Live Better Show, Ep. 3: How to Make a Content Plan for Your Live Streams

In today’s show, Chad meets Jennifer Watson, an amazing Emmy-winning meteorologist. They discuss various helpful tips and tricks to make the live streaming process comfortable for each participant: you as a host, guests, and viewers.

Timestamps for the episode:

00:04 – Intro of the show, welcome Jennifer Watson

09:00 – How to make everyone believe that you are completely comfortable with being on camera?

Jenny says that there are two simple mottos to look confident on camera.

First of all, practice. If you don’t like seeing yourself on camera, just try to overcome this unpleasant feeling. Make a challenge and post more than ten stories daily for a month or even a year. You’ll figure out that being on camera has become a routine for you with time. 

Secondly, just do it. Believe in yourself; even the most successful and popular show hosts have started their way to the top positions of trends from the very bottom. Do some exercises that should help you to calm down. Jennifer’s top three are:

1. Breathing techniques;
2. Visualization;
3. “Problems are okay” approach.

People love when things go wrong. 

16:30 – What content to use?

Before you decide on the content of the show, Jennifer transfer the following questions:

1. What values your brand or you would bring to your audience? 
2. What is the educating aspect?
3. How are you going to measure success? 
4. What days and time would your show be aired? 

As soon as you know the answers to these questions, you have all the components you need to plan a live show. 

23:10 – How to plan a live show?

First of all, you have to have a “Run of show” document. It is a kind of outline for each episode. You have to mention all the points you have to say, like social media news, or write down the questions for your guest. Such pre-work would help to increase both your and your guest’s awareness.

Before the show is live, make sure that all the equipment you use works well, that software is fine, and you know what features you will use.

Think of the show’s timing, as longer shows are considered to be better. Try to make it last at least 20-30 minutes, though an average show goes for about an hour.

29:05 – What are the things Jennifer does to encourage engagement? 

To improve the engagement of your watchers, there are two stages to take care of. Before the show, make sure to promote the show properly. It means that you have to make a post on each social media platform where you have an audience. Remember to send a pre-agreed post to your guests, so they can post it as well and invite their fans. Also, you could make a poll on Instagram stories or Twitter to increase interest in the topic. 

When the show is live, there are numerous techniques to heating the interest. Most importantly, remember to pay enough attention to comments as it’s almost the only way a watcher can communicate with you. 

• Ask watchers to share who they are and where they are from in the comments.
• Invite viewers to answer your question in the comments.
• Pull some of the comments up in the air discuss them with your guest.
• In the middle of the show, pause to welcome watchers who joined after the introduction.
• Prize the most active commentators.

Jennifer Watson

Have fun! If you aren’t having fun, the people watching you aren’t having fun as well.

35:23 – Jennifer’s favorite tools for live shows

Jennifer believes that one of the most horrible mistakes of show hosts beginners is that they don’t invest in their shows. Don’t try to find a free solution for software that builds the core of your show. Some of them don’t cost a fortune but do a great job. 

• Wave.video for streaming your shows. 
• Asana for planning and tracking the progress.