One of the hottest and latest social media darling apps is Periscope and of course marketers are finding ways to use Periscope for business. The explosive adoption of this video livestreaming app just points to my prediction for 2015 being the year of video and visual content marketing. Today we are going to give you a tour of the app, how to use it and in what ways you can use Periscope for business.
What is Periscope?
Periscope is a live streaming mobile app, you download onto your smart phone.
It lets you live broadcast and interact with your followers in real-time. It’s real time and uncut livestreaming. You can broadcast what you’re seeing at the moment or you can host your own show with low production cost. Plus, your audience can be anyone, anywhere in the world! Some even broadcast what they’re broadcasting on other media. I’ll explain later what I mean by that.
How to create a Periscope account?
First, download the app onto your smartphone. You can create an account using your Twitter log-in or you can create a new account. We recommend using your Twitter account. Before you start, be sure to enable camera, microphone and location. Sharing your location is optional for each broadcast. Periscope will suggest some people to follow to get you started or you can also search people to follow. You are now ready to live stream from your own channel!
Periscope for Business
You might be wondering what to share on their Periscope and why it’s relevant for business. Well, if you own a business, this might be another channel for you to touch base with your target customers and interact with them. Some creative ideas for live streaming via Periscope include:
- Hosting a live Q&A,
- Demonstrating how your product is made Showing behind-the-scenes in your office
- Sneak peek at your exclusive event
- Offer a preview of a product you’re about to launch
- Interview an expert in your field or highlight an employee
- Conduct training,
- Offer limited and time-sensitive promotion or sale, etc.
The possibilities are limited to your creativity.
Or if you’re already scheduled to be interviewed on someone else’s summit or podcast, turn on your Periscope and record yourself being interviewed.
Simple Periscope Preparation Tips
Once you’ve decided you’re ready to jump in on Periscope for your business, it’s time to think about how to host your broadcast. You’ll want to be prepared since this is live and no re-takes. At the same time, this network has an impromptu and authentic feel to it. To prepare, simply draft an outline of the talking points you want to share in your “scope” (Periscope live broadcast). This will help keep you on track. Also be prepared for the questions your viewers might ask about your topic or your business. Yes, your viewers can ask you questions via chat box and give you hearts if they like what they’re seeing or hearing. Don’t worry, be natural, and you’ll do fine.
Like any video streaming, you need good lighting and good audio. If you have time to get a microphone that attaches to your phone and/or a phone tripod so you’re video is stable that will enhance the quality. Make sure you have full battery life or bring a power bank in case you get low battery and there’s no charger in sight. I just hate it when the batteries die. If you can keep your phone plugged in while recording, that’s your best bet. Hail to the extension cord here.
How-To (Start, End, Share, Save) Periscope Broadcast
Once you’ve set-up Periscope on your phone, (don’t worry it only takes 30 seconds), you are ready to live stream your broadcast! Just click the Camera Icon, and type “what you’re seeing right now” in the box and click Start Broadcast. This is your scope (slang) title and what scopers will see in their newsfeed. Like any title, it has to be catchy and informative so viewers can expect what they’ll see or learn from your scope.
Just above the Start Broadcast button are some features you can turn on.
- You can also choose to turn your location on/off
- You have an option to share the broadcast to your private group, which you can select from your followers.
- Open the chat to everybody or limit it to users you follow.
- Most importantly, you can share your live stream to Twitter so all your followers there can see your live scope.
Once you start your scope, people who follow you will receive notifications that you are broadcasting. Also, your public scope shows up in the main page of the app of your followers and in the map of live scopes.
To end your broadcast, simply drag the top screen and click Stop Broadcast. Your broadcast will be available on replay for 24 hours for others to watch.
You have the option to save it to your camera roll once you hit STOP button. If you didn’t save it and changed your mind later, you can still copy the link, save it and share it to your social network or post it on your YouTube channel. In the settings, you can also Autosave Broadcasts to your camera roll on your phone. Then you can reuse these videos on YouTube, Facebook, etc. should you want to.
How to Promote your Scopes
Since Periscope is owned by Twitter, you can easily promote it to all your Twitter followers. If you opt to share the scope on Twitter it will send a tweet once your broadcast is live. If you don’t have many followers on Twitter, you can cross promote it to your Facebook if you have a strong following there. Announce in advance that you are hosting a Periscope about a particular topic at a scheduled time and date. Remember to give them your Periscope username so they can easily find your broadcast. After the live broadcast, you can share the link or upload the scope to Facebook and your YouTube channel, as long as you saved the link and/or video.
Caution and Disadvantages Of Periscope
Periscope is governed by the copyright infringement law, so be on the safe side and take extra caution when Periscoping a live event or broadcast you don’t have permission to. And please don’t be a pirate, it’s not good karma.
Some of the disadvantages I’ve experience using Periscope for two weeks now is that, you cannot fast forward the replay. Sometimes your listening to a scope and you accidentally ended it and if you’re halfway, sorry you can’t continue where you left of, you watch it again from the beginning which for me is deal-breaker.
And of course, like in any social media, there are trolls. Don’t mind them, just block them. You can do that by clicking on the comment and it will open his/her profile and click block user.
On the other hand, there are a number of interesting people to follow on Periscope and among them are NY post’s list of 5 people to follow. And of course search for your favorite personality in particular genre so you can get updates in your field.
Overall, Periscope has potential to grow big. With only 3 months since its debut, I’m sure there will be lots of improvements on user experience as the months pass by.
So what do you think? Are you going to try Periscope for your business?
Share with us your thoughts on the comment box.
