A feature up until now only available to a select group of YouTube users is now available to all.
That feature is streaming video. And it is being touted as an important means of creating engagement on your YouTube channel and collecting subscribers.
In a recent post on the official YouTube Creators blog, Google product manager Satyajeet Salgar and Google software engineer Tim James explain:
“Over the last year, we’ve seen creators across music, gaming, sports, news and more categories use the power of live video to create amazing experiences for their audiences, and build new fans.”
“Now, all YouTube channels that verify their account and are in good standing will be able to live stream live video to the world.”
You verify an account by providing a phone number where YouTube, or its parent company Google, can contact you and verify your identity. You are in good standing when your account doesn’t have any community violations. Being in good standing also means you haven’t been flagged for copyrite violation or been blocked worldwide for any other content issues.
To determine whether your YouTube channel has been enabled for live streaming yet, check your “account feature” page. Or you can check your “Video Manager” section on YouTube to see whether “Live Events” has been added as an option.
Follow the video below for quick and easy directions to set up a streaming video event from RPM Network.
The feature might be used to create or broadcast a live Webinar, presentation or any other live event. YouTube says live streaming video is a way to build subscriptions on your channel.
The site provides an overview of how to organize and get the most out of your live streaming events. You can also stream a Google Hangout on YouTube by simply scheduling a Hangout on Air in the Google Plus community. The event will automatically be streamed on YouTube, the company says.
There seem to be many possible uses for live streaming video on YouTube. The question will be whether small businesses find it helpful in their efforts.
Image: YouTube
It’s nice that they have decided to give this option to the public. But I think that restricting it to people with 100 subscribers is wise in a sense that it will only be open to people with real followers. I guess this will change the way video is being used for marketing.
This is the biggest advancement intended for Youtube since Google bought the item 8 in years past (after which does almost nothing with this outstanding home with the exception of provide the item several facelifts and let visitors to post HD online video – last year).
thanks
Live streaming is something I’d been waiting for YouTube to roll out, not for myself (I’m not interested in it for myself for now), but just because I felt it was time they rolled something like that out. It’ll be interesting to see how it works over 2014.
There’s also a part of me that’s thinking: now YouTube has live streaming, will it one day make an attempt to acquire a company that specialises in live streaming (for e.g., Ustream or Spreecast).