The Scoop on Scope I

The Scoop on Scope

i The Scoop on Scope: Periscope Pointers for Bloggers, Beginners, and Beyond!

No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed or online reviews, without the prior permission of the author.

Publishing and Design Services by MelindaMartin.me Preface...... Contents 1 Disclaimers...... 1 About the Author...... 3 What people are saying about Kristi on Periscope...... 4 1: My Periscope Journey ...... 7 2: The Basics...... 9 3: Finding Your Way Around Periscope...... 16 4: How to Get More Followers...... 26 5: Watching & Participating...... 30 6: How to Prep for a Great Scope...... 37 Periscope Pointers For Prepping ...... 41 7: Ready! Set! — SCOPE!...... 45 Periscope Pointers For Broadcasting...... 48 8: What to Talk About on Your Scopes...... 52 9: What to Do After Your Scopes...... 56 Periscope Pointers For Following Up...... 58 10: MAKING MONEY WITH PERISCOPE...... 62 11: Tips For Bloggers & Businesses ...... 65 12: Safety Tips for Scopers...... 69 Seven Safety Tips for Social Media...... 70 Special Thanks...... 74 The Scoop On Scope: Periscope Pointers...... 76 The Scoop on Scope

PREFACE

ow much have you heard about Periscope, the new social media platform that is taking the world by storm? Are you “on” Periscope, but haven’t quite figured out how to get it to “work” for you? Well, this practical, straightforward book will cover the basic “how to’s” as well as detailed strategies on how to use it to grow your platform, blog, or business. I am going to share with you my best tips on how to grow your audience on Periscope, use it to increase traffic to your website and make money Husing it. Come and get the “Scoop on Scope” by someone who has grown her platform from nothing by using Periscope. You’ll hear more about my story in the first chapter. I can’t tell you how excited I am to tell you all about my favorite new platform. I should almost start with a warning:

WARNING: Periscope is REALLY fun! You may become addicted!

Come join the millions of people who have already discovered this dynamic, fairly new app that is revolutionizing how we interact on social media!

DISCLAIMERS

Periscope is constantly changing. Some of the basic Periscope details I put within this book are pertinent for Periscope today. Most of my tips are completely applicable to you regardless of any new updates. However, there will be things that Periscope continues to update to make itself even more user friendly, thus making some of the things in this book out-of-date. It is best to stay on top of updates via Periscope. I do need to make the little disclaimer that I use an iPhone for my Periscopes. I also have a Word- Press blog site. So, I’m not a pro with Andriods or other blog formats. However, most of my tips, and advice are standard regardless of your phone or blog formatting. I just wanted to point that out in case you try to follow a tip on how to download your video using Quick Time. I’m sharing the steps from my mac, iPhone, and so on.

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Do know that the information and advice given in this book are based on my experiences and opinions, and is for informational purposes only. I’m a mommy blogger who loves Periscope, not an attorney or accountant. In no way am I guaranteeing you any monetary benefit just by following my tips. Be sure to seek professional advice before you act on anything that I published or rec- ommended. The earnings that I share with you are certainly not to be considered average. Many people make more — some will make nothing. So, I’m not guaranteeing the same results. I am an affiliate with several companies. So, some of the links within this book may direct you to an affiliate site. This simply means that I make a small commission off any purchases you make (at no additional cost to you). There are also links and references to third party companies and services within this book. Any of the information shared from or about them is based on my opinion, and experience thus far. I do not in any way assume responsibility or liability for any Third Party material, opinions, or services. Therefore, again, there is no guarantee of any success or earnings related to you or your business by using any of these Third Parties. This book is copyrighted. So even though I hope you LOVE this book and want to share all about it with your friends and colleagues, I do ask that you respectfully give them the link to get it themselves and not just forward it to them — since it’s copyrighted. If you would like to use the information in this book (to be reproduced, transmitted, or sold), in part or in whole, you are re- quired to receive my prior written consent. This book and the recommendations it contains are based on my own opinions and experiences. It’s always a good idea (in fact I highly recommend) for you the reader to do your own due diligence before making any business or financial decisions. The information, companies, products, and services that I refer to in this book should be independently verified by your own qualified professionals. By reading this book, you agree that myself and my company are not responsible for the success or failure of your business decisions relating to any information given in this guide.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

risti Clover is new to the social media scene — and has taken Periscope by storm! Coming onto Periscope with no platform to start, she has grown her following to 1.5K in just under 2 months. Periscope has allowed Kristi opportunities to share her joy and enthusiasm with others. What’s more is she has had the opportunity to help and encourage others who have much larger platforms than her own get started and find success using it. Her “Periscope Pointers” are easy to Kimplement and have helped many overcome their fear of doing their first scope — and learn how to properly utilize this incredible new live streaming app to grow their business. On a personal note, Kristi is a Christian homeschool mom to five blessings ranging from teens to tots and wife to her high school crush. Aside from her family, she’s also passionate about homeschooling, creating family traditions, and finding new ways to run a more efficient home and school. Not surprisingly, you can usually find her at home trying to bring some order and fun into the mayhem of daily life. Kristi is a down-to-earth writer and energetic speaker who loves to share insights from her wonderful, yet sometimes challenging, experiences of being a homemaker and homeschool mom. Her tips are creative, practical, and help bring back some simplicity in the chaos of life and homeschooling. She offers advice that goes beyond your typical “how-to’s” whether helping you with your home, homeschool, — or Periscope! Kristi blogs about her adventures in wifehood, mommyhood, and the fun to be found in homeschooling at www.raisingclovers.com. You can also find Kristi onYouTube , Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, — and Periscope as @RaisingClovers!

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT KRISTI ON PERISCOPE

ince we are just getting to know each other here, I thought I’d share what a few of my Peri- scope friends say about me on Scope.

“I've been so inspired and motivated by watching Kristi's scopes. She brings so much energy and enthusi- Sasm in each scope. She always has interesting ideas, tips, and suggestions. I only follow a handful of people on Periscope and Kristi is on my must-follow list because I learn so much from watching what she's doing and how she's rocking Periscope!” -Crystal Paine @MoneySavingMom New York Times Best-selling author, Say Good-bye to Survival Mode

“I love watching Kristi on Periscope. She is bubbly, fun, and informative! Kristi makes Periscope look easy, and I always learn something from her scopes!” -Tricia Goyer @TriciaGoyer USA Today Best-selling author of 50 books, including Moms Night Out

“There are some Periscopers out there whose personalities just blast through the 5-inch smartphone screen, and Kristi is one of them! Her energy, enthusiasm, and passion for her topic are contagious, inspiring, and most importantly, authentic. What draws viewers to a ‘scoper like a magnet is not just the valuable tips they're teaching, but their willingness to be honest. Kristi keeps it real. It’s no wonder she's constantly building her audience on Periscope!” - Kerry Shearer, “The Periscope Expert,” @kerryshearer

“Kristi is a joy to watch on Periscope. She always shares from her real life, which is what viewers love to see. I refer viewers to her all the time. You'll be encouraged and inspired by Kristi's scopes.” -Jamerrill Stewart @justjamerrill

