Periscope Tutorial: How [and Why] Use Twitter’s Periscope

Periscope is a way to share and watch live video broadcasts from your iGadget of choice.

It’s a ‘a visual pulse of what’s happening right now‘. It lets you ‘discover the world through someone else’s eyes‘.

And it’s the new hottest thing that just might be here to stay.

I definitely think you should explore Periscope over the weekend, and here’s everything you need to know to make your periscoping easier.

Periscope: Broadcast vs Watch

There are two basic things you can do on Periscope: broadcast or watch others broadcast.

For broadcasters, Periscope is a great opportunity to share your experiences with others.

Press a button and you are live. Not only that, but your followers will be instantly notified you are broadcasting, so you’ll be directly connected to your audience.

For viewers, Periscope will give you an opportunity to discover the world the way you never could on your own.

And you are not just a passive viewer either. You can interact with the broadcaster, ask questions, and encourage them by tapping the screen to send hearts.

Whether you like to watch or broadcast, this Periscope tutorial has got you covered.

How to Set Up Your Periscope Account

Create your Periscope Account

1. Download Periscope app from iTunes – here’s your download link.

2. Sign in with Twitter.

Though Periscope is a standalone app, it works tightly with Twitter, meaning you must sign in with your Twitter credentials. It’s similar to how Vine works in that way.

3. Create your Periscope username.

Just because you sign in with Twitter, it doesn’t mean you have to keep your Twitter username for Periscope.

For instance, my Twitter username is AnaTrafficCafe – something I had to come up with because all other variations were too long or taken.

If you are not happy with your Twitter username, you can and should create a new username for your Periscope account. This is your chance to grab your name while you can!

Of course, you can choose to keep your Twitter username for consistency.

Periscope Profile

Periscope will import all your Twitter information – profile pic and bio – from your Twitter account you connected with Periscope.

So far, I don’t see a way to edit your picture, but I did find a way to edit your bio:

Now What? Find Someone to Follow

As with any social media platform, what you get from Periscope will definitely depend on who you choose to follow.

For now, it might be difficult to determine who’s worth following and who’ll be just Periscope noise.

Once you get a better feel for who broadcasts the best “Periscopes,” you’ll be able to fine-tune your experience.

For now, it certainly makes sense to find a few familiar faces to follow. You can find me on Periscope @AnaHoffman.

Periscope will also suggest people to follow:

1. You can follow people from Periscope’s Most loved list.
2. Follow people you already follow on Twitter (Periscope will tell you when they join).

When someone you follow on Twitter joins Periscope, the app will notify you – you’ll see their name pop up at the top of ‘People’ section.

You’ll see how many Periscope followers they have (it’s a level playing field out there!), their Twitter bio, and you’ll be able to follow them right there and then should you choose to.

What Are Periscope ‘Hearts’?

The way Periscope ‘measures’ popularity is by the number of ‘hearts’ (likes) any given Periscope users have.

The more hearts you have, the higher up you’ll go on Periscope ‘Most loved’ list.

Just for reference, the top Periscope dawg, Bryan Lanning, has 62,664 hearts. I have 18. So it’s a long, long way up.

Should you choose to follow any of the Most Loved folks, just click on the icon to the right of the name.

We’ll talk about how to ‘earn’ hearts a bit later.

How to Broadcast on Periscope

Periscope lets you broadcast live to anyone who wants to watch.

Once you start a live broadcast, Periscope will instantly notify your followers so they can join, comment, and send you hearts in real time.

Let me walk you through things to consider before starting your Periscope broadcast:

Broadcast title: it needs to be short, descriptive, and yes, clickable. That’s what your potential viewers go by when choosing to watch (or not) your broadcast.

Would you be entice to click on any of the titles below?

Broadcast location: you can choose to share your location (requires your permission in your device Settings).

Broadcast privacy: will your broadcast be public or private? Private Broadcasts don’t show up in the Watch table and only notify those followers who you select.

If you want to broadcast to specific followers, press the lock icon before going live (as shown in the screenshot above) and choose who you want to invite to your broadcast.

Send broadcast to Twitter: do you want to share it on Twitter? Click on the Twitter bird before your broadcast and your Twitter followers will see a post like the one below.

