Marketing Happy Hour - BONUS! Q+A Panel: Live Video

Starting point is 00:00:00 Jeff and Lou, we are so honored to have both of you today. But because this is Marketing Happy Hour, I have to ask you both a very important question before we start. What is your go-to happy hour drink or just beverage that you guys like to sip on throughout the day, mornings, evenings, night, anytime? Clearly, I'm somewhat prepared, but not prepared because I'm drinking Earl Grey tea out of a Christmas mug and it's October. So like Target, I'm already ready for Christmas. Is it hot? Is it hot tea? It's hot. It's this way you get the deep dulcet tones of warm tea. Yes, I can tell.

Starting point is 00:00:39 I'm just drinking. I'm down south, so I'm drinking iced tea. It is not bourbon. That would kill a horse if I tried to drink bourbon, this much bourbon, but it's iced tea. Fantastic. I have water and I also have a Devil's Foot sparkling limeade this morning. Sipping on that. They sent us over some beverages. So excited to try that today. How about you, Erica?

Starting point is 00:00:58 I also have something that our friends at Coe Kombucha sent over. It's their watermelon flavor. I think it's, their saying is, ite Kombucha sent over. It's their watermelon flavor. I think it's their saying is it's kombucha only better. And I think I can attest to that. It's pretty good. Well, thank you guys again, just to echo Cassie. We're super excited to dive into your experience today. But I'm just curious to hear a little more from you guys about your experience with live video and how it's kind of contributed to building your community and connecting with your audiences. I've been doing live videos since the like back and here we go the Google Plus days that's how old I am back when it was Google Hangouts it was like the wild west and it just

Starting point is 00:01:35 helped me just reach so many it was so cool because you had a television studio you know right there on your computer and then eventually went mobile, you can do all this stuff now on a mobile phone. And it just opened the doors, I was able to back in the day on Google Plus, get some incredible guests like Guy Kawasaki, who I'm actually working for now. And then also, you know, people like the one of the directors of Pretty Woman and Under Siege, they came on, I mean, it was just, it was a crazy time and people, and it's still a way, I think, to connect with people, you know, outside of maybe your local city or, you know, you're kind of where you're, you're located at and just reach this global audience. And it just really has boosted my business and continues to keep it growing. So I started doing live video back in 2007. Like this was pretty like social media days, rest, rest in peace. You stream. And I still

Starting point is 00:02:26 remember the very first night I went live. Like I told my wife, I'm going to go downstairs. I'm going to try this live video thing out. 10 minutes. I'll be up four hours later. She comes down. She's like, who are you talking to? I'm like, I have no idea. She's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, I have no idea. Like there's just these people in the box and we're talking. And I've been doing live video weekly ever since I've graduated from Ustream to Periscope to Meerkat and sort of everything along the way in between and I think you know the podcast is sort of the heart of what I do it's been the thing I've been doing the longest but I think that there is there's nothing that compares to the interaction, the community building, the sense of belonging and engagement

Starting point is 00:03:07 that live video affords, not just you, but your audience and your community as well. I can imagine. And you guys are reminding me just a little bit of how Cassie and I started this whole marketing happy hour thing. We did do it live at first, but it wasn't video. It was on Clubhouse.

Starting point is 00:03:24 If you remember the early days of Clubhouse, I don't even know if that's a thing anymore, but we loved that aspect too, of like inviting people in and just kind of like chatting, being able to interact in real time with our audience was really, really cool. And it sparked this whole idea of the podcast. So I'm just curious also to hear some strategies that you employ to create a sense of community during live broadcast. So I think it's really very simple. And with live video, as opposed to things like a podcast where you shouldn't be doing it either way, you don't talk at your audience, you talk with your audience. From the second you go live,

Starting point is 00:04:00 it's a matter of making them feel like they are in because they are part of the conversation with you. And sometimes even just fostering and sparking conversation by asking, you know, the simple question that anyone can answer, right? Oh, if we were in Walt Disney World right now, where would we have dinner? Everybody has an answer to it. It gets them to start conversing and it gets them to start conversing, not just with you, but more importantly, with each other as well. I love watching when I start going live. There are sort of side conversations happening between community members that have just been looking forward to seeing each other and talking with each other from the week before. Lou is a is a great model.