“Kristi's exuberant energy can't help but just draw you into her scopes! You always walk away feeling inspired, encouraged and like you've been chatting with an old friend. Not only does her sweet and lively personality keep you coming back for more, but her consistent and valuable content has kept her as a front runner on Periscope. She is not to be missed!” -MacKenzie Monroe @BOLDTurquiose

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“From the day she started using Periscope, Kristi Clover determined to become an expert on this new social media platform. She has indeed become an expert, but so much more. She is a friend, an inspiration, and a whole lot of fun for everyone who watches her. Do yourself and your Periscope followers a favor and take all of her advice!” -Melanie Wilson, Ph.D. @Psychowith6

“When I get a notification that Kristi is scoping, I make sure to hop on! Her joy and faith pervade her messages amidst real life as a homeschool mom. Kristi is a genuine giver who looks to help all in her tips and prayers.” -Amy Milcic @AmyMilcic

“I just love listening to Kristi on her inspirational and upbeat scopes. She is authentic and real and has a way of sincerely connecting with other moms. My kids even love listening to her!” -Heather @naturalspachic

“Kristi is amazing - her joyful personality brings light into my day, and her organizing tips have helped me bring order to my homeschool! My day isn't complete without a Kristi Clover scope!” -Jen @ChoaticBlissHS

“I live in Australia, so I rarely get to watch Kristi live on Periscope, but I always watch the replays. Kristi is so encouraging and has really helped me find the joy in homeschooling after going through a rough patch. Her joy and enthusiasm is contagious!” -Jen @thebauerfamily

“Kristi has inspired, encouraged, and reignited my passion for homeschooling and rediscovering the simple joy in motherhood. Her warmth and welcome is comforting and contagious. So blessed to have found her.” -Noelani @blessthismom

“I so look forward to Kristi's periscopes. She has a smile and joy that is contagious. Kristi is very authentic and keeps it real for us wives and mothers, which lets us know we are not alone. Her encouragement is a true blessing!” -Amy @ALogsdon7

“Kristi is a breathe of fresh air on Periscope. I love catching her scopes. She is sincere about encouraging us mums, and her servant heart has been such a blessing to many!!” -Allison @AllisonNicoll5

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“Kristi is always real with what homeschooling is about and what it takes to do it. Love her words of encouragement and realness that she shares with her followers.” -Ashley, mom of soon to be 4

“Kristi is the only reason I downloaded the Periscope app!! After visiting her amazing blog and vlog, I was so encouraged I had to hear from her over and over again and I am never disappointed. Each scope is more and more encouraging and uplifting. Kristi is an absolute blessing!” -Melissa, mom of 5

“Kristi is the reason I downloaded the app. I rarely can get on when she is live but I do catch up later in the evening. She is such a joyful person and you can see it right through her in the scopes. She is so encouraging and funny in her scopes. I get a dose of Homeschool conference each day when I watch her scopes!!!” -Holly, mother of 3

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1: MY PERISCOPE JOURNEY

y Periscope journey has been an amazing one! I had no idea when I first started scoping just how much fun it would be and what a big impact it would have on my blog and platform! Since I began periscoping, my blog and YouTube channel have seen HUGE growth. My page views on my blog have increased almost five to ten times since joining Periscope (it depends on the day). MyM blog had over 600 new subscribers in just 2 months. My YouTube channel grew 1.5K subscribers in 3 weeks (and is still growing).

An increase in page views and YouTube views means that my blog and channel started generating money. I made over $400 in one month from this growth. In case you were wondering, my biggest month prior to this was $5. I never thought about the money making aspect of Periscope before seeing this growth. Peri- scope in and of itself is not monetized. However, when used properly, it can grow your business or website in ways you never thought possible. I’ve only been officially blogging for a little under 2 years now and I’ve only been on social media for about one year. My social media numbers were pathetic prior to July! They still are not the size of other larger bloggers, but when you start from zero and see no real growth for months it’s exciting to see rapid increases in your numbers.

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Social media was my nemesis. I’d read books about the importance of having a “platform” and knew I had no leg to stand on. How would I stand out in this oversaturated world of writers, speakers, blogs, and social media? Then I found Periscope. Periscope has opened the door to building relationships with people I never would have had an opportunity to met or get to know otherwise. Scope is so new that even the big guns in every industry are still learning about it. What I keep hearing time and time again from some of these social media giants who are just getting onto Periscope is that they were waiting to see if it was worth their time. Guess what? It has been! Everyone has been agreeing that Periscope is a game changer! The biggest difference between Periscope and most of the other major social media platforms is that Periscope allows your audience to get to know you better and interact with you “live.” It makes things instantly personal. I love this! It’s one thing to read someone’s book and hope to meet them someday. It’s a totally different thing to have an opportunity to see them live and get to ask them questions. Periscope closes the gap. That six degrees of separation that Mr. Bacon is famous for just got smaller! Now I should point out that I didn’t just sit around and Periscope, and then magically have my numbers increase. No! I was still writing, speaking, and creating videos during this time. I also joined up with a large homeschool Pinterest group board that brought more traffic to my blog. However, with the power of Periscope, people were finally starting to see all my hard work. It’s one thing to pour your heart, time, and energy into something, it’s another thing to have people actually see it! Periscope has revolutionized my blog and created so many amazing opportunities (& relationships) I never would have thought possible. I hope you will jump in, try it out, and see how it blesses you!

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2: THE BASICS

know that many of you got this book because the thought of using Periscope has you a bit overwhelmed. Maybe you are reading this because you are ready to take your scoping to the next level. No matter what the reason for buying this book, it’s important to get a basic understanding of what Periscope is and what you need to do to get started. Do note that Periscope is fairly new! So, there are bugs! Sometimes videos stall. If you are watching a scope that locks up, just hang in there or exit and come back in. Sometimes tapping the screenI helps the feed to come back. There are so many nuances to Periscope. It’s constantly updating with new features. So, there will be things in this book that may become somewhat outdated in a few months. I’ve really tried to be sure my tips will outlive any updates that comes out. I’m going to give you a basic overview of what Periscope is, how it works, what you need to do to get the app and start watching. I’ll also share about a few features you need to understand if you decide to scope. “If?” Did I just say “if?” Well, yes I did! This book isn’t just about how to start doing your own scopes? Look, I am going to tell you now that scoping is not for everyone. However, watching Periscope is for everyone! I really think that people should get on Periscope to watch, learn, & interact. However, as for the actual “live” broadcasting part of Periscope, it might not be for you. I’m just being honest. I do think it is important for you to have basic understanding of everything involved with Periscope if you are using Periscope for business. However, many of your viewers are just going to be viewers — and that is okay. I don’t think it is helpful for people to encourage every person they know to get on Periscope and start broadcasting. For many, it’s just not going to be their thing. They’ll just be enjoying what everyone else is recording. Okay, so now that I’ve taken a little bit of stress off of your shoulders, let’s get started.

WHAT IS PERISCOPE?

