Driving Engagement With Periscope

Social media has become much more than Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. Marketers are constantly forced to find new ways to communicate with consumers and to spread their message in innovative ways. Live streaming is currently trending, making interacting between businesses and consumers more real. This live interaction with the public is becoming more favoured, because it’s stepping away from the usual commercials and advertisements, especially when it comes to brands. 

When it comes to live streaming, Periscope is currently the clear market leader. Since it was bought by Twitter in 2015, this app has become extremely popular, considering it is very easy to use and also completely free. What makes Periscope extremely unique is that people can live stream content that is raw and unedited – which is honestly pretty refreshing. 

While watching videos on Periscope, users can make the experience interactive by liking and commenting on the videos and once the video ends, it is available on the app for 24 hours. Users get a notification when one of the people or organizations that they are following is broadcasting live. Another great feature of this app, which makes it even better, is the fact that you can watch live and pre-recorded videos. On Periscope, users can also restrict the people who are watching the broadcast by adjusting the privacy level. This can also be potentially used when training new employees, where only they can view the live broadcast. Organizations are starting to get creative and coming up with exciting ways to integrate live video into more traditional marketing campaigns.

For example, Kohls live streamed an Oscar party featuring comedienne Vanessa Bayer, which talked about the brand when commercials came on, all very naturally. This was a big hit, especially since Kohls built a lot of hype for this event, prior to the live streaming. Red Bull was also very successful with the use of Periscope at their musical pool party, called Red Bull Guest House. The brand can easily focus on the real lifestyle that their product embodies, which customers can relate to more, rather than a commercial in which a few people are acting. 

Another great example is how Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite promoted his upcoming live broadcast on Periscope, where people could ask him anything. He published the following message on Linkedin, “On Wednesday, April 1st at 9am PST I’ll be hosting a live AMA (ask me anything) video session of Periscope. To access the link to the live broadcast, stay tuned to my Twitter stream @invoker at the time. I’m looking forward to getting “spontaneously together” with you then!” Hootsuite is a widely used platform for managing social media and I am sure a lot of people would love the chance to be able to interact with Ryan Holmes live, maybe even ask a question or two!

Another relevant story is from July 11th, when Kylie Jenner did a makeup tutorial on Snapchat and females everywhere took hundreds of screen shots to remember what products she used and how she applied them. What women loved about Kylie Jenner’s makeup video is that it wasn’t filled with perfect studio lights and editing. She decided to simply show her viewers how she does her everyday makeup, something many people have been waiting to see for a long time. She also promoted her own lipsticks, which are currently flying off the shelves. If Kylie did a live broadcast on Periscope, viewers could have watched the tutorial live as well as for the next 24 hours, instead of multiple 10 second videos which they had to take screen shots.

These are all great examples of using an innovative app to connect with customers on a different level. The best part of it is that it’s free and people love engaging live! Millennials prefer video over every other type of content and brands need to adapt to this new phenomenon of live streaming. However, strategy should always be part of any form of marketing, even if it is raw, unedited video.

Lessons for Others

I believe that over the next few years the use of this app will continue to grow, as people will come up with new and innovative uses for it. For organizations, I think that live streaming is an excellent way to build the type of relationship they want with the millennial audience. Brands have already started to use Periscope for customer service, customer feedback, conducting surveys and sharing breaking news, to name a few. They are also sharing promotions and deals, hosting interviews, giving product demonstrations, streaming behind the scenes footage and running Q&A sessions. These are only a few examples and this list is only going to continue to grow. Periscope is extremely powerful for brand storytelling, because it is a story that can be consumed within 24 hours and it creates a dynamic interaction between the two parties. Organizations can connect with customers on a more personal level in the 24 hour cycle, as if it currently happening. Overall, this app is especially great for small businesses, offering them a fast and easy way to communicate with their customers live, which also happens to be free!

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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