This past March at SXSW Festival, the live streaming app Meerkat debuted to much excitement. A few weeks later, Twitter debuted Periscope, a similar app. In the months since then, both Meerkat and Periscope have continued their momentum and become the new, trendy tool for brands and marketers. There’s always an initial excitement when new apps pop up and live streaming apps are no different but both of these seem to have some real staying power. This article is going to give you an intro into live video streaming and how you can use it.
What is live video streaming?
Live video streaming is exactly what it sounds like: live streamed media that plays as soon as it happens. With live video streaming, users don’t have to wait in order for it to play. There’s no need to download the file or wait for users to upload the video file. You can watch live video of what users are doing at that very moment.
How does it work?
You need to download a live video streaming app. Meerkat and Periscope are the top two live video streaming apps right now. As a note, it’s important to say there are many other live video streaming apps and websites but right now Meerkat and Periscope are the most popular in the market. To sign up on either of these, you need to connect to a Twitter account (in fact, Periscope is owned by Twitter). You can follow other users and they can follow you on your live streaming app. You can also send web links to your live broadcast through e-mails or post on Twitter. To enable live streams, you press the camera button and then click start broadcast and make sure you enable camera and microphone.
What’s the difference between Periscope and Meerkat?
Periscope and Meerkat will automatically save the recording to your phone’s camera roll but only Periscope allows your viewers to allow the video to be viewed for 24 hours. Both Periscope and Meerkat have different features and pros and cons. For example, on Meerkat, hosts can comment on their own videos as another way to interact with viewers while they cannot on Periscope. But on Periscope, you can customize your audience for a private broadcast, which you cannot do on Meerkat.
What do you use live broadcast streaming apps for?
You might be wondering now what you can use live broadcast streaming for? And the answer is, the sky is the limit. Because this is such a new platform, there are so many uses but below are some popular ways:
- Behind the scenes looks
- Live interviews
- Sneak peaks at products
- Day in the life videos
Final note
Storytelling is all of the rage in marketing and live video streaming is a great way to tell your story in a fun and authentic way.
Have you used live video streaming apps? If so, how do you like the platform and what have you learned about it?