Well, Periscope is Twitter’s new live streaming app. It is a new social media outlet where you can “chat” online with people using live video feed. Periscope’s tagline is, “Explore the world through

9 The Scoop on Scope someone else’s eyes.“ The person broadcasting on Periscope videos themselves, or what they are seeing, and the viewers can ask questions, make comments, give hearts, and more. The conversations show up on the screen and the speaker can interact. It’s fun! Different than most other social media platforms, Periscope broadcasts are only temporary. The videos are only available to watch for 24 hours! What? Yes, only 24 hours — and then they disappear. This is good and bad. It does cause people to go ahead and get on and watch since they don’t want to miss anything by forgetting to watch later. It’s bad in that your amazing content is no longer available through Periscope (I’ll teach you how to save your scopes in chapter 9).

HOW TO GET ON PERISCOPE: ADDING THE APP

Getting onto Periscope is easy! You just download the Periscope app on your smart phone. You can watch a Periscope broadcast live from your computer, however, you can’t interact (at this point) from your computer. The phone app is the way to go! I highly recommend setting up your Periscope account through your Twitter account. This will allow your periscopes to be tweeted when you go “live,” which is one more way to let people know when you are broadcasting (more on that later). You’ll also be able to share a scope you are enjoying with your Twitter followers. Plus, it makes it easier for people to find you on Twitter, especially those with a Katch account (again, more on that in a bit).

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I’VE GOT THE APP. NOW WHAT?

1. Set Up Your Bio The very first thing you need to do before you do anything else is to set up your bio! Re- gardless if you plan to broadcast or not, you need a bio. When you first get on the app, you will most likely have an egg next to your handle. Your “handle” is your Twitter name. My handle is “@Rais- ingClovers.” In Twitter-land any name with the @ sign in front of it is referred to as your handle.

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If you set up your profile using your Twitter account, you may already have a little bio. You will want to add to this bio to make it more Periscope friendly. You want to add a short description of who you are in your bio! This is key! I will not follow someone I don’t know unless they have a bio. A bio is what separates you from the “trolls” on Scope.

What is a Periscope “Troll?” Since most periscopes are available for anyone to watch and participate on, there are sometimes lame- o’s who join scopes. These “trolls” come on and make rude comments — sometimes foul comments. The broadcaster can block them, and you the viewer can block them as well. It doesn’t always happen, but you will occasionally see trolls on scopes. I’ll tell you how to block them in chapter 7.

Another cool, important thing to add to your bio is your complete website URL. Be sure to include the “http://www.“ with your website name to your bio. This links to your site on many devices. A person interested in what you have to say can just click on your site name & be instantly connected to your site. http://www.yourwebsite.com To get to this screen is going to take a bit of maneuvering through Periscope, so I’ll make it easy: • Click on the “People” icon on the bottom right of your screen • Click on the “Person” icon on the top right of your screen • You should see your picture or your “egg” with a little “Edit” button on the top right, just like in the picture below. This is where you set up your name & profile • See the screen shots on #4 Autosaving if you need help with the first two bullet points listed here.

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2. Crack the egg! Hatch it! Make it disappear!

Don’t let your profile picture stay an egg! Trolls are the ones who usually have eggs. You want to let people know you are legit. You may get blocked. So, upload a picture! Don’t stay in the egg! 3. Make Your Name Stand Out

When you start broadcasting your name (not your handle) is what pops up to show your followers you are live. It is also what is listed in the replay area. (Note: When you comment on a scope, your handle is what shows up.) This may make no sense now, but once you are on Periscope, you’ll see what I mean.

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Most periscopers use their name or Twitter “handle” — or both in the name section of screen! I do recommend using emojis, BUT don’t use emoji letters for your name & don’t over do it! Twitter doesn’t always know how to transfer emojis from Periscope to Twitter. So, you could end up with a jumbled mess for a name. I’ve seen lots of scopes show up on Twitter with just big dots for each letter. You can see above that I add clover emojis with my name AND my handle! 4. Set Up Your “Settings” To “Autosave” Your Broadcasts

It’s a good idea to have your phone set to autosave your broadcasts. This way, you can have a copy of them if you ever want to go back and see what you said or use them in a video or on your site. If you do not use a company like Katch to “catch” your scopes, then I HIGHLY recommend autosaving. Otherwise, you will have nothing after 24 hours of recording.

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Here’s how to make your way around Periscope to “autosave”:

• Click on the “People” icon on the bottom right of your screen • Click on the “Person” icon on the top right of your screen. This is where you set up your name & profile • Scroll down to where you see “Settings”. Click on Settings. You can set the “Notifications” to notify you when someone follows you You can set the “Other” section to have your scopes automatically saved to your photo stream by turning on “Autosave Broadcasts” Now, you are ready to start participating on Periscope. However, there’s still a bit more to know and understand before you get to the “recording” part of Periscope. Next, let’s talk about how to find your way around Periscope.

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3: FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND PERISCOPE

kay, Periscope is for the most part fairly easy to navigate. There are really only a few screens where you’ll be spending the bulk of your time on. I’m not going to go into every minute detail here. I just want you comfortable finding your way around.

THE MAIN SCREEN OWhen you first open your Periscope app you will automatically be taken to the “Broadcasts” screen (unless you came onto Periscope through a notification). You’ll notice that at the bottom of your screen the little TV icon is lit up. There are basically four main screens that you will access while on Periscope. They are all located at the bottom. • Broadcast Screen (TV icon) • World Map Screen (Globe icon) • Recording Screen (Camera icon) • Profile Screen (People icon)

The “Broadcast” Screen: TV Icon

This is where all the fun is! This is where all the “live” and replay broadcasts are located. One thing to note is that you can only interact and make comments when a broadcast is live. You can still give hearts and share a video when you are watching the replay, but you can’t get involved in the interaction.

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• Featured Broadcasts – Often the first set of broadcasts you see will have little “yellow” line next to them. These are the featured broadcasts from Periscope.

• Live Broadcasts – The “live” broadcasts are next on the screen (or first if there are no featured ones). If there is more than one person you follow on “live,” then there will be a faint red line to the right of the small thumbnail indicating that the broadcast is live. These broadcasts are listed in chronological order from when a person hits the broadcast button. As more people start broadcasting they move down the screen.

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Thumbnails *A “thumbnail” is the little picture associated with each scope. You’ll notice that every scope has a picture next to the title. The very first image captured once you hit record is used as your thumbnail. I’ll give you some fun tips on how to make sure that this image is a good representation of your broadcast in chapter 6.

• Replay Broadcasts – These broadcasts have a little “>” play icon over them. These are all the broadcasts that are now available to watch for 24 hours. Once that period of time runs out then they disappear forever — unless the broadcaster has set up a Katch or Watch on Peri- scope account (more on those later). Often people record their scopes and repurpose them on YouTube or put them onto their websites. If you see a scope in the replay section that has its thumbnail whited out with no play icon on it, this means the scoper decided to not allow replay on this broadcast.

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The “World Map” Screen: Globe icon

The second icon at the bottom of your screen is the World Map screen. You will see the little globe icon. The map shows you where in the world people are broadcasting from. You can watch scopes from a particular area just by clicking on the dot.

