Livestream video content creation: My process from video idea to go live and after the broadcast

I walk you through my process for creating content for my livestreams, going from an idea to go live and what happens after the broadcast.

🔴Get your free Facebook Live Cheat Sheets🔴: https://saranguyenonline.com/special/facebook-live-cheat_sheets/

🎬Related videos🎬

How to create a countdown timer: https://youtu.be/Et2sxQouTl8
How to create your own overlays: https://youtu.be/05NJExkL_TQ
How to use Streamyard on a mobile device: https://youtu.be/29X8bVJk-LI
StreamYard Review and Demo: https://youtu.be/gZFjFu6bwIg
ECamm Live Review: https://youtu.be/HygV4itzzzs
BeLive Review: https://youtu.be/vShfG3yIrjs
Best live streaming software and apps (Which livestream software to pick): https://youtu.be/GWU2k_aOp6c

Livestream video content creation: My process from video idea to go live and after the broadcast – Video Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the live stream, whether you are joining live with me now, or if you’re watching the replay. In this video, I’m going to walk you through how to create a live stream video.

And specifically, I’m talking about my workflow from coming up with an idea to actually going live and what happens after, because there’s a little bit to it. So I’m going to walk you through my entire process so that you can see how it all comes together.

Now, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sara Nguyen, and I help coaches, consultants and creative pros build their business using social media and video with ease. And I live stream a lot about live streaming.

Make sure that you check out the links in the description because we’ll go back and we’ll add all of the timestamps to the video so you can go back and, you know if you missed something, reference that again, as well as any links that I mentioned in this video are also put there as well.

Now let’s get right into it. When it comes to creating live video, I think there’s a big misconception that people have that, you know, because it’s live and anything that can happen, you just rock up, turn the camera on and start talking.

And that’s one way of doing it. But I feel that if you want to use live stream strategically, and if you want to use live streams to grow your business, you need to have a process in place so that you can get the most out of your live stream.

Now, I’m going to walk you through my process and explain how or why I do things a certain way. So you can see that it’s not just pressing that go live button, it’s actually what you do with the live streams as well. So let’s get right into it now.

Now, I’ve divided it into sections before, during and after the live stream. Now, before the live stream. So before I even set up my camera before I even checked the lights, the first thing I do is I validate an idea.

And this happens in two ways. Sometimes I come up with an idea of something I would like to create a live stream video about, or sometimes I would do keyword research to find ideas, either way I use data to validate it.

So if I want to create a video on a topic, I don’t just do it based on how I feel of my emotions, because that’s how you lose your shirt. Right? I make sure that if there’s a topic, I want to create a video about, that there is actually some traffic behind it.

So there’s some demand. And I do my keyword research using a couple of tools. I use TubeBuddy, I use VidIQ, I use keywords everywhere, and I use the Google keyword planner to validate if the topic that I’m going to go live about is actually in demand.

Are people actually interested in what I have to say? And that is probably the step that a lot of people take a little bit too late. A lot of people create the live stream and then they look for the keywords after to optimise it on YouTube or to optimise it on their blog post.

And that’s not the way to do it, to get the best leverage out of your live streams. You want to be, you want to already know that there’s demand for the topic that you’re going to talk about first.

So the first thing I do is I validate the idea with data and I use tools to do that. And that’s really, really important. And that step that lots of people do a little too late or not even at all. They just think, Oh, I like this topic.

I’ll go with that. Or all people ask me this, someone has asked me these people must have demand for that. But validate it. Don’t make decisions based off emotions, particularly if you’re in business, do it based off data.

So the second thing after I have my idea validated is I plan out the live stream. So I will put a link in the description to a framework that I have for how I actually structure my videos, but I plan it out.

I am not a fan personally of rocking up and just seeing how it feels and talking on camera. I need to have a structure so that I know that I’m hitting all the messages that I’m on point and I’m delivering content, really concisely.

People who don’t plan their live streams will struggle because one, they won’t get through the actual content concisely. And two, you’ll forget where you’re at, right?

So I really find that planning your live stream content is really important. And I have a framework so that I don’t have to think too hard about that. I can just fill in the bullet points for the actual content.

Now, do I script or do I, you know, write bullet points? I used to do a combination of both. So I used to script it out and then just reference the script. I used to script it out and use a teleprompter, but I found that I came across really robotic.

So now I just make sure that I spend a little bit more time planning and researching my content and I have bullet points so that I can just reference and talk to those points instead. And it is a process, you know, like you have to use what works for you.

