How to Use Periscope to Build Your Business
What is Periscope?
Periscope is a mobile app that allows users to live-broadcast video from anywhere in the world in real time.
Basically Periscope is like instagram of live video streaming and live face time with the world.
Why Periscope and Why NOW?
Whether you’re a seasoned business professional or a small business owner, if you use twitter, you can add to your credibility and brand using live video as a storytelling tool, you should check out Periscope. Of course you will need a Twitter account and the app downloaded to your Android or iOS device to get started. Users have the capability to share their stories and perspectives to add value to their viewers in the form of entertainment and/or education.
Periscope has grown very rapidly in recent months. In fact, it is officially one of the fastest growing social media platforms present today. Just to give you an idea of how incredible Periscope is let’s see how other social media platforms compare.
Here is how other social media platforms stack up.
Social Media Platforms
1. Periscope – 10 days to reach 1 million users
2. Instagram – 2.5 months to reach 1 million users
3. Facebook – 10 months to reach 1 million users
4. Twitter – 2 years to reach 1 million users
As you can see, Periscope reached 1 million users in just 10 days when it was first launched and has surpassed Instagram as the leading social media platform with 1 million users in 2.5 months. It is even more amazing that Periscope has now reached 15 million users in 5 months and continues to grow quickly.
Those are some remarkable stats and what’s even more intriguing is that everyday there is 40 years worth of content watched every day with only 1% broadcasting on Periscope. That is incredible.
With Periscope if you can provide value you can build followers and a community within a short period of time. Periscope is a great way to a build community very quickly around something you are passionate about. By being an early adopter on a platform such as Periscope that is currently going bonkers, you can be a leader in a space that is literally wide open with your niche.
One of the best things about periscope is it is” live” which means there is…
- NO Editing
- NO Webinar Slides
- NO Countdown Timer
- NO Commercials
- NO Sponsorships
The key to rocking it with Periscope is as simple as just sitting down in front of your phone and delivering great content to people and building those relationships with potential customers ultimately leveraging it to create sales.
Periscope is an excellent way to build those deeper relationships because it is all about “in the moment sharing” and loving the unscripted approach of this live streaming method. The more real you become and the more real you show up in your live streams the more your audience will become engaged.
This comes about with no prior notice and without a landing page, a campaign build out in your email client or registration page for your webinar. You may have anywhere from 50 to 1200 or more show up in real time just to chat with you. This is an excellent way to build relationships and your community.
With your smartphone you can begin by pressing the start broadcast button and you have an audience of people who are willing to tune in and listen to your content or sales pitch or whatever you are periscoping about. The reality is successful social media marketing is not built on those “impressions.” However it is ultimately built on relationships.
If your intention is to build a strong brand, then your authenticity and integrity are critical to your success. You can’t hide behind text anymore.
People buy from those that they KNOW, LIKE and TRUST! It is a fast way to build out that process.
Keep these 3 tips in mind when first broadcasting on Periscope…
- Private Broadcast – If you are new to Periscope then you may want to start with a private broadcast. This feature is built into Periscope. When starting you can get over the hump by getting together with a friend in a private way and learn the ropes.
- Being Prepared – When scoping it is a good idea to have a list or a few points that you want to mention during your streaming. Things can and will go wrong during real time. The key is to not panic. People are understanding that this is live and that you will screw up. They will embrace that. People are very tolerate and forgiving and will support you when these things happen.
- Create a checklist – until you are comfortable with doing live sessions. Create a checklist of things that you want to cover. If you are trying to build that email list – having that link so you do not forget to mention it is important.
The Secret Formula to Create Scopes that Followers “Can’t Wait To Join”
There are a lot of people on Periscope and a lot of content being consumed. There are only 1 % that are broadcasting on Periscope. The time is NOW to get started on Periscope as it is a brand new opportunity that is wide open.
First of all, it does no good if people don’t come to your scopes or if you have a smaller audience when you could have a larger audience. Even if you have amazing content and people are intrigued by your title and get into your scope you need to be yourself. You need to be okay with not being perfect. It is important to be your authentic self. People are attracted to your personality and like your content.
Having a great title is imperative to enticing people to come in to your scope.
If you consistently create good content that takes care of the pain points of your audience then you are going to rock it on Periscope. It is similar to any blog post. If you solve someones pain point; they are so tuned into what you have to say. With scoping you are adding a visual component to it, therefore adding another layer to building that trust.
Producing good content takes time and focusing on your audience can take time. However, you can take things you are already doing to save time. You just need to be consistent. The way to get them into your scopes and to keep them coming back is to be yourself. You have to be okay with not being perfect. Your audience understands that you are broadcasting live and things can and will not always go smoothly as if it were scripted.
