I know, I know, Periscope, yet another Social media bandwagon to jump on! How do we cope as Travel bloggers to keep on following all these next big trends? Will this platform be the new best thing?
My verdict in a nutshell: It’s fun, easy to start using, gains crazy engagement and It’s so simple to share in the moment travel moments, that you would be silly not to start Periscoping.
I’m having loads of fun with this new Social Media platform Periscope. Periscope is slowly becoming my new addiction and I’m constantly bumping into other travel bloggers who feel the same way as I do about this new Live streaming app.
That’s why I wanted to share with you in this blog post my personal journey, all about how I got started with Periscope from a beginners point of view and to help build up your personal Dutch courage to give it ago and follow in pursuit too.
Periscope would have been impossible to achieve in the past, as Smart Phone technology and Data connectivity is on the constant rise, now is the time for live streaming, and now is the time for Travel Bloggers to look into the possibilities of live broadcasting through the Periscope platform.
The daily Life of a travel blogger puts you in an amazing situation to get started, half the battle is to find something interesting to engage an audience, as a travel blogger, you’re already one step ahead of the rest with interesting destinations to scope and share with the world.
Periscope is easy to set up and get started
Periscope is simple to use: Download the app, sign up to an account, click the Twitter and Location ticker on, type out a title and click broadcast. Once you’re live, put together a Scope on the fly and then stop broadcasting once you’ve finished, job done!
No editing, No uploading and those who follow you will keep streaming along until you’re finished.
When I normally think of capturing my Travels on video the pure pain of editing and uploading soon follows.
Hasn’t the Travel industry been saying for years, video is the next big thing to hit travel? I feel it coming with Periscope.
Video is difficult to put together, can be a time restraint, in fact, I have 47GB of travel video footage sitting on my hard drive with no plans of it ever seeing the light of day, isn’t that depressing? I’m sure a lot of you can relate.
Periscope simply delivers in the moment footage that your audience wants to see (maybe because they are noisy, but travelling in general is interesting) and simply puts it all together so easily.
Most importantly Periscope is fun! Still everyday many users are finding fun ways to use Persicope, its endless uses have not yet been discovered and this opens many new opportunities for travel bloggers to explore.
Here is my Periscope How to guide on Getting started for Travel Bloggers
Just do it! Get the ball rolling and take action, do your first Periscope now
First Periscope? Don’t worry, just keep rolling, your first 50 will be terrible. Learn by doing.
What was your first Facebook status? Exactly, who cares, it’s just important to start today, download the app now and get Scoping!
Start your first Scope by saying its your first Periscope session, see who joins, practice a little, OK, done!
It’s important to stop complaining about what Phone you have or if your signal is terrible, the whole general idea is to put all this negativity to one side and get to work Periscoping.
You’ve got hearts flowing, you’ve got Wifi/3G connections, cutting out, batteries going flat! I know, I’ve been there, in fact, all periscopes have been there, just keep going and keep on getting better and better and better, each and every Periscoping day.
The most important step towards becoming a Periscoper is by just doing it. trial and error, give it a go, keep on doing it and working out with your audience what they want to see.
At the moment Periscope is fairly new, but it’s super engaging and Periscope users want to watch scopes by interesting people.
Travel bloggers are interesting people in general, you travel the world full time and explore exciting destinations, people find you interesting and they will ask you loads of interesting questions.
Follow Travel Bloggers already on Periscope
(A whole table of first time Periscopers, taking part in a workshop on Periscope at the Travel Blogger Retreat)
Periscope is new, surround yourself by others who are also Periscoping to see how they do it. Remember to send them lots of hearts and engage with comments.
This is the best way to be a part of the Periscope community, Jump in each others Scopes, Surround yourself with other Scopers, Learn, scope, discovers, it’s truly the best way to embrace Periscope.
Here are some of my favourites to get you started:
ATravelingToad
Nomad is beautiful
Kerwin McKenzie
Johnnyjet
Travel with kat
the croweded planet
live dream discover
Opptravelers
TravelDaveuk
It’s good to watch how they frequently scope, how they share their travels, how they answer questions from their audience, engage new members to the room.
