Live Streaming As I Work

[Excel-Expert]

I have been mulling over an odd idea for the last week or so, that I would love some other people's thoughts on.

On YouTube and Twitch, there are niche sections where people stream themselves as they work (search Twitch for "co-working" streams). These can be people studying, coding, investing or doing something more arts or craft-based such as model making or drawing. I am thinking of doing something similar while I work (coding and data analysis). It won't cost me a penny, and it will take just a few minutes to set things up each morning. Some of the benefits seem to be;

• For new customers, it is reassuring to see the person that took their deposit is actually doing their work.
• Most streamers seem to answer viewer questions as they go, increasing contact with potential future clients. Also creates content ideas for my blog etc
• It forces the streamer to maintain a work schedule (something I have struggled with in the past)
• Possible SEO benefits
• I can embed the stream into my website

The only negative I can think of is, that I will have to be careful what I show on screen if working with customer's data and I will have to mute the audio during calls.

What do people think? I am only expecting a small (if any) return on this project, but as it is simple and effectively free I won't lose anything (which makes me think I have missed something).

Thanks

 

[UKSBD]

The only negative I can think of is, that I will have to be careful what I show on screen if working with customer's data

I would say that is a pretty big and important negative.
You will get people pausing, zooming in and looking for the slightest bit of info.

 

[Excel-Expert]

I know what you mean

The majority of these streams have the camera at one end of the desk so the monitor is almost sideways onto the camera. So, all the viewer can see is a thin slither of a monitor, which will make it impossible to zoom in on and see anything. If you search for "co-working" on Twitch you will see what I mean.

The bit I am worried about is if I share my programming screen to illustrate something. That screen doesn't show data, but I could accidentally tab on to the wrong app which may have data on it and show that. That is the bit I have to work out. I can set things up so I work on one PC and stream from another, that would make it impossible to share my screen with the stream.

 

[UKSBD]

The bit I am worried about is if I share my programming screen to illustrate something. That screen doesn't show data, but I could accidentally tab on to the wrong app which may have data on it and show that.

Yeah and people jump on these things.

A top Call of Duty player got caught cheating this week when sharing his screen while streaming it glitched and revealed the cheating he was doing.

only showed for a second but people saw it and started posting it everywhere

 

[fisicx]

Do people really sit at home and watch somebody doing code?

Not even sure watching you bang away at a keyboard is going to give me any confidence. For all I know you could be writing your life story in C++

A bit different if you were a chippy or an artist as we could se you doing stuff.

 

[Ozzy]

What do people think? I am only expecting a small (if any) return on this project, but as it is simple and effectively free I won't lose anything (which makes me think I have missed something).

There is only one simple question on my mind which is what would you want to achieve from doing this?
If you can structure doing this and achieve your goals then yes do it. Live streaming is huge for person profile building, so if you are looking to establish and raise your profile doing this and then do so and keep focused on the strategy to do so. Keep in mind that TikTok is the largest streaming platform now beyond Twitch and YouTube, so that may be the best option - or a combination of them all.

If you haven't established the purpose for doing this yet, then don't do it until you have.

 

[Excel-Expert]

@fisicx - Yep thousands of people do it every day. I think there are a couple of reasons for it. Firstly the streams tend to have a live Q&A element, and that can make it educational. Without it, it would serve very little purpose. Secondly, with so many people working from home these days people want some resemblance to office life, and this is the closest many will get.

@Ozzy - For the business, it would mainly be a branding thing. As far as I can tell there is no one in my field doing it and everyone relies on pre-recorded YouTube videos. They have big followings but have no live interaction. It won't produce massive immediate results, and it will be a slower burner return wise. By answering questions, I hope it will give me a better idea of what problems my clients are facing day to day, and also help me generate content ideas for other parts of the business.

For me personally, it is kind of a motivation thing that will help enforce a working schedule for myself - without it tend to gravitate to doing all my work in the middle of the night when it's quiet.

I suspect I will end up gravitating towards YouTube Live rather than Twitch or TikTok. I am expecting most of my viewers will be in the corporate world and won't be able to reach Twitch and TikTok through company firewalls. Whereas YouTube should be easier for them.

 

[Ozzy]

Whereas YouTube should be easier for them.

You can also live stream on YT, thinking of the guy who live streams from Heathrow who was on the news. The live Q&A is a good idea I think.

 

[fisicx]

I can understand the live stream if there is some interaction, for example if you are working with some weird function that creates a dynamic pivoting 3d chart or whatever. Then you can talk as you work to explain what you are doing. But it's just you doing sums in excel then I agree there is little point.

Does it matter if you work at night? I'd have thought that's a good way to do things. Client asks for something at 4pm, you work on it overnight and have it delivered before breakfast.

 

[antropy]

It sounds like a great idea to me, as long as you can overcome the potential privacy problem, which I expect you can somehow.

Paul.

 

[AlanJ1]

A top Call of Duty player got caught cheating this week when sharing his screen while streaming it glitched and revealed the cheating he was doing.

only showed for a second but people saw it and started posting it everywhere

Ah but the only reason he was showing his screen was he was being accused of cheating in the first place ?.

 

[UKSBD]

Ah but the only reason he was showing his screen was he was being accused of cheating in the first place ?.

I think that was another one.

 

[AlanJ1]

I think that was another one.

If it was the mainstream one from last night, they have been accused for a while.

Normally only time a streamer will show there screen is for that reason. I watch too much Twitch in the evenings!

 

[Excel-Expert]

I can understand the live stream if there is some interaction, for example if you are working with some weird function that creates a dynamic pivoting 3d chart or whatever. Then you can talk as you work to explain what you are doing. But it's just you doing sums in excel then I agree there is little point.