Something to keep in mind before sharing your broadcast on Twitter: is it good enough to add value to your Twitter followers or will it be just more noise in their Twitter stream?

Consider this:

both #Meerkat & #Periscope most prominent feature – inundating my Twitter feed with notifications instead of actual tweets

— Casey Neistat (@CaseyNeistat) March 27, 2015

Do you see how many RTs and Faves that tweet got? Because it had struck a chord.

Be mindful of what and when you share.

Save broadcast? If you want to save your broadcast(s) for posterity,

You can also save your broadcast to the Camera roll on a case-by-case basis – you’ll be given that option once your broadcast is over.

What else can you do with your Periscope broadcast?

Delete it immediately: you’ll find that option after your broadcast is over.

Double tap to flip camera – quickly switch between broadcasting your wonderful self and the world around you.

How to end broadcast – swipe down.

What Happens to Your Periscope Broadcasts?

Unlike Meerkat, where the livestream is… well, dead once the user stops it, Periscope will save your broadcasts for 24 hours.

Periscope users can replay them within that time frame.

Viewers can replay your broadcast with comments and hearts to relive the full experience or they can choose to hide chat befor the replay.

Just toggle on the chat icon at the bottom of the replay screen before hitting that replay button.

Once again, you can choose to save your broadcast to your Camera roll or delete it at any time.

How to View Broadcasts on Periscope

If you prefer to watch, here’s how.

Dive into Periscope Firehose

Each time you open your Periscope app, you’ll automatically land on the Watch section.

You’ll see some of the Live broadcasts at the top (I think they are randomly chosen), then Most Recent broadcasts once you scroll past the Live ones.

Once again, those will remain available for replay for up to 24 hours, unless the broadcaster chooses to delete them early.

Tap on the Periscope broadcast and voilà! - you are watching it live.

Join Broadcasters You Follow via Notifications

By default, once someone you’re following starts a broadcast, Periscope will send out a push notification and prompt you to watch it.

Simply slide any particular notification to view that broadcast.

Of course, the more people you follow, the more notifications you get. So do the math. Follow people you actually want to hear from.

The only way to get rid of the push notifications as of right now is to stop following those people.

How to Interact with Live Broadcasts

When watching a live Periscope broadcast, you can do the following to interact with it.

Comment on the live stream – you’ll see the dialog box at the bottom of the broadcast.

By the way, turns out there’s such a thing as ‘too many viewers'; just look at this broadcast from Mashable:

So show up early!

‘Meet’ other Periscopers - tap on the bottom right Person icon to see who else is watching the broadcast.

Share broadcast with others - once you tap on the Person icon, you can also share the broadcast with your followers.

Here’s how that works:

1. Tap on the Person icon in the bottom right corner.
2. Click on Share the Broadcast.
3. Choose to share with specific followers or all.
4. This is what a notification will look like to your followers.

Give the broadcaster “hearts” to show them you like what you see – simply tap the screen to see the hearts float up.

Periscope hearts are like and unlike ‘Likes’.

Yes, you give a broadcaster a heart to show them you like what you see, but you don’t have to stop at one. You can keep tapping the screen to give them more and more hearts and the more you give, the higher they flutter on the screen.

Hearts are more similar to applause in that way.

Plus, remember – the more hearts your favorite broadcasters have, the more likely they are to show up in the Most Loved section and be discovered by others.

Periscope: Your To-Do

I’ll be adding more to this tutorial as new Periscope features are released/discovered.

But for now, you’ve got enough to work with.

Here’s a quick Periscope checklist for you to follow:

 1. Set up your Periscope account.

 2. Find people to follow (start with me – @AnaHoffman).

 3. Explore the features.

 4. Do a quick broadcast to see how it’s done (I’d suggest you make it Private so you are not under pressure to ‘do it right’.)

 5. Watch some broadcasts. Leave comments. Give away hearts.

 6. Come back to thisPeriscope tutorial to learn more.

 7. Have questions? Ask me in comments. If I don’t the answer, I’ll find out.

 8. (optional, but much appreciated) Share this Periscope tutorial with others please.

But, above all, HAVE FUN!