Why Your Business Should Be on Periscope

Jamelle Sanders
Jul 5, 2015
4 min read

Since we are now in the third quarter, I thought it would be good to talk about one of my favorite subjects and that is social media. As many of you know, I am a Social Media Strategist and I help entrepreneurs and brands leverage their social media platforms for success. A couple of months ago everyone was raving about a new app called Meerkat. It is a live video streaming app that allows you to shoot video and hosts conversations in real time. I was fascinated with the technology and I decided to host a session. Since I was new to the app I did not get much support but I still thought this technology was valuable. Honestly, the only reason I logged onto Meerkat is because my mentor Guy Kawasaski was doing a keynote on startup success. However, I loved how he was leveraging this technology and my creative juices started to flow. I started tuning in to a lot of the live conversations that were happening but I was not very impressed with the viewership. Unless a celebrity or high profile person appeared on a chat the numbers were dismal. I quickly became bored with the app and I deleted it from my phone.

A few days later I decided to try Periscope. I heard such great things about it and it seemed to be gaining lots of traction. I set up my account and hosted a quick live stream. People immediately tuned in and the conversation was very interactive. In that moment I fell in love with this app and I started thinking of ways I could leverage it to expand my brand. My mentor Gary Vaynerchuk wrote a very interesting piece on Meerkat vs. Periscope and I encourage everyone to check it out. According to Vaynerchuk, he believes that it is too early to predict a clear winner between the two apps. I agree with him 100%. However, I do believe that Periscope is ahead of the learning curve and quickly making changes to satisfy app users. According to Northern Lights Public Relations, Periscope has already been updated to respond to customer demand. This same piece points out that Periscope is already seeing double the number of users to Meerkat. I truly believe that Periscope is the next big thing for social media. I have been following and studying the trends for years and I have a strong intuition that this technology will revolutionize social media in the next 2-3 years. Here a few reasons I believe that you should be using Periscope for your business.

Periscope makes your brand more accessible. A quarter of the global population now has a smartphone. This means that more people than ever have access to these free services. In addition, people are more connected to social media than ever before. Ever since Facebook gave us the option to share moments in our lives, we have developed a fascination with sharing all of life’s moments via social media. Most importantly, Periscope is directly connected to your Twitter account. This means that you don’t have to try and create a new following. You can interact with your followers and expand your reach through Periscope. All businesses want to shorten the distance to their customers.
Periscope gives you the ability to expand your brand. When I first started using Periscope I only had a few of my Twitter followers that followed me. However, over time and through the power of this live platform, I have gained other followers that share similar interests or who found out about my stream through Twitter. It has given me the ability to expand my brand and it has exposed my message to an entirely new audience. Remember that your business cannot be concealed if you want to be considered. Periscope gives you the opportunity to attract a new audience.
Periscope gives you the ability to connect with customers in a new way. The thing that I love about periscope is that it gives you the ability to create live content and also communicate with your customers or potential customers. Every time I host a stream I am thrilled at the questions, suggestions and other feedback that comes from the customers. This information is invaluable to your business and you have the ability to get that information in real time. This gives you a huge advantage in business and I encourage you to capitalize on this opportunity to connect with your customers.
Periscope will change how you launch products forever. My latest book Chosen was just released around the time that I started using Periscope. I hosted a short discussion about the book and people were immediately interested. While I have great media relationships to market my books, nobody can market my book like I can. With Periscope I have the ability to launch a product or service whenever I am ready. More importantly, I am able to get critical feedback from my customers about changes to existing products or ideas for new products. I can see this technology being used for focus groups, interviews, promotions and much more. Periscope changes everything!