How do you interact with and manage your community on different streaming platforms?

Multistreaming is a valuable way to tap into your audiences and the variances that can exist based on the platform. Streaming allows people to feel a better and deeper connection with their community than posting or even engaging in comments. As a lifestyle creator, I've found that understanding each core audience on your platforms is the most important step in understanding what people will want to hear from the streamer. No matter what, study your analytics and cross-promote your content across your platforms to entice people to follow you in more sources.

We often think we know where our audience is, but the truth is, there's always potential we're missing out on. Utilizing multi-streaming software to reach somtimes 8 or more platforms can uncover unexpected audiences where you can impact more lives, deliver your message or perhaps further your brand. Later, by analyzing where your content performs best, you can strategically focus your efforts. This approach not only broadens your reach but also helps you understand and engage with your audience more effectively. In today's digital landscape it's moving quickly, so casting a wide net is key to building a strong, connected community.

Third party multistreamers like Restream or Teradek's Sharelink are invaluable to the smaller scale livestreamer (and for bigger set ups too!). There is a lot to be said for running it all locally and having multiple physical encoders but it does mean a lot more financial outlay for hardware, which when compared with fairly reasonable /Gb cost for cloud platforms means the latter is probably the first solution to look into. Added functionality like chat integration is also a great advantage.

I love live streaming to more than one platform at a time. Talk about getting great organic reach. 🥳 I use StreamYard to multistream to LinkedIn & YouTube simultaneously. It's so easy peasy. When I schedule the Live, I simply designate my desired destinations. Then, once I hit that "Go Live" button, StreamYard takes care of the tech needed to stream to both places. What's especially nice, is that StreamYard even displays WHAT PLATFORM a comment was made from. This lets me see who's engaging from LinkedIn vs YouTube.

Simulcasting can be a great way to reach a lot more platforms and people with one single stream. However, when not properly executed, simulcasting can create a disconnect from your audience and deter them from coming to future streams. If you can't view and respond to the chat of every platform you are streaming on you should not be simulcasting. It's just as important that you see them as it is that they see you. Simulcast services like Restream are great because they bring the chats from all the different platforms into one chat for you. Interaction is everything. Restream and other browser plugins like Social Stream offer consolidated simulcast chat overlays that you can add to your OBS or other streaming software.