LIVE on #Periscope: How schools can broadcast their stories to the world
“Periscope can be an amazing medium. Not to just deliver content, but to connect with people.”
Periscope (owned by Twitter) allows schools to live stream to the world. Schools can now broadcast the amazing things that are happening each and every day.
Start to LIVE STREAM sports events, drama productions, virtual tours and much much more. This blog post outlines the basics of Periscope.
At this point we should specify we mean the live-streaming app not the tube with the two mirrors.
Great, now we have cleared up what the blog is about let's dive in.
A little background
“Just a over a year ago, we became fascinated by the idea of discovering the world through someone else’s eyes.”
Periscope was founded on a simple premise. Co-Founder Beykpour was travelling and heard of riots outbreaking in Turkey. He quickly signed onto Twitter to see what was happening and realised something very obvious: he could not see what was happening.
Although on Twitter he could read about it, see pictures and short videos, he wanted to be able to see it properly and be able to truly experience a live event.
The concept is simple: you broadcast a live video stream anytime, anywhere from your phone.
Since the 12th of January 2016 Periscope has been fully integrated with Twitter. This allows Periscope users to broadcast live on Twitter within tweets.
This has added a whole new dimension and depth to Twitter and it's storytelling capabilities.
The numbers
2 millIon daily active Periscope users
200 million broadcasts to date
110 years worth of video watched daily on Periscope
936,000 hours of video watched daily on Periscope
Why would we use Periscope at our school?
Twitter gives you 140 characters, and is a platform which offers a unique form of storytelling. However, Periscope has added that extra dimension to that.
Instead of tweeting "Joanna Bloggs wins the gold medal in the 100m" why not Periscope the race? Why not SEE Joanna win the gold medal?
How does Periscope benefit my school?
No need to pull a "sicky" to get to your child's sports day anymore.
1. Bring parents closer to their children: Our children spend an enormous amount of time away from home and in school. Even more so if they are at a boarding or international school. Many school events take place in the middle of the day. Why not Periscope these events?
This means parents can see their child, win the race or perform at the Christmas concert as it's happening!
2. It's free: How much would you have to pay to broadcast an event several year ago? Periscope is free and you can broadcast any event live from your mobile phone.
3. Periscope is live: It's not edited or tampered with. What you see is what you get. You can give a real and honest insight into your school. The "live" factor of Periscope is authentic.
4. Periscope has it's own TV channel: Watch people's live streams as a unique television channel on Apple TV. This way all family members can crowd round the TV and watch your school events.
5. Be one of the first: Surprisingly only a handful of schools are using Periscope both regularly and effectively. This as a fantastic opportunity to be one the first schools and revolutionise how you share your school stories.
What events should I broadcast in Schools?
This would be a questionable Periscope 🙈
There is a plethora of events which you can broadcast in schools. We always encourage schools to be original with their broadcasts and too think outside the box but here are some examples:
Hot Tip 🔥 : Although you can only broadcast on mobile don't worry about quality. Any modern smartphone should have a quality video camera. We do recommended investing in a tripod however. The prices range from £10-£20 for a quality tripod to avoid a shaky broadcast!
- Sports Day: A fantastic day, full of a variety of sporting events. A great opportunity for working parents to see their children participate.
- Open Day: Why not broadcast a live Periscope a tour of the school? This is particularly useful for international schools whose prospective parents may not be able to attend open days.
- Christmas Play / Theatre Productions: Broadcast the plays live! We would recommend buying a mobile microphone however for increased sound quality.
- Broadcast a Lesson: Broadcasting a lesson is a great way to show prospective parents just how brilliant your teaching staff and lessons really are. Show an awesome science experiment or pupils baking a cake 🍰
These are just a few examples, think outside of the box and really impressive us 😀
How do people know we're broadcasting?
The average lifespan of a tweet is 18 minutes.
If you want to a broadcast (and want people to see it) you will need to promote the broadcast.
It would be a shame if you were broadcasting quality content with very little viewers 😔
- Pinned Tweet: If you have a big event coming up why not pin a tweet promoting your broadcast? Pinned tweets are a great for promoting events.
- Printed Collateral: It's highly likely that your school produces a wealth of printed collateral from magazines to newsletters. This is likely where most parents get their information about school events, provide them a link to your Twitter / Periscope channel.
- Social Posts: Provide plenty of warning across your social networks that you are doing a broadcast. Planning is everything in building up a worthwhile audience for a broadcast.
We are sure your school does a brilliant job as marketing as it is but these are just a few tips to promote your broadcasts 😃
Creating a Periscope Account
1. You can create a Periscope account downloading the app from the App Store or the Google Play Store.
2. Sign in using your Twitter credentials. We recommend this as at will link to your Twitter profile. If you have multiple Twitter accounts on your device, you will be prompted to choose which one you want to sign up with. You must have the Twitter app on your mobile.
3. Your Twitter profile picture and bio will migrate over to your Periscope account. To change your photo, URL, bio or general info go to setting on your profile tab. We would recommend keeping your URL the same as your Twitter handle.
4. To start a broadcast, select the camera icon. Choose wether to share your location, share to Twitter and to enable / disable comments and questions. Give your broadcast a name.
5. When your broadcast has finished you'll be presented with a number of options:
- Save To Camera Roll: This is a great idea for saving the broadcast footage and uploading it to YouTube later so the memories made are kept forever. Create a playlist on YouTube called 'Live Streams'.
- Share: Instantly share the saved footage.
- Delete Broadcast: People can view broadcasts for up to 24 hours after they finish. If you'd prefer not to do this simply click delete broadcast
- Comments Received: This can be really useful for schools. If a parent is asking questions during a 'virtual open day' on Periscope you can review the comments at the end and get in touch 😀
It's really that easy to use Periscope. The Twitter integration makes setting up your account a piece of cake 🍰. The broadcasts work by simply click record. It's that easy.
Hopefully we have now given you everything you need to get out there and start doing some awesome broadcasts 😎
However if you would like to learn more about Periscope or would like some expert advice, please do get in touch with one of our social Jedi here at Interactive Schools.
We'd love to hear about what broadcasts you have done in your school below 😁