The “Recording” Screen: Camera icon

Ready, Set, Scope! As you might guess from the whole “camera” thing, this is the screen you use to record your live broadcast. There are a few things to know about this screen — before you start scoping. Chapters 6 and 7 will go into detail about all my tips for setting up good scopes.

Your Title

The top section of this camera screen is where you write in your title. This is the title that will be listed next to your periscope in the “live” and “replay” sections. It’s important to have a catchy title. Many people use emojis and hashtags in their titles as well. Again, in chapter 6, I will go over many helpful hints for creating a great title.

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Your Thumbnail

Whatever you are pointing your camera at will become your thumbnail for your Periscope. As mentioned above, your thumbnail is the first frame captured by your camera. It is the visual representation of your Periscope. You can see below that I used a picture of the word “Family” to be my thumbnail, since I was going to be scoping on the topic of “Family Fun.”

The 4 little icons in the middle of your screen above the keyboard all have different functions. One thing to note is that if the icon is muted (not bright white), then the function is turned OFF. If the icon is lit up (bright white), then the function is ON. The screen shot below shows you my typical scope set up.

“Arrow” icon = Location!

It’s really important to know when this button is on! You don’t want it “on” unless you want your precise location to be shared. If it is lit up, it means your location will be shared. If it is muted, it is off and your location remains private (unless you verbally or non-verbally reveal where you are).

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Be sure to read my “Safety Tips for Scopers” bonus chapter for more details before you decide to turn this icon on.

“Pad Lock” icon = Private Broadcast

This is the icon you push if you want to do a private scope. A search bar pops up along with a list of all of your followers. You can pick who you want to invite to the private scope. A quick note here is that private scopes can be helpful for a trial run on Periscope. They can also be used when you want to share an event you are at with only a few people. An example would be a child’s sporting event. I personally don’t share specific information like this publicly online. So, I’d do a private scope to share it with a family member who wants to watch the game.

“Speech bubble” icon = Comment Limiting

If you want to limit your comments to only users you follow, then you press this icon. I really don’t suggest doing this since people who come over to your scope will not be able to participate in the scope. So, I typically keep this function off. If you only want to have comments from a limited group of people, then you might consider a private scope instead. I’ve jumped on to scopes that had the comments off. I typically don’t stay that long. To break it down: Only scopers YOU follow can chat = “bright” and limiting is ON. If you don’t mind allowing anyone to chat = “muted” and limiting is OFF.

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“Twitter Bird” Icon = Tweet-Able

You really should always have your little Twitter bird ON! If you have set up your account with Twit- ter and have this bird on, then the moment your start your Periscope a tweet is sent out that you are “live.” One more way to notify your platform to join you on your periscope. Know I’m going to share some great tips with you about how to let people know that you are live in chapter 4.

“Start Broadcast” Button

Last but not least, the “Start Broadcast” button. You need to be very careful with this button. The moment you click it, you go live! There is no “Are you sure you’re ready?” prompt. YOU click it, you are LIVE! I always like to take a moment before I go live to check for spelling errors in my title, make sure my icons are all on or off, and make sure my camera is pointed at what I’d like to have a picture of for my thumbnail.

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The “Profile” Screen: People icon

This screen, referred to by many as the peri-people, is where you will spend a lot of your time. It’s a fun place to check to see who is following you, search for people to follow, look at how many replays you have on a broadcast, and more.

Top Of The Screen

• “Magnifying glass” icon – This is your search engine to find people on Periscope. Sometimes several people will have the same name, so you may have to either identify them by their handle or click on them to read their profile. This will be the moment you’ll wish that everyone would fully set up their profile information. Know that if you follow the person on Twitter their name will appear below in the “Following on Twitter” section of this screen (see the screen shot on the next page). • “Person” icon –This is YOU! Your profile page! This is an important page. This is where you will change your bio, name, and get to see the details of your account. We will come back to this spot soon. More on this page in a bit.

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Middle Of The Screen:

• Featured: Sometimes Periscope has a featured profile they want you to follow. You don’t have to follow these people. • “Following on Twitter”: Twitter makes it easy for you to connect with people you are already following on Twitter. You can easily go through the list and decide who you want to follow on Periscope. It’s important to note that the more people you follow on Periscope, the more notifications you will get when people go live (unless you mute them).

Your Profile Page: The “Person” Icon On Your Profile Screen

As I just mentioned you have a profile page which you can access from your profile screen. When you are on this page, you will see your picture, name, handle, total heart count, and bio first. You can change your picture and edit your name and bio from this spot. Your handle will remain the same as it is on Twitter.

Under your bio you will see lists of people you are following, people who follow you (“followers”), people you have blocked, and your list of broadcasts. This broadcast list basically holds your broadcast stats. Your replay-able periscopes will have a little “play icon” on them. You are able to watch your replays from this area — only the ones that are still within that 24 hour window. Your old broadcasts will be muted and slightly whited out. You will not be able to watch these broadcasts

24 The Scoop on Scope anymore, which is why I suggest getting a Katch account. However, you can look at your stats on all your old scopes from here. You can see your total number of live viewers, replay viewers, and heart count. There are also a few other screens to access here. I already discussed the “settings” screen in Chapter 2. The rest you can feel free to look at, but I don't think I need to go through the nitty-gritty of what they are all about. Really truly, you just need to start clicking around and get a feel for the layout of Peri- scope and familiarize yourself with what is where.

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4: HOW TO GET MORE FOLLOWERS

ne of the big questions looming out there is, “How do I get more followers?” Well, I’ll share some of the things that have worked for me and the tips I’ve learned during my time on Periscope.

1. Follow People • Follow people who are in your niche. What is your niche? Research your niche and figure Oout who the top players are in your field. That’s who you want to follow. • Follow people who are following people in your niche. Most likely these people are your target audience as well. So, it doesn’t hurt to get to know them, too. • Follow people who follow you. You probably don’t want to follow every person who follows you. However, when you are first on Periscope, it wouldn’t hurt to be polite and follow people who follow you that have a similar niche as yours. I just go into their profiles and read about them. If they don’t have a profile, I typically don’t follow them. • Follow people you want to see on Periscope. This is what Periscope is all about! There are so many incredible people scoping these days. Forget your niche for this tip. Follow people who share your hobbies and interests. They may be experts in your field or gurus of social media — or people who are just fun to watch! You can also follow your favorite celebrities. Who are your favorite authors, speakers, leaders, etc.? Search for them and follow them! You’ll be surprised how many people are already on Scope.