Does it matter if you work at night? I'd have thought that's a good way to do things. Client asks for something at 4pm, you work on it overnight and have it delivered before breakfast.

It will be a mixture of building tools from scratch that I will make available on my site. When I am building my own tools I can walk people through how and what I am doing. I will be able to do that to some extent with client's projects if I don't reveal their data and IP. If it is just me plugging away at general number crunching work, it wouldn't be something you would go out of your way tune in for. The only positive for the viewers in that situation would be that I would be available to answer quick random Excel questions (how valuable that is to a viewer I have no idea).

Its swings and roundabouts when working through the night. Personally, I love working at night and it would be my first choice. I used to have clients all around the world and working during the night to match their working hours was not unusual. And I will continue to do that by arrangement with the clients that need it.

The trouble happened for me when working through the night became my norm - My availability during UK working hours became limited and I started to let things slide that I shouldn't have. So I am just trying to set things up so my working hours gravitate towards UK office hours

 

[UkAppCoder]

Generally, I don't really like these videotorial things, and I don't know whether I'd use a quick Q and A service like the one you've described. I find text is much easier and faster to learn from, and diagrams and infographics are even better for short tutorials.

I did watch a couple of 'Tech with Tim' videos when I was programming with Python, but I couldn't get much out of them, and to be honest I got a bit sick of him.

However, as fisicx has suggested, there are some amazing videos for people like artists. I do photo-realistic airbrushing, and one of my favourite artists in this area is Marcello Barenghi. Check this out:

Status by marcellobarenghi on DeviantArt

www.deviantart.com

Insane or what?! So educational and entertaining! (Of course the video is on fast-forward, but nevertheless, what a master?! Also, the colours are also pre-mixed for him (i.e. he didn't mix the colours himself), but he's entitled to do that because you can tell he's an accomplished artist and has learnt all the technical requirements.)

I could certainly imagine an entertaining two-minute video which shows how a useful app or video game could be produced.

So my point is, I think it would be better if you could somehow produce something more entertaining, educational and concise.

 

[lesliedocherty]

A few years ago I would have thought this crazy talk, now things have shot forward and I see this a lot, I quite like it, and I'm generally quite slow to pick new trends up.

I would embrace it and run with it, try it for 3 months and during that period, you can tweak it. I think you'll be surprised how much business you pick up with the friendly 'answer questions' approach.

 

[antropy]

The only negative I can think of is, that I will have to be careful what I show on screen if working with customer's data and I will have to mute the audio during calls.

If you have a dual screen setup you could only stream one of the screens and keep sensitive data on the other one.

Perhaps these streaming services allow for perhaps 20 seconds lag so if you knew you accidentally displayed some customer data you could quickly prevent it getting broadcast?

Paul.

 

[Ozzy]

One thing that seems to be on an upward trend is streaming live on TikTok. I have no idea how it works but I've seen more and more business consultants and professionals running live TikTok clinics/webinars of late. Probably be worth looking into.

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Video production here. I've seen this and the short answer is it's OK and will do 'something' but in reality, this is no replacement for a proper marketing campaign.

E.g. For us, we have a marketing exec who puts out a mixture of digital, social and field marketing. The mix is effective.

Let's take a small example. She invites marketing people or SME business owners who want to generate more sales to free marketing seminars. At the seminars, we have a mix of marketing speakers who share their best marketing tips, none of whom are selling anything. When we come to speak, we show a video customer testimonial of customers saying we're fantastic. Because who do prospects trust more, the person selling to them or a customer who's already bought the solution?

It builds instant trust and our audience then buys into what we say and are more likely to become customers. So what's more likely to create customers: Streaming to a bunch of random people or a field event with a bunch of specially invited prospects with money to spend?

So yes, it'll do a little something and may even get you a customer but it's a question of power. How powerful do you want your marketing to be?

 

[Excel-Expert]

The main purpose of the exercise is not as a direct marketing exercise, it will be supplemental to everything else I do marketing-wise. Hopefully, people will see my marketing, see I have a Twitch or YouTube live stream and visit that. They will see how I work, be able to ask questions live on the stream and learn all about me. Hopefully giving them the trust to get in touch. And all I have to do is turn on the camera and click a few buttons (i.e. zero cost and effort).

But for me, there are other benefits. From the questions, I will content ideas for my other marketing endeavours - when you are dealing with a vast subject such as Excel coming up with specific content ideas can result in a very scattergun approach.

I can also be a bad procrastinator (which I have battled most of my adult life) so I am also hoping having a streaming schedule to work to, will be another tool in battling that.

From the responses here, it looks like there are no negatives to the idea, just little or no marketing returns. Between now and when I go live with the business (Aug 1st) I will do some experimenting (I have to be careful though as I am still serving out my notice period with my current employer, and they might not like it)

 

[makeusvisible]

As you are working with clients' data, I personally wouldn't see your content as being stream-friendly. If I was looking at it from a customer perspective, I wouldn't probably see it as a negative, that there is even the slightest chance a mistake could happen, and some sensitive data ends up in the public domain.

I think for creatives producing content that is going to be public domain anyway, it works. eg graphic designers, or craft artists.

 

[Excel-Expert]

On most coding related streams, they don't stream the screens directly, most have cameras pointing at the coder from the side on etc. So the most they see is a very sideways on screen. If you search on Twitch for "co-working" you will see what I mean. The channels are more about the chat and asking questions than they are watching someone type in code.

The only time they really show what is going on on the screen, is when they are doing tutorials or showing a snippet of code they are working on. They also have a slide they throw up on the screen when they are taking calls, in meetings or doing anything else sensitive.