5 Tips For Creating A Great Skills-Based Livestream

Hey everyone, it's been awhile since my last post. Since I'm diving into livestreaming and ramping up my skills in other areas, I'll be switching from my weekly series to a monthly series. Want me to write about anything specific let me know in the comments. Not subscribed? Subscribe to my series to be notified of new articles and join the conversation.

My latest guilty pleasure is binge watching livestreams. In the past two months I've watched dozens of creative live streams on Behance. I also had the opportunity to appear on a live stream on Behance, start my own LinkedIn livestream and appear on the TLDCast livestream. That's a lot of streams. 🏞️

I learned a ton about being on livestreams but I learned even more from watching other people's livestreams. Here are a few things I've taken away.

1. It won't be the best format to show every skill

Livestreaming isn't the best idea for sharing all types of skills. Those skills that are more web-based, such as coding or certain types of design will be easier to show since you can screen-share the work as you are doing it. You may have also seen folks on YouTube or Facebook doing make-up tutorials through livestream. That works too, especially if you have a good camera. It works because there's not any change in the environment and it's a skill that's easy to visually show.

It's way harder to show skills where there is a lot of environment change or need to see all angles and noisy locations. For instance, say you're a firefighter. It might be difficult to show certain aspects of the job since part of the job is traveling to and working on sites with emergencies/fires.

2. Working out loud > talking

I'm certainly guilty of mainly talking during live streams but now I tend to mix in me working out loud. The real power of a livestream will be sharing the behind the scenes that no one often sees. When you're working out loud during a stream your audience get the best of both worlds. The audience gets to hear about your work but they also get to view and ask questions about the process you go through to get the work done. 

When you're livestreaming working on skills don't just do the work. Explain what you are doing and why you are doing it.

3. Preparing just enough ahead of time will make a huge difference

Don't plan out everything you are going to do on the livestream but prepare just enough to get things going. You want to be authentic and show the real process. Pick a project that displays the skills you really want to get across or the things you're really looking for input on. Before my UI/UX livestream I wrote copy and created a moodboard to help me get started in my design. Writing copy and looking for inspiration may also be great livestream topics but my overall goal was to show me working on a design.

4. It's better when interactive 

The purpose of a livestream isn't to make it a one way street, it's about getting input from and tailoring the content to your audience. Some ways you can start to make your stream more interactive would be to:

Have a host - When you're working out loud a host will help you to keep the conversation going with chat. Having a host is especially helpful if you have more introverted folks showing their skills. They will keep things moving along and ask insightful questions along the way.

Use the chat to your advantage - When I livestream I don't always share my reasoning behind everything I am doing on screen. The chat oftentimes will ask questions that spur me to share the why behind what I am doing. I've learned a lot from those in chat too. The chat is a good to help steer the conversation to what people are looking for and also to get feedback from the audience.

Ask questions to audience - Another way to keep things more interactive is to ask questions directly to the chat. Have them have input on your process and decisions you are making. Ask them what they would typically do in the same situation or even just have some fun banter mixed in back and forth to keep everyone interested.

5. You'll realize no one is perfect

Livestreaming helps to demystify certain roles and skills. You'll see someone working unedited, so that means you'll likely see them struggle through decision making and in their work. Usually we see the end product of someone's work but we don't see the process. Seeing the process is encouraging, especially for people who may want to make a career change or for those who may be suffering from imposter syndrome.

-Mel