Starting point is 00:04:38 This building community with his live video. So if you want to model to the study, he does a great job. I love doing for me. You know, if I was just going to do video, I just do YouTube video. But what I love is the community aspect of live video, like talking with people during the show. I have natural breaks in my show where I bring in people's comments. And there is nothing that people like better than to see their comments on screen. In fact, I've had people actually do a screenshot of me answering their question and putting it on Instagram because they love seeing their question on screen and being able to go back and forth and see those people that show up each week. And you build this rapport with and relationship. I mean, I mentioned Google Plus. There's an inside

Starting point is 00:05:19 joke that I will mention at one time during our show. And that's turned into a drinking game for one of the guys who watched Chris Stone, who watches the show. And that's turned into a drinking game for one of the guys who watches, Chris Stone, who watches the show. And it's just fun. Those kinds of things happen organically. And I love it. I love being able to talk with people and bring their comments on and have a conversation as I'm going live.

Starting point is 00:05:36 Absolutely. Well, and speaking of that real-time interaction, I know sometimes when you first launch a live show or some sort of community, getting people to actually start engaging is sometimes a process. And so curious to hear from both of you, how you foster that engagement, both with the community, just themselves, but also you with, with those members of the community as well during these live video engagements and Jeff, go ahead and start if you don't mind. Yeah. So when you first start, it'll be like your mom will be there like, hey, look at my son. He's great. And so what I would

Starting point is 00:06:09 do when I started my show, I would have plants like I come from a performer. I did strolling magic way back in the day and we would have plants in the audience. And I would I would say to my friends like, hey, will you come here to the show and ask this question? And then it were kind of organically grew. And so that's how I tell people like if they're getting started, because it is it's going to be nobody will be there when you first hit go for the first time. But if you have those people and you are consistent, and people can constantly show up and you mentioned them by name, Laurie Petrucci, who has been doing a live video, I think before Lou and I even started, she really talks about, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:42 calling those people out, bringing them into the conversation and they become your super fan. So I always like, if you, if you don't have anybody to start with, you know, bring some of your friends in and just say, Hey, ask this question. And that's a great way to get going. Yeah. I think Jeff made a great point about people just want to be acknowledged, right? They want to be recognized. I'm going to make a reference that neither of you are going to know, but like you used to call a radio station because you'd hope that they would say your name on the air. And then when they did, you were all excited. That still holds true. So to Jeff's point, mentioning people by name load of content, but giving your audience an opportunity to feel as though, because they do, have a voice the show. It helps sort of lighten the load for you.

Starting point is 00:07:46 So there's none of that, you know, abysmal dead air time, which sort of staring into space, hoping that somebody shows up or says something. But I think you're right. It's simple questions to foster engagement and to give them a voice. I think that people will stay on

Starting point is 00:08:00 and watch the entire show with thinking that maybe their question will be answered or brought up on screen so it also kind of helps with that you know watch time when you can people are like hey you know Lou may pull up my question here in a bit and you know maybe he'll get to it and so that keeps them on and then you make sure you you try to do that as much as possible now when you when you have a size of a show like Lou he can't answer every question because there's just gazillions of people there watching him live but he does make a point of calling people out and that keeps

Starting point is 00:08:28 people i think watching a lot longer remember something like the people who are there are giving you the most valuable commodity which is their time there's nothing better than jeff shows up and go oh jeff how was your cruise last week like they do again they want to sort of feel like they belong they feel you need to make them feel like that you'd care at scale. And remembering some of those little things about individuals, going to engage to get the rest of the community going. But over time, the community gets to know one another and they come on and almost do the work for you. And so you don't even have to do a whole lot in terms of getting them to engage. They're just doing it automatically because they're building relationships with each other as well. Well, let's talk about tech a little bit, switching gears here slightly.

Starting point is 00:09:25 So what technical aspects do marketers or live video hosts need to consider when hosting a live show? So that could be anything from microphones to the actual platforms themselves. I know you both have mentioned a couple that you started on, but anything that we should be looking into today if we were to start a live video tomorrow. Yeah, Ecamm is the great tool. So the cool thing about Ecamm is I'm big on repurposing. Like I repurpose my show a ton and Ecamm lets me go live everywhere.

