YouTube has announced three updates to its live streaming service giving live broadcasters, including small business marketers, more options to engage with their audiences.

The new features give content creators and their audiences more options, whether an event is live or after the fact. The goal, according to YouTube, is to increase the level of interaction between content creators and their audiences allowing them to communicate in real time.

YouTube is used by businesses of all sizes to showcase the products and services they provide. For content creators, who are classified as small businesses, the platform is used to monetize the content they generate. And all these content creators rely on engaging with their audiences to maximize the return on their investments.

The new features YouTube has announced will improve the experience viewers have when watching live streams too.

YouTube Live Updates Captions and Chat

The first update uses an automatic speech recognition technology to provide automatic English captions to live streams. If your small business can’t afford a professional caption service, this is a great feature to make your streams more accessible, especially for people who are hearing impaired.

The captions are also important because of the amount of silent video that’s watched, especially on social media. The system is not 100 percent accurate but is an option.

The second update makes it possible for your audience to replay the chats you have on live streams. This lets them follow the conversations people were having during the live stream even after it is over. The chat stream appears just as it did during the event alongside the video.

The third update gives creators geo-tagging capabilities when they are using their mobile device to stream live and upload videos. Users can then see exactly where the event is taking place if they decide they want to visit or know the location. A location filter can also be used on the search results page to find other videos from a specific place.

Enabling Live Streaming

If you want to stream a live event and you still haven’t used this feature on YouTube, you first have to enable your channel.

You start by confirming your channel is verified and you have no live stream restrictions in the last 90 days. Once you do this, you can enable live streaming by going to the Creator Studio tools and clicking the Live Streaming tab. You are now set to start creating live video. However, it can take up to 24 hours for the feature’s setup to install. After the first event, your streams will go live instantly.

Image: YouTube

This article, “Small Businesses Using YouTube Live Updates will Soon See New Features” was first published on Small Business Trends