Have you hard of Periscope? It's a new app that allows you to live stream from your phone. I dug into the app this week and tested it out so I could share whether or not I think it's something you should be spending time with as well!
What is it?
In their own words:
Periscope lets you broadcast live video to the world. Going live will instantly notify your followers who can join, comment and send you hearts in real time. The more hearts you get, the higher they flutter on the screen.
In my words:
You can create live video from your phone that gets shared with your followers and promoted on Twitter. The video is one way, but people watching can send you chat comments and questions. They can also double tap on the video and hearts appear on your screen, letting you know they're enjoying what you're streaming.
Why should you care?
There are all kinds of interesting reasons that you might want to use Periscope to create valuable content for your audience. There's no way to capture email addresses or do much with the names of who is watching - it's really about building community and relationships with off the cuff authentic content.
This isn't something that I would prioritize above regular content that are working you towards your social media goals, but if you're interested in playing around with it, I think there is potential to have fun and create some buzz, especially while the tool is still so new.
How could you use it?
There are all kinds of things you could do with this tool. You can stream a live Q&A (which I did on Monday), stream quick how tos, or share something you just stumbled across.
Here are a few ideas of things I've seen or thought that people could do with Periscope:
- If you work in fitness, quick how tos as you're doing your own workout
- If you're at a trade show or networking event and you see something cool you think your audience would like, live stream your commentary on it
- Ask questions or let your audience ask you questions
- Live stream the backstage pass to something you're doing - how you create your podcast, how you come up with your content, how you set up for a photo shoot, etc.
The video seems to stay on Periscope with all the hearts and comments appearing in replay for about 24 hours after you broadcast and then it disappears. You can also download the video and then put it somewhere else but the comments are no longer there which, if there are a lot of pauses and answering questions from the stream might seem a little strange.
I downloaded the one I did and uploaded it to Youtube so I could share it here with you, but it's missing the comments which I think makes it a bit harder to get the feel from. I enjoyed it and think I will do a few more of these, probably at a set date and time so I can let others know I'll be doing it and encourage them to join when they get the notification.
Leave me a comment and let me know if you think the Periscope app would be helpful in your business and how you would use it! Also let me know if you'd want to see me trying out more Q&As on the platform!