Starting point is 00:09:55 I can go live to multiple locations. And also when I'm done, I have separated audio tracks because I also put it out as a podcast. And also I have separated video tracks, which makes it really easy for me to repurpose that content. That being said, when you're first getting, and make sure any platform that you use,

Starting point is 00:10:11 it's got to bring up comments. Like that is the game. You have to have that or just do a YouTube video. The other thing is people will forgive bad video. They won't forgive bad audio. So make sure that you have a decent mic. You guys all have great mics right now. Lou and I have actually the same model of mic too, but just make sure it's a decent, you know, you can get a great mic for under a hundred dollars, but that's one thing

Starting point is 00:10:34 that's really important when you first start. And I agree a hundred percent with everything that Jeff says, when you're broadcasting from desktop, I also broadcast live via mobile, right? I like, you know, I talk about Walt Disney World. I'll be out like, so tonight I'll be out, you know, broadcasting from Fort Wilderness on my phone. Keep it simple. I think the simpler that you keep the tech, the better off that you will be. It could be simple as simple as just using your wired earbuds just to make sure you have good audio. Use a simple sort of, you know, mount on a tripod just to hold your camera somewhat steady, but don't let the tech, don't overthink the tech and don't let it paralyze you. I've seen way too many people be like, look, here's my $2,000 setup. And then they turn the lights on and it's just dead air,

Starting point is 00:11:20 like focus more on the content, focus more on the conversation. And, you know, people will be somewhat forgiving, but I would not let yourself go too crazy in terms of tech, whether it be investment or just complicated setup. Okay. So speaking of platforms for both of you, you mentioned the software that collects that video, but let's talk about output. So what are some of those platforms that you're actually projecting this video onto that's consumer facing? Like Little Mermaid, I want to be where your people are, like that platforms that you're actually projecting this video onto that's consumer facing? Like Little Mermaid, I want to be where your people are. Like that's where you need to be. So for me, my group, as well as to YouTube, which is great because you're reaching an additional audience there.

Starting point is 00:12:10 Unfortunately, when I'm live on mobile, you can only pick one destination. There's no way to sort of multi-stream to multiple destinations. So Facebook is where my community lives. It's where I continue to direct people to. So if I tell everybody www.live.com, that will take them right into the group so they know that there's just that single location. Yeah, for me, I stream for the desktop mostly. I think there is a mobile thing that you can, but it's weird with comments.

Starting point is 00:12:36 And once again, I think it's Streamlabs, it's for gamers, but the comments thing is like, why do it if you don't have comments? But I go live everywhere, like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, X, Twitter, whatever that is. And also Amazon Live, which is a whole nother platform that is a whole nother show.

Starting point is 00:12:54 But I go live everywhere. And the cool thing is because I'm using Ecamm with another service called Restream, I'm able to pull comments from everywhere. So if like Lou is watching on YouTube, I can pull it in and I can see that he's from YouTube and I can say, Hey, Lou, thanks for watching on YouTube. Yeah. And so that's really powerful as well. It used to be people like focus on one now with the technology. It's pretty much like you said, go where,

Starting point is 00:13:17 where people are watching, like give them options. Cause some people do, they'll pull up Lou full screen on his, on their television at home because they can watch that on their YouTube app. We're talking a lot today about how to get started, good strategies for live video. I'm curious to hear how brands can kind of take live video and get started with that and connect in their community. And that way, if there's any practical applications of that that you've seen before, a lot of our listeners are actually in house marketers at brands. So I'm trying to figure out how we can get them to get started on live video today. I could talk about this for hours, but I promise you I won't. I think for brands, and I'll sort of keep it as simple as possible. I think doing live video does two amazing things

Starting point is 00:14:03 for brands. One, it humanizes the brand because now you have a face behind whatever this sort of corporate logo is. You know, I understand that there's an extension of trust in terms of deciding who that person is going to be. But people fall in love with, you know, a person. They don't fall in love with a logo. And I think it also, from a content perspective, allows you as a brand to let them peek behind the curtain, give them access behind the rope. Show me what it looks like in the kitchen of your restaurant. Give me an interview with your CEO. Show me what the production facilities look like. Give me a sense of trust and access as your consumer, as hopefully your fan and evangelist by giving me access to something that I wouldn't have otherwise,

