10 Strategies For Successfully Using #PeriscopeEdu at Your Next #EdTech Event

Innovative educators who are fortunate enough to present at, or attend an education event, have a moral imperative to share what they are learning beyond that day and that space. There is a whole community out there thirsty for the knowledge that you had the opportunity to share and/or receive.

I've shared the ABCs of Livestreaming, a comparison of livestreaming on Google, Facebook, and Periscope, and some tips specifically for Facebook Live. This post focuses on how to livestream using Periscope.TV. Downloading the app and hitting the broadcast button (if you don’t know how to do that, read this) are just the beginning.

Here are ten strategies you can use to successfully livestream with Periscope.tv at education conferences.

#1 Make sure your bio is tight!

You have to start with you. People want to know who is sharing the news. Tell them by using your real name, real photo, including relevant hashtags and a link to where they can learn more.  Here’s what my bio looks like.

#2 Make broadcasting decisions

Next you have decisions to make. Here is the screen you’ll see.

Read on to learn what to choose for each setting.

#3 Permissions and privacy

You make privacy and permission decisions right when you start the broadcast.

• Public or targeted audience
  Your broadcast defaults to a public audience, but you also have a choice to share just with certain people or with a private group. A private group is perfect for a teacher who just wants to share with parents in her class.
• Location  
  If you’re broadcasting a conference share your location. If you’re broadcasting students, that is often unnecessary.  Exceptions might be if you’re filming a sporting event or theater production you want community members to attend.
• Comments
  Here you decide if you want the world to be able to comment / chat or just those who follow you. If this is school-related, you probably just want those who follow you selected. For a conference you may want to open it up to a wider audience.
• Post to Twitter & Facebook
  At a conference, you want to share far and wide.
• Allow Super Hearts
• This allows you to monetize your broadcast. Why not I guess, but it’s confusing.  Read more about Superhearts from Engadget here.

Next, you have to ask permission. First ask the presenter (if it’s not you) if it is okay to record. Then ask the participants. If someone doesn’t want to be recorded, make sure you don’t capture that person. Ask however, if you can capture what they may say without showing who said it. Most people are fine with this. If you’re recording students, you’ll need to be more formal with permissions. Sarah Thomas lays that out for you in her post on student privacy where she shares tips like how to limit who can comment.  

#4 Name your broadcast with the right hashtags

When you start your broadcast you have to give it a title. When you do make sure it has the conference hashtag, the session hashtag (if there is one), the handle of the presenter and #PeriscopeEdu.  Oh, and make it <140 characters.

Here is an example:

Live fr the #NYCSchoolsTech Summit on #PeriscopeEdu: @@FarrellJoJo  moderates the @gsuite vs @Office365 #NYCSchoolsPlatform Smackdown

During the conference, you can let those who want to follow know to search #PeriscopeEdu and #NYCSchoolsTech to view all the livestreams and then they can add in the session hashtag or broadcaster’s Twitter handle for that specific livestream.

Not sure how that works? Here's an example of what it looks like when you put both hashtags to find all the livestreams.

It looks like this:

If there is a certain person who is livestreaming and you want to specifically watch what they are streaming you can do it by searching the relevant hashtags and the person’s name.

Here is an example of how you would search the livestreams of Clemencia Acevedo at the #NYCSchoolsTech Summit.

#5 Broadcasting tips

Periscope.tv let’s you easily broadcast in portrait or landscape mode. Rule of thumb is when you are broadcasting yourself, use portrait. When you are broadcasting something else, go landscape. The other strategy to note is you can pinch to zoom in and out.  

Make sure you set up conditions for success. Don’t forget to shut off notifications on your phone before you begin broadcasting. You don’t want your audience to hear those pesky tones. You'll also want to remember to bring a charger, a back up charger and maybe even an extension cord too so you can charge while recording.

#6 Bring binder clips

Binder clips are the key to avoiding shaky hand broadcasting syndrome. You can use those binder clips to make a tripod. Check out the video below to see how.

Oops! Forgot the clips? Don’t despair. Grab a left over coffee cup or that business card that you didn’t really want. Make a tripod with those instead. Here’s how:

#7 Welcome your audience and have a screen saver

Start broadcasting a few minutes before the event starts. Welcome your audience. Say hi. Ask where they are from and why they decided to join. It is kind of like a virtual invitation to your room and you are giving your audience time to find their seat and get comfortable. Let them know who you are and what they are about to see. Ask them to share your scope.

It is also a good idea to have screensaver that the audience can see as they are coming on board. This might be you broadcasting the first slide in the presentation which includes presentation name, the presenter’s handle to follow, relevant hashtags, etc. If something doesn’t exist, you can just type the info on a screen or write it on a board or paper. Look how Kim Cofino from Eduro learning does that below.

Visit Kim's Facebook Live

#8 Speak to your audience

Pay attention to what audience members are saying and respond back to them. If you are recording a presenter in a workshop, let them know what their virtual audience is saying and invite them to respond. Of course make sure this is okay before the workshop begins. If you are recording the keynote where it is not practical for the presenter to respond, you may want to respond to the audience letting them know if you agree, additional insights, etc., but remember to whisper.  

#9 Thank you and goodbye

When the broadcast is over provide a recap, thank your audience for joining, ask if there are any further questions or comments, let them know where to go to get more information.

#10 Storify your broadcasts!

If you’ve used the right hashtags, this part is easy. Go to Storify and pull out the story from the day that you want to tell. Check out how Eileen Lennon did that for the #NYCSchoolsTech Summit in this Storify.

So what do you think? Are these tips ones that you will incorporate when you livestream? Have you noticed broadcasters implementing these tips well? Anything missing?