10 Ways Brands Use StreamYard to Create Engaging Video Content

Live streaming isn't a passing craze. It's popular, growing, and expected to keep doing so.

Everybody's doing it — Microsoft, Beachbody, Salesforce, HP, and even Robert Downey Jr., to name a few.

The data proves it.

80% of consumers prefer to watch live videos from a brand than read a blog. (Livestream)
By 2022, 82% of all internet traffic will be video. (Cisco)
The live streaming market will be worth over $247 billion by 2027. (Globe News Wire)

And it's not just for conferences.

Big brands are catching on to the power of live streaming. More than ever, they're using live streams and video in creative, diverse ways to build community, educate their audiences, and grow their businesses.

They're even flexing the power of StreamYard for pre-recorded video content (more on this later).

In this post, you'll see ten creative, unique ways you can use live streaming and StreamYard to grow your company, build community, and deliver engaging video content.

10 Ways to Use StreamYard for Your Brand

1. Live and on-demand shows for customers

Live streams are a powerful way to interact with your customers. Customers can ask questions, learn about your products, and forge connections with your company and other customers.

Take Microsoft, for example. Every Wednesday and Thursday, they host a 60-minute live show called Hello World. The show includes special guests, quick demos of Microsoft products, and live Q&A.

The goal of the show is to educate customers and developers on how to use Microsoft products.

Microsoft streams the show with StreamYard and hosts the stream on LearnTV, their educational website for customers to learn about Microsoft products. They also live stream the show on their Microsoft Developer YouTube channel.

People can then watch an on-demand version of the show from YouTube or LearnTV.

StreamYard also hosts a customer live stream — and has for years now.

It's called StreamYard Town Hall. It's a weekly show where Founders Geige Vandentop and Dan Briggs share product updates and StreamYard news. One of the primary goals of the show is to interact with customers and answer their questions live — hence why it's branded as a town hall.

2. Private live and on-demand shows for partners, affiliates, and communities

Many brands also create live videos for their partners and affiliates. A live stream show can build community among partners, train them, and share important company updates and news.

Fitness company Beachbody hosts a weekly show every Monday called National Wake Up Call for their community of Beachbody coaches. The purpose of the show is to educate, recognize, and inspire coaches.

The show is streamed live to Facebook with StreamYard. It's one of the primary ways that Beachbody engages with and activates its community of coaches.

Another great example is Salesforce. They use StreamYard to connect with partners by hosting a live show to share authentic stories with their community of development partners.

3. Internal company meetings

At a large company, internal, company-only meetings may have hundreds or thousands of attendees. Important board members and investors may attend as well. They’re an opportunity to impress.

That’s why many companies use StreamYard to create branded, high-quality live video for their internal meetings.

StreamYard is also secure, so it’s a great option for internal meetings where employees share proprietary information.

The Hopin team uses StreamYard inside a Hopin event to broadcast video for internal meetings — including quarterly kick off meetings and entire company meetings.

4. Conferences, summits, and events

Of course, you can also use live streaming inside your next virtual event. StreamYard can be streamed into Hopin events and many other event platforms as well.

A live streaming tool like StreamYard can increase the polish and interactivity of your conferences or summits. You can brand the live video, add custom backgrounds, and show questions on your stream.

Lucid, a visual collaboration tool, used StreamYard for their 2021 Lucid Connect virtual event. First, they hosted the event with the Hopin virtual event platform. Then, they streamed live video within the event using StreamYard.

By using StreamYard within Hopin, they were able to create a consistent, branded custom background within live event video and add lower thirds as well — as they did during this interactive workshop on visual collaboration.

5. Use StreamYard for your brand with webinars and workshops

Get rid of your expensive webinar and workshop platforms. Instead, you can live stream your webinars and workshops using StreamYard.

Beyond being less expensive than a webinar platform, StreamYard also allows you to create higher quality, branded video and add questions on the screen.

Many companies have stopped gating (requiring email addresses for access to) their webinars entirely. Instead, they live stream their webinars and workshops so everyone can access them. They can either stream live content or stream pre-recorded content. This can increase virality because the webinar is public and shareable.

Teachable, an online course platform, hosts frequent live workshops on YouTube with StreamYard. Teachable brings their customers onto the live workshops to share snippets of their courses and educate viewers with interactive content. At the end of the show, Teachable will promote the creator's course to viewers.

However, if you need to gate your webinars and workshops, you can still do that with StreamYard. Just create a landing page to promote your live stream.

Once a user fills out the email form on the landing page, you can give them access to a thank-you page with the live stream embedded on it. Or, you can share a link to your stream via email marketing.

6. Video interviews

StreamYard can also be used for live video interviews. It's easy for interviewees to enter the StreamYard recording studio. Just send them a private link, and they can click to join the interview room.

This is Working — a live stream hosted by LinkedIn that shares weekly conversations with leaders — helps professionals navigate our quickly changing world. The show is streamed to LinkedIn with StreamYard and has featured renowned guests like Brené Brown, Mark Cuban, and Robert Downey Jr.

7. Video podcasts

Podcasts are hot right now. If your company hosts podcasts, you can increase your reach by recording a video podcast and audio podcast simultaneously with StreamYard. Just use StreamYard instead of a podcast recording tool. You'll record branded video and podcast audio at the same time.

This allows podcasters (and you!) to repurpose content and reach two different audiences — those who prefer audio-only and those who prefer video and audio.

LinkedIn does exactly this with their show This Is Working. They turn each live interview video into an audio-only podcast as well.

8. Use StreamYard for your brand by hosting live demonstrations and contests

Another fun way to use streaming? Contests and competitions.

For example, TotallyDrew, a YouTube channel focused on Japanese culture and cuisine, streams live cooking showdowns where a chef competes against an amateur cook. They use StreamYard to stream the showdown live to YouTube.

As StreamYard makes it easy to add guests to your stream, it's a great option for competitions where you have multiple competitors.

9. Classes, training, and courses

StreamYard can be used to create any high-quality branded video — whether it's live or pre-recorded.

That makes it ideal for quickly recording classes, training sessions, and courses. To add polish to your course, you can easily brand and customize course videos with your logo, a custom-background, and lower thirds.

You could host these courses within private course platforms like Teachable or Thinkific. Or, you could host them publicly on YouTube or broadcast them to a landing page.

HP hosts training sessions for their retail sales associates on StreamYard. StreamYard allows them to brand and polish the live stream while easily sharing it live with all of their retail sales associates. It's also easy for retail sales associates to ask questions and for HP to answer them live.

10. Production studio

StreamYard isn't just for live content.

Many companies use it as a recording studio and never actually stream the content or share it live.

They can add lower thirds, their logo, and a title screen as they record, instead of spending hours editing these elements into their video after the fact.

Ready to use StreamYard for your brand? It's for any video content.

Brands across the world use StreamYard for live video content, podcasts, and even recorded video content.

It's not just a streaming platform. It's a platform to create high-quality video and audio experiences and bring people closer — no matter where they are.

Learn more about StreamYard for Business here or schedule a demo.