Case Study: Using Periscope at a Trade Show

Can Periscope be adapted for business use, or will it forever be categorized as just a platform for bad homegrown reality television? Last week I decided to test Periscope out as a component of our social strategy at the TRANSACT15 payments conference in San Francisco. The conference spanned over three days during which I streamed twenty (20) Periscope live broadcasts.

Leading up to the show there was solid pre-show social conversation around the #TRANSACT15 hashtag, hugely improved over the 2014 show's social buzz.  I leveraged this social conversation by contributing a few blog posts and several tweets about live streaming and made mention that we would be using Periscope during the conference in our booth.  Even shouted out to attendees that they should stop by and add their elevator pitch to the live stream.  There will be lots of attendees strolling by to try out this (my) new, bright, shiny object. That should do it, right?  Wrong.

Day 1 broadcast time arrives so I kicked it off with the perfunctory tour of our booth, but that can only go so long before your content risks looking like a sales pitch. Nobody was coming by to give me an elevator pitch so I just started "winging it." I highlighted the show's buffet food tables, talked about our neighboring booths, and panned the aisles of people. With the exception of a live stream of the wind tunnel/flying cash machine where a gentleman was shoving dollars in his pants .... my live broadcasts pretty were boring stuff. Thank goodness the conference's Opening Reception was only 2 hours in duration because I realized I was using Periscope as bad homegrown reality television that was adding little value to the event's social media conversation.

When I got back to my hotel room I knew that my body of work that evening was less than stellar so I decided to pull out the best moments from each of the seven (7) Periscope live streams and stitch them together with iMovie into a compilation video, then included the video in a blog post about what I had learned.  I had been talking up this technology, and still truly believed in it, so I had to do something to build some momentum for Day 2 and hoped that video would create some awareness of what I was trying to accomplish with Periscope. First thing in the morning I tweeted out the blog post and started contemplating what I could do better.

I still had some time before the show so I started catching up on the social thread that was taking place during the conference ... and that's when my new strategy for periscope became clear. There are some folks at this show that were contributing some solid value to the social media conversation and I need to seek them out in their booth and ask them to do what they were already doing - adding value to the conversation - and see if I could interview them with Periscope about their social strategy for TRANSACT15.

Bingo, IMHO this strategy was a success and gave me a chance to meet some of our industry's social influencers.  Some were in their booths and gladly agreed to a Periscope interview but others were back at home base handling their social strategy remotely.  With the latter, I sought out a spokesperson in their booth that wanted to "Periscope" their company's elevator pitch.  This Day 2 strategy gave me an easy and enjoyable way to capture some great snack-sized, quality content.

Needing to add a little fun to the mix I also filmed a quirky live steam "goof" on the Periscope phenomenon "What's In Your Fridge" where I took viewers behind the scenes of our booth's margarita bar showing them the ingredients that were going into our tasty libations. At the conclusion of the show we also live streamed the fishbowl drawing of our show giveaway of a Western Mediterranean cruise for two.

Here are a few I learned during my first attempts of using Periscope at a trade show:

INTERNET CONNECTIVITY: Understand that there may be Internet-connection problems if you are using Periscope on a restricted Internet connection. This happened to me twice ... once at an off-site sponsored event at a downtown San Francisco billiards hall where it appears that the connection restricted downloading, and again during my live stream at the conclusion of the event where the convention center appeared to restrict the paid Internet the moment the show ended.  In this situation the live broadcast works out fine, but it fails to completely archive to Periscope leaving only a 2 second video view ... nor does it download to your camera roll.

PORTRAIT MODE: Landscape mode severely degrades the video quality ... when broadcasting in landscape mode I had several in the viewing audience asking for me to switch to Portrait mode. You can see the degradation in the video when the streaming is in landscape mode. Each video live stream is saved to your camera roll, though the comments and hearts are stripped out, but it does leave you with some content for future use.

INTERNET TROLLS: Comments make the use of Periscope as a business tool a little tricky.  Your live feeds are visible to anyone that wants to tune in - not just your focus audience - so you get the "troll" comments too.  Some of the "off topic" comments were humorous and added some lightheartedness to the content stream, but we did get some downright offensive comments that were seen by others in the viewing audience.

SHOW HASHTAG: Before you click BROADCAST NOW remember to use the show hashtag in the title you enter in the field "What are you Seeing Now?" as well as click on the small Twitter icon. This will result in a tweet that is immediately generated when you start your broadcast, and the tweet will include the show hashtag along with the additional information you enter. Attentive show attendees can immediately tune in and watch live, and the broadcast is also viewable online for 24 hours so attendees that search after the fact for the hashtag also see your content stream.

