Live Stream Distribution

When it comes to your weekly live stream, there are three types of distribution and promotion you must consider:

Primary Distribution
Your live stream distribution and promotion starts with picking the primary distribution platform, or where your live stream will actually be hosted. Your two main options are Facebook Live and YouTube Live, as these are the most well-featured and popular streaming platforms. While Instagram Live/IGTV are both viable options, it is currently very difficult to use a software like OBS Studio with Instagram Live or IGTV. However, if Instagram is your main platform, you could choose to use it without a stream-controlling software until the platform is updated to include RTMP support.

Pre-Stream Promotion
Before streaming, your goal is to get as much of your warm audience as you possibly can to attend your live stream. To do this, you will be relying primarily on your email or Messenger list. On both Facebook and YouTube Live, you can schedule your live stream to start at a later date. This will allow you to link your audience to the URL where your live stream will be when it actually goes live. Then, you can send this link in a short broadcast to your existing subscribers.

You can also share this link with your organic reach on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. If you'd like to ensure your Facebook audience attends, you can set them up with helpful reminders by creating a Facebook event for your live stream with the location of the event being your live stream URL. Then, you can promote the event on Facebook in place of the link.

Post-Stream Promotion
After a stream has ended, your goal is to generate as much traffic to the live stream as possible in order to generate awareness for the stream among your warm audience. To do this, you can use a video editing software to create "chunked" snippets of the best moments from your live stream in a square video format (preferably with captions). Then, you can distribute these short, square videos on Facebook and Instagram with links back to your replayable live stream.