Getting started with live-streaming Part 3
The last part of our introductory series of live streaming platforms focuses on the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter as well as Vimeo, which is a different kind of live streaming platform. All of them are useful for various purposes and should be chosen wisely, depending on your needs.
Facebook — Mother of modern Social Media
Facebook is one of the oldest and also largest social media platforms in the World Wide Web. People mostly use it to interact with their friends and family, since it offers quite a private setting. However, brands and content creators have their own Facebook Page to share their content publicly. This allows interaction with a wide range of people in real-time and for free. Therefore, live streams are a handy tool to create a bond between the brand and their followers; however, individuals can have private streams as well. It is possible to switch the settings to a personal or public stream and manage comments through blacklists of words, which results in more control over the stream. Furthermore, it is possible to plan a stream. The streamer can engage with their following via comments, while viewers can send likes and ask questions in the comment section.
There are no specific requirements to go live on Facebook. Every user can go live if they wish to. It is possible to not only stream from a phone but also a camera or streaming software. However, it is necessary to use Chrome as a browser to go live on a computer, otherwise, there will be problems regarding the stream’s performance. Facebook allows its users to have live audio transmissions if they do not want to share a video; they also can live stream a group chat from Messenger. As Zoom is becoming more popular due to COVID-19, it is also possible to live stream it on Facebook. However, in the past, Facebook had some data security issues, which should be taken into account when considering Facebook as a live streaming platform.
Twitter — More than short messages
Twitter is famous for its short messages — called Tweets-, where people can use a limited number of characters. Twitter users can go live through another free-to-use app called Periscope while interacting with their followers through comments. Periscope offers its users an intuitive interface so they can quickly start their live streams. The streamers can go live either with video or audio, depending on their needs and preferences, but they must have a public account. They can also invite a maximum of three guests to their live stream or allow their viewers to join them through their requests. The streamer can assign one or more moderators to control the chatbox to eliminate offensive or inappropriate comments by other users and, in some cases, mute certain people.
A stream can have a description and a tagged location to make it easier for other people to find it. As soon as the live stream has ended, the user can add a title, a thumbnail, and a custom starting point. However, the title can only be edited up to three times. The live stream will be saved and directly posted to the user’s pinboard as a Tweet. Suppose a user wants to delete the live stream, there are two different possibilities: Either delete the live stream on Twitter, and it will be deleted on Periscope as well, or delete the video on Periscope but keep it on Twitter as a Tweet. Also, two to three hours after the live stream has ended, the user has access to the statistics. Another useful tool offered is the possibility to plan the video for up to one year in advance, which comes in handy for brands or creators who wish to go live regularly.
Vimeo — A different kind of Streaming Platform
Vimeo is a special kind of streaming platform since it is not a social media platform like Facebook or Twitter. In contrast to them, a particular paid subscription is mandatory. The user needs either a Vimeo Premium or Vimeo Enterprise subscription to go live; a Vimeo Pro or Vimeo Business subscription is insufficient. Besides this, there are no other requirements than technical ones such as a camera, a microphone and an encoder. There is no limit to the number of viewers; however, only three streams can co-occur. Besides, the stream itself has no maximum duration, only if there are concurrent streams, there is a limit of 12 hours. In the settings, the streamer can decide if it is a recurring or a one-time event. However, a recurring event does not mean the stream will be started automatically at the set event time.
In the settings, thumbnails can be uploaded as well as adding a title and description and adjusting the privacy of the stream. The user can find the shareable link and the embed code in the Embed Tab of the Live Settings Page. The user can share the live stream to other social media platforms as well. Besides, the streamer can choose if the live chat will be enabled or not. Vimeo has some advantages, in contrast to other platforms, like creating polls and Q&As for their viewers to interact more with them or add graphics such as logos to their stream. The streamer can also observe the stability and performance of the stream. However, depending on the streamer’s needs, it is questionable whether a paid streaming platform is necessary or not.
Our upcoming articles will cover recent novelties of all the discussed live streaming platforms, which will give you a deeper insight into the particular platform and its advantages. Twitch will be the first to be inspected, followed by YouTube.
© Pictures by Pixabay