It’s the best way to learn as a new periscoper to be apart of the Periscope Community.
Engage and answer your audience’s questions
(Periscope photo shoot with thanks to Love and Road)
Think of every Periscope like a podcasting interview just the scenery changes and becomes more interesting and you don’t have to edit, you can just click broadcast, get the ball rolling and you’re away with your Q&A.
It’s important to answer questions from your audience as they keep the narative alive, they ask what people are generally thinking and they feel a sense of belonging when you give time to respond.
Of course, it’s impossible to answer all, but try to make an effort and more questions will come your way.
You can also ask your audience questions:
• Where are you from.
• Anyone travelled to here before.
• Do you have any travel questions I can answer.
This can spark a conversation and open up your audience to ask questions.
If you feel brave you can ask your audience what you should do next, this has been entertaining at times, such as being asked to wave at locals, buying some street food from a local hawker vendor and even tipping a street busker, this is the fun of live broadcasting, you never know what might happen, have fun with it and entertain and engage with your audience.
Hearts on Periscope are important
Hearts indicate to Periscope the measurement in popularity for your current Scope whilst its live. The more scopes the more chance you have of new viewers joining your Periscope Chat.
It’s also important to indicate to viewers if they should follow you or not, as a large number of hearts means you’re of some interest and worth following.
Bottom line, hearts are important
This is why it’s smart to surround yourself with other First time Periscopers and offer to heart each others Scopes, then you can jump in watch and measure each others progress and heart each other, this is a fun way of boosting your engagement.
You can also ask your audience to send some hearts, especially towards peole who you happen to be filming during your scope, ask your audience to send them hearts as a way of saying hello.
It’s also nice to mention the Periscope account of who you’re filming to cross promote and help your audience with names in the comment section as your audience may wish to ask them questions directly and follow them on Periscope too.
It’s hard to get hearts flowing at first, by reminding people to send hearts, encourages viewers to start sending them. Basically the more hearts you get, the more you will start to notice an increase in traffic flow. Viewers normally don’t mind giving hearts and often they forget to do so, get the ball rolling by asking nicely and you will notice a spike in hearts.
It’s also just as important to thank viewers for giving hearts as this then encourages more hearts.
Basically hearts are good, we all love hearts on Periscope, keep the hearts going, ok enough about hearts, you get the picture, enjoy!
Start your scope with a scenic view
(Isn’t it awesome to share the world with the world)
It normally takes some time to jump into a scope, you won’t instantly have everyone tuning in and it will take some time to build up. It’s nice to start off with some sort of view to build up the audience before you start talking, around 10 seconds will do it, this will ensure that you will have a few people in listening to your conversation rather than joining mid conversation.
Periscope also captures your first shot as the screenshot of the Periscope, you want it to look pretty rather than a shot of the ground and your feet, who wants to see that?
It’s a nice idea at the start of your scope to not dive straight into what your title suggests, open up the group instead, welcome people as they come in, get the party started before giving out the golden nugget.
The perfect length of time per a scope
To be honest, this doesn’t really matter, it all depends on how well you are at telling your story within your scope. Showing where you are, communicating to your audience and keeping the party going plays an important role in keeping your scope in full flow.
Notice as numbers join and notice when you can spot a dip in a decline of interest.you
Every time you scope, think back to what caused that decline.
What do you think you did that lost interest with your viewers?
Use this knowledge, each Scope to go forward with what worked and drop what didn’t work.
As you can tell there is no right or wrong answer for length of time, if you have an engaged audience with your scope, keep it rocking until you feel a need to stop.
Consistency is king
(Find interesting subjects to film each and every day on Periscope, what you might not find interesting could be a hit on Periscope, just try stuff out!)
It’s important to do a daily Periscope broadcast for this reason and this reason alone:
If new members find your Periscope.TV account, only videos from the past 24 hours appear.
If you have no recent streams, then your Periscope.tv page remains empty and this is like having an empty shop with empty shelves, it doesn’t look good!
Try to schedule a daily show when starting out to ensure that something is always on your Periscope.TV page as new viewers to your Periscope will not be impressed when they come to visit.
