll, or take questions via chat. Reading comments and responding to them throughout the stream is a good way to keep viewers engaged and connected to your streaming content.

6. Simulcast to multiple destinations

If you’re afraid to choose between social channels – don’t worry! Explore live streaming platforms that allow you to simultaneously stream to different social channels. And if you have a specific community or destination in mind, you can always leverage RTMP to reach your fanbase.

7. Add a CTA to your social media stream

Want viewers to follow you to get updates on when you go live next? Want them to download the checklist of the process you explained in your broadcast? Whatever step you want viewers to take, tell them.

Bonus: To get viewers to stick with you until the very end of your social media stream, offer a giveaway, a discounted class, cheat sheet, or a free ebook. Tell them you’ll be giving them a surprise in the end and they’ll stay to see what you have to offer. Just make sure the gift is worth their time.

Ready to tap into social media live streaming?

Now that you know how to go live on social media, we suggest you polish your idea into an outline, finalize your wardrobe, and pick a social network to start streaming. Better yet, simulcast your social media live stream with Vimeo so you’re covering more ground with less effort.

Go live with Vimeo