How to Create Buzz Around Live Online Video Events

There's more to a live online video event than just the video. If your brand wants to build some excitement around an event, you'll need to start well ahead of time.

At the recent Streaming Forum conference in London, Chris Dabbs, CEO of Streaming Tank, delivered a master class on building social buzz around live events. Successfully marketing an event means managing all the elements around the event.

"It used to be down to the best production and the best streaming, but now it is so much more than that," Dabbs said. "As well as the main event, you really now need to be looking at everything which is happening before the event, during the event, and after the event. It is very much about the conversation -- rather than just the linear approach -- the conversation between you or your brand to the target audience. Now, much more important is actually the conversation that they're having back with you, and even more important is the conversation they're having with each other."

Use your company's social network accounts strategically before, during, and after an event. Social networks help create that conversation.

"We have social brains. We like to share, we like to be shared to, we like to be given advice on things," Dabbs continued. "Luckily, we have the social networks, and there is more and more of them popping up, most of which are video- and non-video-enabled, but you can make the best use of both of the video- and non-video-enabled social networks to be able to achieve a number of different things."

Those goals include improving long-term brand recall. Marketers can do this by starting their campaigns early, getting viewers to interact with content during the event, and getting them to share content with others. Do this and there's a much greater chance they'll recall the brand two weeks after the event.

For more on live online video event marketing, watch the full video below. Dabbs gave his presentation via Skype, and the beginning of the video has some sound issues, so jump to the four-minute mark.

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net