I’m sure by now, especially if you follow photographers, you’ve seen or heard about this new little thing called “Periscope”. I heard about it thanks to Katelyn James and Natalie Franke on Instagram this week, and download it just to see what it’s all about! Then, I immediately became obsessed! If you are a photographer, creative or business owner (or just want to check it out for fun!) it’s an AMAZING app to utilize for your business! I’m still figuring out all of the ins-and-outs, but I absolutely love it so far!

Periscope is an app created through Twitter where you can broadcast LIVE from anywhere in the world! Then, you followers (+ people from all of the world!) can tune in and watch you live! Then, you can allow your followers to replay your video for 24 hours after your live broadcast! So far, I have been using it to give a sneak peek into the behind-the-scenes of my business, and I am hoping to continue utilizing it as a teaching tool for my fellow photogs + business owners who follow me there!

When I first downloaded the app, I was MORE than confused! So, hopefully this will help some of you navigate through the app if you decide to download it!! (PS: it’s free!!)

When you open up the app, you are greeted with a long list of totally random “broadcasters” from all over the place. So far, I have just ignored this page because I only want to follow people that I know! However, when you scroll all the way to the bottom, it shows you all of recent broadcasts from the people that you follow! It looks like this:

If you click on the button right-hand button, it will again take you to a list of random broadcasters. This page shows you the “most loved” or “most popular” users. Again, I ignore this page! But, if you click on the “profile” icon in the top right corner, it will take you to your own profile where you can see your followers, the people that you follow, the number of “hearts” you have, change settings, etc!

Then, when you are reading to broadcast, you click the record button in the middle of the bottom toolbar! It will open a window where you can type about what you’re doing (a small caption so people know what the video is about) + then you can start broadcasting! You can also choose to make the broadcast “private” (only share with specific followers). Throughout your broadcast, those who follow you AND random people can comment along + add “hearts” while you share! (some of the strangers who comment are just people “trolling” around and saying rude things…but I am hoping that Periscope is working on a way to fix that problem!) The photo on the left shows what a broadcast looks like live (as I was typing this post!), and the photo on the right shows a broadcast when you are done that can be replayed by your followers!

I hope this helped navigate the scary Periscope waters for some of you!! If you decide to give it a try, follow me at @hopetaylorphoto to see a sneak peek into my business, behind the scenes + my life outside of work! I’ll be doing some posing tips, mini workflow walkthroughs, studio behind-the-scenes and more! What would be most beneficial for YOU to see me share on Periscope!? I’d love to hear it in the comments!

UPDATE: Right at this blog post was about to go live, Periscope made an update to the app! YAY! Now, you can choose to broadcast only to your followers (which is what I’ll be doing!) and TV tab on the bottom  left only shows you broadcasts from the people you follow! WOOHOO, Periscope!