Over the last few decades, ongoing technological development has radically altered people’s consumption habits.
We are not only talking about how modern consumers buy their products, but also how this public acquires information on the most diverse topics.
In response to the increasing demand from the audience, digital content production has grown in all sectors.
Even the most traditional news channels, such as CNN, rely on internet platforms to keep their readers informed, offering a complete experience.
However, covering news in real-time is not such a simple task and depends on your ability to choose the most appropriate techniques and tools.
Would you like to know more about the subject, understand the advantages of live reporting, and learn about practices that can optimize your strategy? In this guide, we will discuss:
- What is live reporting?
- What are the benefits of live reporting?
- What are the best tips for live reporting?
- What are the best live reporting platforms?
Keep on reading!
What is live reporting?
Never before have people had such quick access to such a high volume of information. In the digital age, live blogging tools such as Twitter helped connect the general public with journalists, companies, celebrities, content creators, etc.
Social networks have become such important channels in consumers’ daily lives that many already use them as their main source of information.
It makes sense, after all, these channels make it possible to live report any event with just a few taps on a smartphone’s screen.
In the case of Twitter, this spontaneity was the main element to attract the public’s attention, which was eager for content created live, often bringing behind-the-scenes info that would not be accessible in other formats.
Faced with this new opportunity, news agencies began to optimize their readers’ experience.
Many of them already use specialized tools to include real-time reporting pages on their websites. Others use the resources of social networks for this, despite their apparent limitations.
While the association between journalism and live reporting is natural, companies in other sectors also invest in such tools. After all, the engagement that a live experience represents can help any company develop successful relationships with its audience.
If you’re in doubt about the kind of content that can be used in a live reporting strategy, there’s no right answer. Videos, images, charts, and other elements are always essential to enrich the audience’s experience.
However, in the case of live reporting, it is common to prioritize short texts, as they can be created with greater agility.
What are the benefits of live reporting?
Live reporting efforts have been widely explored by companies as a response to public demands, which, as a consequence, have had access to increasingly better experiences.
However, it is wrong to assume that only consumers benefit from such an approach.
More than just pleasing consumers, agencies, and businesses have much to gain from producing live experiences. And that starts with the opportunity to generate engagement and visibility for the brand.
Below are some points that will help you understand why you should invest in live reporting. Have a look!
Increase audience participation
When we produce content for the internet, one of the most important metrics is the engagement rate.
From this indicator, it is possible to estimate whether your material generated some kind of reaction in the audience or if it was not interesting enough. Real-time reporting will increase your engagement rate.
The reason is simple: a sense of urgency and exclusivity. In the past, live reporting was a practice restricted to large television and radio channels.
Today, when the anchorman announces the entry of a live reporter on TV, we continue watching in the hope of hearing breaking news.
On the internet, it is possible to develop this sense all the time. As long as you can count on the public’s trust, investing in live reporting will considerably increase audience participation, since people will be drawn by the opportunity of consuming content in real-time.
If you use appropriate tools, you can add resources to motivate public engagement, which is easier when you have their attention. Live Q&As, for example, work as a way to produce user-generated content, and are excellent for educating your buyer persona.
Build your brand’s authority
Given the great competition on the internet, it is essential to invest in building authority for your brand. That is why your content must be, above all, highly qualified.
The public values brands that offer unique and engaging experiences, so live reporting is an excellent approach.
Your challenge is to attract audiences to your portal. As we’ll see later, this can be done using some techniques, many involving Digital Marketing.
The point is that the real-time factor helps to retain visitors coming to your site, as they notice that the content is more than just ordinary. Over time, you will form a loyal consumer base that will spread feedback over the internet and attract organic traffic.
Above all, this directly affects your SEO score, which determines your pages’ position in Google’s search results.
Generate revenue from ads
Not surprisingly, real-time content, renowned for its high level of engagement, attracts advertisers’ attention. The more people access your portal, the more valuable it will become.
