Instagram Looks To Join Others With Live Video Streaming

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For many, it was simply a matter of time before Instagram joined Facebook, Periscope, GoPro and others in offering live video streaming to its hundreds of millions of users. With the addition of a Snapchat like a feature being called “Stories,” the social media giant has built the framework to host what the company is calling “Go Insta.”

Instagram following its parent company’s push to live video

Given Facebook’s success with its live streaming which brings journalists, teachers, sports figures and us common folk to share their experiences and faces with us live, it was only a matter of time that the growing popularity of Instagram would get video, presumably, with the help of its parent company.

Despite the presence of Facebook Live, Facebook has found that there are still many users unaware of the feature and as a result, Facebook launched a massive advertising campaign last week to raise awareness and that campaign is set to begin phase one today.

Phase one will include spots on television featuring actual streams from Facebook users and will also include 15-second spots on Facebook News Feeds.

“These ads are meant to introduce the campaign. We want people to see these clips and feel inspired to go Live with their friends,” Rebecca Van Dyck, vice-president of consumer and brand marketing, told Adweek last week.

The second phase of the campaign will begin in two weeks time and will be more of an educational push with Facebook showing users how to go live.

“We really looked to the community,” says Van Dyck. “People love going live, but when we looked at some of the research, it indicated that people are sometimes intimidated. A lot of people think Live isn’t for them. Knowing these barriers, and knowing that we wanted to make it easy, fun and enjoyable to go live with friends, it was important to us that the campaign focused on both awareness and education.”

“We really looked to the community,” says Van Dyck. “People love going live, but when we looked at some of the research, it indicated that people are sometimes intimidated. A lot of people think Live isn’t for them. Knowing these barriers, and knowing that we wanted to make it easy, fun and enjoyable to go live with friends, it was important to us that the campaign focused on both awareness and education.”

Instagram follows Facebook’s lead with ‘Go Insta.’

Instagram has begun testing the live video feature for users in Russia with a beta app for Android according to the reporting of Russian website T Journal which first pointed out the beta program.

Users need only go to the ‘Stories’ section of the app and click a red button that says, well, “Go Insta.” At the top of the “Stories” section of the app, users already broadcasting live are listed to make following them easier.

Instagram “Stories” can now be reached by users in the Explore tab thanks to an update to the Instagram app that was made available last week.

“More than 100 million people visit Explore every day to discover photos and videos from people they don’t yet follow. The new suggested stories section highlights the most interesting Stories from across Instagram’s vast global community,” the company wrote in a  blog post.

The company has remained mute as to when the “Go Insta” feature would be launched to the masses and for iOS.

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