If you’ve logged into Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook over the past few months, you can’t help but have noticed the words Periscope and Meerkat popping up from marketeers like myself
Periscope’s tagline is “Explore the world through someone else’s eyes” and Meerkat describes itself as “the easiest and most powerful way for spontaneous shared experiences”.
In a nutshell what they offer is a live streaming app from your smart phone with a more user-friendly and engaging interface than UStream or Livestream
Since they came to public prominence in March this year, they’ve been involved in a VHS vs Betamax style war for mass adoption with Periscope owned by Twitter and Meerkat buddying up to Facebook.
Whilst it’s still super early days to declare an outright winner or a dominator in the live streaming market, all signs are pointing towards mass adoption of Periscope as the platform of choice.
The most recently released figures show there are 10 Million Users of Periscope …. and that’s in just a few months!!
PERISCOPE IN A NUTSHELL
Periscope has been described as “Twitter On Speed” and “Snapchat for Video” so here’s the skinny on Periscope for the newbies
* Live Streaming app directly from your Smart Phone
* Integrated into Twitter – so building a strong twitter audience is beneficial
* Heavily data intensive – so it’s best to stream or view from a good wifi connection rather than your data plan
* Highly interactive – anyone viewing live from their phone can type comments in whilst you are streaming
* Replays for 24 hours – which you can choose to keep or delete
* Global Audience – but can gain local reach via followers, hashtags and content
HOW TO USE PERISCOPE FOR BUSINESS
Here are 5 Ways You Can Use Periscope For Business
EDUCATION
On Periscope you have some of the great minds in business offering up advice and nuggets for free at the touch of a button, so even if you’re not ready to broadcast – download the app and watch business leaders streams!
Sure, you could access some of it via a LinkedIn pulse article or their own website, but the beauty about Periscope is the nuggets that come the human interactions in the comments section of the app
Like all Social Media platforms Periscope is built for interaction and rarely is a stream a one way monologue to the audience – it’s an open channel of 2 way communication where you can access some real strong business advice
So think about what you can give out in the way of education to your audience.
Could you repurpose ideas from old blogs for Periscope? Could you give tips on how to deal with changes in your industry? Could you educate people on a breaking news story?
LIVE STREAMING EVENTS
Back in April, a few days after Periscope launched, at Sale Business Group I streamed the networking event live to introduce the businesses in the room to the wider public
It was the 1st networking group in Greater Manchester to do so and hardly anyone had heard of Periscope – but we had 4 times more people watching live on Periscope than we did in the room
We live in a world where there are so many networking events in one day that you simply can’t make them all, but those core members of your community can still be part of the action live on Periscope for those meetings they can’t attend
in person
People will always want to attend in events in person – but we are now entering the age where there are multiple ways to connect and Periscope is becoming part of the live event experience both to preview the event (yes and to generate
sales), to live stream the event and to offer the service of a 24 hour replay for attendees after the event
Q&As
Think about the most insightful parts of business talks at networking meetings or conferences
It’s usually the Q&A section where you really get to delve deep into a subject matter
Periscope is great for hosting Q&As in the same manner with real time interaction from 100s of viewers around the world
Because Periscope is so fast and it disappears within 24 hours people are open to asking questions they perhaps wouldn’t on twitter or in a face 2 face environment
BEHIND THE SCENES
Some of the best Scope’s so far are the voyeuristic Behind The Scene glimpses into businesses around the world
It’s human and gives real insight to what happens in a business meeting or what happens on a day to day basis in the business
Ultimately the reason for behind the scenes glimpses into a business is to humanise a business and because of the real time nature of periscope this is undiluted, real time and not staged
The Behind The Scenes streams is the one area Meerkat is winning on over Periscope – with some real Meerkat stars such as The Funky Fairy and Herbie Merrin The Taxi Driver being heavy Meerkat users
On Periscope it’s the established marketing names such as Gary Vaynerchuk and Grant Cardone who are the big hitters
COMMUNITY
I’m a firm believer that a business should be an integral part of the community and some of my most viewed scopes have been community events
The likes of the Manchester Marathon, Altrincham French Festival and Altrincham Festival being just a few that I’ve been able to stream live to the world
What community events is your business taking part in that can you can stream live from? What is happening in your community that are you are part of? What are you doing that isn’t just straight down to business?
WHAT NEXT?
Download Periscope from www.periscope.tv – follow @altrinchamhq – watch and learn
And then plan out your Periscope Broadcasts to build up your audience
CHAT TO US
At Altrincham HQ we believe more businesses should be harnessing the power of social media
Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
