Touting himself as the “most connected man on Periscope,” Ryan A. Bell has quickly created a place for himself inside the fastest growing social media app in history. With a team of Periscope heavy-hitters, Bell has created the Periscope Community Summit, taking place January 14th through 17th in SF, a tech conference that is also “part summer camp, and part high school reunion,” laughs Bell.
Connecting social media experts and influencers with brands is the focus of the conference, and Bell has the experience needed to make the conference a resounding success. Besides his years consulting and strategizing for small and large businesses, he’s also received the Presidential Award for his 22 years of volunteer work with the Special Olympics -- the chosen recipient of charitable donations from the summit.
With such an obvious passion for Periscope, I knew Bell was the right person to ask for some quick tips on how to use influencers on Periscope to a brand’s best advantage.
- Do a simple takeover.
Give your Twitter handle to a trusted scoper who is already known in the landscape. Bell says, “That trusted scoper can go on Periscope as your brand -- it’s a very easy self-intro. People already know who this person is, whether is it Alex Kahn or Amanda Oleander. However, you need to make sure that you are using the right scoper for what you want. For instance, I’m doing some work for Letv and they are all about VR and technology, so I was going to use either Robert Scoble or Brian Fanzo, because they’re tech people. Takeovers are very easy because a takeover can happen any time, anywhere. It’s very pure and very simple.”
- Do a campaign.
The best campaigns use multiple scopers, which really drives the campaign forward. Bell explains, “You can track the hashtags to see which scoper really rocks it. One of the things that I tell brands is that even if you aren’t running a campaign, go ahead and get your account set up and start using it. It acts as a landing page -- people will see it and the brand will accumulate followers over and over again.”
--SanDisk did the very first campaign and the effect was tremendous. People understood the technology they were showcasing and SanDisk saw early sales from demographics they hadn’t expected.
- Utilize a Scoper who is a strategist.
Create a strategy specifically around your brand. “Very few scopers do this,” says Bell. “I do strategy, and Brian Fanzo does strategy. Strategists can help you build an employee advocacy program, start to talk about the right etiquette, and actually train a team internally to talk about your brand and use Periscope as a driver to certain initiatives that you want to get done.”
- Use Periscope as a news source.
“Let’s say you’re covering an event for Kia or a similar brand,” Bell explains. “Paying scopers to come and cover an event is a great way to generate buzz. You can also have them go to brand headquarters as news, and show the culture of the community, which is the brand. People want to know more about the community that makes up the brand.
- Get a brand advocate.
Your brand advocate is someone that you are going to use permanently for your brand. Bell advises, “It’s best if you pay them monthly or similarly, and they are connected to your brand completely. I am a brand advocate for EcoReco scooters, an electric scooter company that goes 20 MPH for 20 miles. I love the thing because I don’t have to worry about traffic going to work and back.”
Murray Newlands would be thrilled if you’d share this story with your networks. You can find him onTwitter(@murraynewlands), Instagram (murraynewlands) and Vine (murraynewlands) and learn more about his work at www.murraynewlands.com
