One of the most powerful ways to build your brand—and your community—is through live streaming video. It is the next frontier in digital communications, and your brand can build transparency and earn loyal fans at the same time.
Michael Delgado, senior manager of social media and public relations at Experian North America and featured speaker at PR News' Social Media Summit in Huntington Beach, CA, on Feb. 26, has some thoughts on diving into the live streaming game. Here he focuses on building your brand and community on Periscope:
1. Scope to serve your community
The majority of content your business shares on social channels should be helpful and interesting to your target audience. And this is especially true when you plan out your video streams for Periscope. If someone takes the time to tune into your scope, you want to provide help and insight so they will want to engage with you (and follow future streams). If you need ideas for your scopes, look back at your most successful blog posts, videos, tweets, etc. Those headlines might work very well on Periscope.
2. Spend time interacting with your target audience
Periscope is not YouTube. It’s not a channel to simply lecture and leave. Periscope is a video engagement platform where you can spend time answering questions and helping your viewers in real time. Make it a point to welcome your viewers, answer questions, use their names and provide feedback based on the comments and questions you receive. If you don’t want to engage with your audience, don’t scope.
3. Scope on a consistent schedule
To build a thriving community, it’s important to be consistent with your scope schedule. You don’t need to scope every day, but you should have a regular day/time when your followers can expect to interact with you. For example, we scope every day at 2:30 p.m. ET to answer consumer questions about credit. The more you scope, the more you can engage. Test different days/times to figure out when your target audience is most likely to spend time with you.
4. Promote your scopes across different social channels
It’s important to let your communities on other social channels know when you’re scoping—especially your followers on Twitter. Send out tweets promoting your next scope in advance, especially 15 to 10 minutes prior to going live. It’s also important to promote the replays of your scope for those that missed it. Try to promote the replays at least twice (within the first 24 hours). And use a service like katch.me to archive your video recordings and comments.
5. Join other scopes to give hearts and share insights
Aside from hosting your own scopes, you should also spend time engaging in scopes where your target audience is spending time. Show love by tapping the screen to give hearts, share the great scopes with your followers, and add value by commenting and/or asking questions. This will make your brand stand out on Periscope—and earn you more relevant followers.
A final word of advice: Many brands are fearful of using live streaming apps because they don’t want to make mistakes on live video. And that’s a valid concern. However, if you want to humanize your brand, help your target audience, increase transparency and build a thriving community, live video streaming with Periscope is worth the risk.
Hear more tips and techniques for communicating on social media at the PR News Social Media Summit in Huntington Beach, CA on February 26. There will be speakers from brands such as Church's Chicken, General Mills, IBM, Churchill Downs, Walt Disney World, FMC Technologies, Texture Media and Cathay Pacific Airways.
Follow Michael Delgado: @mikedelgado
Follow Richard Brownell: @rickbrownell