If you have been exploring visual content marketing over the last year you will have noticed the proliferation of new tools for live video and live streaming as I cover in my Live Stream Insiders show.
One of the live video apps that has had the greatest adoption, until of course the launch of Facebook Live, is Periscope and I have been writing, educating and speaking about the app including creating tutorials about the use of the app for businesses.
A few days ago, one of Periscope’s own designers live streamed with the app and invited people to provide ideas for a special ‘heart’ that would be triggered when hosts of live streams added the hashtag #YearOne to the titles of their live streams.
This was a great example of using the app to connect with your audience and access their ideas and suggestions. You can see in the image below some of the initial sketches.
After ideas had been suggested, a few days later Periscope revealed the special first birthday heart which you can see below.
The heart would be enabled in live streams on the anniversary of Periscope’s launch.
Over the last year I have seen numerous examples of people using Periscope to ask for feedback.
As an example, I hosted a Periscope when with a client and delivering a training programme about Periscope for employer branding. I asked the audience on Periscope for ideas on how the app could be used for recruitment, and the community provided the workshop attendees with many ideas. It was far more powerful to see that happen in the live stream than if I had shared those same ideas myself with the group as the viewers were in my clients target audience.
In the run up to Periscope’s first birthday they even invited people to share if they were hosting meetups and events to celebrate the first anniversary and many of the event organisers received Periscope stickers and t-shirts to share with attendees.
I don’t think I can recall such a high profile app or platform ever engaging their audience in this way – of course it is all great for publicity for Periscope with many people therefore creating content around their anniversary (just like this article!).
I hope this practical use of Periscope by their own people provides you with inspiration on how to use the app to help you become more creative and encouraging collaboration with your community.
Unfortunately, few organisations in the UK and Ireland have really understood the power of the app – it is not a TV in your pocked as that would mean that you are just broadcasting information. The app’s hidden power that most brands and broadcasters have yet to tap into is that of the power of interacting with their audience.
Access FREE Periscope For Business Case Studies
If you are looking for examples of how organisations have been using Periscope over the last year, including those in regulated industries, then I highly recommend that you subscribe to my podcast Talking Social Business as for the anniversary of Periscope I have a series of four shows that will be published incorporating interviews with eight guests which I hope you will find of assistance. You can subscribe to Talking Social Business to get access to the special episodes as follows:
Subscribe on your Android device
Subscribe using the Talking Social Business RSS feed
Listen on the podcast player on this site here
And if you want to find my Periscope tutorials and resources which at the time of writing this article have had almost 40,000 viewers, go to this page for FREE Periscope training and tips.


