This article was originally published on Buffer
1. Office hours / Q&A sessions
Live video is a great way to answer questions from your audience in an engaging way. It’s a perfect way to invite your audience to interact with some of your team and to show the people behind your brand. By opening up to questions in real time, you can use live video to build strong relationships with your audience.
2. Launches and announcements
Social media is a two-way street, and it works best when you’re listening to your audience as well as sharing content with them. Live video provides the opportunity to do both.
With a live video to celebrate a product launch or big announcement, you can let the world know about your big news and also interact with your audience at the same time. For an example of this, Nissan live streamed the launch of one if its latest models at the New York auto show.
3. Take people behind-the-scenes
Many brands have used Instagram stories to take users behind-the-scenes in a myriad of situations, from what’s going on in the office to the set of their latest advert. Live video adds another element to what is already some of the most engaging content shared to Instagram stories.
With Instagram live video, we’ll likely see more brands, influencers, and celebrities taking users behind-the-scenes and sharing a transparent look into their world.
4. Interviews, collaborations and takeovers
When Airbnb partnered with Disney as part of their Live There marketing campaign, they turned to Facebook live as a way to stream interviews from the red carpet at the Jungle Book premiere.
Not all of us have the ability share interviews with famous movies stars from the red carpet, but we could create interesting interviews with influencers from our niche or even other members of our team. For example, you could interview a designer about how they designed your latest feature or link up with a well-known blogger in your niche and run a live interview.
Takeovers have also been extremely popular on Instagram stories, with brands teaming up to create content for each other’s stories and we’ll likely see this tactic transition to Instagram live video as well.
5. Experimental content
One of the most famous examples of live video online is when Buzzfeed took to Facebook live and stretched rubber bands over a watermelon until it eventually burst. This video had the perfect mix of weirdness and unpredictability and kept users engaged.
The video has now amassed over 11 million views on Facebook and at its peak had over 800,000 people watching live. When it comes to live video, don’t be afraid to try something experimental and think a little outside the box.
Disappearing photos and videos in Instagram Direct
The second feature Instagram have debuted today is disappearing photos and videos within Instagram Direct. In a move that again edges Instagram ever closer to Snapchat, Instagrammers will be able to send disappearing photos and videos directly to groups and individual friends.
Since Instagram made improvements to the way to their direct messaging system worked last year, the number of people who use Instagram Direct each month has grown from 80 million to 300 million — with many of these users turning to group threads every day to stay in touch with their closest friends and family.