How to build your network and brand with new Behance livestream features for Creative Cloud iPad apps
Adobe’s new livestreaming feature for iPad is here, and with it the opportunity for artists like you to take their creative process online. Whether you are an Illustrator, Fresco, or Photoshop user, you can create your own channel on the streaming platform Behance, no matter your skill level. In doing so, you will build not only your brand, but also your network as you take part in an unprecedented creative exchange among artists at all career stages.
Why livestream on Behance
There are all kinds of advantages to livestreaming on Behance, starting with the chance to showcase your work with an engaged, global audience. There are millions of artists on the platform hailing from dozens of countries — numbers that are growing all the time. Livestreaming gives you the chance to impress a worldwide audience of industry insiders with your particular strengths. In doing so, you will drive organic awareness of your brand regardless of whether you are a student just starting to hone your unique style, or someone whose portfolio spans decades.
What makes livestreaming even more exciting is your audience will not be experiencing your work in a vacuum. Instead, they will get to know your art at the same time they get to know you — your muses, your creative process, and whatever else you would like your livestream audience to know. The result is a chance to infuse an entirely new layer of personality when it comes to presenting your portfolio.
Every creator needs encouragement sometimes, and the Behance community is uniquely supportive. Artists gather at all times of the day and night for inspiration and to cheer on one another. These interactions are not simple one-offs either. By streaming on a consistent basis, you can build an audience of familiar faces, knitting together the kind of network that forms the connective tissue of any artist’s career. The creative industries are evolving daily. No one creator can navigate every new technology and trend alone — and no one has to, thanks to the live streaming communities on Behance.
About Behance livestreaming
The Behance livestreaming platform is part classroom, part gallery, and part discussion group. For the past five years, members have benefitted from each as they have tuned in to watch creators divulge their artistic secrets. Some of these insights are simple and straightforward, such as a Photoshop shortcut that promises to shave hours off a project. Others, like their sources of inspiration, are more involved. And some insights are comprehensive, when creators discuss their education background or how they landed a particular job.
These in-depth and often personal conversations unfold over streams lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours. And now anyone is free to play the host.
How to succeed as a Behance streamer
As with any platform, it can take time to build an audience on Behance. Fortunately for you, we have created a cheat sheet of best practices to help ensure a positive experience for you and your future followers.
Follow these 11 tips to get started:
- Watch and learn from other artists who have livestreaming experience. Alicja Colon, Maddy Bellwoar, and Aundre Larrow are all great people to start watching.
- Keep your first livestream relatively short, between 30-60 minutes. As you get more comfortable, you can extend your sessions.
- Give your livestream a descriptive title, rather than relying on the default provided. Viewers are more likely to click on your livestream if they have a clear sense of what it will cover.
- For content ideas, consider using one of the following prompts: Warm-up sketches, weekly challenge, sketchbook flip-through, streamer Q&A, guest interview, my portfolio, what inspires me, open critique, paint along, my favorite plug-ins, 5 tips I would give my younger self. As with any other social media platform, capitalize on popular and seasonal trends to broaden your reach.
- Prepare a list of icebreaker questions. Viewers cannot interrupt your audio, but they can type in the chat. Make use of chat feature to build camaraderie among your audience members.
- Do not be afraid to self-promote! Get your friends and family engaged so you will be sure to have an audience for your first livestream. Post a link to the event on your social media channels. As you invite others, be sure to let them know that it’s not the end of the world if they are late or need to leave early. Of course, they will get the most out of it if they are signed in from beginning to end, but being present for some of the livestream is better than none.
- If you are nervous, consider making your first livestream private so you can get some practice and see how it looks before doing a public livestream.
- If you are going to turn on your camera, make sure that your work area has plenty of light, that your face is well lit, and that your camera is positioned to capture your face from a good angle.
- Start your stream 5 minutes early and put up a “Broadcasting Soon” sign. In Photoshop and Fresco, you can write it on the canvas.
- Always end your livestreams with at least one call to action. Examples could be following you on Behance or tagging you in their socials when they share a project that they created using a technique you shared.
- As you get more experience, consider using a stream support product like open broadcaster system (OBS) to add fun, interactive elements to your stream.
However you decide to go about it, livestreaming on Behance with your iPad is an easy and fun way to grow your community of fellow creators and build awareness of your personal brand — regardless of how far along you may be in your career. Get started today by downloading Photoshop, Fresco, or Illustrator to your iPad.