You may have very recently heard “Periscope” floating around the Interwebz, and wondered “what is it and do I need it?”
I’m here to answer those questions!
This app hit the market a few short years ago after Twitter acquired it for $100 million. It has recently reached a tipping point for early tech adopters. What is it?
Periscope is a live video streaming app for iOS and Android that wors with your Twitter account.
- Go to your device’s app store
- Download Periscope
- Signup with your Twitter account or your phone number
- Begin watching live public broadcasts from around the world or start your own.
Other than the seemingly obvious voyeuristic tendencies that this type of app may produce, what are some practical business applications for Periscope?
I can think of many!
Share yourself with the world, share your knowledge, build your community.
As an early adopter of new apps, being among the first in your market space to try something out is just cutting edge cool. If others aren’t on Periscope yet and you are promoting your channel, they will come over and find out what you’re doing. Here are some other ways you can use Periscope:
- Product demos. What a perfect forum to show how your product works! Put together your gorgeous locket. Show us how that amazing mascara works. Cook with your cookware for us. Talk to your customers about your product benefits.
- Opportunity meetings. Show your prospects how awesome you are just by how tech you are.
- Tips and talks. Bring your community together for a quick hit of energy and motivation.
- Live presentations. Periscope from your team meetings or conferences to anyone who can’t attend in person.
- Group training. What a fantastic forum to build your online credibility as a leader and trainer. Yes, it’s a public forum – which is all the better to differentiate yourself from others who aren’t using such technology.
There is some inherent bravery in putting yourself online to the entire world, right? There sure is.
But guess what–your personal or business community will find you when you are consistently providing purposeful information. It’s as easy as that.
Don’t worry about how you look or how you sound. Live streaming technology is far less about how you look, and much more about what you’re saying. Care about the value you are putting into the world, and the people who want it, will find it. That’s your tribe.
Periscope has a very easy user interface. You gain followers who can search for you by name or Twitter handle. They can then give you love by double-tapping their screen to give you hearts. The more hearts you have, the higher your profile ranking on Periscope.
You can also setup a private broadcast by inviting just other Periscope users who are following you. Once your broadcast is complete, it auto-saves to your device’s camera roll, and also publishes to your Periscope profile, where it’s available for 24 hours to the world.
And then there are the obvious non-business reasons to use Periscope.
I watched the Neil Diamond concert in Denver last Sunday, watched Oprah make dinner live last night, watched Jim Gaffigan talk about editing his new sitcom, and watched someone live broadcast from the Eiffel Tower.
Periscope is bringing people together, and it’s making the world much smaller and more accessible. It’s building a global community. The maps feature shows where broadcasts are happening anywhere in the world on the global map.
I don’t know about you, but I think that’s freakin’ awesome.
I even got my husband to download it, who admittedly said that seeing real-time breaking news would be useful. It will be the app that takes a breaking news event viral within seconds and will change journalism and reporting. We will see it on Periscope far faster than any news channel will get cameras to the scene.
This is going to change our understanding of the world in real time. Let’s figure out how to embrace it for business and be the ones who define this technology for small businesses. Make it work for your community. Make yourself relevant.
Put yourself out there.
If you have something to say, show, do, or be, then bring it. Let’s see your awesome, badass self.
What will the next hot social platform be? Who knows, but it sure is exciting to think about the possibilities!
#EmpowerSocial
