Understanding the what and how of successful social live streaming

Live Streaming is an emerging form of digital media. It enables real-time content generation and consumption and facilitates synchronous interactions between streamers and their community. Previous literature has neglected how streamers can drive specific outcomes of a live stream. Thus, in this research, the authors introduce communication foci (the “what”) and communication styles (the “how”) as levers of streaming success. To do so, they analyze their impact on non-monetary and monetary outcomes employing data gathered from a twowave questionnaire. Results depict that communication foci represent a doubleedged sword: community-focused communication has a positive (negative) influence on non-monetary (monetary) outcomes, and content-focused communication has a negative (positive) influence on non-monetary (monetary) outcomes. Further, when streamers center their communication on the content combined with utilitarian-superior style, monetary outcomes are increased. In sum, these findings are helpful for streamers because it shows how they achieve desirable or avoid undesirable outcomes.

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