How to Host a Successful Live Q& A Video

Going live on social media is a great way to boost audience engagement and even allow the algorithms to work their magic to get your content in front of new eyes. And hosting a live Q&A holds a lot of advantages. It’s one of the most popular types of content for a good reason.

It actively encourages your audience to ask questions and participate. This will keep people around longer. Plus it’s a great way to establish yourself as a knowledgeable expert in your field. Organization and execution are important.

Give Your Followers a Heads-Up

It’s best to let people know in advance that you’re planning on hosting a live video. People can’t plan to participate in an event if they don’t know that it’s happening. So create a few promotional posts across your social media channels to let your audience know when you’ll be going live and also to encourage them to get their questions ready. Doing this will build anticipation for your event.

One of the best ways to do this is to create fun and engaging promo images. And if you have a blog, talk about it there and cross-post to other social platforms too. You can even boost the posts to get them in front of more eyes which will help get more people to tune in during the live event.

And be sure to pick a time when the majority of your audience will be able to tune in and participate – generally speaking, you’ll want to avoid working hours during the week. But you should consult your Facebook insights to know when the majority of your followers are actually active.

Have Your FAQ Answered Before the Event Begins

Some questions that viewers ask will be totally off the cuff and fall into the “things you can’t plan for” category. But its more than likely that there are some general industry questions that will come up over the course of your Q&A. Having a good idea of how you’ll answer them and having a few bullet points ready to go can’t hurt. Don’t read directly from a script, you don’t want your live video to feel rehearsed – but being prepared for the obvious ahead of time will help you said through the session without any hiccups.

Organize Your Team

When it comes to a live broadcast, having a small and coordinated team can be a big help. If your Q&A is slower than expected, they can plant the pre-written questions that you came up with in step 2 to keep things moving. If things are busier, they can help pick out which questions to answer and keep an eye on comments.

Engage the Audience

Don’t just turn on the camera and sit in silence waiting for the questions to start flowing in. Be warm and welcome your viewers to the session.

Introduce yourself, talk a bit about what the session entails, and ask your audience some questions about themselves. You can start by being very general and just ask everyone where they’re from, or you can dig deeper and ask some niche specific questions to get things rolling and warm the audience up.

Have Relevant Info Handy

Keeping relevant information at hand and linking your followers to it will help to establish you as an expert. Create a list of blog posts or other videos that you think are likely to be relevant to the questions your audience might ask. When the questions are asked, you can include a link to the relevant post in your answer. This is a great way to drive traffic to your blog.

Don’t forget Your CTA

Having a live Q&A is a great way to hold a captive audience, so make sure you’re taking advantage of that and telling them what to do next.

Be Gracious

Don’t forget to thank your viewers for spending time on your content. They’ll appreciate the fact that you noticed.

After the Q&A

For the best results, your live session shouldn’t end as soon as it’s over. Take some time to create a blog post that features Q&A highlights and focuses on the most frequently asked questions.

Not everyone who follows you through I’ll be able to tune in to the live video and others who watched it might be looking for quick links to the answers.

There’s also a chance you’ll learn a lot about your audience during these Q&A sessions. Learn what your audience wants and tailor future content to their needs.

Hosting a live Q&A takes a good bit of planning to make sure things are successful. But when you take the right steps to plot things in advance, you’re sure to attract an audience interested in your content and willing to engage with your video.