5 WAYS BLOGGERS CAN USE LIVE-STREAMING | PERISCOPE

Here I am, caught candidly ‘scoping by Loved by Laura when we were at Winter Wonderland in London recently. I have been live-streaming every day on Periscope since mid April, shortly after the app was launched. Before Periscope came along I was a blogger here on Bec Boop and this continues ;in addition to live-streaming. I get a lot of questions about how bloggers can use Periscope and I thought I would share some ways I have incorporated live-streaming into my blog in this post. I find it rather appropriate as my first ever broadcast on the app was entitled “Working on the Blog!”, I had only just downloaded Periscope and had no idea what I was doing. Since then, I’ve figured out a thing or two and following on from speaking at a number of tech events about the benefits of live-streaming I thought it was time to share more with the blogging world.

This is the obvious one. The difference between Periscope and other social media apps is that your viewers actually get to see your personality shine through, there is no editing involved and it’s all very real. Occasionally I’ll be working on my blog at my desk and decide to whip out my phone and go live. Aside from the fact that blogging can sometimes be a lonely profession and it’s nice to engage with friends and viewers in such an instant fashion, it also gives your readers an opportunity to see what actually goes into your blog. 

A reader is used to seeing the finished product, the final blog post, but with Periscope you can share a little preview of the post with your viewers before it’s published. I have also enjoyed getting my viewers opinions while working on a blog post. If I am undecided about whether to include a certain photograph in a blog post it’s super quick to ask your viewers on Periscope what they think…and believe me, they will be honest!

Being a blogger can mean attending lots of interesting events including blogger meet-up’s, press previews, brand events and more. Your readers will only experience a snippet of this through a blog post, or sometimes an instagram photo if they are lucky. I have been live-streaming at the press and brand events I attended recently so that my viewers and blog readers can experience it all with me first-hand. It also makes for really interesting, targeted content for your viewers. Some examples of this recently would include when  I Periscoped from the official opening of the Cheesegrater Building in London. If you’re the blogger who dreads attending an event alone why not bring your Periscope viewers with you for company 🙂 Perhaps you are a travel blogger or a foodie blogger. You could take your Periscope viewers with you on your travels or restaurant review excursions and share the experience.

Lots of bloggers have a certain niche or area of expertise. Another way to use Periscope alongside your blog is to share your knowledge. You can do specific broadcasts targeted at viewers in a similar target audience to your blog readers. There are many ways this can be done including demonstrations or reviews (see below). Another type of broadcast I like to watch sometimes is Q&A style sessions. This is great because you get to know the information your audience are really interested in. 

This is probably the most fun way for bloggers to use live-streaming. If you’re trying out a new product why not take to Periscope and give your thoughts live. I did a broadcast of this type when I was trying out the Dr PawPaw lip balms for the first time and it made for a really fun scope. You could also let the brand know that you’re doing a broadcast review and they might jump into the scope live with their account to answer any tricky questions which you may not have the knowledge on. I will also frequently embed the Periscope broadcast into my blog post (as you can see in this blog post) so that readers have easy access to the live broadcast too.

This is something I would like to see more of on Periscope. I’m not talking about brand collaborations here as for me Periscope is primarily about creating great content and engaging with your viewers. I rather keeping this side of Bec Boop for my blog, albeit using Periscope as an extension of it when appropriate. I would love to see more Periscopers collaborating together and I can see this working really well for bloggers. There are so many ways bloggers can use Periscope to enhance their blog content, think of your genre and experiment to find what your audience are appealed to.