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Use These Periscope Tips To Create PR And Win Business

This article is more than 8 years old.

Here’s a new twist for creating your own PR by live streaming to viewers via mobile devices. The Periscope app appeared just 5 months ago in March 2015 and was immediately purchased by Twitter for $100 million. I first heard of Periscope, which boasts 10 million downloads and 2 million active users so far, from fellow CEO Space faculty member Jason Webb, an IP attorney, at a CEO Space Forum in June. “Look at this, we’re streaming,” he said. I waved and offered a message about PR to his camera, quickly dismissing the concept as another harmless Internet toy.

Then a Phoenix entrepreneur, life and leadership coach Dr. Will Moreland, reached out last week to tell me that in a single month he's used Periscope to gain an audience of 1,000 new followers and has even used the tool to close new business. I invited him, of course, to give me the lowdown. First, from Moreland, a few basics:

  • Scope: This is what a Periscope broadcast is called, i.e. “I’ll be doing a Scope today at 4:00.” You can make your broadcast public or private to viewers you provide with a specific link to join in.
  • Scoper: This is a person who Scopes (broadcasts) on a regular basis.
  • Scope Watcher: This is a Periscope viewer.
  • Hearts: Periscope hearts are similar to “likes” in Facebook or the “love” button in Instagram. You give hearts to broadcasters in Periscope by touching the screen. You can grant up to 500 hearts during a session, after which you must leave the Scope and rejoin to give more. (In the first two scopes I viewed the hearts were accidental—while I was playing with the program I realized too late I was sending hearts with every touch of the screen.)
  • Commenting: You can comment during a live broadcast and the Scoper can see your remark and may send a reply. (Another rookie note—As I was testing the program as a possible means of broadcasting our company’s workshops I found a scope of two engineers in Palo Alto eating their lunch. Of course. After accidentally sending 10 or so hearts while showing my husband the program, we watched as a viewer posted a risqué remark to the two. My hubby nearly swallowed his teeth as he feared we were visible to the scopers and the comment was directed at us. Nope. While Periscope is an excellent way to interact with viewers and customers, thankfully the camera is only rolling one way.)
  • Broadcast: After the event, each Periscope broadcast is available for viewing for another 24 hours.
  • Katch.me: If you are a Scoper, you will likely want to set up an account on the Katch.me platform as well. This tool is like a DVR for Periscope to save your Scopes for later viewing. It also offers fast forward, rewind and pause features that Periscope doesn’t provide.

Next, the best practice tips Moreland used to gain an audience of 1,000 viewers in a matter of weeks. As part of what he’s accomplished he actually issued an eBook on the topic, The 7 Habits of Genius Periscopers, available here.

Of the “7 Cs” he offers up as best practice I particularly liked these five:

  1. Provide Clarity on your topics. What are the areas of expertise you want to be known for? A certain product category? Sets of skills you teach to others? One Scoper Moreland particularly likes created a series of Scopes on skills for leveraging LinkedIn. Now she’s known for this topic and because she’s posted a series, viewers are more prone to subscribe to her feed and come back to see the additional segments. Other Scopers have suggested product demos or behind the scenes views of the creation of your product (as long as you’re not needlessly giving away your trade secrets) can be a great way to create a stronger connection to the customers you are hoping to serve.
  2. Create a Connection with viewers and with others who scope. Moreland subscribes to other scopers, and for those who view him, he gives them invitations to subscribe, to connect through other venues he offers, and gives them ongoing value through mediums such as his free eBook, available from his company’s site.
  3. Contribute to other scopers and participate in their broadcasts. By offering value to other scopers, Moreland creates an interest that allows the others to also scope his sessions and create connections with him. He has published a list of the Top 10 Scopers he follows, with specific descriptions of their strengths, their topics, and the reasons he has a particular interest in each that he is recommending to others. He does this freely, but the additional audience and interest his list creates has also resulted in more community and interest for his programs. In several cases, partnerships have resulted that are now creating new business for Moreland (and for his collaborating partners as well).
  4. Build a Community among the viewers who like what you’re posting. In Moreland’s case he has created a hashtag to unite his Periscope followers, #TeamGenius, that has allowed them to align and benefit each other in additional ways beyond his broadcasts. He also notes that fellow broadcaster Alex Khan has done a remarkable job of creating community with Periscope and built a community entrepreneurs can visit via the #KhanScopes hashtag as well.
  5. Be Consistent. Once you start to broadcast on Periscope, just like any other program or article venue, come back to the community frequently to deliver more on your topic, Moreland says. Somewhat like Twitter, the Periscope platform seems to reward Scopers who post on a regular basis, perhaps providing at least a short post each day. He points to Periscoper Kim Garst as a great example of this concept. Each day she posts a nugget that she tags as #PeriSchool, to help viewers become better Periscope broadcasters and marketers.

In his first month of use, Moreland’s Periscope activities have added significant momentum to his user community and have produced at least a handful of sales. What can he add to his strategy? Perhaps he can offer some discounts or giveaways that are identified with a unique Periscope code to give him exact metrics on how much business his scopes are producing. I particularly like his suggestion to add Katch.me to the Periscope strategy—in my first viewing of a Periscope broadcast I noted that when the phone rings, the call takes over the session. It was a new client (of course), so I opted to take the call, and 20 minutes later had to re-enter the Periscope program to find the broadcast again and was unable to recapture the content I’d missed. In all, however, Periscope appears to be a platform worth watching as a promising PR and marketing medium for entrepreneurs.

Cheryl Snapp Conner is author of the Forbes eBook Beyond PR: Communicate Like a Champ In The Digital World. Do you have a great entrepreneurial PR story that others could learn from? If you do, reach out to Cheryl Conner via Forbes with your thoughts.