I woke up projecting myself into the future saying "Oh, remember the days when we used to Periscope?"
That's what I say about blogging now. I totally have nostalgia for the days when I only kept a blog. Lol.
Speaking of! Five minutes into deciding to keep my blog and... I'm super excited about this {almost} new App called Periscope. Heard of it yet? I first heard of it only a few weeks ago, and just joined it over the weekend. {My handle is creativethursday if you want to follow me there.}What I've been repeating in every one of my Persicope videos is that I am: #alreadyobsessed.
Quick Periscope Tutorial:
- Download the App to your Phone. You can now broadcast LIVE VIDEO from your phone {only your phone, not your computer} which means of course you can take Periscope with you everywhere and Scope from anywhere that your phone has service.
- People who follow you, or just decided to pop in on your broadcast, join it and can then chat with you {up to a certain amount viewers. if it's a large group of people who've joined, somewhere in the hundreds I think?, the comments will automatically close so it doesn't get crazy overwhelming. Viewers can also "like" your broadcast by tapping the screen which creates lots of pretty colorful hearts. This is encouraged because apparently your popularity on Periscope grows by the combined number of hearts you receive from all of your broadcasts. One person can "heart" you hundreds of times on one video by the way. If you have any trolls, you can block them easily. You can also do private Periscope chats! Hide the chat altogether or just allow people who follow you to chat, but the recommendation to get your videos seen as well as interact with and meet new people - which is half the fun, is stay open to letting everyone chat
- When you follow people on Periscope either via your twitter follower list or by choosing new people, you will receive phone notifications when they are posting live. I know this can get annoying if you follow a lot of people, but the community is still small-ish and people are not posting all the time {yet!} For now, I recommend leaving your notifications to find out about new videos, as I don't follow my twitter stream all day which is another way you can learn about a live stream. Since Periscope is connected with Twitter, you can choose to have it automatically tweet a link for you every time you post a video. And not to worry if you miss a broadcast, you can view any new videos in your feed on Periscope.
- There is no time limit to the length of your broadcast
- The deal is, the videos only lasts for 24 hours and then it's gone either forever or just from Periscope. You can save it to your phone {this option is available either as soon as you finish streaming or set up within the Periscope settings}, or like I did with the video above, because I didn't know about the save it to your phone option, I screen recorded it from Quicktime on my computer before it disappeared. For nostalgia - I wanted to save my very first Periscope. The rest of my broadcasts, I've been practicing and they are not so much save worthy ;) Apparently there is also a #hashtag you can add to the video to save it as well on Periscope? That's it in a nutshell. It's very new and and I'm very new to it, so don't hold me to everything here. Also, as people continue to use it and offer feedback it will most certainly change.
Honestly, because of Periscope, I haven't been this excited about social media in a long time.
Of course, let's be honest I've been excited every time I joined a new social media channel over the years and then given time, in this order:
- Everyone jumps on board
- It becomes less candid and more edited and styled
- I suddenly don't feel like I'm growing my audience fast enough, so it comes becomes yet another means of measuring my self worth by comparing my life and social media following to others on the internet
- trolls try to ruin it and
- then I'm done.
No, not really. I'm still pretty present at most of my social media homes. My theory has been and still remains; I try not join one unless I feel like I can commit to them fairly consistently. And then, typically I find one that fits, becomes my favorite for the time and I run with it for as long as I feel inspired to and/or have the time to give to it.
Which, let's face it. I've talked about this in my online classes before. For an artist who requires more internal/quiet time to create, engaging on social media frequently is a tough balance. I call it "brain fragmenting".
All this Periscope-ing and reengagement with Twitter this week has me thinking about hosting my first Periscope Chat on this very subject. "Artists vs. Social Media" I'd love to hear from you and get your thoughts on this, especially if you've recently joined Periscope or are thinking about joining?
Today is just one of those days where I suddenly have so much on my mind that I want to share with you. So bear with me here. This is kind of how it happens with me. Bursts of ideas to share and one of the reasons I'm excited about blogging again. Although I guess I could be Periscoping this right now, although it might not come out quite as concise, as even this long blog post. Remember, brevity = not my strong point!
Ok, quick tangent aside - back to my 5 points above. What I've noticed is that actually some social media platforms are hanging in and making a resurgence. Including Blogging, yay!! and because Twitter bought Periscope I think this will be changing the game for Twitter as well. I find this very exciting. And as someone who has complained about the demands of Social Media before, I'm not entirely sure why this excites me?! Possibly because I'm getting ready to release a video series online? and this will be a whole new form of sharing for me and the creatives I'm interviewing. And Periscope is great practice for more on camera time?
If you think about it, Periscope broadcasting is very similar to the videos I used to film from my computer and post here at my blog. Remember? the days when we used to V-Blog? Except it's live and you can chat with me in real time. In an attempt to keep it real, I never edited the videos I posted here. However I did do up to 20 takes to get it right? ha! remember that? Not on Periscope, once you hit broadcast. You are LIVE! you can of course delete your video at any time, but someone probably saw it. Because honestly the first time I posted this past Sunday, barely telling anyone I was on Periscope I had 17 viewers.
Not going to lie, Periscope ups your game in the confidence and being comfortable live and on camera department. It's a little nerve-wracking at first and distracting to try and share something visually compelling while also doing your best to connect with people chatting to you. Oh and then you might also have to start blocking trolls during your broadcast. Yup, the trolls are moving fast on this one.
Alrighty then, let's just close by saying again I'm SO excited! not only about blogging, but about the possibilities with Periscope. It has reignited my love of Social Media. {yes, I did use the words love social media} I've decided not to whine about it anymore, as there's no changing or slowing down the rate at which the internet is moving. Instead I'm embracing it all {because actually it's a lot of fun} and I will still have time to make art ;)
Want to be a Periscope newbie too?
Found this detailed post on how to get started on Periscope by Meighan
Follow social media experts like Peg Fitzpatrick and Kim Garst on both Twitter and Periscope.They post very candid, friendly, thoughtful, informative videos especially on social media marketing and now Periscope.
And where do I see all of this going? Oh seriously! I just interrupted writing this post to watch a Live Periscope feed of 4 innovators Periscoping simultaneously. Basically it's changing the world. In terms of your business, the usual connecting and meeting new people in a very personal/candid format, offering online classes paid and free, tutorials...the possibilities are endless.