Starting point is 00:14:51 and being able to do it at scale via live video. Yeah, I can give you a couple of just examples. And it's not just because they, you know, do the software, but Ecamm has a great brand, like how they use live video with their brand. And then they have a, they transfer that into community, community and community building. So they have an incredible discord channel. They have incredible slacks channel. They have Facebook groups and the way they, they empower their community is amazing. And I think live video, just like Louis saying, lets people see the brands, you know, the real face of the brand, but also it, it gets that community started and building inside of it when they can see those

Starting point is 00:15:31 people. And then you can have so many different things. You can partner with other people. You can, you know, bring in other experts in your industry. There's so many ways that you can, a brand can use that to elevate their community across all these different channels. Yeah, that's excellent. And that's one of the things that we stress on this show all the time with the guests that we bring on. We're always talking about building relationships with your consumers, that lifelong brand fan, and that's a really good way to do that. So I love that. Thank you for sharing. What other strategies have you kind of found effective in promoting your live sessions and attracting those viewers after your initial launch?

Starting point is 00:16:11 I'm sorry, go ahead. You go ahead. I would say consistency and frequency. So for me, I've been live almost every single Wednesday, 7.30 p.m. Eastern, you know, since 2007. We are creatures of habit. We love to know when something is coming. And when you do that, not only do you give people a sense of routine and something to look forward to, but it's interesting because 7.31, if I'm not live, I start getting texts. Hey, man, are you okay?

Starting point is 00:16:39 Are you still alive? Like, is Lou dead? Which is wonderful and humbling and flattering but it shows how people look forward to those things i also like especially for a special event i'll create a facebook event broadcast that out make sure i send it in my newsletter which also just happens to go out early on wednesdays as a as a reminder of it um but then still continue i know i don't go live in the event itself but i still go live on my Facebook page and group. But people sometimes need those prompts and reminders, especially if you're going to do something special or from a different location, et cetera.

Starting point is 00:17:12 Yeah, I couldn't agree more. The consistency of a time for live video is like minus 10 a.m. Central every Friday. And I've had like really big guests want to come on the show. And I'm like, and they can't we can't do it that time. Like, well, I can't move the't move the show I'm sorry I mean because my people show up and that's just their uses you know maybe we can work it out some other way but um that's the thing that's I think consistency is really important for me my thing also as I mentioned repurposing before is I take clips and put them out everywhere they're constantly going out and I'm caught it's mostly my guest like my face isn't really on there very much. And so what that allows me to do is like one, my guests really know that I'm going to promote them when they're on my

Starting point is 00:17:49 show. And it also helps me get better guests because they know that this is going to happen. And they see all the times that the, those social clips are going out and how much I promote them and the show. So, um, that's kind of how I, you know, strategic about my live video process. Well, Jeff, speaking of that, I want to kind of dive a little bit further into repurposing. So you've already clued us into your process a little bit. But what are some of the ways, in addition to what you've already discussed, are you sharing out this content? And what is your process for pulling that content from your video?

Starting point is 00:18:23 I've heard you do some great sessions on AI in the past about optimizing your content creation process. So anything you can clue in us on there and then Lou right after Jeff, if you don't mind. So there's some amazing tools that now make repurposing so much easier and less time consuming. The one I go to now is Descript. That's the one I use for everything because it creates a transcript. I'm able to take all those just by looking at the transcript, what clips I want to do, how long they're going to be. And I can, and there's a process that I have that really, I can take those and chomp them out. And I put them at everywhere, like in now

Starting point is 00:18:58 with the tools, you can actually resize them for Instagram reels and TikToks if you need to, but you can do square ones if you need to do them on Facebook and just have a process. And I know it seems overwhelming for somebody who's just starting out, but just try to do one piece of content out of your show. I think we move on to the next one so quickly that we don't, with the algorithms today,

Starting point is 00:19:18 people aren't seeing your content as much as we think they are. So the more you're putting it out there in the feed, the better off you'll be. And like I said, there's so many tools now that lets you do that really, really easily. Yeah. Jeff's a master at the repurposing of a single piece of content into multiple locations. I take a slightly different, almost opposed view because I want my live video to be something separate from my podcast. I don't sort of, I don't put my live video audio into an audio, because now we have

