Wednesday, May 17, 2017

ChemKnits went Live!

I went live yesterday.... three times to be exact.  It feels strange for me to be talking to you guys in real time since so many of my videos and blog posts are published WAY after the fact. The closest I get to "live" is on my instagram feed, and many of those are really later-grams.    I've been watching some live sales on Facebook in the last few weeks, and was wondering how easy it was to accomplish.

I've been thinking about doing a live dyeing demonstration for a long time.  There are many logistics to consider: my messy house, my delightfully rambunctious children, my barky dog.  How can I talk on camera AND show my work space at the same time?  I decided to make my first live attempt simple.  I had two KnitPicks boxes that were ready to open.  Why not unbox my yarn orders live?  I was planning to do an unboxing of one of the orders anyway, but this gave me an excuse to try out the different live platforms.  

Going live on Facebook was really easy.  (Do you follow ChemKnits on Facebook?)  I entered my description and watched the browser count me down and I was live.  I did this attempt in the middle of the day, so I wasn't expecting anyone to be able to join me... but you did!  It was so fun to get comments live!  


Facebook really wants you to use Facebook video.  I have noticed that they don't promote YouTube videos as much as other types of linked content to followers.  I have a lot more followers on YouTube, so I wasn't sure if it would make more sense for me to go live there.  Going live on YouTube is a lot more complicated.  You have to download encoding software and then figure out how to use that software.  Yikes!  I picked a free program (OBS Studio) and gave it a shot.  

I knew what would be in the box this time, because I had saved this box specifically for an unboxing video.  I had no idea that I would end up doing it live, though.  Unfortunately, I couldn't see the comments while I was doing this video so I had no idea how many of you were watching.  I am disappointed that live chat comments disappear after the live event has ended.  


Filming live was a rush.   My videos are often long and fairly unedited.  I get a lot of positive feedback on my rambling enthusiasm.  I finished my second video and was super excited to try going live again.  Shortly after the boys woke up from their nap, I found TWO packages on my door step!  Love Knitting had graciously offered to send me some of their exclusive yarns, and I couldn't wait to see what was in the packages.  I decided to wait a couple of hours and to try going live on YouTube one more time.  This time I made sure that I could read the comments as they came in.  


In the future, I'll try to do a better job reading the question outloud before responding.  I also know that there are some technical difficulties where the sound was skipping out.  My internet service is worse in the evenings, so I'm sure this is related.  Please continue to give me feedback and I'll work to improve the quality.  

I've always enjoyed interacting with you guys, but I especially enjoyed interacting with you in real time.  I think that there will be more live video events in my future.  If  I am going to plan a large dyeing adventure, I'll try to schedule the event in advance so you guys can plan to tune in. What kind of live broadcast would you like to see?