A Few of My Favorite Scopers to Watch & Follow

I could recommend so many people to follow and watch on Periscope, but everyone’s style and content is so different. The people listed below are the ones who have helped me the MOST in my understanding of Periscope AND who give AMAZING VALUE! My little disclaimer here is that although I have learned so much from everyone on this list, it’s important to note that not everyone listed below, or on Periscope in general, shares my same convictions as to content and language. Always use discernment when on Periscope. Alex Pettitt (@alexpettitt) – Alex works with Periscope in some way or another. I don’t fully understand his relationship with them. All I know is that he has the latest and greatest news on Periscope before the rest of the world knows. He has great tips and advice! He’s a must-follow! I

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think pretty much everyone on Periscope follows him. He’s the first scope I tried to watch away from home — and my Wifi. I quickly learned to make sure I have enough data on my phone plan. Chalene Johnson (@chalenejohnson) – Chalene is killing it on Periscope — much like she does on all social media! She loves Periscope so much she even set up a website called ScopeIs- Dope.com. Chalene is so much fun to watch! She’s real and sweet, you’ll feel like she’s your long, lost friend. She shares amazing tips on how she grew her multi-million businesses, plus how to grow as a person and pursue your dreams. Be sure to follow her! Michael Hyatt (@michaelhyatt) – Another must-follow! Michael shares so many awesome tips for running a business, writing, blogging, social media, and more! Usually you’d have to pay money to hear him speak, but he gives away incredible advice for FREE on Periscope. I have been so blessed by his scopes. Crystal Paine (@moneysavingmom) – Crystal almost needs no introduction. Her blog was one of the first blogs on the scene years ago. It has grown to over 1M views per day! She is also an author of a New York best selling book. Crystal has “Your Morning Motivator” scopes. She’s very inspiring and great to watch! You don’t want to miss her tips, so be sure to follow her. I’ve enjoyed getting to know her better through our Periscope connection. Tricia Goyer (@triciagoyer) – Tricia is an award winning author who not only shares about her life and how she balances writing with being a homeschool mom, but also answers questions about how to become an author. She has incredible insight from her years of experience — and over 50 books! Being able to ask questions and get answers about writing from an accomplished author like Tricia is priceless! If you have EVER thought about writing a book, you need to follow Tricia! But honestly, beyond writing, she is one of the sweetest people I’ve had the pleasure to get to know. You’ll love connecting with her on Periscope — so add her to your follow list. Kim Garst (@kimgarst) – Kim is a social media guru! She is so encouraging and informative. I’ve learned a lot about social media from her scopes. She has loads of great tips on how to grow your platform. Plus, she’s known as the “First Lady of Periscope,” so you have to follow her! I know you’ll be as blessed by what you learn from her as I am. Pat Flynn (@pattflynn) – I’m sure many of you know who Pat Flynn is. Much like his website and YouTube channel, his scopes are great! Many times he scopes “live” from conferences. When else in your life do you not even have to travel to watch such a phenomenal speaker give an entire workshop? Only on Periscope! Kerry Shearer (@kerryshearer) – Kerry Shearer is “The Periscope Expert.” Believe it or not, Kerry and I go way back. We met years ago at church when my family lived in northern California. Kerry has been an invaluable resource to me in getting me up and running on Periscope. Plus his scopes are awesome! — and I’m not just saying that because he’s interviewed me a few times on his scopes. He’s funny & sometimes even beats Alex Pettitt to the punch in releasing breaking news on Periscope. Don’t forget to follow him!

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Tabitha Philen (@tabithaphilen) – Tabitha gives amazing blogging information for free on her Periscopes. I honestly think that every blogger needs to follow her. She shares tips about just about every aspect of blogging. She is the founder of Inspired Bloggers Network & Inspired Bloggers Uni- versity. Be sure to have a pen and paper ready when you watch her. Mark Shaw (@markshaw) – Mark’s a great scoper to watch for ideas for maximizing your effectiveness on Periscope. Be sure to check him out. Watching him is like a shot of adrenaline in the arm. He’s high energy. Robert C. Stern (@robertcstern) – I think the first scope I ever watched was Robert’s. He has great tips for business & social media. He is the master of the “social” aspect of social media. He’s really good at getting to know his audience. Kristi Clover (@RaisingClovers) – What? Am I allowed to ask you to follow me? Of course I am! I’d love to have you follow me on Periscope. I love connecting with people. My passion is to inspire and encourage others to find joy in every aspect of life. Plus I do Periscope Q & A and give extra tips from time to time! If there’s breaking news on Periscope, then share my twist on how to best utilize it. Also, if you have extra questions after reading this book, you can ask me “live.” So, please don’t forget to follow me, too. 2. Start Watching & Participating This is honestly the best way to gain more followers! The more you get familiar with other scopers, the more likely they will come over to your scope and follow you. The key is to add value to their scopes! Lots more on this in the next chapter which is all about watching and participating. 3. Tell People You are on Periscope Tell your friends and followers on other social media that you are indeed on Periscope! There are several ways to let people know you are on Periscope — and how to watch you “live.”Let me run through a few now.

5 Ways to Let People Know You Are on Periscope

• Schedule your periscopes – This really is a great way to let people know when to find you on Periscope. I’ll go into this more in the blogging chapter (#11). However, many people are finding success with having a set schedule for when they will be on. It doesn’t have to be daily, just consistent. • Promote your scopes – Let people know you will be scoping using your other social media. I suggest doing this about 5-10 minutes before you go live or by letting people know what time you will be live that day. Using your already existing social media platforms like Twitter, Insta- gram, & Facebook to notify your audience is a great idea. This is how I started promoting my scopes on Periscope before I had a schedule. I would always post before I scoped. I’ll share a bit more on this later.

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• Have your Periscope account linked to your Twitter account – I know I mentioned this in- credibly important step in setting up your Periscope app in the chapter on basics, but I wanted to stress it again here. Periscope will automatically send a tweet when you go live. This is quick and easy publicity with no extra work from you. • Set up a Katch account – Just like Twitter, Katch will send an additional tweet after your scope has ended letting people know it’s there for replay. • Just start scoping – Once you have followers, Periscope sends a notification to them anytime you go live. So, just jump on and scope and people will eventually come! Plus, if you prep your scope properly like I’ll teach you to do in chapter six, then you will have a catchy title with some hashtags in it that will draw people to your broadcasts! This is a good time to point out that you need to set up your notifications on your phone to allow Peri- scope to send you notifications when people you follow are live. Go into your settings and click to allow Periscope to send you notifications. 4. Join One of the Many Periscope Facebook Groups These groups are wonderful for finding support and encouragement on Periscope. Most groups allow you to introduce yourself and post your day’s scopes. Finding a group in your niche is great, but there are so many groups that are simply Periscope support groups. I belong to a few Facebook groups. The two I started with are Mommy Scopes lead by the amazing Amy Wyler (@polkad- otwishes) & Homeschool Scopes lead by the ever-incredible Melanie Wilson (@psychowithsix). There are also huge groups like PeriGirls & more! Look for the hashtags in people’s scopes and you’ll start getting a feel for some of the groups out there. 5. Collaborate with Other Scopers Collaborating is a great way to expand your audience. When I’ve done scopes with other broad- casters, it definitely increased my reach. I’ve done side-by-side scopes with friends and been interviewed on Periscope using FaceTime. You can also do a “scope hop” where you start on one person’s scope, then jump to another person’s scope. However you choose to collaborate is up to you. It’s a wonderful way to introduce yourself to other people’s audiences — and have fun in the process.

