Storytelling with Snapchat and Periscope

Every brand in every industry is currently struggling with finding ways to relate with their audience, creating content of value and find unique ways to tell their stories.  Technology and social media are amazing channels for brand storytelling but brands must first have a compelling story then understand and embrace the community. 

New mobile live streaming app Periscope, owned by Twitter, has been causing quite a stir on social media, forcing brands to scramble to try and embrace the power behind mobile live streaming.  Unfortunately much like Snapchat, the technology, the learning curve and the requirement to embrace change is scaring many brands from adopting this technology.

The more I work with brands and see brands leveraging Snapchat and Periscope, the more excited I am for the future of marketing, social media and community engagement.  With that being said, too many are looking at these technologies as one and the same.  Although both are brand-new, the value propositions, the way brands should be leveraging these technologies, the audience that is using the technology and the community as a whole, are very unique.  Both apps require a new creative strategic real-time social media strategy that scares many into saying foolish things like: “My target audience isn’t using snapchat” or “B2B customers don’t care or have time to consume live streaming”.  I debunk both of these myths in the video below.

In an upcoming post titled “Snapchat, I used to hate you. But, now I love you”, I’ll explain why I went from uninstalling and bashing Snapchat, to embracing it and believing it’s a powerful weapon for brand storytelling, advocate engagement and community conversation.

In the meantime I wanted to demonstrate the differences in storytelling using my own story (very raw and by no means am I a Snapchat expert), through a video of snaps I created documenting a trip to Chipotle for lunch, then telling this same story on periscope. I explain the differences, use cases and answering some questions from the Periscope live streaming audience.

SNAPCHAT Story (Saved to Camera Roll Uploaded to YouTube)

Periscope Stream (Saved with Comments Uploaded to YouTube)

You can follow Brian on Snapchat & Periscope under his personal brand handle: iSocialFanz

“The stories we tell literally make the world. If you want to change the world, you need to change your story. This truth applies both to individuals and institutions.” –Michael Margolis