Periscope 101: Getting Ready for your First Broadcast

Periscope is the newest social media craze sweeping the nation (actually the world) and it may be a little intimidating for people who have no idea how to use it or even what it is. Periscope is a live-video streaming platform that allows you to broadcast to the world or a select few, the choice is yours. You must be on the iOS or Android operating systems for you to use it. Since it’s fairly new (only three months old) most people who log in for the first time are not sure how to navigate through it or how to even set up an engaging profile. I’m going to give you a little Periscope 101: Getting Ready for your First Broadcast, so you can get connected and be prepared to start streaming away! (I’m on the Android operating system, so some of my photos may look a little different than using iOS.)

Getting Started

The first thing you want to do is to download the app to your phone. Periscope does not have a website for user profiles through the pc, so the only way to access it is through your phone.

There are two options for signing up. If you have a Twitter account, you can just sign up through that. If you sign up with Twitter your handle will transfer over to Periscope. The only time you can change your Periscope handle is when you initially sign up, so make sure that you’re happy with what you choose. You can also sign up with Periscope using your phone number.

Your Profile

Your profile picture from Twitter will transfer over, but you can also click on the camera icon on your profile to change the photo. You can also change your screen name, which is different from your Periscope handle. If you have a website, make sure you add the link to your site and “http://” in the url because it will be a clickable link when your profile is viewed online. Currently, the app does not allow clickable links when viewed through the phone.

Your final viewable profile will show your information along with your amount of hearts (likes), followers, people you’re following, people you’ve blocked, and your broadcasts.

Setting Up

The settings page in Periscope is pretty straight-forward. I would suggest to not have all of your notifications turned on because they will constantly come through. If you want to save your broadcasts make sure you select the option to have them downloaded to your phone’s gallery.

Navigation

Here are screenshots of the different options on Periscope.

Broadcasting

This may be a pretty intimidating part for some people. Once you press “Start Broadcast”, you’re live and people are watching you. There are a couple of things you need to do before you hit that big ol’ broadcast button. On the Android there are three icons right below where you write your broadcast title that you can tap on to choose. The first icon (the arrow) allows you to share your location with others. The Periscope developers recently changed this function to where only your general area is showed instead of the exact location (eek!). Selecting the second icon allows only your followers to comment on your broadcasts. The third icon (the Twitter bird) sends out a Tweet letting your followers know that you’re live and they can come view your broadcast. Make sure you select this icon if you want to share the url to your broadcast on other social media platforms.

Now that you have a little insight, will you be joining Periscope? It’s a great networking tool. Make sure you find me and the rest of our team: @TheKreativeLife,  @dvdInteriorDsn, @jonahbonah, @BlissfullyD .

Who are your favorite Broadcasters? Please share, we are always looking for new stars so we can follow them too.

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