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20 years ago, one of the main ways to build your personal brand was to spend loads of time and money investing in T.V. air time. It was common to run national infomercials, like Tony Robbins or leveraging news stations. No matter your approach, T.V. was one of the top ways to build your brand.
Fast forward to the launch of Periscope. This new app turns every smartphone into a TV broadcast station. Periscope allows users to live stream video from their phone to their entire network of followers on Periscope and Twitter.
You might wonder, how to use Periscope to build your personal brand.
Become a power community member
Geoff Golberg is one of the top streamers in the world. He happens to stream the sights and sounds of New York City every day. Golberg says “I spend just as much time watching other people’s streams as I do streaming myself.”
The pros believe in participating in the community, and clearly they’re doing something right. Become an active participant in the periscope community before you launch your first stream. While this step takes extra time that few are willing to put in, the return on your investment is disproportional.
By actively participating the in the periscope community, you can begin to build your audience and tribe. Your tribe is comprised of the people who care about you. They are interested in what you have to say BEFORE you even launch your first stream. This builds credibility and rapport. Both are needed to earn attention from others.
At the end of the day, the goal of doing this level of work is to earn attention that you can leverage later. That leverage could be quitting your 9-5, writing a book, getting into concerts for free or anything else important to you. You build leverage with a personal brand to facilitate your desires.
I highly recommend putting the time and energy into watching the rising stars of Periscope. These people have spent the time learning the ins and outs of the platform and you can easily learn from them.
Stream on a Regular Basis
Consistency is key! The more you stream the more opportunities your audience has to find you.
Some of the top personal brands in periscope stream upwards of 4-6 times a day. Don’t stream just to stream. Take care and pride in creating great content for your viewers.
People take time out of their day and care very little about meaningless things. “Meaningless” being relative of course. Some “scopers” are giving great content by touring NYC, and some by chatting about themselves live. The point is to be authentic and make the best content possible as per your personality and audience.
Respect your viewers’ time and they will show you the love via hearts and follows :). If you’re brand new to Periscope, stream only once a day at a consistent time. This consistency creates a regularly scheduled program. This way, your viewers will anticipate seeing you ahead of time and jump on your stream.
Passion and Knowledge
When trying to determine what type of content to produce and how to build your personal brand ask yourself these two questions. What am I passionate about? What am I knowledgeable about? If you can find a way to align your passions and knowledge, chances are you will break through all the competition and easily grow your brand.
At the end of the day, authenticity and passion rule the social media landscape. Periscope makes it extremely easy to find the people who are authentic and rule out those who are not.
Educate, Entertain, and Inspire
This is the holy trinity of great content. Before you hit the stream button, ask yourself: will I entertain, educate, and inspire my audience? If they answer is no, do not pass go and do not collect $200.
Spend the time watching the top streamers and see how the best of the best do it. @Alexpettitt educates and inspires others on how to grow their periscope following. @geoffgolberg entertains and inspires his viewers with the sights and sounds of NYC. Find the combination of the three that you can do and rock out with your bad self.
Interact with your Audience
Brands and personal brands using periscope have a unique opportunity. That is real time two-way communication between an audience and the brand. As people enter your streams, thank them for joining you and remember to say hi to them. Ask them questions such as “where are you streaming from?” Whenever I stream, I always say, “If you are new to my streams type new in the chat” that way I can personally thank each and every person.
Pro tip: At the start of every stream make sure you walk people through how to share your content with their followers and ask them to do so. Periscope isn’t only about the live audience, Periscope replays stay live for 24 hours and can generate huge amounts of traffic.
In this social media, the audience is looking for personal interactions. Personal brands who don’t spend the time interacting with their followers will lose. On the flip side, those that do will gain an incredibly loyal following.
Tease your followers
Before you end your stream, tease your audience with what they can expect next. “Before I go, I want to say that I will be streaming again in 3 hours talking about…X,Y, Z. Make sure to follow me if you are interested in this.” This excites your followers about the next stream and will convert some of the nonfollowers into followers.
Follow this simple formula and you can easily build your personal brand using Periscope