Many of us have already gotten a good taste of how effective and valuable a broadcast live event can bring to an organization, conference, or gathering.
It enables organizations and ministries to reach wider audiences and expand their reach globally, which can be a very good and healthy thing!
There are some, though, who are still skeptic or hesitant, which is not a problem! For you, here are 3 ways that you can harness and tap the power of streaming live:
1. More Than Just a Building
Or a web page. Your ministry is unique and vibrant and much more interesting than a website or a building. Offering a live-stream of your gathering or event can help showcase and share parts of your ministry that can’t really be displayed effectively on just any website.
You know this instinctively already though – your Pastor is much more of an interesting person than just a static image on your website! It gives you personality!
2. Provides a Reason to Return
A live broadcast, consistently, can help provide a culture of new content and an expectation for visitors to come back.
I could go more into depth but this just makes sense! Your ministry isn’t stale and the same old thing every week; let the world know that that is truly the case and get them to come back!
3. Farther, Faster
I love this saying from Andy Stanley as it relates to us asking the hard questions of whether or not we’re being the most effective in what we’re doing. Our goal is to go “Farther, Faster!”
With live streaming you can do just that, establishing a more “real” connection with new visitors to your properties faster than just a on-demand video or static content. Engaging them in this way may be able to bridge those gaps that you didn’t think we’re possible!
It isn’t always the case that interactive content guarantees increase engagement but with live-streaming it can be more possible.
Finally, remember that these three reasons need to be rolled well with the other social media strategies that you’re employing and is just one part of your overall vision and strategy!
Jordan Wiseman says
These are great tips.
Another thing is that sometimes people will “check out” a church before attending, because they may have had some bad experiences with church in the past.
Live streaming is such a great tool for this kind of thing, and sadly many ministries don’t take advantage of it.
Mason Phillips says
I agree that live streaming is a good thing, and I think that for most churches, Video On Demand is a better solution. I think this is true for the following reasons:
1. People can still be connected with a real service just delayed. Depending on workflow, the delay needn’t bee too long either.
2. Quality of service. Technical glitches, bad camera angles, etc. can be removed so that the experience isn’t too bad for the viewer.
3. Technical Requirements – there are a number of things that need to be in place before you can even attempt live streaming: Good upstream internet connection, streaming server/service, etc. It’s come a long way in becoming a little easier for people who are non-tech to use, but there are still challenges for the average person.
4. Personnel challenges. Many churches do not have technical people with an understanding of how to get their message streamed. Many churches are full of people who can upload a video to YouTube or Vimeo and embed that video on their blog or website.
5. Cost. Some solutions for streaming are extremely expensive.
With that said, I’m not knocking live streaming. For some people it’s very necessary and depending on the size and influence of the ministry it may be expected. For others, VOD is a cost-effective solution that produces a similar experience.
What do you think?
Martin Hathaway says
Strongly agree with your points and reasoning. Not only is VoD technically easier, but it is also easier to leverage for marketing purposes.
Stephen Bateman says
Both? Certainly you could livestream as well as VOD it…
Brian says
Great post. I am interested to see if any church is using the Amazon Cloud Front streaming option.
Travis Fish says
I love this post. It really explains how much live streaming can do. Great job man!
Brian says
I found this awesome plugin that keeps your video source files safe on Amazon S3 and make them easy to embed in a WordPress install. http://www.s3flowshield.com/ This seems like an easy way for churches to use pay as you go S3 in their VoD solution..