Marketing and social media is an ever changing tide in the photography industry. Everywhere you turn, there’s a new social media tool, ways to get poeple to see your posts, new ways to reach clients or other photographers… it’s a lot of work keeping up with what’s “in”.
One tool that everyone should be keeping their eye on is Persicope.
What is it?
“Explore the world through someone else’s eyes.” Periscope is similar to any other app in that it allows you to follow and be followed. The catch? It’s all live video. Any time you Periscope, whoever follows you will receive a notification that you are streaming live. They can then tune in to see whatever you are streaming from your phones camera, whether that’s you doing a talk, filming an event or demonstrating a tutorial… the possibilities are endless. Since it’s synced with twitter, you can push out a link to your twitter followers for them to watch and anyone who is watching live can share the link on theirs as well. See how quickly that can spread? Viewers can also “heart” your feed by taping the screen and write comments (that fade out after a few seconds or minute depending on how many people are posting to you.) So the ability to ask questions and get instant feedback is incredible.
How can I use it for my business?
You can use the app to give a behind the scenes look into what a shoot looks like, what your editing process is, show what you’re up to, use it to show snippets of your location your working in, do an interview style q&a session for them to get to know you better… There are many ways to use it! Mostly it gives your clients a way to “meet” you and get more connected to you.
If you are a photographer who offers educational services to other growing photographers, this is going to be great for you! In a similar way, you can offer sneak peeks into how you set up a shot, interacting with clients, how you use Lightroom, allow photographers to ask you questions about gear or your process.
Any tips?
Make sure your location is turned off- There’s a map feature where you’re able to see if people are streaming live in your area. Or you can pop over to France and see what a day in the life looks like! It’s a neat feature but it also allows random people to pop in who might not necessarily care about your business and what you have to say. Random comments might be distracting to your viewers. And it’s always good to be cautious, especially if you are Periscoping from your home.
Set up a video saver- We use a program called katch.me to save our videos for people to view in the future. Periscope only saves videos for 24 hours so if you are doing educational videos, this is a great way for people to be able to view them at a later date.
Make sure you have good signal- Whether you’re out and about or you’re in the office, make sure your wifi or cell signal is strong. If your video freezes, you might lose live viewers. Keep in mind that if your video is freezing to your viewers, it’s still rolling on you and will be saved later. So just keep talking and plan to find a better spot for your next one.
See what others are doing- We love hopping on to see how other people in the industry are using Periscope. We origianlly got hooked on the app by Ike and Tash (@ikeandtash). We saw that they were hosting a senior power hour with a few other Senior Photographers who are shaking the industry right now. They have really pulled in others to get involved and we love how they are creating a community with it to help share tips and tricks!
Are you on Periscope? Who are some of your favorite people to follow right now?
Make sure to follow us @IrisWorks! We love keeping up with other photographers and sharing tips, tricks, and our latest updates!
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