Starting point is 00:19:48 to sort of differentiate between audio and video podcast. I don't put it into my audio podcast, because I want it to be a compliment to it. I want it to be something addition to, because I want people to hear the podcast and then want to go and watch a live video that's about something separate, or maybe even a conversation about this past week's podcast and vice versa. I want a live video that's about something separate or maybe even a conversation about this past week's podcast and vice versa. I want a live viewer to hear me talk about last week's show and a show from the archives or something that's coming up and become a podcast listener as well. So I want one to sort of feed the other. And I think live video is a great way,

Starting point is 00:20:20 especially because you can pull up full screen graphics of live events that you have coming up your next podcast and your next interview, whatever it might be. It's a great way to not just use it for as a content creation tool, but a content promotion tool for other things that you do as well. Yeah, that's very cool. I feel like we could talk about this all day long. I still have like 100 questions that I want to ask you guys. And I'm feeling super inspired, Cassie. I'm like, we should start live video this week. Like, let's go.

Starting point is 00:20:52 But my last question on the more technical side for you both is, how do you measure the success of your live video efforts? Are there any KPIs, key performance indicators that you track to kind of gauge the impact on your community? You know, is it attendance at your next live indicators that you track to kind of gauge the impact on your community? You know, is it attendance at your next live event that you look at? What does that look like for you and how are you measuring success in that way? Jeff's going to laugh because I've said this for years. I'm not a numbers guy and I really don't look and sort of check my numbers and say, why did I get a hundred less viewers? I don't necessarily measure it that way. I measure it by

Starting point is 00:21:26 how did I feel about the show? What kind of engagement did I get? Look, I think that there's no better indicator than you getting an email from somebody finishing a show and then taking the time to email you and say, hey, I really needed that this week. I'm having a really crummy week and it just made me laugh, made me forget about things. I really appreciate what you do. You can't put a value on that, right? Because that person represents 10 other people that maybe just didn't send that email, but it shows that what you're doing matters to them. You know that you now have not just a fan, but an evangelist, you know, hopefully you can keep them for life. You know, certainly the numbers matter because you want to sort of make

Starting point is 00:22:05 sure people are watching. But, you know, we also have to battle things like the algorithm and, you know, what works and doesn't work and things like that, too. But I don't let that necessarily be a barometer of, you know, quote unquote, a successful live video or not. Yeah, Lou said that he's not a numbers guy for years. So he's going to say that the the it depends on the platform like YouTube's different than Facebook and all the different things. But I would say this engagement for me like I want to see engagement. I want to see comments. I want to say when I when you get to the point where you can ask a question, you see people answering that in the comments. To me, that's like you've got it made like you've you've got an audience you are able to talk back and forth that is really really cool um the other thing is is i would just you know as you're getting started not worry too much about those numbers i mean because here's the thing like i just was at the momentum conference where cassie was speaking and and lou was there and because it's his conference of course he's there but um the the thing that was really people came up to me said i love your show and i'm like i had no idea they were even louis there and because it's his conference of course he's there but um the the thing that was

Starting point is 00:23:05 really people came up to me said i love your show and i'm like i had no idea they were even watching it like they there's so many people who don't comment or don't like um when you're able to finally meet them and they start coming to you like oh this is great like i have this whole audience that i don't know and then becomes the thing like okay how do i get them to be inside the community and participating so there's a whole other set of questions there but um i say engagement for me is the biggest metric that i kind of track and keep it just quite quickly too don't be don't get obsessed by that number of people that are watching live because the number of people that watch on replay and then hopefully can come because the difficulty with live video is not everybody can make it when you're live

Starting point is 00:23:42 right maybe you can't make it at 10 a.m. East Central for socialmedianewslive.com. But you do have that ability to now promote the replay to other people and then hopefully encourage them to come next time you're live. Thank you both for that. Well, let's talk about the future of live video. Where do you both feel like live video is headed? Any emerging trends that we should look out for? I know we already teased AI a little bit, but just share what you're thinking for the future and some of