In the beginning, I was reading off a transcript that I wrote and now I feel a bit more confident and I do it off bullet points or, you know, the notes that you see on the actual screen. So after you’ve planned out well, after I’ve planned out the content, then I go and I create all of the elements for the actual live stream.

So with my live streams, you know, I have lots of overlays. I use things like what you see on the screen now as visuals to help me communicate the message and as prompts for myself as well.

So I create these in Camva, and I also have animated overlays and I’ll prepare all of the visuals that I need for the live stream myself. So I do that using Canva, I’ll put a link in the description on how to create your own overlays.

And it’s just a nice way of adding a bit of visual jazz to your actual live stream so that you’ve got stuff on the screen, and it’s not just a talking head the entire time. So I go ahead and I plan, you know, I put together all of the elements for the live stream.

So after I’ve done that, I will set up the live stream. And I typically set it up depending on how organised I am either the night before or I’ll try to do it the weekend before.

So when I’m really organised, I’m able to plan things ahead a week ahead, but for the most part, I’m saving it up the night before. And I know that’s not ideal, but it’s just how I’m working right now. And I’ll set up the live stream. I use Restream to multistream too, and that allows me to set up the actual live stream.

And then it actually creates little events as well. So it will create the event on Facebook for me, and also create the actual event on YouTube as well. So I set up the actual live stream, and this is, look at all these steps.

So these are four things that have happened before I’ve even turned on the camera, and these are things that people don’t do. And I think that it kind of give you that upper hand because you know exactly what you’re going to talk about, you’ve validated that there’s demand for the topic, you’ve planned out, you know what you’re going to say, you’ve got all of your beautiful overlays and or presentations, elements created and you’re ready to go.

And we set it up. And this is the first part of the workflow before I actually go live. And this is what’s worked for me and I’ve been banging out live streams for, you know, the last year.

And this is what I go through before the live stream actually happens. Now during the actual live stream, what happens? So on game day, the day that I’m going to live stream, and at the moment I’m doing about four to five live streams a week.

Day of live stream, hair and makeup go first, and this is a personal choice. I’m not saying that you need to do hair and makeup. I’m saying that I do hair and makeup because it makes me feel more confident so that I can get on camera.

I also do hair and makeup because apart from the confidence side apart, I’m cautious that a lot of people who actually see my videos, whether it’s the live streams or the replays on YouTube or Facebook, it’s the first time that they’re possibly seeing me.

So I’m kind of make, I’m kind of trying to make that first impression. So I do the hair and makeup. I’m not saying you have to do hair and makeup, but I do it because it makes me feel more confident.

After hair and makeup, then I set up the lights. Look at all the steps that have happened before the lights and camera even turned on, planning the content, structuring the content, setting everything up.

So then I set up the lights, I set up my two ring lights, I set up my DSLR, the computer obviously needs to be on and everything gets turned on. After everything’s turned on, I make sure that the software is working right.

So I use a combination of software depending on live stream I’m doing. Whether there’s a guest or not, I use Ecamm live. I also use StreamYard and I’m a big fan of them ’cause they simplify the live stream process a lot, and they make it really easy and they’re really consistent.

And once I’ve loaded the live stream software, I check that everything is working that I look good on the feed, that the sound’s coming through, that the lighting is correct. And then pretty much after we’ve set up, then I hit go live.

So when I hit go live, there’s quite a few things that happen behind the scenes that you, as the viewer, don’t see. So on my live streams, I’ve put in a process where I have a moderator who monitors the feed because I found that after going live for a little bit, you know, you’re kind of subjected to behaviour in the comments.

And I have a monitor, a moderator who helps me moderate the feed. And if there are people being spammy, they’ll block them. If people were being inappropriate, they’ll block them.

So it just helps me be able to focus on delivering the content and not get stressed out about the craziness happening in the comments. So that’s what happens when I go live, we hit the play button, the moderators monitor the feed.

Typically with the structure of my live streams, I’ll always have a countdown timer, five minutes out before the live stream starts just to give people five minutes notice and also to push the feeds. And then I start delivering the content.

A lot’s happening, right? So delivering the content, however, whether that is talking face to camera and adding all the overlays, whether that’s sharing my screen and doing tutorials, whether that’s having actual physical products and demoing the actual products on the screen, I deliver the content and I make sure that I get through everything.

So this is the game day. What happens? And after the video, after the live stream is completed, after I’ve delivered all of my content after I’ve answered all of the questions, then I’ll end the live stream. Then what happens?

So it’s not over yet my friends. So I walked you through the process which, you know, started with the idea and everything that happens before the live stream, where I’m validating my idea, planning it out, getting everything ready. During the live stream, day of live stream where I do hair makeup, set up all of the technical things– the hardware, the software, and I go live and I deliver the content.

