Have you heard of Persicope? If you’re on Twitter, you probably have by now. Sounds like Twitter created this video app that allows you to “broadcast” from your phone whatever you want. Then your followers can view what you’re recording and add comments/ask you questions.
Think Chat Room meets YouTube is probably the best way to describe this.
What are people broadcasting? Well, it depends on who you’re following. Just as on Facebook or Twitter, people post whatever interests them, their opinions, photos of their kids/dogs, etc., You have the option of unfollowing or “hiding” them from your feed. Persicope is the same way. Currently I follow a variety of people like comedian Jim Gaffigan, personal trainer and fitness model Gregg Avedon, and then a slew of people that I found through just searching “Who to follow.”
So far, I’ve watched “scopes” (broadcasts) of everything from a Memorial Day Parade just a few towns over from me, to Jim Gaffigan hosting a party, to a woman in Montreal showing us a canal built in 1812, to a man in Melbourne Australia discussing his preworkout routine, to a woman taking a hike in the mountains of California, to Chris Hardwick (from The Talking Dead) show us a concert in Vienna benefitting HIV/AIDS research.
As you can see, the possibilities are plentiful for whatever you wish to broadcast. And if no one is awake when you decide to broadcast, if they follow you, they can watch what you “scoped” for up to 24 hours. Right now I’m watching a woman in England walk around a park and show us some castles. Yesterday I watched a man take a trip somewhere in Boston Massachusetts in his plane.
This got me thinking: What can I scope? What would people care to see from a personal trainer? Would I limit it to just fitness or could I scope what’s happening around town? If it’s just fitness, what do people want to HEAR and SEE as opposed to just READ? I posed the question to a woman who has just started scoping and she did a scope specifically addressing my question which was super nice. She suggested things like meal prep tips, a Q & A on health and fitness in general, an actual WORKOUT that people can do along with me, simple cooking tips, etc.
With that being said…I’m developing some ideas on how to use this newest app. We all know in this day and age, these apps come and go sometimes. What is popular one day could be obsolete the next. So in a year I could be saying, “Remember that time I thought Periscope was the coolest things since sliced bread?!” :)
I really hope not. If this takes off, I think it has a ton of potential to connect people in a more meaningful way.
If you care to follow me, my screen name is the same as my Twitter: @FromFitToFigure.
Stay tuned….literally!