UPDATE 13 AUGUST 2016 – Today Blab.im closed it’s doors with no notice to users. Read this article to find out what this means for you if you were hosting live streams on Blab.im
Blab have now released an embed code that is available to hosts on the event page for a forthcoming event. Unlike Periscope, you can schedule live streams on Blab for up to a month before an event and you can choose to record all or part of your live stream so that you then receive an email after your event with the embed code and download links for the video and audio files so you can re-purpose them.
Embedding was already available for Blab replays – the code is sent to the host of a show along with a link to the audio and video files for download.
If you are using WordPress.org for your blog or website, you probably worked out that you could use a plugin such as Embedly to enable a live stream embed or you could have ‘hacked’ the embed code that you receive from Blab once your live stream has finished providing it was recorded (as they call it ‘on the record’).
You could of course take the iframe code and change the url to be that of someone else – such as a show that you will be appearing in as a guest if the host has not provided the embed code for you.
You could even put together a curated page of content of shows you appeared in. For example,here is the embed for the first episode of the Live Stream Insiders show that I co-host.
You can access the code for the embed on your live stream event page.
You could even use a live stream hosted by another entrepreneur. Do this with care as the embed code is not publicly available unlike on YouTube so some hosts may be unhappy with people embedding their event – though of course there is no breach of copyright as you the content is still attributed back to their Blab account.
One of the good features about the new embed code is that people will be able to see all the comments on the event even if they are not registered to use the app. and if you are currently logged into Blab on your desktop you will be able to comment on the Blab.
I hope Periscope wakes up to this need for us to be able to schedule live streams and allow embeds in the near future!
How to use the Blab embed feature to attract more sales
Now you have access to the Blab embed code, this makes it ideal for you to attract more leads and sales.
You can embed the Blab on a landing page relevant to the theme of the event. For example if you were featuring products for the holidays or even Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you could have links to your recommended purchases that you feature on the show.
If you are an author you could embed the interview you do wit someone or a show you host about the book on a page with a link to download a free chapter of the book or even a link to purchase the book.
What ever your business, putting the embed feature in advance of your live show to use on your website, blog, landing page or even on Facebook (wherever you can add html) can help you attract more viewers.
You could even promote the fact that there will be a live give away to boost registrations to attend, and by the careful planning of your content you could make some information or even offers only available to those who attend the event live by turning the ‘on the record’ feature on and off.
Additional features on Blab that you may have missed
If you want to test your camera and mic settings and those of your guests on a Blab before you go live you can now use the Blab Test Zone. Think of this as your Green Room. Remember that this is still public and people can find you through the tags on the home page.
Go to http://blab.im/testzone or http://blab.im/test-zone to start your test Blab. You will get a URL that you can then give to your guests to join you – and importantly notifications are not sent out to your followers.
When you jump into a live stream on Blab you you now have the ability to notify your followers or not – read more about this on the Blab blog.
On mobile you can add “/notify” to advise your followers.
Many times I see Blab being used by multiple co-hosts of a show. You can now add a co-host by clicking the H on their profile card.
You can post your recorded live stream directly to YouTube from Blab.im. Personally I do not recommend this approach as most live stream benefit from editing and optimisation for search.
The comment stream is now separated out with you being able to easily identify mentions of yourself which is very helpful.
Blab has changed the desk top icon from saying ‘join’ to ‘call in’.
Blab purchased podcasting platform Podclear which was very disappointing for podcasters especially as they will not be continuing any of the features. Blab aspires to be a platform that podcasters with use to record podcasts (see their gif below) so it will be interesting to see what features they release – I am anticipating they will have integration with Soundcloud or other podcast hosting platform in the near future.
It is good to see that Blab has launched a content policy and terms of service which you can access here. I am not noticing many brands or non profits yet using Blab versus the adoption of Periscope which is for a number of factors – and in fact it would not be a platform I would recommend for most corporates and would probably choose Google Hangouts On Air or webinar platforms for multi person events, despite the fact that Blab has a simple interface. When you find the ‘general’ category of Blab has X rated and inappropriate content that most organisations would not want to be associated with, people live streaming from bed or kids jumping into content to disrupt conversations, I can not blame them – Blab needs to have specific categories for such content.
Are you using Blab for your business or have you watched any live or recorded events there?
To learn more about how you can use Blab check out my free video tutorials or book a private consultation.