It is best to be consistent and periscope once a day. A periscope only last once a day or 24 hours. Going live everyday will bring more people to your scopes and they will share your information. Treat people on your periscope as friends. This is a whole new audience. You will see people over and over and this is how periscope builds a deeper connection. You will also see them over and over again even on other platforms.
Periscope is an amazing tool for building out your community. Your audience will be talking with each other and having a conversation with each other within the periscope. People are connecting and building relationships inside the individual scopes. Conversations build relationships and relationships absolutely drive our sales. People are connecting and forming relationships and in return the sales process is shortened dramatically through the periscope.
When engaging with your audience you need to show you sincerely care about the people you serve. People’s time is valuable and you should give value back.
When you truly care about helping others it will show up to you tenfold.
Building a Following on Periscope
If when people are following you unless they turn off their notifications they get a little pop up on their phone screen. So consider this…the open rate for a text is 90%. Periscope this person and they will be going live by clicking the icon and go to scope. People are clicking and consuming content just like a text message and they are checking you out.
We all start with 1 follower or 1 heart which is the equivalent of a like on facebook.
When you set up your periscope account this will bring in your twitter followers. You can scroll down and whoever you have relationships with or influencers you have on twitter –are they creating content on periscope? Then you can follow them and then follow back. Be selective as you don’t want to follow them all.
Your Bio is really important – what you do and who you are. Let your audience know what’s in it for them. You may make personal connections just by adding that you are from Florida or that you love hockey. Be sure to use a professional photo. Also be clear in what content you are offering and be consistent.
Connect your twitter account to your periscope account. Make sure your twitter post icon is on. When you are live, periscope is automatically tweeted to twitter. If you use hastags in your title they can get to your content with hashtags. Be “live” on the app. Your viewers are on their phones and they are inside of the app on their phones. The interesting thing is you can have 500 or 1200 watching that same content because they clicked the link on the twitter profile and are watching through the web browser . By leveraging the app and the title and the twitter account, people share through communities.
Setting Up Your First Periscope Broadcast.
When setting up your periscope first and foremost you can’t edit it. The reality is all you have to is your phone. You may want to consider using additional equipment during your broadcasts such as a microphone and a tripod if you want. Also, you don’t have to show your face. You can show up and be passionate about your message
Learning To Use Periscope
Setting Up Your Username
Just because you sign into Periscope with Twitter, it doesn’t mean you have to keep your Twitter username. If you are not happy with your Twitter username, you CAN and should create a new username for your Periscope account.
Now, should you go for your own name or your company name? Personally, I’ll go for my name every time. That doesn’t mean you can’t create a separate account for your brand, but bringing ‘personal’ into your brand is extremely important.
Setting Up Your Profile
First, upload a photo if you haven’t already. It gives people a chance to know who you are and connect with you on the spot.
Understand that you are able to change your bio on Periscope at any time. It is a really good idea for you to state very clearly what is it that you do so people can decide if they want to follow you and you should include your website URL and some emojis to catch attention.
Also realize that your bios are searchable, meaning people can search for terms in the search box and find you. Put relevant keywords in your bio. Finally, when you put your website URL be sure to use http://yoursite.com so that it becomes a live link when people watch replays on the web.
Hot Tip Capitalize each word in your username; this will make your username immediately more readable and identifiable to Periscope viewers.
Create A Catchy Title
Crafting a great title will entice people to come in to see your broadcast. Either be very obvious (tell us exactly what you are going to talk about or show us) or leave a little mystery (announce you are going to reveal something or share something new on your broadcast).
Hot Tip Craft your title for Periscope into your notes app and then copy and paste it into periscope. If you get kicked off of periscope during your live broadcast for some reason because of a poor signal for example, you can come back in and recapture the majority of your audience.
Everyone knows that emoji’s grab attention and people are more likely to respond or engage. So add them to your title.
You Don’t Have To Show Your FACE.
Start out by showing what you see through the eye of your camera. If you are not ready, you don’t even have to show your face… just scope what you see – a tour, your office, the view outside. And talk as you do it – your voice is just as welcoming as your face.
One of the most successful Scopers right now is a guy called @EuroMaestro. He broadcasts around Paris… and he is rockin’ it. Here’s a screenshot of one of his broadcasts:
While everyone else is showing their face, EuroMaestro is keeping his a mystery
When you show up on a scope, people get to see who you are. They get to see how you do things. They see that you are not perfect and relate to you that much more. Introduce yourself couple of times during the show so the new people know who you are. Appreciate the love.
Videos Are Only Available For 24 hours
So don’t sweat it – it’s not up for long and if you don’t like what you recorded, you do have the option to delete it.
But if you LOVE it, share the link around for 24 hours – people can watch on the web via Twitter, so if you are on Twitter, Periscope is a great platform to start leveraging.
