Working out how to effectively use social media for business has been the subject of many blogs, articles and books.
SOCIAL media is just that – media with a social driver.
But businesses have always struggled with that element. What IS social when it comes to business?
How can a business itself actually be social?
For me this is simple. It’s time to insert an obvious clichéd phrase:
“People buy from people.”
You, me, them, everybody – we all buy from people – whether you like it or not.
Add the strong psychology that comes with marketing and what makes people buy, and you can see why everything in your business, in your marketing, your website, and your social media should be aimed at people.
Social media works brilliantly because we get to connect with the people behind the business.
Social media has changed many parts of business, and (I believe) in a very positive way.
In 2015 a new social media channel came along. Unlike the others, it didn’t involve text or images, but it did involved video… live-streaming video!
Periscope is owned by Twitter and comes with its own pre-collected audience for many users. The link-up with Twitter gives users a great chance to build on their Twitter following and give something a little more human and a lot more interactive.
But how should you use Periscope for business?
Making Periscope Work For Your Business
Set-up and forget?
Setting up Periscope is really easy. In fact, it takes a couple of clicks.
Just go to Periscope.tv and log in with your Twitter account and you’re in.
If you prefer, go to the App store and download the App.
You have a Periscope account with your Twitter bio and image.
You might want to change this though…
- Links from Periscope to your website are possible if you add one in your bio. The URL from your Twitter profile won’t come across.
- You might want to change your profile image to your face – Periscope is all about people and faces. A logo or full length pic doesn’t work as well.
- You may well want to make your bio ‘Periscope-specific’ and tell people what you like to share on your Scopes. This is a ‘why follow’ answer to people who find you.
Get this part right!
As with any social media channel you’ll make or break it in the follow stakes with the right or wrong bio. Sell your content and what you can do for your audience.
Don’t just focus on yourself or your business, and you’ll go far.
Building an audience
You’ll probably want to gain a large audience so that you can make a bigger noise, right? Well one of the best ways to build an audience on any social media is to give value… REALLY good value.
Periscope is no different.
Who are you trying to attract? What do they need help with, and how does that relate to your business? This is what you need to share.
I always describe this as the circle:
Your ideal prospect is a dot in the middle of a large circle.
The rest of the circle is filled with all the other things that they like, read, need, feel and respond to.
How can you be in that circle?
How can you share content that matches the needs in that circle? That is what you need to Scope about. That is what you need to share in your marketing and messages.
Engaging with your audience
Periscope is a great tool for engaging with people. When we talk about engagement with other social media channels it’s easy to see why some people struggle with it.
You post, you cross your fingers, and you hope people see it. Twitter is often great at this but it’s hard to really engage them.
When they watch you live you really have the chance to engage with them… but it’s not easy.
You’ll need to reply to comments and be good at small talk in the early parts of your Scope. Then you’ll need to be able to stay on track, offer great value and energy, whilst still getting your point across.
It’s a skill, but with practice you’ll be able to share your content whilst interacting with your audience.
Showing you care about your viewers as well as getting your content out there is a very important and powerful message to convey.
Sharing your story
Your story is important… because stories are important to us all.
We all love a good story and we love to listen to them.
Have you ever thought about your dreams? Dreams are merely your life’s events all strung together into a story – it is how we remember stuff that happens to us.
We’ve always learnt via storytelling and Periscope is a great way to continue to help people learn about you and your business.
Share your live updates from when you visit business shows, and speak to your employees. Get on Periscope with news from your business that helps your audience and create a ‘channel’ that streams the important parts of your story.
Periscope should be your business channel. The channel of you. The channel people will tune into for entertaining and valuable updates.
Using Periscope in your marketing
You might be thinking that you now need to do more marketing and more social media and take on more work… but you’re not necessarily right.
If you use Periscope to share alongside your other marketing it just becomes a nice add-on to what you’re already doing.
- When you blog – Scope about it with the same title.
- When you’re at a show – live scope from the event.
- If you have a Facebook competition going on, Scope about it or ask people what they think.
Try this:
- Take an idea from your business
- Blog about it
- Tweet about it
- Facebook about it
- Update your LinkedIn with a post about it
- Periscope it or ask questions about it
Use one idea and flush it into all of your marketing. This doesn’t have to be a brand new thing that you need to find content for… you already have it.
Launching products with live Q&A
Launching a new product or service? Tell everyone on your list about it and then promote a Scope where you’ll be taking a live Q&A on it.
In the past you’ve been able to run a live webinar but now you have an added, more social, channel to share your breaking news.
Tell people on all your channels when your Scope will be and get as many there as possible. Too many businesses expect to get a Scope to have a lot of traffic without any promotion.
Re-using Periscope content in your marketing
All this scoping is good but it vanishes from Periscope in 24 hours and you can’t really build momentum with that.
But there’s a reusable answer for that!
Katch.me is a great new app that ‘Katches’ your scopes and then tweets them to you, but also adds them to your own dashboard.
Katch.me is free, and you get all your Scopes in one place. They’re re-playable and therefore shareable after the first 24 hours.
But there’s more – they’re embeddable too!
From the Katch.me dashboard you can grab the embed code and then they’ll play on your website, in your blog, or wherever you want to share them.
Now you can increase the engagement on your blog or website with some great live video that really shows the human side of your business.
Business has always been about people…
As with anything in your business, you need to attract people.
The best way to do this is face-to-face or at least showing the face of your business.
Not everyone will be able or willing to do this. Not all businesses will be happy with sharing their story in live-streamed video. Many businesses owners, CEOs and MDs will hide from this new tool… and that gives you the upper hand if you don’t hide.
Periscope is growing all the time and it’s being used to show world events, beautiful sites and people’s fridges (well, in the early days anyway).
Look into Periscope and your marketing and see how it fits.
Getting in front of your audience is a powerful way to gain a following and really engage with your fans and followers, as well as picking up new connections.
This blog is full of amazing insights. The step by step guide helped me grasp and use it for my business. The practical tips and real-life examples highlight its growth potential. A big thanks for sharing this valuable resource with us.