What are the most common live streaming challenges and how to overcome them?

The biggest challenges to live streaming: Technical: Internet connection. computer & software being used. The 3rd party streaming software Monetizing your content is challenging because no one wants to appear as to sale driven Managing time is essential to a quality R.O.I. Experience & practice as well as collaboration can minimizes your challenges

Finding your niche... What is your niche? Your niche is YOU. Be yourself, and people will naturally gravitate towards you. I started streaming in 2019 and achieved Twitch partnership in four months. By finding a small community in an unsaturated category, I showcased my personality and energy without competing with large streamers. This allows you to experiment, gain honest feedback and evolve your streams to make you unique. When people join your stream, make them feel welcome. Twitch is about connecting with new people and communities. Start with a game you love and build your community there. From that foundation, you can gradually move into more saturated categories.

To build a community, you need two main things: 1. Belief in the community and its people: You must develop trust in the community and its members. Invest the time to nurture relationships and connect with them. Most folks genuinely want to see you succeed and will support you along the way. Similarly, you will create the space for them to succeed too. 2. Create a space for interaction: People are savvy and know what they want, especially when it's right in front of them. Your role is to establish a central meeting place or hub where your followers can interact, connect, and feel like they belong. Everyone wants to feel seen, understood and connected. A strong community delivers precisely that.

A lot of live-streamers think they have a community when in fact they have an audience. An audience is people who consume content without necessarily interacting with each other, while a community involves people who share a common interest, goal, or passion and interact with each other. The key difference is that an audience is passive, while a community is active and engaged. Members of a community feel a sense of belonging and invest in each other's success. Focus on building a community instead of an audience.

To build your Twitch community, being interactive is key. In my first two weeks of streaming, I had one viewer, which was myself, on a second monitor. But I kept a lively conversation with myself, discussing my thoughts, actions, and in game events. Learn to talk to yourself. Narrate your thoughts, explain your actions, and tell stories inspired by the game. Act as if you’re addressing an audience of 1,000. When new viewers join, they’ll find you engaging. Ask new viewers about their day, their opinions and get them involved. Your first 100 followers will be your most engaged and loyal supporters. Build on that foundation and learn from your early successes.

Other than marketing efforts to promote your stream before it happens, it helps to do a simulcast (simultaneous broadcast) to multiple platforms during the live stream itself. Imagine streaming from your own website, pushing the same feed to major social media platforms and enabling viewers to find you while they browse their go-to social media app. Instead of using multiple devices to stream or streaming across various channels at different times, use a tool that allows you to simulcast to all your audience's preferred channels at once so you can maximize reach with minimal effort.

Two mistakes I see over and over are a lack of interesting titles that tell potential viewers what to expect and writing detailed timestamps after the fact so people can get a benefit from the stream after the fact. You gotta tell people what is inside the stream otherwise it’s a mystery and it makes it harder for a viewer to stop and watch. Shaily Hakimian YourSocialMediaSherpa.com

Beware of “quick growth strategies” that are not sustainable! A steady organic growth over an extended period of time is far more valuable and sustainable than a quick peak growth followed by a trough.

My perspective may differ from the points made above, but as a Twitch partner, managing your time outside of streams will always be challenging. Your stream schedule should be consistent, so please never change it! Stream on the same days and at the same times every week. This consistency allows your community to know when to find you. Only change your schedule for special occasions. Outside of stream times, set general time markers, but be flexible. Some days you might just want to play games, or maybe interact with your community, or simply spend time with family. The most impactful time is your stream time. Focus on never missing that.

A lot of this can be achieved with the proper repurposing of Livestream content that are broken down to specific networks themselves. Take microcontent, best snippets, and other 'chunks' of your livestream and break them down so they may be used on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, & other social media channels. Not only this, but focus on the medium of content as well. 16:9 clips, 9:16 clips, quote memes, audio only posts, & blog content (with cross-links to other existing content), can go a long way in providing a cohesive approach to your offer. Using your social media clips as the funnel for your paid services is the easiest way to monetize the stream outside of direct supporters & donations.

Navigating the challenge of monetizing your content as a streamer is like walking a tightrope between passion & pragmatism. It's a delicate dance where you want to turn your love for streaming into a sustainable income without compromising authenticity. Struggle lies in finding that sweet spot–a balance between generating revenue & offering genuine value & entertainment to an audience. In my view, social media becomes a canvas for this delicate art. Diversify income through social media by promoting products and services and encouraging donations. Seamlessly integrate sponsors and collaborations into your narrative. Prioritize core content authenticity, using these platforms as a bridge to turn the challenge into a rewarding journey.

One way to measure the performance of your live streams on LinkedIn is to track your engagement rate. I like to use the same formula I use for tracking my video metrics. Here's the formula I use: (Reactions + Comments + Shares) ÷ Impressions = Engagement % ex. 54 + 209 + 5 ÷ 2780 = 0.0964 (9.6%) 🙏 This was taught to me by Jeff Young #TheLinkedInGuru NOTE: 3-5% is a great engagement rate