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5: WATCHING & PARTICIPATING

here is so much variety to pick from on Periscope! Some scopes are entertaining, some social-based where you hang out like a chat room, some are motivational, some are informational — the list goes on!

“WATCHING” ON PERISCOPE! TBefore you ever consider recording your first broadcast, it’s really important to watch how other people are doing things on their scopes. I love watching the different ways people introduce themselves and sometimes do little ice breakers. I’m always on the look out for more great tips and techniques to incorporate into my broadcasts. Periscope opens doors to information and relationships like no other platform I know. It’s one thing to read an article or blog post and write a comment, it’s totally different to watch a person explain things and answer your questions live. It’s like the difference between reading your news in print and sitting in the news studio with a live audience. There are HIGHLY successful people in different fields who jump on Periscope and give you free advice and tips. It’s amazing! If you are in the social media, blogging, or literary world, you’ve probably heard of Michael Hyatt (@michaelhyatt). Well, his scopes are incredible! When else can you have instant access to someone like Mr. Hyatt? You can just watch, ask questions (unless the broadcast is too full — more on that in a bit), or interact with the other scopers who are asking questions and making comments.

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Watching In “Landscape” Or “Portrait” View

You can watch your scopes in either a portrait or landscape view — regardless of how the scope is being recorded. I mention the pros & cons of which format to use when recording in chapter 6. However, as a viewer you may not believe me when I say this, but — I highly recommend viewing all broadcasts in a portrait view no matter how it is recorded! Let me explain why. Comments! Comments are always covering the periscoper’s face when multiple comments come in at the same time! I like being able to see people’s faces when they are talking to me or show- ing me something. When you hold your phone in a portrait view it allows more room for the comments. Although I prefer to use my keyboard in a landscape view typically, I pretty much always type my comments in a portrait view on Periscope. When you type your comment or question while in a landscape view your keyboard pretty much takes over the whole screen. You end up not being able to see the other comments coming in while you type. It’s really your decision! Try it out in both formats and see what works best for you!

Watching Replays

If you missed it before, I’ll say it again: You only have 24 hours to watch the replay of any scope you may have missed. You can still give hearts and share the broadcast during the replay, you just can’t join in on the conversation.

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Watching From Different Devices

You can watch live and replay broadcasts from your phone, computer, or iPad. It’s great! However, you cannot participate in a live broadcast using your computer at this time. So, there will be no “heart”-ing or commenting from you if you are watching on your computer. Honestly, like I’ve already mentioned, many of you reading this will never record a periscope. That’s okay! I just don’t want anyone to chose not to broadcast out of fear — that’s why I wrote this. I want to encourage you to boldly GO FOR IT! However, if you have zero interest in recording yourself and are really just on to enjoy all that Periscope has to offer for its viewers, then look no further! I’m going to share some tips on how to be a great participant.

“PARTICIPATING” ON PERISCOPE!

Remember, social media is “social!” Periscope is no exception. In fact, it is probably the most “social” social media we have! It’s fun to just sit back and listen to someone give you great advice — but if you can get onto a live broadcast, then participating in the conversation makes it so much more meaningful.

How Do You Participate?

1. Give Hearts I love hearts! Everybody loves hearts! Why give hearts? The best way to explain it is that it is like visual applause. It gives the broadcaster “love.” It’s encouraging to see that people like and are connecting with what is being said. Plus, there is a heart count under everyone’s profile picture.

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So, it’s always a blessing to get lots of hearts during a live or replayed “scope” video. Did you catch that? I said you can give hearts during a replay video! Be sure to “heart it up” next time you are watching a replay video.

How to Give Hearts? All you have to do to give hearts is to tap the screen on the right hand side.

One interesting tidbit for Periscope right now is that you can only give 500 hearts per scope that will be added to the heart count. This means you may give and see that you gave 1K hearts, but only 500 of those hearts were added to the person’s heart count. Strange. I’m sure they will eventually change this. Many people give a bunch of hearts, then exit out and come back in to refresh their heart count. So, if you want to help someone get their heart count up, you can try that. 2. Share The Broadcast It blesses the broadcaster when you invite others to join the “scope.” As of the time of this book, there are three ways to “share” a periscope:

• Twitter – When you click to “Share on Twitter,” a tweet will be automatically sent out to your Twitter account that you watched this periscope — with a link to the scope. • Periscope – Your Periscope followers will receive a notification that you are suggesting that they watch the scope, when you click the “Share with All Followers” icon. This share feature is only available during live scopes. If the person clicks on the notification, they are automatically taken to the live broadcast. You can also share with specific followers if you want. I usually just share with all my Scope followers when share this way. • Facebook – A box pops up that allows you to send a message to your Facebook page — with a link to the scope. This is actually a new feature right now! You can select the audience you’d like

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to have it shared with: “Public” (which is your personal page), “Your Friends,” “Only Me,” and “Close Friends.”

It is really easy to get to the share screen. Here’s how:

• Person Icon – During a live broadcast there is a little “person” icon in the lower right hand corner of your screen. By clicking on this “peri-person” you are taken to a screen that gives you the options listed above. • Swiping the screen – If you have an iPhone you swipe your screen to the right (left to right swipe) to get the options to share. If you are an Android user, swipe up (bottom to top). • Just tap on the screen to get back to the normal feed to see the comments. If you accidentally exit the scope, it’s easy to just jump back in. It’s important to know that the broadcaster can see that you “shared with your followers.” So, don’t be surprised if they see it and thank you. 3. Make Comments This is what Periscope is all about! It is fun for everyone on the broadcast when people are engaged in the conversation. So, the best way to participate is to make comments and ask questions. If your handle does not contain your name, it’s a good idea to add your name in your comment or question. A few big name scopers ask people to add “?? NAME” before their question so that the question stands out. Another tip for you here is to make sure to copy your questions before you post them. Many scopers don’t read every comment being thrown at them while they are in the middle of making a point. So, when the broadcaster has a moment to take more questions, just paste your question again. Also, know that typos are common. I once had autocorrect turn “eBook” into “ebola.” That definitely changes the conversation! 4. Reply To Other People’s Comments Your comments don’t just have to be for the scoper! You can interact with the other viewers as well. If someone on the periscope you are watching says something that you want to respond to, you can just tap on their comment and their “handle” will appear in your comment tab. You can add your comment before or after their handle and it will help catch their eye so they see you talking to them.

How To Add Value To Someone Else’s Scope

Now, in the last chapter I mentioned that one way to get more followers is to watch and participate in other people’s periscopes. Well, it’s true. I get more new followers by being on other people's scopes than when I'm scoping myself. When you are making great comments that bring value to the scoper and his or her audience, people are likely to follow you — as will the broadcaster. You will

34 The Scoop on Scope notice that you have things in common with other viewers when you read their comments and vice versa. Before I give you my tips on how to be an awesome participant, let me tell you the one big “no- no” of Periscope: * Don’t pitch yourself on someone else's scope unless they give their audience permission! Instead, ADD VALUE! The best way to add value to someone else’s scope is to make comments that support them and what they are talking about. Truly, it is a blessing to the scoper just to have people on their scopes giving hearts, sharing their broadcast, making comments, and asking questions. However, if you RE- ALLY want to add value and bless the broadcaster, then let me share a few tips with you.

