Have you heard about Periscope? It’s the latest social media craze to hit the web.

More than 1 million people signed in to use it in its first 10 days after it launched on March 26 of this year. So far, it’s only found on iPhones. So that means it still has to launch on Android, which would expose it to millions of additional users.

Not quite 6 months later, Periscope now has more than 2 million users. So even though there’s thousands of social media apps, most of which never make it to public attention, it’s fairly likely Periscope will hang around for a while.

Plus, Twitter owns it.

What is Periscope Anyway?

It’s a pretty simple social media app. Periscope lets you stream live video to an audience. They can make comments or ask questions as you broadcast. Since Twitter owns it, it’s easy to pick up followers and grow your account almost immediately.

Facebook’s actually doing something similar. But they’re only allowing select celebrities to stream video. If you’re following that celebrity, you’ll get notified of their upcoming broadcast if you recently engaged with their posts. Initially, Martha Stewart, The Rock, Serena Williams, and Michael Buble agreed to do a live stream.

How Could Your Small Business Use Livecasting to Increase Sales?

Well, much of that remains to be seen. With social media, you can be as creative as you want. So there’s plenty of opportunity to innovate and increase sales.

Some ideas that come to mind:

1. Contractors could livecast jobs – For example, you’d pick a typical air conditioning install. You could let potential customers watch and ask their common questions. You could also do the same for common maintenance issues for air conditioners.
2. Give a “behind the scenes look” at your office – Personal experiences sell. Your customers want to get to know your company and feel like they have a strong relationship with you. Give them a “behind the scenes” look at your workplace. Stay away from being corny, uptight, and stilted. Be your natural selves and have fun.
3. Let customers chat with your company leaders – Again, personalization is the idea here. How often do customers get to talk with your CEO? Let them do it with Periscope.
4. Tutorials and product demos – It’s easier to buy something if you know how it works, isn’t it? So show your customers that with Periscope. Have an employee show customers advanced functions they might not know.

Periscope is probably here to stay for some time. It’s new and unique. Businesses and customers can’t get enough of that.