Mastering the Wizardry of Livestreaming with Periscope

2015 has been the year of the streaming/broadcasting app. Since the early spring when the two most popular apps launched (Periscope and Meerkat), the web has been abuzz with excitement and confusion, asking “how and why should I use this?” We want to share a bit of knowledge to get you started.

The first thing you should know about Periscope is that it’s owned by Twitter. This means that the app interacts seamlessly with Twitter, allowing you to connect and share with contacts you may already be following (or are following you). It is for this reason that we prefer it over Meerkat, and will be our focus in this article.

Notifications (use them to watch things that actually matter to you)

After opening the app, your first question might be, “what the heck do I do with this?” And that’s a legitimate question. The main draw of this app is to watch live broadcasts relevant to you, so how would you know where to start? Simple! The icon on the far right is your followers and people following you. Most of these are pulled from your existing Twitter contacts. When you see a contact that you’d like to watch live, follow them (on Periscope) and click “notifications on.” This will send push notifications to your phone when they broadcast.

See the world through everyday people’s eyes (or smartphones)

The second icon from the left is the location feature (globe). This feature lets you see map of the world and all the broadcasts happening live. This awesome tool allows you to take a quick peek at what people are doing in other corners of the world. Listen to their languages, see what they look like, what are they up to in the middle of the day? Not sure where to click on, switch over to the list view to see popular broadcasts sorted by viewer count.

I get it now, so how do I broadcast?

It’s simple, the third button from the left is your camera/broadcast button. Click it and allow the app to use your camera. Simply give your soon-to-be broadcast a name and click “start broadcast” and you’re off.

Tips:

• Make sure to have your “Share on Twitter” setting on to let your Twitter followers know you’re broadcasting.
• Use #Hashtags in your title to make your broadcast easier to find
• By default, Periscope uses your back facing camera, so be ready and point to something good!
• Expect it to feel a little creepy at first. Like anything on the web, if you have good content, you’ll be fine.

So how exactly can I use this for business?

You may be thinking, “great, another useless app,” but not so fast. There are many useful ways to use Periscope for your business. Tired of live tweeting an event or conference when you should be paying attention? How about a quick broadcast to see what you’re up to! You can save your broadcasts and share them via twitter on-the-fly.

Have a huge event coming up? Give your followers a quick “behind-the-scenes” boradcast of how things are coming together Q&As with company leaders can also make for some good content. Have someone from your company face the fans and give a quick bit of advice. 

Got a new product you want to demo? What better way than a quick video stream while you take viewers questions on the spot?

So now that you have a quick rundown and some benefits, give it a try! For you visual learners out there, check out Krishna De’s tutorial on YouTube. It’s definitely one of the best ones out there.

Can’t figure out the sorcery that is Periscope? Contact us and we’ll cast away your confusion about this new social technology.