Could Periscope Be A Marketing Game Changer?

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been completely captivated by Twitter’s latest acquisition of the Live-Streaming Social Network called Periscope. It shows broadcast footage of everything from protests around the world to behind the scenes business tutorials that have impressed me with both their quality and content!

When I first downloaded Periscope, it was scattered with spammers, trolls, and comments that left me uneasy about pursuing the platform as a business tool, but in the last few days a recent update has enabled broadcasters to limit who can see and comment on their video streams!

This Application holds incredible potential for Creative Entrepreneurs who can now share Behind the Scenes Content in real time like never before! We streamed portions of the Bayside Workshop Styled Shoot live and Previewed our Surprise Dinner as the attendees were getting ready to walk outside and see it! (So fun!) There is also the potential to do Mini-Updates on your life, business, and share behind the scenes exclusive as they are happening in real time!

Five Quick Tips

1) Creative Broadcast Titles

When you click on the Broadcast icon - Periscope asks, “What are you seeing now?” and your response is crucial! Make sure that your title is creative enough to catch the attention of your audience, while also being relevant to the subject matter!

I find myself feeling drawn to click on streams with captivating, educational, or inspirational titles that are short and to the point!

2) Share on Social Media + Give Your Audience Notice

If you plan to actively engage with your audience on an application like Periscope, I recommend giving them notice through your other social media channels! On the day of our workshop, I sent out an Instagram updating my audience that we’d be broadcasting portions of the event live to give them a behind the scenes look and it resulted in more people following along on the app, thereby increasing the number of viewers who saw our updates live!

For more strategic Periscope Updates (Educational Broadcasts, Q&A’s, and so on!) consider setting a time to hop on and giving your audience the ability to schedule your chat into their routine! “See you at 12pm today for a short Q&A!” or “Photographing an Engagement Session today at 5pm! Hop on Periscope to see where we’re shooting next!” — That way, if someone is truly interested in tuning in, they can catch the event live and be an active participant!

3) Enable the Replay Feature

For viewers who cannot catch your Live Broadcasts, Periscope has the option to Enable Replays of your Videos that stay available for viewing 24 hours after the post goes live! For those of you who are familiar with Snapchat – this is similar to your Snapchat Story! It’s available for a limited amount of time and then it vanishes!

This short-lived replay is fantastic for adding a bit of time-sensitive scarcity to the content that you’re creating and will keep your audience tuning in regularly!

4) Send Twitter Notifications

There is an option that appears right before you hit “Broadcast” with a small Twitter Symbol that enables you to tweet out to your followers that you are streaming live! I’ve found that by selecting this option, I can count on a few web viewers joining in who may not have the Periscope Application yet! They will see a tweet go out with the title,  LIVE on #Periscope:  // Followed by the title of the Broadcast!

5) Succinct Broadcasts Appear to be the Most Successful

I highly recommend keeping broadcasts succinct to account for short generally attention spans! After experimenting with the application, I’ve noticed that it takes approximately 5-15 seconds for most of my live-viewers to receive the notification and join the broadcast and therefore I’m intentional about waiting a few seconds before introducing the Live-Stream.

Once we get rolling, there is a good two to four minute margin when engagement is at it’s peak, before viewers tend to tire around the five minute mark! My best broadcasts have been succinct around two minutes long and reveal just enough to get my audience excited and engaged without wasting their time over a long extended period. Now, this advice may change when broadcasts are engaging and interactive – giving your viewers a reason to stay and watch!

What’s Next for Periscope?

This application is brand new and I highly anticipate that it will grow and change in the coming weeks and months! According to the Observer we can expect to see Periscope rolling out an Android App in the near future (currently the platform is only available for the iPhone) and the possibility of a Landscape Feature in the works as well! I especially love the idea of Landscape Filming because it would be great for reposting to other applications such as Youtube Vlogs, Blog Posts, and more down the road!

Be Sure to Follow Along on Periscope >> @nataliefranke

And be on the lookout for Behind the Scenes Reveals, Q&A Sessions, and so much more in the near future on Periscope! Also, be sure to sign up for The Newsletter to stay in touch with future Tech-Talk Posts & Updates!