Instagram Live is one of the latest features to arrive on Instagram, making its début in November last year. The feature permits you to share real time videos with your followers on Instagram, via Instagram Stories. The maximum duration of a live video is 60 minutes, and once you’ve finished broadcasting the video disappears forever. This is an interesting twist on live video, since Facebook and Periscope record and save the videos so they can be played back.
Unless they turn off their Live notifications, your followers will receive a notification that you’ve begun a live video, so you should see the audience number begin to rise almost immediately.
Video and live video were already huge in 2016, but 2017 is set to be the year we’ll see live video really take off and thrive on social media.
The fact that Instagram Live videos disappear adds to the ephemerality of a live, meaning that only the followers present with you at that precise time will get to listen in on the information you’re sharing, encouraging them to hop straight onto your Live when they get the notification rather than wait.
Using Instagram Stories, and by extension, Instagram Live will give you more freedom to post whatever you feel like sharing with your community. It’ll also provide you with extra flexibility in terms of when you post, because of the temporary nature of the Live Story. Stories are like the laid back version of Instagram without the pressure to perform.
Top tip to remember:
No one will be expecting tailored, high quality live videos: they’re watching because it’s LIVE, which means it’s supposed to be YOU and your brand spontaneously sharing a moment. That’s why we’d recommend not preparing too much and stressing about the final product – it’s going to disappear when you’re done so just be natural and have fun with it! You audience will appreciate it.