VALUE ADD COMMENTS: Viewers can interact with a broadcaster through comments, which can replied reply to on camera, and viewers can tap the screen producing with colored hearts that let the broadcaster know they approve of the feed.  Videos are stored online for 24 hours, and privacy options can be selected to limit the audience. 

TWITTER INTEGRATION: Periscope has tight integration with the Twitter network.  The trick is to get attendees (and those wishing they were there) to follow your Twitter account so they get instant notification when you start a live broadcast. Effective use of the pre-show Twitter social conversation will help accomplish this, but I also think that more awareness of the Periscope network is required from the business segment for success.  Once folks with an appetite for industry content realize that just like business content is available on YouTube, it can also be found with more immediacy (actually real-time) on Periscope this medium will become commonplace.

Overall I have high hopes for this new live streaming technology.  I still believe it truly has a "wow' factor and you will be seeing it used more and more for business purposes.  The natural evolution of most new communication mediums was initially pushed along by risqué and comedic content which you will find in abundance on Periscope, but business is catching on that these new mediums can be used for a business purpose so I am pretty sure you will be seeing Periscope broadcasts at the next trade show you attend.

About Merrell Sheehan

Merrell is the VP of Digital Strategy at Electronic Merchant Systems, a national provider of payment processing services.  Merrell manages a digital marketing team that that utilizes content marketing and paid social strategies to acquire users for Electronic Merchant Systems' mPOS payment solution, EMS+ (plusbyems.com).

Live Streaming From TRANSACT15 - Join In!

It had to be done ... I had to pick a single platform for live streaming from TRANSACT15. No more playing around with simultaneous live feeds using Meerkat and Periscope since that would just cause confusion for folks that were interested in tuning in. I did a fair amount of testing over the past 2 weeks but no clear cut winner dominated the tests.

Weighing heavily on my mind was the concern that bringing something new like live streaming to TRANSACT15 is a big responsibility. I've always gotten pleasure out of introducing technology to others, so where the "big responsibility" concern comes in play is that you have to pick WINNERS or risk doing a disservice to others that you may drive to adoption. That said, I've picked my winner and the winner is Periscope.

Admittedly, it was an easy decision since the epic battle between two tech players - that I blathered on about in a live broadcast last Friday - was decisively won by Periscope ... and in less time than it took in the 1980s for the British to win the battle against Argentina over the Falkland Islands!

Just LAST Thursday Meerkat announced $14 million in new funding and later in the day Twitter launched its rival streaming app called Periscope.  By Sunday night, the Periscope-Meerkat battle was brutally lopsided. The Periscope app had become a smash hit, breaking into the US iPhone top-30 chart by Friday night (a rare feat for a social media app).  Conversely, Meerkat was quickly dominated like a braggadocios Rhonda Roussey opponent and appears to be close to "tapping" in Round 1. By Sunday night Meerkat had collapsed to No. 523 on the US iPhone download chart.

Is this "quick win" a sign of the times in today's real-time tech world?  Will the tech world ever again see a "long haul" battle for supremacy like the Apple versus Microsoft conflict?  I know this writer will surely hesitate using the cliche "epic battle" any time soon!

It will be amazingly simple for you to see how this Periscope "live streaming" stuff works at TRANSACT15.  Real-time simple if you have an iPhone (sorry Android users but Twitter is still working on an Android version of Periscope). Just download Periscope and it will intelligently connect with your Twitter account allowing you to immediately start watching feeds, or live stream yourself. Android Users: I will post a few recorded broadcasts as videos and share them on twitter ... especially the good ones.

Throughout the show I will be live streaming from the Twitter handle @emscorporate. If you follow us on Twitter you will see tweets throughout the show beginning with "LIVE ON #PERISCOPE" announcing that a new live feed has just started - just click the link in the tweet and you will be watching the live feed. Once a live feed ends, Periscope will keep it visible for 24 hours ... hearts, comments, and all. The broadcaster also has the ability to download the broadcast to their camera roll.

I will be kicking off the first Periscope live feed tonight at 6:30 pm pst from booth #1617 during TRANSACT15's opening reception.  Please stop by if you have something to say since my goal is to add value to the show conversation. Got a good elevator pitch then bring it by booth #1617 ... or any other topic you think would be of interest to attendees or industry folks watching/listeng from afar.

