If you are new here, or maybe haven’t been paying attention – I am a member of a local improv group. The catch 22 comedy crew. What is improv? It’s a type of comedy where there are no scripts, only guidelines and scenario, and the rest is made up on the spot. It’s a lot of fun, really, and it can be hilarious.
For some reason, there is a misconception floating around that live video is improv – impromptu and made up on the spot – but that is very far from reality. When it comes to anything business related, improv is generally a bad idea.
What should you do instead? Here are 3 things
Create an outline
Now we could say that the opposite of improv, is having a script. Before you go live you should take the time to decide what you are going to talk about and write it out. It doesn’t need to be written out word for word (in fact I discourage that because it’s better if things are more loose and natural). Decide what you are going to talk about, a few key points, and then add a few bullet points for each point. This will not only let you walk through in your head what you want to talk about before clicking GO LIVE, but it can serve as a guide for you while you are sharing.
PS: There is no shame in peeking at your notes while you are live, as long as you aren’t reading them word for word!
Have a structure
A few months ago, I fell into a hole. This was a hole of watching Full House – the original – for hours at a time. And apart from how 90s everything was, do you know what I noticed? Every single episode followed the exact same formul. It starts with a sweet quick laugh, intro song (ahhh), set up, conflict, then resolution. Why do they do this? Because it’s a show structure that works, and its easy to repeat over and over again.
You want to do that same with your live videos – pretend you are the producer of Full House and create a show structure that you can use over and over again. Your show structure should include an introduction, main content, and a wrap up. Other things include time for engagement, a call to action, and a one liner of what you video is about
Tie it into the bigger picture
Are you going live just for the sake of it? Don’t. It’s not going to pay off and really, who has time for that. Tie your live videos into the bigger picture when it comes to your business.
Does your industry have “seasons” or different topics of interest at different times – use that as a base. Are you planning some type of event – use that theme to create content leading up to it.
Launching a program, course, or business, reverse engineer your content to align with your launch.
Just “going live” isn’t going to get you anywhere, you need to do it strategically – add value and have a plan, and tie it into the other goals that you are trying to accomplish in your business.
