Guide: How to a Live-blog: Tips and Tutorial
If you’re attending a conference or event – say Apple WWDC or Google I / O – that’s related to your blog or niche, you should consider live blogging. Live blogging is posting ongoing updates to your blog about the live event instead of posting a report after the event is completed. By blogging live, if you can provide regular updates with useful insights at an event, your readers will likely regard your blog as a go-to place for event reporting. Live blogging can also make your blog more visible in web searches and can also help improve your blog ranking on search engines. That’s why you have to learn the tips and tricks of live blogging like a pro, that’s the purpose of this post. So let’s get started.
1. Prepare well in advance of the event
First of all, you have to choose a relevant event with the right audience. The live conference or event should suit your corporate identity and your readers. Next, you need to set goals for live blogging. And finally, you should prepare for the event as much as possible, because you have to post updates as soon as possible An event website is a great place to research the event. You can request the schedule of the event together with the speakers, sponsors and business participants. With this information, you can research more about them and create initial content for your live blog, including speaker details and links. If your live event has a website, it will likely list the event schedule along with the speakers. If the site doesn’t show it, try checking the site later as they can only post the information from the speakers a few days before the live event. Once you know them, try to reach them on social media and tell them about your plan to cover the event. You can share the post link with them and on social media with an attribution to them, and call them in a conversation. And if they contact you on social media, do so share your excitement to hear them It is good to include images in blog posts because it interests users and helps with SEO. However, it takes time to create images so you should consider creating them ahead of time. If this is not possible, you will need to create or download graphic templates with enough space for them add some info or quotes of the event. People always like insider insights about events. So you need to prepare a list of questions you can ask the speakers and / or the audience at the event. If you speak to the speakers, you can get their thoughts on the event. Or you can discuss the event with attendees and ask for their opinion about the event and the speakers.
You can also tell it on your social media channels about interviewing people in the event and asking people to send questions. You may be surprised by people’s creativity and curiosity when asking questions about the event.
2. Choose a blogging platform
Since you have prepared for the event, now is the time to choose your blogging platform. You can choose from multiple options based on their pros and cons (which I’ll discuss below under each subhead) and your preferences. Using your existing blog as a live blogging platform is the most obvious choice, especially if you are looking forward to boosting your blogging audience through live blogging. You probably should create a category or tag for the event to help your readers follow it. It is also suggested to write an introductory post. You can also create a single blog post or page dedicated to the event. However, for a multi-day event, you must create one post or page per day. Also, consider having multiple authors for writing large conferences.
Using a micro-blogging site like Twitter or Tumblr to live blog an event may work better than your blog if you want to provide short updates. It’s probably a better idea if you’ve done that too a large number of followers on Twitter or TumblrOtherwise, you should think about live blogging with your blog or a live blogging service. If you choose a microblogging site to cover the event, check and make use of any hashtags associated with the event. You can also include the microblogging feed in your blog to send updates to both audiences. Using a live blogging service such as 24liveblog or Arena.im gives you additional benefits over your blog or a microblogging site. These tools provide features to engage your audience and increase social engagement such as content walls, event analysis, group chat rooms, spam check, etc. In addition, they allow you to embed your live blog in your blog, expanding the reach of your event coverage. 24liveblog also allows contributors and editors to write on your live blog and live stream the event directly.
3. Choose a nice device
After you are done choosing a live blogging platform, you need to choose a device for live blogging. Since you’re on the move, the most obvious are choices laptop mobile, and tablet. It also depends a lot on the event: will sitting be tight, will you have to charge for a whole day or are you comfortable with the device? You have to ask such questions before choosing the devices. You must charge your devices 100% before leaving for the event. It is recommended to bring extra batteries or power banks just in case; you never know if you will need them. And you must bring a tripod along with one camera – especially if you plan to live stream it.
Also, don’t forget to test your devices prior to the event – especially if you bought new equipment to cover the event. There’s nothing worse than working or recording for an hour and your device crashes. Either the recording will be blurred or deleted or will be recorded without the audio.
Post blog on the live event
There are several things to keep in mind when you are at the event. First of all, you must understand you make mistakesLive blogging will contain grammar mistakes, typos and the like. It’s usually unavoidable, especially if you’re trying to post quick updates as close to real-time as possible during the live event. Then be aware and respectful of others in the event. You should choose a device there based on comfort i.e. use one mobile or tablet instead of one laptop if you have less space. If you click on a photo or record a video, don’t forget it turn off the flash (it distracts the speakers) and turn up the ISO setting. If the lights are dim there, adjust the brightness of your device accordingly.
5. Live stream at the event
If you want to enrich the experience of your audience after the event, you can live streaming and blogging live. It helps your audience get better and richer coverage of the event. If you have team members with you, one of you can manage the camera for live streaming while the others are blogging live.
If you are going to the event individually, you will also need to bring a tripod (as I suggested above). You can set up the camera on the tripod and then focus on live blogging while the camera manages live streaming to your audience. This is possible for the live streaming make use of different platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. If you choose a live blogging service to cover the event, make sure it supports live streaming. If so, you can live stream directly and if not, choose the platform with the most audience.
6. Go beyond live blogging
Live blogging should not be the end of your coverage at the conference or event. You should consider more ways to cover the event and reach a larger audience. You can set up a collection on Flickr to showcase your images from the event. Then you can share your live blog on social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook. What else can you do? improve or increase coverage? Write a comment or tweet below to @iamashks to share your feedback and / or ideas.
How to a Live-blog: Tips and Tutorial: benefits
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