How to Create Your Live Video Checklist
Confident Live Marketing Podcast
Episode 8
Episode Theme: Content & Marketing
July 11, 2019
In this episode, I am going to help you to put together your Live Video Checklist so that you have nothing to worry about and you will be well prepared. This will help reduce the number of things that can go wrong or that you can forget to do.
A big thank you and shout out to our podcast sponsors - Content 10x. They are a great service that takes your one piece of content and repurposes it into an array of content for all the different social media platforms to help you to promote the original content.
Why it’s important to have a checklist
So many things can go wrong in a live broadcast. By having a checklist - you can help to mitigate issues so that you can relax much more before you press that button and go live.
When platforms such as Facebook Live came out, it was really buggy and so many things could go wrong. I ended up creating a checklist to help me to think about everything that needed attention before going Live.
Don’t get complacent - have a CHECKLIST and follow it. I promise you, it will save you a lot of time and hassle!
Items for Your checklist
#1 The Content
Create a title and theme for your show - then put together at least three points that you want to talk about when I go live.
To keep it simple, write these three things on a post-it note, and then stick it in your line of sight, so you can check it while you are live and keep yourself on track.
See more in my podcast #005 The Five P’s of Live Video Content
#2 Promoting the Live
Make sure you pre-plan and promote your live show, so people know when and what time you are going to live. Obviously, if you are doing an impromptu live - then you can't promote it so easily. But you can still plan what you're going to share.
(More in my podcast #005 The Five Ps of Live Video Content)
#3 Check Your Environment Before Going Live
Take about 30 minutes before you go live to check the following things:
- Look at your lighting - make sure you are facing the light (or window) and that the light is not behind you.
- Double-check your gear:
- Tripod - if you are not going to be moving around, set up your phone on a tripod
- Gimble - if you are going to move around, try to get a gimble to reduce movement of the phone/camera
- Make sure your microphone is working (do a test run before you go live)
- Remove Distractions
- If you have people around you (or children in the house if you work from home) make sure you speak to them and let them know that you are going live and you need peace and quiet
- If you have any alarms on your watch or phone - make sure everything is switched off
You can find out more about gear in my podcast #005 ‘Top Tools for your Live Video Toolbox'.
#4 Shut down Bandwidth-hogging Apps
Check if anyone else is using your internet (like streaming from Netflix) and that you are not updating software in the background on your computer or mobile. If you're broadcasting live from your smartphone, disconnect computers and tablets from the internet so they're not hogging the internet. If you're broadcasting from your computer, shut down apps like Dropbox or Google Drive which may be hogging your CPU or internet bandwidth.
#5 Run a Speed Test
It is important to run a speed test (I recommend speedtest.net - used for mobile and desktop) to try to get an upload speed of at least 4 Mbps. If it’s lower than that, then you are going to need to find somewhere else to go live. You will end up with bad audio and a sketchy picture - so avoid this at all costs.
#6 Check Your Phone Orientation
If you're broadcasting from your phone, make sure that your phone isn’t locked in an orientation. You can't change the orientation of your live broadcast after you go live - only before. So before you press that Go Live button, get your phone in the right orientation.
#7 Draft a Post for the Live
Create an update that you want to use to describe the live for the audience so they have some context for the live. This gives the viewer an idea of what you are going to be talking about. (Note - you'll want to come back to this after you are finished your live and update the show notes for the live.)
#8 Do Your Warm-Up, Getting Ready to go Live
This makes a big difference to how you present yourself on camera. You can read / listen to my episode where I go all into this topic: #003 ‘How to Warm-Up Your Voice & Communicate with Confidence’.
#9 Practice What You Are Going to Say First
Make sure you introduce yourself and are clear what the first sentence is going to be that you will say when you go live. I always start my shows with: “Hello, I’m Ian Anderson Gray, and this is the Confident Live Marketing Show.”
Make it clear from the start, introduce yourself (do not assume everyone knows who you are and what the show is about) and let them know what you are going to be talking about.
As humans we are hardwired to look at a human face, so you will be tempted to look/watch yourself on the screen. But - this doesn’t help your audience, because you actually are not looking at them directly. It actually feels quite disconcerting watching someone not look at the camera.
You need to make a conscious effort to look at the lens of your camera (and pretend someone is standing behind the camera…and look through the lens at them).
If you struggle with this - get a little sticker with an arrow pointing at where you need to look. This will help - I did this and it helped me stay focused.
#11 Pressing the Go Live button
Usually, depending on the software you use, you'll get a little countdown once you have pressed the button, so just be ready when you see the “LIVE” signal - start confidently (even if you don’t feel like you are).
If you are just starting out or going live at a tricky time of the day for your viewers - you may not get many or any live viewers. Don't worry! Just introduce yourself and welcome your replay viewers (who will be watching in the future).
#12 Share Your Topic
Get straight into your topic and the points that you will be covering. Try to not get too distracted by comments too early on. Try to pace yourself - so for example, discuss your first point, then look at comments and answer questions, and then move on to the next point.
#13 Do a Roundup Summary
Remind your audience what you have covered in the live - what are the main takeaways. Try and include what they can go and do when they leave the show (share your call to action).
Make sure if there are any comments that you have missed and cover, or let them know you will answer them in the comments. Let the audience know when you will be going live again - this lets them know that you will be consistently going live and that they can expect to see you again.
#14 Close and Say Goodbye
Don’t be afraid of just saying goodbye and clicking the end broadcast button. Avoid rambling on and taking longer just for the sake of it - it’s ok to leave people wanting more.
#15 Update the Description of the Live Post
You need to now go back and update the description that you first put on the live post. Basically, you are adding some show notes for the live. If you want a word for word transcription to go into the post, you could use rev.com or something similar.
#16 Post-Promote the Live Video
Make sure that people know that you went live and that you want them to see your piece of content.
If you would like to download my own live video checklist - you are more than welcome to go to: iag.me/livechecklist to get a copy for yourself. I cover all of the elements above and a few more.
Until next time, I hope you can level up your authority and impact by using confident live video.
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About Ian Anderson Gray
Ian is the founder of the Confident Live Marketing Academy and is the host of the Confident Live Marketing Podcast. He helps entrepreneurs to level up their impact, authority and profits by using live video confidently. He's a geek, husband, and dad to two kids, and trained as professional classical singer. He lives near Manchester in the UK. Find out more
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