But I find that it’s this next step that is extremely important that people don’t do. So after you’ve gone live, some people are like, “yay, done and dusted, you know, party, it’s all over” but it’s not, it’s not done and dusted as far as I’m concerned.

So after the live stream is completed, I get the live stream transcribed. So I have, I use two services depending on what I need. rev.com is a good one, and they turn it around really quickly where you just send them the link to your actual video and then they’ll return a transcript.

I also use temi.com, which is, I think, a company that works a sister company or they’re part of the rev family. And I use an automated, automatically generated transcript. And then I have a wonderful assistant who edits the actual transcript, and she turns it around that way.

Why do I transcribe the video? Lots of reasons. With the transcript, you then have the ability to obviously add captions to your video. You also have the ability to create more content.

So with that transcript, I can add it to my blog, add a text and the video to my blog, and there’s text at the bottom of the blog post.

And you’ve also got the ability to correct so much content out of that transcript. So you could highlight sections of the transcript and then turn them into quotes and then turn them into, you know, talking points.

You can also, you know, the possibilities are endless. Transcripts allow you to repurpose your content. And it’s something that I do, and that I recommend that you look at doing, because it just really helps you get so much leverage out of the one live stream.

So after that, I optimise the videos. So I live stream to YouTube and Facebook, and I optimize in terms of making sure that the thumbnails are looking good, making sure that I’ve got all of the metadata and descriptions and titles done.

And I also put timestamps in the YouTube and Facebook videos so that people can reference them. ‘Cause I say that I would do that.

So that’s something that I do to help optimise it. So that one, it’s optimised for the platform. And it’s also optimised for the viewers who will come up, may come across the content because they haven’t caught it live.

So after I have optimised the content, then it comes to repurposing. I talked about transcribing the video. I do a lot of things with the live stream. I create a blog post for every live stream so that it sits on my website.

With that blog post, we create Pinterest images and Pinterest pins, and we share it across group boards and our boards on Pinterest. And I’m also creating mini clips from the live stream as well. So you may be like, mini clips?

So with the live stream video, I’m able to take that video, give it to an editor and they can chop it up into, you know, three-minute segments, five-minute segments, one-minute segments.

And that creates content for Instagram. That creates content for Facebook, just as separate snippets. So that if people aren’t watching the whole live stream, they can get bites. And I’ve got constant content pushing through the social media newsfeeds.

And once again, it’s all about what you do with the live stream. People get so hung up on having a nice camera, having a nice light, having a great microphone, but they don’t realise that it’s just one part of it.

It’s really how you piece it all together and leverage it to get your message out there. So that is my entire process of coming up with an idea and then executing the live stream to then actually repurposing everything.

And as you can see, there’s quite a few steps. How many steps are there? So there’s four, there’s four, there’s five, that’s nine and three.

So there are 12 steps that I have that I take for the most part for every single live stream. And then I’m doing four to five live streams a week. So there’s a lot of things here, but how do I organise it all? Well, I don’t do it all myself.

So I have an amazing team who helped me with the optimisation, helped me with repurposing the content and that’s probably the only way I would get through it without burning out and losing my mind. And that is the process.

So hopefully you’ve found that really useful. And you know, this helps you kind of see how it all comes together and it’s a framework ’cause I love frameworks that you can look to use if you are going to live stream as well. I really do think that this is a process to get the most out of your live streams.

Whether you’re live streaming on Facebook to YouTube or you’re doing both or you’re multi-streaming. And that essentially wraps us up for today. Now, if you found this video useful, give me a thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe to this, subscribe to this channel where I do lots of social media and live streaming tutorials.

And I have a lot of fun as well. Now, if you’re looking to level up your live streams, make sure that you grab a copy of my Facebook Live Cheat Sheets. It’s a super simple way to get you up and streaming on Facebook live even if you never hit record before.

And I’ll show you everything you need to do to get the most out of your Facebook live streams. Grab it. I’ll put the link in the description and on the screen somewhere. Thanks so much for joining me and I’ll see you on the next live stream. Bye for now.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Sara Nguyen

Video and Course Creator | Online Marketing Strategist | Wine Lover | Coffee Addict | Geeky techy lady| 😀 Helping small businesses build and grow their business using social media with ease.

Latest posts by Sara Nguyen (see all)

• How to schedule Instagram posts in Canva
• Customize YouTube Channel – How to customize the layout of your YouTube channel (easy tutorial)
• YouTube Channel banner tutorial Video