Starting point is 00:24:09 the things that you both are going to be looking out for. Jeff, if you don't mind kicking us off. Yeah, so I'm excited. So this, one of the things I think if you are a podcaster or a live video person, I think it's the safest place right now. It's going to be a really long time before AI can come in and answer questions and have those, like Louis saying, you know, you know that somebody went on a cruise with you and you can mention that AI is not going to be able to do that. I think once going back to your brand question, I think that's great for brands. Like if they can go live and come on there and talk with people and build a community, that's pretty cool. Because right now when you get an email or you see a comment sometimes you're

Starting point is 00:24:45 like is that AI or is that you know really Cassidy I mean I don't you know and and it's I think that's going to be even more in the future but going live having a podcast that stuff where you're in somebody's ear or on their screen interacting I think that is really really kind of a cornerstone that brands and businesses really need to focus on because of the cool things with AI. And I already mentioned the tools now. It is so much easier to write show notes, send out emails, all that stuff, the little stuff that most podcasters and live video producers don't like to do. It's a lot easier now to have those little pieces of content you can send out to get your audience listening or watching your show. So I think the future is right now.

Starting point is 00:25:32 And what I mean by that is this, because there's two things that are sort of happening right now that have been part of live video that I love. One, and I hate the fact that authenticity has become a marketing buzzword, but there's no more authentic medium than live video. What I love about live video is that I can screw up and I can't go back and try and fix it 500. I stink at making videos because I go back and record a 15 second video 400 times because it's just not right. Whatever happens, happens. And I think your audience loves and appreciate that because they see that you're human. They see you make mistakes. The mic doesn't work. The lights are off. It doesn't matter. I think that helps to form

Starting point is 00:26:05 a real relationship with the people that are watching. And two, like things like Ecamm, there are so many other tools available to help continue to foster engagement. So I start when I'm broadcast from desktop, there's some apps that you can use that allow you to run on-screen contests, polls, word search games. I play a lot of games like with my audience, which again, is not just you being a talking head, but allows them, it's very participatory. There's a leaderboard. I can give away prizes at the end. Because look, if we're talking algorithms, that's what Facebook wants to see, right? That's what you do. They want to see meaningful engagement. You get meaningful engagement by getting people to not just consume, but actively participate.

Starting point is 00:26:48 And some of the tools out there are really valuable in helping to create content that makes it more engaging. Very, very cool. I'm excited to see what the future of live video holds for everyone. But we're approaching the end here. And I want to make sure that we let our listeners know where they can find both of you and follow along with what you're up to. Lou, if you want to kick us off with that. Sure. One, thank you for having me. I really appreciate this. It's a lot of fun. I also could talk about a live video all day. Everything I do on the Disney side of things is at wdwradio.com. Everything I do on the business and coaching and speaking side is at lumangelo.com. And I'm at lumangelo on all social.

Starting point is 00:27:31 Yeah. Thanks for, this is so much fun. Like I said, like Lou saying, we could nerd out about this all day, but they can find, you guys can find me. I do that show of social media news live every Fridays at 10 AM central. And you can just find that at social media news live. We're everywhere. And I'm Jeff C and that's spelled S as in Sam, I E H I before E, especially in C. That's how my mommy told me to say it. So yeah, I'm everywhere on the socials with that name. So just find me anywhere and hit me up. Love that. Thank you so much. We'll link

Starting point is 00:27:59 everything in the show notes so people can find where you are. And thank you both again for, for joining us. This has been such a treat. We are so excited to share that our first ever free Marketing Happy Hour digital resource is now available. Download the Dream Career Game Plan today at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash freebie. That's marketinghappyhr.com forward slash freebie. That's marketinghappyhr.com forward slash freebie. This five-step workbook will guide you through defining your goals, building your network, diversifying your skills, influencing where you're at, and investing in your growth. Cassie and I created this resource with marketing careers in mind, but the framework can be applied to any industry.

Starting point is 00:28:45 Our hope is that this workbook will help you truly elevate your career, whether you're in the market for a new position or just looking to make your mark in your current organization. No matter where this resource finds you, we are cheering you on every step of the way. So go check it out at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash freebie to download and make your career dreams come true.

Marketing Happy Hour - BONUS! Q+A Panel: Live Video

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