In other words, offering live experiences can generate revenue coming from advertising.
That said, pay special attention to this functionality when choosing your live reporting platform. You need to check if the software in question allows you to use in-stream advertising to attract sponsors and monetize your events.
What are the best tips for live reporting?
Let’s get straight to the point: what can you do to guarantee your live reporting strategy will be successful? The first step is to plan ahead!
Plan ahead
Planning ahead means developing a strategic approach to guide your real-time content production. Among other things, you need to identify who your buyer persona is to ensure that your live reports will be suited to their characteristics.
It is at this stage, too, that you must define the topics that will be covered in the live experience. To do so, it is essential to perform a keyword search to identify the terms that attract the most attention from your audience.
Based on this, you can work on the scripts and other resources to help your production. Depending on the platform you use, it is also possible to schedule posts to be published during an event.
Create a hashtag
The keyword search, which we have just mentioned, should also guide the creation of a hashtag to promote the event. Hashtags are very effective tools in motivating the public’s participation through posts in different social media channels.
During the promotion phase of your live event, spread the chosen hashtag, and encourage the audience to create content using it.
Besides generating visibility for the brand, this action will gather all the posts containing the hashtag in one place, facilitating later analysis.
The hashtags should be short, relatable to your event, and easy to remember. Before launching yours, make sure that no one else is using it already.
Promote your channel through Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing is a set of strategies that aims to improve the reach of your brand, generate traffic towards your channels, and increase the number of business opportunities. Therefore, it is the perfect resource to promote your live reporting initiatives.
There is a myriad of techniques that can be used in this context. It’s up to you to identify the one that best fits your objectives. If your agency has enough budget, a good idea is to create ads on platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
Another option is to invest in the production of content, such as social media and blog posts. You can use the reach of these channels to promote your events organically and affordably.
Encourage engagement
Use all the appeal of a live report to your advantage and motivate the audience to engage with the content. To do this, the presenter, if there is one, should remind the audience of the possibility to interact, either through comments or social shares.
It is important to add tools to your live reports to create a complete — and, therefore, more engaging — experience for the audience. Interactive content such as quizzes, Q&As, and social walls are excellent for achieving this goal.
Save your live reports
Depending on the tool you use, you can store your real-time materials. This way, they can be repurposed and posted to other channels under different formats.
In addition, this practice allows you to perform a deeper analysis of their performance.
What are the best live reporting platforms?
To take full advantage of live reporting, it is crucial to choose a proper platform. Below, we present some of the best options on the market.
Bloglive.online
This tool is very user-friendly, even for beginners, since it offers an easy-to-use interface. With just a few clicks, you can optimize your content’s appearance to suit your brand’s visual identity.
Bloglive.online is an efficient and low-cost tool, with plans starting at $5 a month.
24LiveBlog
Another alternative is 24LiveBlog, which offers resources for you to engage your audience in addition to the recurring functions. A real-time moderated chat enables users to interact, making their experience more complete.
To facilitate lead generation, the tool allows you to set up pop-ups, and CTAs focused on collecting visitor data.
The basic version of 24LiveBlog is available for free, but if you want to explore all the software benefits, you need to spend at least $49 per month.
Live
Live is the complete solution for the creation of live experiences. Easy-to-use, it is the best tool available if you want to invest in live updates, field reporting, or event coverage.
It works perfectly on different screen sizes, which makes it easy for reporters to work remotely.
Live also offers monetization resources, making spaces available that you can negotiate with sponsors to fill. Besides, you can add elements such as interactive Q&A to enrich the user experience.
If your goal is to cover sports events, Live offers scoreboards and other resources to make your broadcast even more professional. More than creating and promoting your live reports, you can use it to embed your content in your channels, making it easier for the public to access.
Now that you know the benefits of live reporting, as well as the tips for developing your strategy, you can increase your brand engagement rates.
Don’t waste time! Choose your platform, plan ahead, and start offering live experiences.