BONUS READING: For those looking for a "how to" article, I found a nice Pericope tutorial by @AnaHoffman ... Periscope Tutorial: How [and Why] Use Twitter’s Periscope

TRANSACT15 Twitter Mentions Increase 514%

Pre-#TRANSACT15 Twitter tweets (622) have increased 514% over the same prior period measured for #TRANSACT14 (121).  What a pleasant surprise for the pioneering payment marketeers that have been trying to foster the social conversation for several years now at payment industry events.  Heck, there have been some recent regional shows that it felt kind of creepy when you appeared to be the only one trying to develop a social media conversation.

Big kudos to @electranassoc for fostering an environment that encouraged a social media conversation with their brilliant "Team Selfie" contest that pretty much said, "we embrace social media as part of TRANSACT15."  While many trade show organizers feared the demise of their events if the conversation moved online, the Electronic Transactions Association spotted the trends and saw how it could be a benefit.  Fear of VIRTUAL-ONLY trade shows?  Never attended one and probably never will despite my penchant of being an early adopter of all things technology related.

I did a little non-scientific drill down into the aforementioned 565 pre-#TRANSACT15 tweets and categorized them as follows:

- Team Selfie Contest - 21% (congrats to winners @retailcloud and @grpfunding)

- We're coming ... in Booth XXXX - 37%

- TRANSACT15 Happenings - 20%

- Value-Add Show Information - 21%

Congratulations if you or your company has joined in the conversation!  Just using social media to say "Stop by and see us" shows that your business "gets it." But for those of you that added exceptional value to the conversation by posting a tweet that falls into the latter two (2) categories, I salute you.  Here are just a few that I found exceptional value in, added comments after each as well:

It is not just Twitter where you can find social media mentions of TRANSACT15.  I also found the following:

- 21 Instagram posts referencing TRANSACT15

- 2 Facebook Events for TRANSACT15 (created by Swipely & National Merchants Association

- TRANSACT15 has a YouTube channel (I assume it was created by the ETA) with 4 videos and 93 views

But this writer believes that Twitter is by far the premier social media platform for trade show conversations.  Twitter is an up-to-the-second newsfeed that lends itself well to an event's business conversation.  Though Facebook is a great tool for businesses doing paid social, I felt a little awkward joining the TRANSACT15 event groups and publishing this to my timeline. I do have high hopes for the new micro live-streaming platforms like Periscope and Meerkat primarily because they leverage the Twitter ecosystem and also provide real-time news.  Stop by booth #1617 if you want to try out live streaming during TRANSACT15.

So if you have not joined the conversation here are some simple ways you can get started:

LISTEN - Create a Twitter account and periodically search on the hashtag #TRANSACT15

SHARE - Sharing can be as easy as just retweeting what you see value in.  Click the tweet, then click retweet ... it's simple.

CREATE - Share your thoughts, images, videos, and ideas from your own perspective via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. 

There is an audience out there that wants to hear what you think.  If you have a question or a social strategy you want to talk about ... or want to promote something with a live stream on Meerkat and Periscope just stop by booth #1617 and look me up.  Let's keep the momentum going!

Digital Content Production At Trade Shows

Timely publishing of good content maximizes the effectiveness of your social media efforts in many "live event" situations.  Especially when the event is well attended both in person and virtually by a motivated tribe of individuals.  Trade shows are the perfect environment for this "speed to publication" strategy and if you have a little insider knowledge along with some cool new content creation technology, it is not that hard to stand out amidst the noise of the event.

Let's face it, content that gets digested in today's crowded digital media space is short and to the point, and normally takes the form of digital imagery and videos.  Heck, when a trade show is going on, no matter how much you love the written word, your tribe's bandwith is limited during the event and they just don't have the time to read your six hundred word blog post.  But, they will watch your 90 second video (assuming it’s not a straightup sales pitch), or check out your quality images of the event happenings and probably "follow" your social footprint in hopes of seeing more ... and that is a WIN!

Configure your content so that it can be consumed at engagement outposts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or wherever, and then the strategy is to invite them back to your home base to take whatever that next-action is that you define as success.  Important Note: This strategy will FAIL if you consistently violate the cardinal rule of social media content: Thou shalt not publish content that will not have a perceived value to your intended audience.

In this writer's opinion, Twitter is still the best social platform for leveraging this opportunity, but I have high hopes for a new social platform, Meerkat, that allows for live broadcasting and with its tight integration to the Twitter universe it is easy to promote. That said, don't let me discourage you from experimenting with other social platforms since experimentation should be an important component of any social strategy.

The key to Twitter success is using the show hashtag.  Believe it or not, there really are interested individuals following and using the show hashtag that are looking for your content.  If you don't believe me just log into Twitter and search the hash tag #TRANSACT15 ... you will be pleasantly surprised at all the pre-show activity on this channel. The show hashtag allows you to personally deliver your content to interested individuals, and if they find value in your content they will share it downstream with members of their tribe.

