Fuse thoughts. So, I started using Periscope for my business last summer, and it has been a game changer. I love the easy platform, and its sharing capability is awesome! I have found new business best friends via Periscope, new business collaborations, and I’ve also grown my list and expanded my brand. I have now done over 160 broadcasts, ranging from SEO tips to blogging to even some solopreneur motivation. If you are considering Periscope, check out my 411 on Periscope blog post. I do feel like there was a broadcaster flow with this, meaning that I had highs and then hit some very lows. I became very concerned about not being consistent and not getting the live viewers I had wanted. I started to think, “Is this just a trend, and is it fizzling out?” Then Facebook Live started rolling out for some people, and I was not very excited, to be honest, because it lacks the major “sharing is caring on crack” feature that Periscope has. [bctt tweet=”So, here are my thoughts on Periscope and Facebook Live.” username=”feuza”]

Facebook live vs periscope

As I have said before, live streaming is here to stay, PERIOD. And, after further personal reflection about my Periscope biz journey, I have come to the conclusion that Periscope is here to stay, and Fuse plans to scope, but with better intention and purpose. Before, I was just randomly scoping whenever it fit into my schedule, and I did not have set times or dates.[bctt tweet=” I find having a schedule is so much better, and I actually don’t believe you need to scope every single day. ” username=””]Right now my goal is to scope 3 times a week: Monday Motivation Tip or an SEO tip, Blogging Tip Wednesday, and #blogwithfuse and #FeedbackFriday, where I do live SEO audits. Then anything extra is a bonus. I’m also not able to watch as many scopes as I’d like, but networking on Periscope is important, so I need to plan out my schedule for that. I’m attending Pericon this week, and I’m so excited to meet my fellow periscopers! I also need to look at my stats better and utilize Fullscope.

Facebook Live

Cons:

  • When doing a Facebook Live, it’s shared with your audience, and others can’t easily share. This is where Periscope wins over Facebook. I’ve seen some say you need to log out to be able to share it, which will defeat the purpose, and you can even lose a viewer.
  • Doing FB Live on your personal page is also purposeless, in my opinion, because that is where personal friends and family are, and they’re not your ideal audience, per se. Plus, aren’t we not supposed to be doing business on our personal page? So, it’s better to use the Facebook Live feature on your Facebook business page (you can use this via the pages manager app) and also in your own personal group, if you run one.
  • Facebook Groups Live option.This freaks me out a bit. Imagine that you run a group with 5,000 members, and as of right now, anyone can go live in your group. The only way one can avoid that scenario is if they don’t allow people to post without approval. Honestly, who has time for that? So, I think Facebook needs to give an option for Facebook Live in groups to be admin only.
  • The business page option hasn’t been rolled out to Android users – they’ve only been given access to personal pages, I believe.
  • It only has a square screen option, so it’s a smaller screen with no horizontal or vertical screen option.
  • Viewers are not really interacting and chatting with each other.

Where does Facebook Live win then?

PROS:

  • Well, if you’ve been complaining about lack of reach with your business page, Facebook Live will surely help with that. So now I’m getting into Facebook Live and I’m able to connect with a past audience who may have become my fan back in the day, but has not seen my info or posts for a while (thanks to the lovely algorithm). So Facebook Live can help you get back onto people’s radar.
  • One feature that does excite me about Facebook Live is that they’ve opened up to developers, which means pretty soon we will be able to host webinars right inside of Facebook. This is genius and will open up for many other ideas, too.
  • The chat feature has been a bit bumpy, but I hope that it stays and doesn’t disappear like Periscope’s.
  • The three-second countdown is pretty cool, and that would have saved me a couple of times on Periscope. Crazy hair, Fusie.
  • After the live version is done, it gets posted to your feed, which stays forever. Then it can be shared, too. This can be a con also, however, for those who like Periscope’s 24-hour video reply and exclusive content after that period, etc.
  • You can edit the video title and description, and you can also add hyperlinks to landing pages and opt-in pages to direct people back to your blog or Facebook group.

Periscope:

Cons:

  • Some can view the 24-hour replay option as a bad thing, meaning they need to consistently be doing new scopes.
  • The chat feature can get crazy at times, and I lose focus. Also, you can get trolls who say nasty things.
  • When I screen share, I never feel that it’s very clear. This may be on my end.
  • There is competition with time slots, so if someone more popular than you is on, then you may lose viewers.
  • Sometimes it feels like a monologue, and asking for hearts can sound pushy.

Pros:

  • It’s easy to find people and follow people. I wrote a blog post on how I got 800 new followers in 2 months. You can get new followers by not even being live or chatting! Use keywords in your bio so others can find you.
  • It’s connected to Twitter, which makes it a great sharing feature.
  • Sharing is caring on crack. When someone shares your broadcast, it states that “so-and-so wants to share this video with you.” So, it’s like a personal recommendation, making it easy on Periscope to get found by many new people that have never even heard of you.
  • People network well on Periscope via the chat and start following each other, too. This is something I don’t see folks doing on Facebook. (Facebook is not a platform for that, and it’s not used for live streaming and live connecting like that.)
  • The 24-hour replay. I think this is a bonus because it makes the person want to not miss your content. You can also grow your list and limit the replays to your list only, making it a great marketing feature.
  • It has landscape and portrait modes. 
  • It allows for more space to be seen in the actual video. 
  • Hearts. They’re not an analytics metric anymore, but it’s nice to get some social proof for the audience, and it’s a reassurance that people are liking your content. On Facebook Live you can’t be sure if people are even listening, lol. 
  • The playback feature shows your heart count, comments, and now you can rewind and fast forward.

Overall, I think they are both great platforms, and I love that one can use both of them at the same time. Not all things I do on Periscope (like my live SEO audits) will apply to Facebook. I do see great potential in Facebook Live streaming (latest news here), but I do plan to stick with Periscope too, as that has been a great platform for reaching my ideal audience. So perhaps a good strategy is to build new audience on Periscope and take them to your Facebook Biz to grow and nurture that audience even more. If you need help getting followers on Periscope, check out this blog post here. 

So how about you? Which platform do you enjoy and what are your best tips?