1. Comment When There Is A Lull No one likes to scope with no comments on the screen when a point is coming to an end — or during a Q & A scope. It feels awkward. If there is a lull, make a comment. 2. Put Their Website Or Social Media URL In The Comments I love it when someone on my scope puts my website in the comments. It really helps me out! Scopers notice when other people are putting their information up on the screen for them. This is a great way to stand out. 3. Recap Their Points When you are on a scope that has a set number of tips, it’s always great to write a little recap in the comments. It’s also great to recap good points, too. There doesn’t have to be a #1 and #2 point. If the speaker said something that stood out to you let them know by recapping it. 4. Answer A Question That The Scoper Has Already Answered It’s helpful when people reply to basic questions being asked in the comments while I’m finishing a point. Often times people are asking other viewers a question like, “What was the first tip again?” or “What was that website she just mentioned?” 5. Remind Other Viewers To Give Hearts, Follow, And Share It’s awkward to ask people to give hearts when the hearts slow down. Sometimes I forget to tell people to follow me or share the broadcast. So, I always appreciate it when someone likes what I’m saying enough to give a little shout out for people to follow me, give me hearts, or to share the broadcasts. Don’t forget to share the broadcast yourself and give lots of hearts! Remember the broadcaster can see when you share. It’s a great way for a broadcaster to start to get to know you better.

What If The Broadcast Is Too Full?

Sometimes there are so many people on one periscope at one time that the broadcast will become “full.” In the bar where you can usually leave a comment you will see a little note that says

35 The Scoop on Scope the broadcast is too full. Basically, Periscope automatically limits the number of people who can comment. There is no magic number for cutting off comments, not that anyone seems to know. It’s a mystery. However, if you do run across this problem, don’t worry. You can usually join the conversation after a few minutes. People are always coming and going off of scopes. So if someone drops off the scope who had the ability to comment, then you will have the opportunity to take their spot. You really just have to jump on and off a few times to see if you can get on. Otherwise, just enjoy the conversation.

Why Am I A Different Color On Different Scopes?

As soon as you jump onto a scope, you are automatically assigned a color. Your bio picture and the hearts you give will match. There is no rhyme or reason. Trust me, I wish I could be assigned green permanently! I also wish I could give little clovers or have clovers be given on my scopes. How fun would that be!

You Are Welcome To Watch My Old Scopes

Do you want to see my scopes? Well, I’ve recorded a few of my scopes to my YouTube channel - Raising Clovers. You can also watch my old scopes on my Katch account. Some are good, some are bad. I’ve had one REALLY bad one that I deleted — and look, I’m still scoping. It’s okay to have bad scopes. Not every scope is perfect. I forget my own tips while I’m scoping at times. It’s LIVE!! There is definitely an element of nerves that kick in. Really you just have to jump on and try it for yourself. You can see my past scopes at: www.youtube.com/raisingclovers or www.katch.me/raisingclovers.

So, are you ready to start prepping for your first scope — or see some great tips about how to best prep for your scopes? Well, wait no longer here come my awesome “Periscope Pointers!” {I think I heard a drumroll there!}

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6: HOW TO PREP FOR A GREAT SCOPE

veryone gets nervous before their first Periscope! Okay, nervous is probably aHUGE under- statement. It’s a bit terrifying. I’m a speaker and have over 100 Periscopes under my belt at the time of this book, and I still get butterflies before I hit the “broadcast” button. So many fears surround recording your first scope: What if I say the wrong thing? EWhat if it’s horrible? What if no one shows up? The best quote I heard about facing your fears of doing your first periscope was,“Don’t worry, be crappy.” Ha! I laughed so hard. In all seriousness, you kinda just have to jump on and do it. Some people try to “practice scoping” by doing a private scope with people they know, but it really can’t prepare you for being truly “live” with total strangers coming on. So, it’s important to have a plan. The more you’ve done to prepare and have your key points ready to go, the more comfortable you will feel — well, more comfortable compared to not being prepared at all. There are a few things I wanted to discuss in this section before we move onto my great “Peri- scope Pointers for Prepping!”

LANDSCAPE OR PORTRAIT

Periscope was originally a portrait only format. However, Periscope has recently rolled out landscape mode recording capability. So, now you can record in landscape, portrait or both. You have to love choices. There are pros and cons to both ways, which I’ll get into in a bit. Right now, I am broadcasting mainly in portrait mode. My reason is funny. Are you ready for it? Landscape shows more of my house and more of my kids. Ha! That’s really my reason. Sometimes I don’t want all of my house to show. I hold the camera in tight on my face while I walk around so I’m not giving a lot of detail on parts of my house that I don’t want broadcasted. Plus, I have little kids. I never know what they may be — or not be — wearing. So, for safety and privacy, I typically

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record in portrait mode as I walk around inside my house. More on that in the safety tips bonus chapter — a must read for everyone on social media! Landscape format does make uploading a “video friendly” format SO much easier. I did make special templates for my portrait periscopes for my YouTube channel. I like the idea of having all my blog information on the side of the template. The link below shows you how I created the template and how I upload my videos with hearts and comments.

Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmc84Ds88f8 One thing to note is that you can go back and forth during your broadcast from portrait to landscape if you want. You can film yourself in portrait and then switch to landscape when you flip your camera around. However, I must warn you that this really messes up the recording on Katch and on your phone. Your phone’s recording doesn’t really know how to go back and forth. So, if you plan to use the broadcast to embed it onto your blog with Katch or upload it to YouTube, then it’s best to chose a format and stick with it. I do think that the best way to record and view scopes is to record in landscape mode and advise people to watch it in portrait view. I already mentioned this in the last chapter, but it’s worth repeating. It’s best to watch a periscope in portrait view so the comments don’t cover the broadcaster’s face. Tip for recording in landscape: Turn your phone so that your camera is on the left hand side. This helps you can look into the lens and read comments more easily. When the camera is on the right side, it’s hard to pay attention to the comments and make “eye contact” with your audience.

Pros for Portrait

Periscope is used primarily by people with cell phones. It is a bit more natural to hold your phone and watch in a portrait view.

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It’s easier to see comments as you type your comment in portrait view. When the keyboard pops up in landscape mode it covers almost all the screen so you can’t see other comments coming up as you are typing. Normally I prefer to type in landscape, but on Periscope it really is better to comment in portrait mode regardless of how the broadcast is being recorded. There is more privacy in portrait view. Typically, you fill most the screen so there is not a lot of what’s behind you being filmed.

