3 Secrets for a great Periscope broadcast
This post is a little off my usual topic. Over the last few days I’ve finally discovered Periscope, and I’m excited that it could be the next big thing. For those that aren’t familiar with it, Periscope is a new service from Twitter which allows you to broadcast live video from your phone to your followers. The video stays live on periscope for 24 hours allowing followers who couldn’t watch live to check out the recording. You also get a personal recording of the broadcast on your phone, saved to the same place the phone puts your photos and normal videos.

The possibilities that Periscope opens up are very interesting.
There are lots of folk in the marketing world starting to leap on this particular bandwagon and I’ve heard it mentioned in several podcasts over the last few weeks. Some of the American gurus such as Michael Hyatt are scheduling regular daily broadcasts at a set time and are starting to attract significant audiences.
I’ve watched quite a few #scopes – or at least that seems to be the emerging term – and I’ve seen very few really good ones. The main issue seems to be basic presentation techniques. I’m thinking of using periscope as part of kevinappleby.com and I’ve been giving the subject quite a lot of thought. Seems to me the main problem is lack of preparation.
Lots of people are talking about equipment – microphones, tripods etc – but no one is thinking about what you say or how you say it. It strikes me that techniques I use giving a client presentation in a room full of people are really relevant here.
Yesterday I tried my second periscope broadcast, it’s still not perfect, but having a good plan really helped. I used some techniques I picked up on a “Powerful Presentations” course a few years ago. The guys running it gave a really effective model for a short punchy presentation. I’ve adapted it for Periscope and used it to plan yesterday’s #scopecast. If you want to try using Periscope to promote your business you might find this really useful, so if you drop your details in the form at the bottom of this post I’ll send you a copy. Here’s a link to that broadcast. I’m using Katch.me to save my broadcasts now.
So, what are the three secrets of a powerful periscope broadcast:
- Keep it short, punchy, and well signposted. The viewer will quickly lose attention and tune out if he doesn’t see where you are going with your message and whats in it for him to stick around
- Focus on them not you. Think about what your audience will find interesting to listen to, not what you find interesting to tell them. Think about what you want them to know, how do you want them to feel as a result of this, and what you want them to do about it.
- Use the 3×3 rule. Tell them three things and tell each of them 3 times.
If you give me your details I’ll send you a short ebook that explains this a bit more and can act as a handy guide to planning your next #scopecast, and a copy of the template I’m now using myself every time I plan a broadcast.