“People have always been visual – our brains are wired for images. Writing was a hack, a detour. Pictorial languages are how we all started to communicate. We are coming full circle.”
-Kevin Systrom, Instagram co-founder
The reason why two-thirds of all internet traffic is now video is because the average U.S. adult spends more than 300 minutes a day watching video content.
That’s five hours.
Each day.
And the fastest growing segment of the video consumption market is live video. Live video does what taped or on-demand video can’t do – it adds a real-life, real-time component to the experience that simply cannot be mimicked.
Think about watching a live football game on TV. The experience – the unpredictability, the urgency, the excitement – isn’t the same if you are watching a taped version of the game.
It feels real because it is real.
People crave that authenticity. That’s why live video now accounts for 17% of online video traffic and is expected to grow by 15X by 2022, according to Cisco’s latest Visual Networking Index. In fact, a survey by Go-Globe predicted that by 2020, live video would account for 82% of all internet traffic.
Another survey conducted by New York Magazine and Livestream found that 80% of consumers would rather watch a brand’s live video than read a blog or social media post. It’s why social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube have invested heavily in live video capabilities. It’s why publishers like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and Forbes are launching live video studios.
Already 55% of brands use live video for internal events – all-hands meetings, company announcements, etc. So, the majority of enterprises understand that live video is an effective way to communicate with their employees. Well, guess what? Live video is just as effective for communicating with external audiences.
Here are three reasons why every brand should consider going live:
1 – Social Media is Already Live
Social media has always been real-time, but now it is live time. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are investing heavily in live video capabilities as their billions of users demand live video content. Facebook says that one out of five videos being watched on its platform is now live and those videos are watched three-times more than pre-recorded videos.
Twitter’s Periscope app now boasts 9.3 million live videos each month and has more than 1.9 million daily users.
YouTube’s numbers are even more spectacular, with more than five billion video views each day – and an average visit to the site lasts an unbelievable 40 minutes. YouTube remains the most popular place to watch live video, with 70% of live video users preferring the site, followed by Facebook Live (66%) and Livestream (45%), according to the New York Magazine and Livestream survey.
2 – Live Video Humanizes a Brand
79% of marketers say live video facilitates a more authentic interaction with an audience, according to statistics compiled by Zoominfo. It’s hard to argue given that live video brings an intimacy and a trust that few other marketing methods can duplicate.
Not only is it an instantaneous form of communication, but it allows for live interactions and engagement.
3 – Live Video Drives Lead Generation and Commerce
There’s a reason Amazon launched Amazon Live at the start of 2019 and has fully integrated live video into Prime Day – it moves products. Amazon is even allowing brands to participate in the live streams, with one retailer saying the live videos of its product increased sales by 5X.
New advances in live streaming technology allow for brands to build commerce directly into their live videos. Brands can also create instant polling, get real-time feedback from viewers and even direct viewers to download white papers, infographics and other digital assets.