It got somewhat ignored by most technology blogs and event planning outlets, but yes Twitter offers live streaming for events. Here is what you need to know.
In the past few months we’ve got proof that Twitter loves events. They launched Hashtag Pages with Nascar being among the first to showcase the possibilities.
Then we saw custom pages for events such as UEFA Euro 2012 and now the Olympics.
On these custom pages, you’ll immediately notice the personalised banner brands place next to their Twitter Pic, Bio and Stats.
What most experts failed to notice are the rich media capabilities of brand pages – which we announced in December 2011.
One of the most overlooked, yet crucial, feature for event professional was livestreaming.
Enter the Pepsi Live For Now Campaign
Pepsi announced a partnership back in April with Twitter, talking about live coverage of a series of concerts.
We now have the details.
On their Advertising Blog, Twitter explains the details of the campaign:
[…]
Fans can WATCH a new weekly video series, “Live for Now Music”, based on the top music and artists trending on Twitter. This is the first time any partner will use Twitter’s real-time data to develop original programming. By using Tweets to take the pulse of music lovers around the globe, Pepsi will uncover what’s hot in music every week and give fans a bite-size snapshot of the conversation on Twitter in Pepsi’s videos. The “Live for Now Music” video series will be streamed on pepsi.com and twitter.com/pepsi.
The last bit captured my attention. Let me write that again:
In fact if you head to @Pepsi’s page you’ll notice the following embedded media:
Therefore it is confirmed: Twitter can host event livestreaming.
What Are the Implications for EventProfs?
Massive.
Twitter is the perfect social medium for events. Better than Facebook or Youtube. It was born during an event and it owes its popularity to events.
While Youtube Livestreaming is still a viable option to consider for its SEO benefits, Twitter pushes interaction and engagement through the roof.
How to choose? Selecting the best tool goes back to your social media strategy, because you have one right?
Not Only a Media Decision
This is also a budgeting decision. The reason why only huge events to date have used such technology lies in the large budget requirements.
Small and medium sized event are inevitably cut out.
Both Youtube and Twitter solutions are only available to a selected niche of big spenders.
I believe that the war between Twitter and Google on livestreaming will be won by those who will be able to roll out first their product to the wider user base.
In Conclusion
Major social networks are gearing up for some titanic battles in the live streaming arena.
Twitter latest offering in partnership with Pepsi surely represents a prime example of what can be achieved.
However, let’s not forget we still need to look at some results. Large B2C companies usually do not tend to pay as much attention to ROI as smaller entities do. Sometimes it is just a matter of being first, ahead of their competition.
We can also look at this campaign as Pepsi’s answer to Coke’s Facebook Page. In this perspective results are evident: there is a 400k followers gap on Twitter in Pepsi’s favour.
Let’s keep an eye on Twitter, I anticipate some great news for event pros.