Daily shows will help grow an audiance with Periscope, make a theme out of it.
Geotagging your scopes is vital to success
(Always pin your Periscope Geo location)
If you’re travelling, it’s very important that you include your Geo location Pin.
The option to opt out is there to hide your location, many users do this to hide privacy from viewers as they don’t wish to share their home location with others.
For Travel bloggers, however this feature can work towards your advantage. Periscope is rather new and not every country is using Periscope as active as others, by sharing your Geo location on Periscope a unique pin will be placed on the Periscope globe that shares out broadcasts from around the world.
Many Periscope users actively use the global feature to locate new broadcasts to follow and wish to explore exotic locations.
As a travel blogger this can be a great advantage to place your Periscope pin on some unique locations that possibly might have not yet been Scoped and can bring a massive audience to your broadcast.
How exciting is this for new emerging destinations who want to add a pin to the Periscope map, use this information when pitching to brands as it can be an exciting new way to share a unique destination with a global audience wanting to explore such content.
On my recent Trip to DMZ between North Korea and South Korea my stream in a car park managed to fetch over 500 viewers, it was in a car park! Just goes to show if you can Periscope from a unique location, many are interested to see what you’re up to.
Battery Power limitations is vital to remember
Did you know that one minute of periscoping will drain 1% of your smart phone battery? Yep! This pretty much sucks if you want to do multiple broadcasts throughout the day.
Need not fear! The solution to this problem is to Carry an external Battery Pack to charge your device on the go.
I like to use the Anker PowerCore 15600, which will charge your iPhone 6 up to 5 times with one single charge. It also contains a smart chip that acts as a Surge to ensure your device powers up and turns off when the charge is complete. It comes with a good warranty too, and compact enough to fit away in a backpack.
Sign up To the Facebook Periscope Travel Group
If you want to get into Periscope for your travel blog, best to surround yourself with others doing the same. The Periscope Travel Group is a great place to start and find your fellow travel Blogging periscopers. I like this group, as its new and fairly active, I can see it growing in popularity as more Travel Bloggers start to adapt to Periscope. Come on over and join in on the fun.
Use Katch.me to back up and store your periscopes
(Focus on Periscoping your travels, leave everything else to Katch.me)
Katch.me does exactly what it says in the name, it Cache’s your Periscope streams and stores them beyond Periscopes, 24 hour limit, this can be an issue if you wish to re-play or store your Periscopes for the future.
It’s both easy and simple to set up, in fact the longer you leave it out, the more Periscope streams you will be loosing. Set it up today and you will never have to worry again about loosing your periscopes again.
Katch.me will tweet you a reminder when the broadcast has been cache’d so you have nothing to worry about, you can simply carry on with your travel blogging.
Katch.me has everything covered and once a month you can personally schedule a bulk download session, then upload them directly to YouTube (more about this later).
Katch.me has also just announced an auto Facebook upload attachment to Katch.me accounts, this makes publishing your broadcasts more simple to your Facebook page. Isn’t Automation great!
Bring your audience into your Periscope broadcast with a creative title.
(“Come join me for a Korean BBQ in Seoul” was a title that worked well on Pericope)
Don’t type your Periscope titles like a robot, its just pure boring, who wants to follow a robot? Forget Keywords and hashtags, Focus on engaging your Audience.
Especially if you plan on Periscoping each and every day, your audience will be selective and picky with which broadcast they want to spend their time engaging with.
Your Periscope title will pop up on your followers phone screen, This will give you a short window of opportunity to bring them to your Live broadcast.
Also, it’s good to never forget Replayers, your audience might not catch your live stream, but they may view your Periscope channel within that 24 hour window. Always worth giving them a mention by going all back to the future and welcoming Replayers during your live stream, make everyone feel at home. They’re useful to gain extra Hearts and boost engagement.
Also note that you are limited to Twitters limitations on characters and you want to avoid going all Hashtag crazy, though they can be effective.
Taking all this into account, you have to be creative with your Periscope Titles.
I’ve noticed that the use of Emoji’s when selected well can work wonders for screen notification engagement and they normally create a pop art effect that brings you naturally in to Periscope from your phone screen.
