Busy real estate agent. Agile online retailer. Creative pastry chef. Tough lawyer. Who can benefit from livestreaming to grow one’s business? Whatever business or professional practice you’re into, you can leverage livestreaming to achieve the success you've envisioned.
It will take a bit of getting used to being in front of a live audience, but, livestreaming is essentially a communication tool allowing you a unique opportunity to engage with your target audience all at once. Think of it as meeting up with a potential client IRL. Or, having a deep phone conversation with a prospect.
But, this time, you are both online, communicating at your convenience. You are getting out your message where your target audience hangs out, instead of hoping they'll come to you. The interaction and engagement is priceless because they do not only learn from you, they also learn from other experts in the field. This helps you give your audience more value. Valuable content is a topic we discuss in depth in this episode of The Digital Slice Podcast.
The Streaming Lawyer Himself
Who would have thought a tough and highly competitive lawyer like Mitch Jackson would dare to conquer the amazing world of livestreaming? As if the courtroom drama isn’t enough, Mitch took dominion of the online world as well. But, how he and his wife started out, still reflects their original intention to be of genuine help to a lot of people who become part of their professional lives.
Mitch declares, “Lisa and I - I practice with my wife - we met in law school. The last 32 years, we’ve been practicing law together, and we help people. That’s what we do. We try to add value to people’s lives.” Mitch and Lisa help people hurdle their legal challenges focusing on litigation matters. And, in the last 10 years, they have incorporated both offline and online business consulting and have done tons of business litigation.
Mitch discovered being online actually gives him more opportunities to reach out to and help even more people. He admits, “I love juries. I love people. But with social media, I can answer that same question one to a thousand, one to five thousand.” As with any other business just like yours, livestreaming multiplies your marketing reach a thousand times.
In the case of Mitch, his satisfaction is in receiving feedback on how clients finally attain the peace of mind that has been so elusive to them for so long. And, this is something he wants to keep doing for clients. Mitch feels even more empowered with social media, saying, “Social has allowed us to kinda amplify all of that.” Livestreaming is for you if you want to take your business to the next level.
Today, Mitch is known as the “Streaming Lawyer” who's taken the online space by storm. Offline, he is the California Litigation Lawyer of the Year in 2013. He uses a powerful mix of law, social media, and technology while working with clients. He has been featured in various high-end magazines. Mashable recognized him as one of the “Top 50 influencers to follow on Snapchat.”
Mitch founded LegalMinds, a mastermind community online for professionals. It serves to educate about everything social media. Mitch is set to launch his book “The Ultimate Guide To Social Media For Business Owners, Professionals, and Entrepreneurs” very soon. Mitch is an early adopter of livestreaming and is co-host of “The Legal Hour Live Video Show” with Joey Vitale. At the end of the day, Mitch is out there to add value to people’s lives.
Before You Start Livestreaming: The Prerequisites
To do it right the first time, there are some important prerequisites Mitch suggests to make your livestreaming well-focused and purposeful. First, Mitch suggests reflecting on some foundational questions such as, What’s your why? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? This will help you determine what drives you and inspires you. What makes you happy and satisfied?
Most people at this point probably answer, “To make a lot of money,” “To travel the world,” or “To take care of family.” However, you need to drill down and dig deeper as to your real why. What is it you want to do in life? What are you passionate about? Because once you can identify it, you can stay authentic and share your real self with the world. As Mitch put it, “Share your why, and that’s what will connect you with other people locally, nationally, and globally and indirectly result in more business.” When he did this, it was when the magic happened. He received more referrals, and he was given more opportunities to help people – which is his real “Why.”
Secondly, Mitch highly recommends you ask yourself, “What’s your true north? What’s of interest to you?” In this huge universe, what matters the most to you? It could be social media, show business, religion, rock climbing, politics, fashion, counseling or research. This is exactly what you have to share on social media. Mitch adds, “Whatever that true north is, I ask my professionals to give themselves permission to follow their “Why” and follow their true north and then share that content on social media.”
This is the perfect way to encourage full engagement on social media. You cannot just share the usual “how to” about what you know or about your expertise. You are not the only one who knows about it. And your audience can simply do a Google search to discover a wealth of information. Simply sharing your knowledge is not going to make you unique enough to be worth following or engaging with.
But when you show people who you are, your unique self, and your exceptional interests, like-minded individuals are bound to be attracted to you. And eventually, what you have to offer regarding products and services. What Mitch knows for sure, based on his own livestreaming experience, is, “You can dominate and build a huge social media brand if you just give yourself permission to be yourself and to be human.”
This is why it is important to be authentic and not to be afraid to share your human side. If you are a great person who is even greater at what you do, people will trust you because they are assured you have their best interest in mind. In no time, you will dominate the industry you are in through livestreaming. Besides, it is easy to determine who is real and who’s not on social media. You can only pretend for so long when you are doing live videos. As Mitch says, “Regardless of who you are and what you do for a living, follow those approaches before creating and publishing content and when you do that’s when the magic happens on social media.”
A Budding Livestreaming Community
As Mitch went traveling the world, speaking and working with clients, he discovered how a lot of people want to stay in touch. After a speaking engagement for example, people would come up to him and give him their contact info. Of course, staying in touch individually in this way is a challenge. This was when Mitch thought about setting up a digital mastermind group where he can share his knowledge and ideas to more people all at once. Additionally, he also brings in experts from other fields, especially in digital technology and group members can all benefit from it.
The mastermind group became bigger and became a community of professionals who had access to a rich online resource 24/7. It only started 2 years ago, but today, it is a budding global community. They share a lot of content with at least 2 live videos each week. They spend an hour of question and answer with experts and members. And as it turns out, the videos members make, become even better than the output the experts made.
Type Of Livestreaming Content Plus Engagement
So, you're ready to dive into your own brand of livestreaming. What kind of content should you be posting? Many believe coming up with content can be the most challenging part of all this. But Mitch suggests this isn’t as hard when you remember how being yourself can really rock.
Make your content about you, your passions, special interests, and hobbies. In this way, you can become as natural as you can be when you try to talk about something on a livestream. Even Mitch enjoys sharing himself on his videos saying, “What you see on social media, that’s me.” For his content, you will see a variety of posts including sunsets, social media causes, income generation, politics, business tips and the like.
So what he suggests you do as you think about your content for livestreaming is to make a list of 5 to 10 things you enjoy doing and then share them on social media. You can make one post for each of those 5 to 10 things. But he adds “Whatever we’re sharing on social media, the key to success is engaging with our audience.”
As such, you need to answer questions, reply to comments, and share other’s people content because your live video does not end after you publish it. In fact, during the livestream is when most engagement happens. So go ahead and interact with your audience as much as you can and make it a lively and worthwhile discussion. Also keep in mind, in the end, you are doing the livestream for your audience, so it isn’t just about you but about giving them value. He concludes, “Shine the light on other people. That’s when the magic happens.”
Be sure to listen to this episode of The Digital Slice Podcast to get the scoop on using live video and social media to grow your business! And, if you like it, leave a rating and a review!
For more information about livestreaming to grow your business, or to schedule your free digital marketing consultation, please call 720.248.8185, e-mail info@friedmansocialmedia.com, or click here.
Please note: The Friedman Group is an inbound marketing agency based in Denver, Colorado, and we work with professionals and business owners across the U.S. Our digital marketing services include: inbound marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and digital marketing strategy and implementation.
