How to Stream to Facebook and Youtube at the Same Time

Once you begin live streaming, you’ll want to make sure your audience keeps growing by reaching the largest number of people you can while releasing content on a regular basis. 

One of the best ways to do that is to stream to Facebook and Youtube simultaneously. This is possible using certain equipment, services, and software. In this article, we will show you how it is possible to move forward by utilizing both of these services simultaneously.

Why Stream to Facebook and YouTube at the Same Time

There are several reasons why you would want to jump into the streaming game with multiple services at the same time. These include:

Bigger Reach: There are over two billion monthly active users on YouTube as well as 3.2 billion monthly active users on Facebook. This means these are the top tier markets compared to the other platforms.

Non-Exclusivity: Once you succeed on services such as Twitch, they often ask for a period of exclusivity. They then block off some of the more professional aspects of their platform until you agree to these terms. Sticking to Facebook and YouTube gives you more freedom to present yourself without giving up that freedom.

Audience Insight Tools: Google and Facebook are both services with strong social connections. Because of this, both of these services can give you significant data feedback. You can use this data to adjust any streamed content to focus on a specific target market. It will help you understand if you are pulling in the right audience and how to grow from there. 

Built for Video: YouTube was built from the ground up to display video. Therefore you can have assurances that their underlying hardware is designed to handle any streaming you may do. 

You can have assurances that their underlying hardware can handle any streaming you may create.

The YouTube streaming service is even built to allow for others to chat in your channel. It can also give you up-to-the-minute insights into your followers.

Similarly, Facebook revolves around social interaction. It encourages sharing of your content and pushes people to interact with you directly. This can be a boon for your audience engagement and marketing.

Publishing: If you were to stream in one location, then publish in another, it would slow you down. You would need to capture the video you made, then upload it afterward to the second site.

Streaming in two locations at once means your content gets turned into a video by the service in each location. You can then focus on the rest of your work rather than feeling forced to download and/or upload each piece of media once more.

How to Multistream

The actual process of multistreaming is simple, but you need to ensure you have everything in place. Some examples of how you can do this include:

Check your Internet

Streaming to the Internet, in general, requires a good Internet connection. For each connection, you will need at least 3 Mbps in upload speed, although a higher quality stream will demand more.

If you stream to both Facebook and YouTube without using a cloud multistream service, you will need 3 Mbps per connection. This can mean requiring a 6-10 Mbps upload speed to get the minimum level of quality out of your stream.

You should also ensure this connection is stable enough to support two connections and will not drop out partway.

Get the Equipment

You will need all the following to create a high-quality stream for those watching:

Video Source: If you want to display yourself or some other real-life imagery, you will need a camera. Webcams work fine for this purpose, although you can get a higher level of quality with the use of DSLR cameras hooked up to your computer.

Audio Source: A microphone is necessary to capture audio, such as your voice, music, or anything similar you may want to express. Ensure it connects properly and that your voice is being captured from the correct source in your streaming software.

The Software: You will need software on your computer to ensure your stream gets sent to the correct location. This will upload the stream as it occurs and allow you to see what is being recorded so you can know if there are any problems with the video.

Several options are available online, so make sure to do your research into what best serves your needs and intents.

If you are using a multi-channel encoder to upload with, you will not need two separate applications. See below for more information on these.

Sign Up to Both Channels

Make sure you sign up for both Facebook and YouTube before you begin your streams. You will need an account in both services and to retrieve the streaming keys from both Facebook and YouTube.

Your streaming keys will make sure your upload goes to the correct channel. If you do not do this correctly, your video will not be visible at all.

Multistream Options

There are many ways to engage with multistreaming. You can either use the software on your computer, you can use a piece of hardware, or you can get a service to perform this step for you.

Multistream Software

Several pieces of software allow the user to stream to several locations at the same time. You should be aware that this may take up double the upload bandwidth as you are uploading the same information twice.

Using streaming software, you can not only upload the video you record but also imagery or overlays. You can also combine the video with other effects to create a unique broadcast.

Multi-channel Hardware Encoder

These devices perform the same roles as software options do, although using them means that the computer does not need to process the video. You can therefore use the computer for more complex procedures. This includes rendering high-quality graphics or other hardware-intensive actions.

These hardware encoders have ports for capturing video, meaning one does not need to use a capture card simultaneously. These systems’ downfall is their lack of upgradability. Instead, you can modify software encoders to perform more specific roles.

Specific hardware encoders can upload to several online locations at the same time. Therefore you can send the video to both Facebook and YouTube at the same time.

Multistream Cloud Services

If you do not have the capability of using a hardware or software encoder that will stream to multiple locations, you can instead use a cloud service. With this system, you will instead upload any local video to the service via their own stream key. After that, the service copies and uploads the stream to YouTube and Facebook itself.

Some services expect you to upload the entire video yourself. Others allow you to only upload any live video of yourself and have online tools for adjusting the final output instead.

This service prevents you from requiring double the bandwidth. Some services can even allow the stream to remain active even if your own video drops. This prevents unfortunate cut-outs or the video from breaking into separate segments due to YouTube and Facebook.

Many of these even allow several people to collaborate on the stream, letting you and others engage with others with who you wish to stream.

Multistreaming Tips

Before the stream starts, there are a few things you should remember to ensure you have a large audience.

Hype up the stream: Tell people about it beforehand, make sure everyone knows when it will be so, they can be free.

Tell people where to go: You can send people the link, tweet it out, or post it on your Facebook and YouTube video’s descriptions. That way, you can rest assured people will not miss it.

Time the stream carefully: Work out when people will be free. You don’t  want to stream in the middle of the Superbowl or other major events. You also want to make sure you are streaming when people are off work, so they have the freedom to tune in.

Interact with your audience: If it makes sense, remember to follow the chat and comments for your YouTube and Facebook pages. Interactions such as these are very useful to let those watching know that they are valued.

Try Shoflo Today and Start Streaming Like a Pro

We hope you have gotten a good look at all your options with how to stream to Facebook and YouTube at the same time. Shoflo Studio is a great tool to help you get started in your live streaming journey. Schedule a demo and connect with one of our Product Specialist to see Shoflo in action.