Business Buzz: Peer into the phones of others with Periscope

PHUKET: Welcome to Periscope, the latest craze to hit the online world. Periscope is an addition to the Twitter stable, with huge information sharing possibilities.

This is an app that allows you to ‘discover the world through somebody else’s eyes’. Users can download it and then choose from a multitude of people and experiences that they want to be a part of by watching live streams from that person’s smartphone. It also records the information and allows people to watch replays for 24 hours.

A recent example of its widespread popularity was during the Mayweather versus Pacquiao fight, which was held in Las Vegas. People simply aimed their smartphone at the TV and Periscope did the rest with one person streaming live from the event, thus allowing thousands of people to watch the fight for free, without the need of expensive pay-per-view subscriptions.

In its relatively brief existence, Periscope has managed to find itself upsetting companies and hitting the headlines for all of the wrong reasons.

Users have been flouting copyright laws and so there are already legal demands that Twitter ban the accounts of people impinging copyrighted material.

Enough of the evil, what about the practical uses?

Periscope will become an amazing tool for marketing and sales. Providing live feeds of user experiences and brand and product promotion are all very simple now, not to mention incredibly cost effective.

Think about streaming a day in Thailand at a luxury resort, showing a dining experience at a restaurant, or diving in the beautiful Andaman Sea.

Think of Periscope like this: social media marketing getting married to reality TV. I am sure we are going to get a lot of rubbish we do not want to see, but if used correctly, there can be huge benefits that we have already identified for clients and their events.

Now is the perfect time to use it for marketing, while it is riding its growing momentum of intrigue.

Maybe Andy Warhol was correct – there is no bad publicity.

Simon Wetherell is a social media expert, lawyer, best-selling author and international speaker. He now resides in Phuket where he trains businesses and individuals on profiting from the social media industry. For more information, visit PhuketOnlineMarketingSchool.com or call him at 095-085 3355.