What is Periscope? Is it a Time Killer or a Big Opportunity?

If you live on this planet you would have heard about Twitters brand new acquisition which launched recently - Periscope. So what is periscope? Periscope is a live video broadcasting App which is available in the Apple App Store. It works by a user starting a live video broadcast using their iPhone camera. You simply need a good wifi or 4G connection and and iPhone to get started. It works like any other social network in the way that you can follow people and others can also follow you. You will see on user profiles both a follower and following count as well as a number of hearts the user has received.

Whilst a broadcast is taking place other users can ask live questions which appear on the screen for all to see. You are able to respond by talking during your broadcast and replying to questions instantly. Also during a live broadcast you'll see loads of animated, colourful love hearts appearing in the bottom right hand corner, these are caused by other users tapping the screen and showing their love for your broadcast, these hearts then tally up and appear on your profile page. It's almost like the more hearts you have, the more popular you are. This is also very obviously a social network, you can connect, comment and share with others in your network. When your broadcast goes live you can also choose wether to alert your twitter followers that it's happening! - This is a great way to move some of your community over and see you on a more personal level. The broadcast is also still available for 1 day after it has ended so users are able to watch again.

I love this app / social network but is is it a time wasting activity? or is there real opportunity to leverage your business or personal brand through this live broadcasting app. I think both.

Reasons Periscope could be great for business:

If you are an individual or a business then periscope could help you interact with your community in a whole new way, you could broadcast daily expert tips, do Q&A sessions and show a more human side to you and your brand.

Each time you do a broadcast you have the option to save it to your camera roll. This is a great opportunity to create extra content for your other social networks, this could be a live Q&A session you recorded or even just a tutorial you made.

If you already make videos for facebook or you tube, you'll know it takes a long time to edit and prepare a great quality video on a daily basis, which also puts many people off doing it. That's all gone now! Because now you can simply start a live broadcast off the cuff, if you know your stuff and you can take the question or simply can talk with confidence ad hoc without any prep then this could really help save you time as well as open you up to a whole new group of people.

If you are a publisher or a blogger, you could use it to live broadcast an interviewwith someone.

If you aren't a publisher you could live broadcast an interview or anything, you become the publisher, you become the brand, you become the TV star! The possibilities make a social media, community manager like me literally squeal with excitement!

I have put together a list of ideas as to what you could use periscope for here - Which may help give you some inspiration to give it a try!

Reasons why Periscope is a time sap:

There are just lots of people from around the world showing off where they live, what they had for dinner. There are even people broadcasting their whole night sleep! and you know what, it's just totally addictive, its like watching mindless TV. The fact it's real, these are real people doing real things takes Big Brother to a whole new level. So join and get involved but remember it's fun and highly addictive!

When I did my first broadcast I was hooked! It was a review of a new local restaurant for a local paper and we had questions from the crowd, it was great fun and a new way of doing things but it could have gone on forever, users keep asking questions and you feel obliged to answer, so you could be streaming for a long time!

Periscope is a bit like Pringles, once you pop you just can't stop, that's what I found anyway. So far i've introduced the world to my cat, chatted about social media, done a Q&A session and made people watch me make a cup of coffee - all this is 24 hours. It's a riot! But it's very time consuming.

So how can use Periscope for business reasons without getting to distracted?

In all honesty for a while I think it's going to sap time as it's a facinating new, shiny, thingy! But as with any social media or marketing activites we undertake, if we have a plan of action or a strategy we can focus once again!

Treat it like your daily blog post and do a daily Q&A session at the same time each day or do a live show each day. Set the topics in advance. Put together an editorial calendar.

But also do make time to watch some video's as this is where the social networking side happens, when you are commenting and replying to other videos, use your personality to build new connections, you can double tap a name to connect with people and the more people connecting means the more people watching.

Do this and I am sure with your knowledge and expertise, great plan of action and a measurable plan, you'll soon be rocking periscope without wasting any valuable time.

What do you think? Have you used Periscope or will you be now that you know more? - Couldn't think of anything worse? Whatever your view i'd love to hear from you comment below so we can have a jolly debate!

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