Hot Tip: Have your settings set to save your scopes – then you can repurpose them and post them to other platforms later.. ie Facebook. If you have this setting switched on, every scope will save to your phone by default.
Ask People to Share the Scope with Their Followers
Just as you would ask for referrals, it is really important to ask your fans to share your scope, either as you are starting the call, or midway through or even at the end.
If and when you do it depends on how comfortable you feel. I know I said don’t beg for hearts, but this IS something I do think you should do.
This is about your followers being reminded that if they love your content then they can easily share it with their followers:
- ask them to swipe right (iOS) or swipe up (Android) to share the scope and invite viewers.
- they can share with specific people, all of their followers, or to Twitter.
- during a replay you can also swipe as above and share then too so that your followers can watch it within 24 hours.
Ask People for Hearts and Shares
One really fun feature of Periscope is that viewers can give you hearts when they like what you are saying sort of like applause. Viewers are assigned a different colored profile every time they hop on to a broadcast and their hearts carry the same color. They can tap anywhere on the screen to give you hearts.
Hearts indicate how popular your scopes are. Don’t be afraid to ask for hearts. Some people have hundreds and thousands, even millions of hearts on Periscope.
Ask people to click on the little person icon on bottom right of the screen (which shows how many viewers are live) and share the broadcast. This will give different options to share such as on Twitter or with their own followers.
You can run heart competitions if you want. The prize might be that you follow the person who hearted the most, or a social media shout out.
Ask People to Join Your List
Ask people to join your list every now and then. Presently, there is no way to share links on Periscope. There are couple of ways to get around that and share your link:
- Ask someone to type it in the comments.
- Write it on a piece of paper and hold it up real close to the camera.
- Ask people to take a screenshot.
You can even create a link that you only share on Periscope to track how many people are getting on your list as a result of periscoping.
Remember to tell people what they actually get out of subscribing.
Be Strategic in Your Periscope Marketing
Create one scope every day. Your replays last for 24 hours only which means there is urgency built in. This also means that if you go without scoping for 24 hours, all the new people who check you out will not have a replay to check you out. You will lose potential followers and leads as a result.
- Build your following by broadcasting often. Some people broadcast 3-5 times per day. Do what fits your schedule.
- Comment on other people’s scopes. Click on other comments and check out their profiles and use reply feature to interact with them. Keep it honest. You will get followers as a result.
- Watch other people’s broadcasts but be yourself. Don’t copy anyone’s style. People want to see the real you.
- Create content that is in line with your business goals. Create content that doesn’t hurt your brand and attracts your ideal audience.
- Pay attention to questions people are asking and for popular topics. Do your own take on them.
Learn From Your Replays
When viewing your replays watch how you performed. Make a note of things to improve and don’t be too hard on yourself. Aim for incremental improvement. Remember you are in for the long haul.
If you don’t like how it went, if it was especially bad, or if you were thrown off by creepers, you can delete the replay.
***BONUS TIP
Have a Flash Sale
Lots of people are getting client inquiries and making sales directly on Periscope and you can too. Create a special offer for your Periscope viewers only and tell them it will be live only for 24 hours (as long as the replay is up).
Give them a big discount on an existing package or program or create a brand new one. Be clear, get to the point fast and give them the link to buy. Boom!
How to Use Periscope to Build Your Brand
Here are some great ideas for business owners and career professionals on building your brand with Periscope.
Both business owners and career professionals can utilize Periscope in a variety of ways.
Insider Videos
Invite your Twitter followers to see a live video of you demonstrating how your product is made, walking them through the behind the scenes of your work site or even sharing a product demonstration. Giving your target market an inside view can attract customers, if you’re a business owner, or recruiters, if you’re looking for a new position. Showcase your expertise.
Live Q&A Sessions
Ask your followers to submit questions during your live broadcast. Similar to the “insider video” aspect, encouraging questions on the spot is an excellent way to represent your industry knowledge and your ability to communicate effectively with clients and peers.
Hold Focus Groups
Are you in the process of developing a new product or service? Periscope enables you to take advantage of live feedback instantaneously, possibly saving you both time and money. Ask users to give feedback on a prototype or to vote on color choices and much more.
Professional How Tos
Build your personal brand as an expert by offering in-the-moment how-to videos on your products you are selling. While YouTube is currently king of the how-to, Periscope offers users the ability to ask questions and for clarification on the spot. YouTube cannot do that!
Periscope Can Expand Your Professional Reach
Although broadcasters must have a Twitter account, audiences can watch from anywhere on the web using mobile devices, PCs, etc. You can share links to your upcoming business-related broadcasts via all of your social networks (especially LinkedIn) and even via email, if you have a list.
So this is all you need to know to get started broadcasting. Happy Periscoping.