Ready, Set, Stream!!!
Look anywhere online and you are seeing something about streaming. At first the buzz was Meerkat at SxSW and you were seeing all of the notifications filling up your twitter stream that somebody just went live on Meerkat. Then we had a little drama as Twitter bought their own streaming app and released it, and now you see “How to use periscope in your marketing” eBook offers all over Facebook. Yet, there is a new player that has come onboard and is doing the streaming thing slightly differently, but also has the backing of David Beckham, Natalie Imbruglia, and Liv Tyler. This new introduction is MyEye.
So, what’s the difference between these three? In the 30,000 foot view, little to nothing. You can save your stream to their servers, one you can also save to your camera roll, while the last holds your stream for three days publicly while you are also able to save it. All three are available on Android and iOS platforms, but when you get up close there are some more details that are worth noting.
Meerkat
Meerkat odd to say is the old guard with it not even being 6 months old but Meerkat made its splash in Texas at the SxSW festival. Where all of a sudden everyone’s tweeter feed were running over with @SoAndSo has gone #Live on @Meerkat. At the beginning, Meerkat was using Twitter’s social graph and was able to make incredible reach with its use. But Twitter had their own plans and pulled the rug out from under Meerkat so that they could leverage their own streaming app, Periscope, which we will get to later.
Meerkat gives you the ability to interact with your audience. The audience is able to post questions through twitter or through the app if they want, and it will show up on the Meerkat stream and Twitter at the same time. This allows to you to answer questions live on the spot if you choose, or you can hide the conversation window and not even worry about it.
Though Twitter taken away some of the original function that made Meerkat so attractive, you are still able to gather a crowd. But Meerkat has been forced to get a little creative to acquire its market share. The latest improvement is that you can use your GoPro Camera to live stream. So I believe you will soon see mountain bikers zooming down hills with reckless abandon, and quadcopters recording current events. The possibilities for different uses are limited only by the user’s imagination. Who knows maybe soon you will have the dog loving water being streamed live, and we will be able to see what happens after the initial splash down…..
Meerkat is breaking ground on ways you can connect. For instance, your Meerkat profile can now be tied to your Facebook page. This way, your Facebook fans will now be able to see that you are live, local, and late breaking. You can share with your base without them having to leave their favorite social network.
Periscope
There is a reason many social media gurus are hitching their saddles to Periscope. Main reason is that it is owned by Twitter, and with the use of Twitter’s Social Graph, Periscope is able to draw in a large audience faster. With a larger audience, you can obviously get more information out to more people. So when you have people touting the glories of Periscope, they are understood. You are also able to share where you are streaming at that moment
When you finish streaming, you will have the chance to see how many people viewed and what your retention rate was. You also get the opportunity to save your video to your camera roll. I just wanted to show what the streaming screen looked like. And you get that information when you stop streaming. As you can see you are able to save your stream to your camera roll where you can post to your site or YouTube or Facebook.
The audience interaction for Periscope is a bit different. you are not able to tweet or type to your audience, but they are able to type to you and you can then speak your responses. One big drawback I see here is that you are not able to go back and see all of the tweets because you only get around 10 at a time. Your audience can also give you like love, which is similar to likes, except they can keep giving you lots o’ love, and each person will have a different color. If you are doing some very engaging content, your screen will have a blizzard of rainbow hearts floating up.hWo doesn’t like a little love from time to time.
MyEye
This is the latest entry into the mobile streaming arena. The company is backed by the likes of David Beckham, and he has a few celebrities that post regularly. But this app has a few unique approaches to audience interaction that are worth a look at.
The big item you will notice when you first view a stream, is the interaction bar down at the bottom. You can give thumbs up or down, be surprised, sad, laugh, Heart or say Hi, and when the stream is over you can applaud. There is no way of actually talking to the person who is streaming, and I believe that is because you are able to keep receiving laughs, and applause for the next three days that the video stays alive on My Eye’s servers. After those three days, the video is gone. Except for the copy that you can choose to save to your camera roll. I would assume another advantage to the lack of receiving communication from your views would be that you do not have to worry about trolls. Since their avenue of making rude and vile comments is turned off, you don’t need to worry about the haters.
Another item that you will find at least interesting, if not downright cool, is the map of the people streaming. At first you will see this 3D world with all of the streams pinned to it. Or if you choose, you can go to a 2 dimensional map like what periscope has. And when you choose a stream, it zooms in to the location on the globe and you are then right there with whoever is streaming.
So streaming is becoming the next “IN” thing whether you are using the old guy of the group Meerkat, the cool kid Periscope or that new guy that is doing things a little differently, MyEye. You can get into streaming and reach people in a whole new way. Share a part of your life they would normally not have access to. This could be that way that you share that inside baseball that will help build a strong bond between you and a cheerleader for you brand.
Live with Facebook Mentions
Really not worth mentioning because there is a very good chance you will not be able to use it. The live streaming app by Facebook is only available to those people who have a verified page. Yet the reason it is brought up is because it is causing a slight stir because Facebook have decided to lock the unwashed masses out from using it. Yet we are able to view the celebs when they give us a peak into their lives.
Do you use a streaming service? If so which one? Please tell us in the comments section, below.
Bryan Goodwin
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