Are Meerkat and Periscope Good News or Bad

Maybe Periscope and Meerkat are the greatest things ever, but maybe they are going to be the end of live events as we know it in our world.
I actually recorded this episode of the Jay Today show on Periscope, the new live-streaming app now owned by Twitter. People are already all over the Periscope the same way they were all over the Meerkat a couple of weeks ago at South by Southwest.

If you haven’t used them, it allows you to broadcast anything live to your followers on Twitter and beyond. It could not be simpler. It’s literally one button live streaming. And while we have had live streaming apps in the past like Livestream, Ustream and others, the time appears to now be right for live streaming. Faster Internet access to mobile phones (even when not connected via WiFi), plus a more robust and popular Twitter community are the fuel for the new live streaming fire.
But here’s the thing. What happens when everybody starts to Meerkat and Periscope everything? What happens when people start to Meerkat and Periscope all of the conference sessions at Social Media Marketing World, when the conference is trying to sell the recordings? What happens when you go to the next Black Keys concert and you actually Periscope the entire show? What happens when you go to a Broadway show and you Periscope the entire play?
See, over the last few years, smart artists have understood that they actually want people to create content while they’re in the venue. They want people to create short snippets and put them on YouTube or Facebook, or individual photos and put them on Instagram. But short pieces of content, an excerpt of content, is much different than live streaming the entire performance. It’s going to be very, very interesting over the next few weeks, months, and years to see if live streaming is banned in many venues.
But here’s the thing, how do you enforce that? How do you say to somebody, “Hey, you can have your phone, but not if you’re using Meerkat or Periscope”? How is some usher at some Broadway theater going to enforce that? Will you have to show them your phone? “Look, I’m on airplane mode!”
What happens when people start to Periscope the next great movie the day it’s released?
I think, as powerful as this is, we may have opened a Pandora’s Box.
(fascinating quotes here from Katy Perry who essentially says she embraces live streaming at her shows)

Sprout Social Shoutout

This week’s Sprout Social Shoutout is for David Armano. David is a legendary figure in the social media and social business community. He is the global strategy director at Edelman. You definitely need to be following him in social.
I was at a dinner recently with some social media folks at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego, and somebody grabbed Periscope during a karaoke outbreak. (There was wine involved) Within two seconds, TWO SECONDS, David Armano had texted somebody I was sitting next to and said, “I just saw you doing karaoke.” I mean, think about that. They tune in to the live stream, they see the live stream, two seconds later they’re texting somebody to say, “I just saw what you were doing live.”
That, my friends, is truly remarkable. But it’s going to have a ripple effect on a lot of things, and I’m fascinated to see what’s going to happen next.

About Jay Today

This video is from Jay Today is my near-daily 3-minute video where I talk about social media, content marketing, business and life. JayToday is available on Youtube, iTunes (as a video podcast, and now as an audio podcast too), and at JayToday.tv. The show is sponsored by Sprout Social (which I use for my social media), and Candidio (a great video editing service).

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