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How to Promote Your Live Stream using Social Media

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The Astrocasters video team running a live stream backstage at the Washington Ideas Forum, now the Atlantic Festival: operators at switchers under purple light.

Case study: the Atlantic Festival, Washington DC

Over the years we have worked with Atlantic Live Events (run by the same people as The Atlantic magazine), filming and streaming the Washington Ideas Forum, now called the Atlantic Festival. The festival has had some great speakers in its lineup, and has done a good job of promoting its content, speakers and sponsors on social media.

Here are some of the ways the festival used and promoted its content.

1. Gavel-to-gavel live stream coverage

This is the full coverage of a day of speakers, as originally live-streamed on the festival’s YouTube channel. The stream includes all of the sessions, as well as the holding slates used when there was no programming. Watch the full-day stream on YouTube.

2. A clip for each speaker

The long-form coverage was edited down into individual clips, one for each speaker, and posted to YouTube.

3. Reminder posts

A post went out from the festival’s Twitter account (now X) as Madeleine Albright began her session. It tagged the interviewer (Andrea Mitchell) and the interviewee (Madeleine Albright), used the event hashtag (#WashingtonIdeas), and linked to a page where people could watch the live stream.

Using your own landing page for the live stream is better than sending people straight to YouTube. A custom landing page lets you present related content, capture better analytics, and keep control of the branding.

4. Quick clips during the session

A few short segments of her interview were cut and shared on Twitter during her talk: “You actually need diplomats to do diplomacy”, posted by the Atlantic Festival on September 28, 2017.

In general, we find that on social media (a) shorter is better than longer, and (b) faster is better than slower.

Quick clips need a team that can (a) recognize the “juicy” quotes the moment they hear them, (b) quickly edit a subclip, and (c) quickly post the video with an attention-grabbing caption that has all the right tags. An experienced team with the right setup can often post a clip within 5 to 10 minutes of the words being spoken on stage.

5. Cross-posting to several Facebook pages

Some sessions were cross-posted or streamed to several Facebook pages at once. For example, the interview with Boeing’s CEO was streamed to the Boeing Facebook page as well as the Atlantic Festival’s page, putting the festival’s content in front of Boeing’s very large audience.

Boeing also clipped interesting quotes from its CEO’s interview and posted them: Boeing’s CEO on tax reform at #WashingtonIdeas, September 28, 2017.

6. Recap videos

Some time after the event, the festival posted a recap video to remind people of it, on its YouTube channel and Facebook page, and on Twitter (October 31, 2017).

What works today (2026 update)

The Atlantic Festival’s playbook still holds: full coverage, a clip per speaker, quick clips while the session is live, and a recap afterwards. The platforms have changed since 2017, so here is how we would apply it now.

  • Stream where your audience already is, and to more than one place. Multistreaming to YouTube, LinkedIn Live and Facebook at once costs little extra. LinkedIn Live is often the best fit for professional and policy events; Twitch suits gaming and genre audiences.
  • Cut vertical clips. Short vertical video (YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok and LinkedIn) is where most clips are watched. Frame or reframe your quick clips for a phone screen.
  • Caption everything. Most social video is watched with the sound off. Burned-in or platform captions make a clip work in the feed.
  • Keep a page you control. Platforms and their reach change; a landing page on your own website is where your stream, schedule, sponsors and recordings stay together.
  • Tag speakers, partners and sponsors. Their followers are your next audience, exactly as Boeing’s were for the Atlantic Festival.

Of course, this is only a small glimpse of the many ways our clients use social media to bring their video to interested audiences. We hope it has sparked some ideas for your next event.

Please reach out as you begin to plan your next event. Our event consultants would be happy to plan with you how to reach new audiences: see our live streaming services or contact us.