Periscope – It's not just an underwater spy tool anymore…

Have you heard of the new app that has people stopping what they are doing at any time of day or night to log on to their mobile phone and watch the live happenings of someone they follow? If you've not heard of the Periscope app, click here for a quick explanation.

All of the social media “experts” are saying that Periscope (owned by Twitter) could be a game changer for businesses, and lots of businesses are using it already. Some of them are doing a better job than others.

Como Blog has an account. Tap and I have not used it to broadcast a scope yet, but we've been tuning in to watch several of them and trying to evaluate whether or not it is a tool that will help us accomplish our goals.

In the meantime, we've taken some notes and put together this list of

6 Periscope Tips for Businesses

from a customer's or consumer's point of view.

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1. Be Consistent

If you are going to scope for business, do it consistently, so that, like a tv or radio broadcast people can plan you into their schedule and count on you sharing your information at a regularly scheduled time in their day. Don't expect them to drop what they're doing and tune in to you whenever YOU get the urge to share. They may, but they may not.

2. Be Professional

The “real time” aspect of Periscope and the fact that viewers can interact with the one scoping, lends itself to unprepared and instantaneous sharing. That is great for chatting with friends (it's almost like Skype except you can interact with lots of people at the same time through comments), but if you want to maintain a business reputation while scoping, you NEED to be professional. Consider things like lighting, camara angle, background, makeup, etc. when you scope so that your heightened engagement does not negatively affect your brand reputation for doing things well.

3. Be Relevant

I have seen many, many, too many, rambling scopes in the last few weeks. If you are using Periscope for business, it is best to have themed content. People will receive you better if you are sharing actual helpful information, rather than just sharing about your meal, or your day, or your dog who just died… you get what I mean right? It's just like in blogging. People are tuning in for what they can get from your conversation. It's not about you. Consider it a presentation. Make notes if you need to but be relevant. Don't ramble.

4. Be Respectful of Other's Time

If you are using Periscope for business, you need to have a business mindset. Again, it's about the audience, not your own ego trip. People like to be noticed and greeted, and it is understandable to greet people for a couple of seconds, but if you drag on and on for 5 minutes or longer before getting to the point, viewers have better things to do with their time. Their time is just as valuable as yours. They expect to chime in and get information, not hear you talk about how awesome you are, or how cool it is that people all over the world follow you. (I'm not kidding, I've seen this happen!)

5. Be Concise

This might actually fit under #4. When people set aside time for a business podcast, scope or radio show, they don't have all day. Make notes if you need to, similar to a podcast or a presentation preparation, and then stick to your points. Be generous, be genuine, be gold with the information, and then be gone. If you need 30 minutes, a webinar or podcast might be a better option for you.

[Tweet “Be generous, genuine, gold, and gone. #periscope #businesstips via #comoblog”]

6. Be Strategic

Again, Periscope could be a great thing for your business, but you MUST be strategic with it just as with anything else. What are your goals for using it? Who are you trying to reach? What do you want them to do because you have scoped? Or at the result of the scope? Here are 5 strategy tips for scoping:

Use clear titles and keywords convey your content; use icons or emoticons in your title to grab attention
Record the scope and reuse it by publishing elsewhere
Ask people on the scope to share this to their Twitter account and invite friends to watch
Remember to mention your site/sale/freebie etc. a couple of times during your scope to drive them back to your site
Mention when you will be scoping next and what topic you will cover so they can plan to attend again

So, yes Periscope could be an awesome way for businesses to engage with their customers, if done well. What do you think? Have you watched a scope by a blog or business? As a customer, what other Periscope tips for business would you suggest?