The shorter the title the better, and if you can write it to the point with a sense of curiosity or by hinting a touch of usefulness, this can work wonders.
Titles that I’ve noticed recently as examples:
• Look what I’ve found on the beach in Florida
• Check out this sky view in Bangkok
• I’ve never seen a storm like this
• Want to join me for some Thai street food
• Need help planning your next adventure
• Lets go on a walk around Singapore
• Who fancies a Tuk Tuk ride
I’ve picked these random titles out of my mind hat, but these are titles that have stuck with me the most, all short, all to the point, all engaging in their own way and drawing me into wanting to see the Scope.
You don’t have to use all the characters because you have them, it’s ok to be selective but always aim to be inviting, this is not about you its about sharing what you know or see with an audience and growing a little mini community around your own personal journey.
Easily moderate and Block Users during your live broadcast
You can easily do your own admin with Periscope, if a viewer in your Periscope room is posting nasty comments, you can easily block them by tapping on the user name and selecting “block” This avoids a lot of hassle and fuss. It’s easy to moderate your own live stream as the broadcast is happening.
Periscope eats your mobile 3G DATA like a German drinking beer at Oktoberfest.
(You will have to get used to buying 3G mobile Data packages as you travel)
This is one of the key issues with Periscope, if you want to become a good Periscope user, you’re going to have to invest in 3G Mobile Data.
In some countries, this doesn’t come cheap. On my recent visit to South Korea, the cheapest option I could find was roughly £20 for a month of 3G data 1GB package at the 7/11 Airport store.
However, in some countries such as Thailand I’ve managed to get a whopping 9GB of Data for £12. This makes Thailand an awesome destination to Periscope, they even have a 4G connection in some areas such as in Chiang Mai. It’s purely hit and miss.
Try to turn off all your Auto-updates on your Smart phone, when travelling and only use the 3G data for Periscope. You can use Free Wifi hotspots, but what if you was to walk outside? Yep, your Periscope broadcast will simply cut out. That’s why you should aim at reserving your Periscope streams for 3G and use Wifi hotspots for everything else, this will allow you to capture your travels in the moment and remain mobile.
(GiffGaff has some affordable UK 3G/4G DataPlan bundles for your smartphone)
In the UK you can order a free SIM card with GiffGaff to your hostel/hotel and active a £5 for 500MB data package or £7.50 for a 1GB data package, Cheapest I’ve found for travellers to the UK.
For global SIM card advice and tips I like to use one of my favourite travel blogs for Travel Tech advice: Too Many Adapters, they have a full on useful resource page all about global SIM card’s, check it out.
Try to film vertical as much as possible
Try to, if you can, film in vertical mode as much as possible. The simple reason for this is users in your room can type messages more easier.
If your scope was being broadcasted horizontally this can be tricky for viewers using phones such as an iPhone 6 Plus, as the phone is simply too big to type messages in Horizontal mode.
Messages are good as it keeps your conversation flow going and the audience engaged with your Scope.
Upload your Periscopes straight to YouTube
This step is purely experimental up to this point, but I would like to offer my findings so far with this little test I’ve been working on.
Once you’ve cached your Periscope broadcast and they’re live on Katch.me, you can easily download it from the Katch website. Katch has their own Video format, but this isn’t an issue, as YouTube allows this format to upload to YouTube.
Create a Simple Periscope Yotube Cover art on Canva, then Upload the Katch file to your YouTube account, do 10 minutes of SEO research with Long Tail Pro to better optimise your video for search, then hey presto! You have content on your YouTube page.
I’m currently creating a Periscope specific Playlist on My YouTube page, Used the same Periscope themed YouTube cover art for each video scope and mention the video was a Periscope broadcast on each video.
(You can check out the Playlist here, very simple, easy to do and it works)
Following these simple steps after one week I’ve noticed a handful of views and $0.90 revenue from Google Adsense.
I know this is not a lot, but over time, the more interesting Periscopes you’re able to capture, This can start to grow.
Add brands with @ tag and start sponsored Periscope chats.