OK, so let's back to the speedy creation and publication of content that will be digested by your tribe.  During trade shows you've got to make your posts easier to consume on the go. You have a limited window of opportunity with a captive audience that is interested in anything pertaining to the event. Short is good, and what better way to get your message across with limited words than by adding pictures and video to make your content stand out?

You are communicating with a business audience so  you have to "up your game" a notch to get noticed, but in no way am I saying that you need to create a corporate-quality production. Social imagery that is directed to a business audience needs to be targeted and to the point, in focus, and clearly audible.  "Targeted and to the point" is dependent on your insights and creativity, but in focus and audible is easily improved with some tools to enhance your recording device.

My suggestion is to travel light so you are "ever ready" to catch that content moment.  I accomplish this by taking advantage of my iPhone 6's built in camera and accessorizing it with some photo and video tools to improve the quality of my imagery and videos.  I have attached a picture of my digital content session kit and would love to find out what you are doing.

If you are attending TRANSACT15 feel free to stop by booth #1617 and I'll show you my gear.  Even better, if you have some value to add to the “conversation” stop by and let's create some good content.  Hope to meet you next week!

I am Still Charmed by my Meerkat

Wrote an published a guest post today for Plusbyems.com about my recent experiences with the new Meerkat live broadcasting application.  Here is how it starts out ...

My Meerkat stood me up yesterday, but I am still enamored with her.  No, not the type of meerkat that endeared the hearts of children in the Madagascar movies, but rather this geek's new bright shiny object that is the hot new mobile app called Meerkat.  

Meerkat allows you to stream live video from your phone to all of your twitter followers at once.  Press "Stream" and instantly your live video feed shows up in your followers' Twitter feeds.  When your followers have the app they ..... Read the full post here

2015 Mobile Payments Product Mix

The ever accelerating rate of mobile technology adoption is having a dramatic effect upon the SMB point of sale merchant.  Over the past 30 years this merchant segment has always utilized a variety of products to accomplish their payment requirements, but today mobile solutions are rapidly replacing credit card terminals, ECRs, and even PC point of sale systems.

Initial inroads for mobile payments were naturally found with the typical mobile merchant category types - festival vendors, landscapers, plumbers, etc. ...but today it is hard to find a merchant category that has not seen significant mobile payment adoption.  Retailers of all types have "taken a liking" to processing payment transactions on their phones and tablet devices. 

Just as was the case in the "pre-mobile" days, the major buying influencers for mobile payment products is two-fold consisting of price and required functionality.  Because of this it was just natural that mobile payment solutions have also evolved over time into two basic product categories ... Credit Card Terminal Replacement solutions and Retail/Restaurant Management tablets.

Mobile Terminal Replacement (mPOS) solutions allow merchants to replace the traditional credit card terminal with a free mobile app on their phone, iPad or Android tablet device that brings added retail functionality to the small retailer or small counter service restaurant.  Simple, itemized order entry along with cash drawer and printer connectivity is now a reality for this merchant type that in the past required a complex PC POS that was overkill for what they needed to do, or a confusing, and limited ECR to accomplish similar functionality.  Several additional benefits that also come with this mobile product.  For example, allowing for email receipt delivery to an increasingly tech savvy customer base while archiving the email addresses for future marketing endeavors as well.

Retail/Restaurant Management Tablets add the feature sophistication required in larger establishments, but with this sophistication there is a tradeoff on cost and simplicity.  Unlike the free mPOS product category, there is a monthly fee for the mobile app and Management Tablet solutions are quite a bit more complex and normally require technical assistance upfront by a technician that not only understands the app’s features, but also has an understanding and ability to educate and guide the merchant on best practices for their business.  And there's the "rub" ... make sure the partner from who you acquire your Retail/Restaurant Management system can support you with installation and configuration requirements.

Mobile payment has disrupted both the Merchant Acquiring and POS Value Added Resellers channels and I am sure you will see some players fall by the wayside.  The smart providers in this space will continue being successful by maintaining a tech-savvy support staff that understands the products and leverage quality partners with a similar vision.  In many ways the sales process (and success) will remain the same for those with the foresight to invest in understanding what it takes to provide mobile point of sale to their customer base.

Merrell Sheehan is Vice President of Product Development at Electronic Merchant Systems. Merrell currently leverages his 20+ years in the payment technology industry leading a team that develops and markets EMS+ (www.plusbyems.com), an mPOS merchant solution with a rapidly growing user base of over 20,000 merchants.