• by Ben Spiegel , Op-Ed Contributor, December 15, 2016

Facebook Live, Periscope, Snapchat Spectacles and YouTube Live are just some of the choices today’s brands (and consumers) have to share their content and events in real time. But do those specific events warrant live broadcasting? Is this even the right channel for this type of content/audience?

When Facebook Live first launched, I was excited about what this live broadcasting platform could bring to the media world. Imagine watching life-altering events unfold as they happened, being broadcast to users everywhere! I was excited about the way everyday Jacks and Jills could become the new wave of newscasters and of the potential that came with such reach and power—for consumers/creators as well as advertisers. Immediately, companies like Cheddar leveraged this powerful medium to create a whole new segment of media companies. 

But unfortunately, in little more than a year of live streaming, Cheddar streams aside, the reality is very different. Instead of our feeds being filled with interesting live content we care about, they are cluttered with useless junk, including some really odd “events” on Facebook Live. I admit it, I just recently watched a highly respected “mad man” iron his shirts in real time and yes, I was one of the millions of people that watched Mark Zuckerberg grill in his backyard for 30 minutes …

But does everything that anyone thinks of doing really need to be live streamed? 

I am sure when the media innovators came up with the idea of live video inside social platforms, they did not design it for me to live stream the feeding of my cat or my neighbor mowing his lawn. There’s nothing wrong with people posting and sharing personal content such as milestones and special occasions with friends and family. But beyond the personal sphere lies boundless opportunities for creation and huge potential for brands and networks to truly shift away from TV to digital and evolve to an interactive two-way conversation with viewers.

The potential for news outlets

There is a ton of potential for news outlets to mirror what they are already doing in linear TV by streaming stories on social media in real time. Even better, they don’t have to work around commercial breaks or structured newscasts. And, given the recent hysteria around fake news and media bias, live streaming news presents tremendous opportunities to create in-the-moment newscasts with fresh perspectives on all kinds of key issues and events. We’ve already seen live footage of protests and war conflicts (and other unfortunate events) from smartphones as they’re happening, provided by “citizen journalists” intent on capturing and sharing these events as they unfold. 

The potential for news organizations to create more interactive real-time stories is boundless.

The potential for brands

There is also massive potential for brands to leverage this exciting medium, not just by sponsoring live content but creating it. However, I have yet to see a brand that does this well in a repeatable format. 

For example, there is so much going on behind the scenes with many brands that consumers are unaware of. I was lucky enough recently to visit a client’s R&D labs, and was very surprised by the amount of research that goes into their product research and development. Today’s consumers want transparency and corporate responsibility—how about live coverage from a research lab, plant or corporate event to draw them in? I would love to see a brand’s development team do a live Q&A session with consumers or have a spokesperson doing scheduled programming à la Brand TV. 

One brand that’s leveraging this opportunity well is Red Bull, covering its sports and sponsorship activities through its Red Bull TV. Many brands try to imitate Red Bull when it comes to content but the latter is more of a media company than a brand, and not everybody has the equity to pull it off.

Rather than fill social channels with the same garbage we’re seeing elsewhere on the internet—content for the sake of content—advertisers should harness this new channel to interact with consumers and build market share in the process. Just as social media influencers and YouTube creators develop followings that help brands reach new audiences, live streaming video presents an ideal opportunity for advertisers to grow their reach and boost their digital presence in meaningful ways—in real time—that keep consumers tuning in.