This can be a smart way to bring in a partnership opportunity through Periscope. Just like Travel and Tourism brands are happy to sponsor Twitter chats or sponsor a Podcast episode, why don’t you pitch Periscope chats instead? They’re both live, instant, create a discussion, easily moderated and totally possible to plug in a brand by placing A Twitter handle and hashtag in the Scopes title.
Periscope chats can also be scheduled in advance to attract a bigger reach. Have I just let a cat out of the bag again? Sometimes I should stop talking and take action, but there we go, how’s that for a tip, go, enjoy, embrace Periscope!
Engage Twitter through Periscope
This tip is handy when you’re starting out and you happen to have a decent Twitter following.
As twitter owns Periscope they like to work together like best buddies and cross promote each others platforms. Twitter recently just dropped stars in favour of moving towards hearts to keep inline with transparency between the two platforms (How lovely).
You can place hashtags in your Periscope title and this will then hashtag on your Twitter feed as long as you select Twitter before you press broadcast. This will bring in extra viewers, you can use Hashtags, such as:
#Travel
#Periscope
#(enter destination)
#live
#katch
#tagtribe
This helps create a sort of Netflix viewing for those looking around Twitter for something to view or if your follower happens to stumble across your tweet as they scan through their daily feed they can jump on your broadcast.
Create a tile for your Blog and cross promote
(It’s easy to create a tile for your blog and brings awareness to your Periscope)
Creating a tile for your blog can help bring your current readers over to your Periscope channel. Periscope is rapidly growing with new members joining every day, it won’t be long till everyone is Periscoping. Creating a tile can easily fit on your blog, attach it to your Periscope.TV page and share your tile across all your other Social media channels to let your current audience know you’re on Periscope. You can easily create and design a Tile graphic using online editing sites such as canva.
Check out Scope analytics to follow your Periscope success
I’m using a BETA Version of fullscope.tv at the moment to track and measure my Periscope engagement, it’s a little glitchy as it’s in BETA stage but the whole idea of it works rather well.
You can sign up for free and track the data once You’ve set up an account. As your Periscopes start to Disappear after 24 hours, using fullscope.tv can help to keep track of your progress.
It’s a smart way to have an overall picture and compare your scopes over time, which is something that’s hard to keep track off as they start to vanish, fullscope.tv solves this, check it out.
Remind them to hit the follow person!
I’m not making this up, every time you broadcast its not easy to have viewers follow you back, this means that you could be growing a nice audience of followers who like your broadcast and all you simply have to explain is how they can follow you back.
In the right bottom corner they can see a little Woman/Man like figure, ask them to hit that to add you. It’s that simple and all you have to do is ask nicely. A large majority of Scopers our unaware of this and you could easily grab followers who are interested in you by simply explaining how to do it, simple!
Lets get Periscoping!
Thank you for reading my latest blog post all about how to get started with Periscope for Travel Bloggers. I hope you enjoyed the read and found it useful. Please feel free to follow me on Periscope: @Traveldaveuk, I’m excited to share with you my travels, and please feel free to post your Periscope username below in the comment section and I will happily follow you back and create a Travel Bloggers on Periscope list in the very close future.
Periscope consultancy: One on One Skype call session.
Thank you for reading my beginners guide to Periscope, if you happen to be a brand or company looking at introducing Periscope into your business and would like some more hands on, one on one advice, I currently offer Skype consultations. This is a one hour session that will create some unique and innovative ways on how to set up and operate Periscope for your business. Until the 12th of November, my Periscope Skype consultancy Session is 50% off to launch this new product,
from US$50
to US$25, Email me at: dave@traveldave.co.uk if you would like to make use of this limited time offer, looking forward to talking to you soon and helping your business get started with Periscope.
Periscope Ebook, coming soon
By the end of the year I will be launching a Periscope Ebook guide for the Amazon Kindle, if you would like to join the waiting list to be one of the first readers and pick up a free copy on launch day, feel free to sign up to my Email list to keep up-to-date on the launch, excited to share and spread the word with Periscope in an Ebook format, yay!
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The post Periscope A How to guide to Getting started for Travel Bloggers appeared first on Travel Dave.