Pros for Landscape

It is so simple to record and upload to YouTube or other monetized platforms. If I plan to upload my video to YouTube, then I record in landscape. Recordings done in landscape and viewed in portrait allow more space for comments below the broadcast and fewer comments covering your face. Your viewers can see so much more when you record in landscape view. I guess this can be a pro or a con depending on whether your house is a mess. I had a good laugh the first time I tried out landscape mode during a scope. I started in portrait and flipped the screen — suddenly, all toys left out were seen by all. I guess that means I’ll have more accountability to keep my house tidy if I’m scoping at home. I will say that a horizontal recording is how most videos are recorded on TV and movies making Periscope feel like “reality TV unedited.” There are several reasons for filming in either format. It’s really up to you and what you plan to do with your video when you are done. Like I said, you can record in both formats in a single scope if you don’t plan on doing anything with your Periscope after you are done recording. Play around with it and see what you like best.

TOOLS FOR PERISCOPING

Really the only tool you need for Periscope is a smart phone or an iPad and a window to sit by. You don’t “need” anything else. However, there are a few tools that do make for a more professional look and sound.

Audio

There are times when a microphone is necessary when scoping. If you are going to be flipping the phone back and forth, it can change the volume on your phone. Also, when you are outside, you may be competing with other sounds. Wind can affect your audio. Here are a few suggestions: Headset mic! You really can just use your headset that came with your phone. As long as it has a microphone to record your voice, it will work. Lavaliere mic! Most professionals use lavaliere microphones during their periscopes to capture the best audio.

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Stands

Shakiness can be a real problem for periscopes. I find that unless I need to walk my viewers around or flip my camera to show them something, I just have my phone in a tripod with a camera holder. I’ll give a few pointers in a bit about how to have a less shaky scope if you are not using a tripod.

Lighting

Having proper lighting for any video recording is very important. Periscope connection isn’t always the greatest. So, having good lighting really helps your viewers to hang in there when connection is a problem. Plus, it’s just easier to watch when there is good lighting. I will eventually get a diva ring light for times when natural lighting is not good, — but natural light is really the best. When recording for your business, I recommend looking into getting a diva ring light. *For a full list and links to the products I recommend for good, quality periscopes, check out my site: www.raisingclovers.com/techtools.

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Periscope Pointers For Prepping

Okay, with all that out of the way, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty of how to prep for a great scope. Truly, these tips can be used for all of your periscope prepping — your 1st scope or your 100th!

1. Avoid Technical Difficulty Check your WiFi connection & camera battery! These “scope killers” can be avoided before you scope. Periscope often has its own technical difficulties. Those just happen and are out of your control. So, save yourself the stress of having your phone die in the middle of your scope — or getting low battery notifications during your scope. 2. Turn Off Your Notifications Before You Start Yet another avoidable “scope killer.” It’s really distracting when your get a text message while you are Periscoping. I have gotten calls on my cell during scopes, too. I have had a phone call freeze my scope and drop the sound. I had to start over — of course, it was the one time I didn’t copy my title. 3. Plan On A Short First Scope (Or Two) Unless you are a big name and have a huge following, it’s best to plan on having your first several scopes be fairly quick and to the point. You need to earn your audiences’ trust to keep listening to your points. As you’ll see in my next set of tips for broadcasting, you need to have a point and get to it. You may not get as many long term followers if they feel like they have to invest 20 minutes to get your tips. 4. Be Prepared It’s really important to have a general idea of what you are going to talk about. This is “live” broadcasting, so you want to give yourself a little less stress by having a game plan. I like to make a list of my 5 tips, 3 things, 10 ways, etc. — BEFORE I jump on. I don't wing it when my title has a number on it — even though I should admit that I sometimes think of extra tips as I’m recording. So, my 5 tips may end up being 7. No one seems to mind. 5. Lighting & Background: Look Behind You Check your lighting & look behind you! Reverse the camera on your phone and see what your viewers will see! I always get a BIG laugh when I haven’t checked a mirror or flipped my camera to see what I look like or what people might be seeing behind me…like a plant or light appearing to come out of my head. Many scopers use diva ring lighting, but honestly the best lighting there is is natural lighting! I face a window when I’m periscoping or recording my YouTube videos.

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6. Check Your Mirror Look in the mirror before you start scoping. This may sound vain, but hear me out. Even on days when I don’t care what I look like, I find that I actually react on camera to overly crazy hair, food in my teeth (really, I had a green thing in my tooth — didn’t notice it until I watched the replay), etc. That can add some humor to your scope. However, I find it’s a bit distracting. I’ve found myself fix- ing my hair or wiping my mascara out from under my eyes during scopes. I could have saved myself the distraction and just given the mirror a quick look. 7. Consider A Tripod For Recording Your Scopes When I’m talking to my Periscope friends from my school room, I almost never have my phone in a stand since I’ll be flipping the phone around to show viewers things. However, it is really helpful to have a stand when you will be sitting and chatting. There is less shakiness — unless you have a habit of hitting or kicking the tripod during live recording (like I often do). That’s what I get for talking with my hands. If you aren’t using a tripod, I suggest keeping your upper arms anchored to your body so there is less movement in your arms. When I’m sitting down, I often put my elbow on my knee to stabilize my arm for a high angled shot. 8. Have A Good Camera Angle If you miss some of my other tips, please hear this one. Don’t scope with your phone low. It’s a horribly unflattering angle and you’re filming up your nose. Gross! So many scopers do this!! Don’t be one of them! This is why having a tripod and stand is so handy. Your goal should be to shoot your scope straight on or slightly above your face looking down a bit. I do understand that your arm can get tired if you are holding the phone up high or straight on. Just know that it adds to the quality of your filming if you have a good camera angle. You can thank me later! But, now you will be aware every time you see a camera held low. 9. Invite People To Join You On Periscope Publicize a bit before you scope! It’s always a great idea to tell people that you are going to be on Periscope — and when! Personally, I have a schedule (see next point) and a Periscope landing page on my blog (more on this in the blogging section). When I first started on Periscope I would put a post on my Facebook page saying that I’d be going live in “5-10 minutes” and let them know the topic. Then I’d take a screen shot of the post and share it to Instagram and Twitter. I still do this when I’m going to be late or something in my schedule changes. 10. Consider Having A Schedule For Your Periscopes This is NOT for everyone! Many people just get on Periscope when it fits into their day or week. I find that I have a more consistent audience when they know when to expect me. I’ve kind of become known as the homeschool scoper who broadcasts at 10am & 2pm PDT. I’ve even had other scopers mention it on their broadcasts. I’m not always on the dot, but I try to be in that ballpark.

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11. Have A Catchy Title This may be listed as #11, but it may very well be the #1 tip for you to do to prep for your scopes. Think sales pitch! Creating a catchy title is one of the best ways to get people on your periscope! When your Periscope goes live and people have the option to watch your scope or skip it — what is going to make them stop what they are doing or watching and jump onto your periscope? This is the question you need to ask yourself every time you type in your title. Think about what would make you click to watch.

How to Create a Great Title:

• Have a specific title. Tell them exactly what you are going to talk about. • Draw them in. People love titles with numbers - Top 5 Tips!, 7 Habits to Increase…, 10 Things…, and more. You need to think about what your audience wants to hear and draw them in with your title. • Add Emojis, Adding emojis helps make your scope title stand out. However, don’t go too crazy! It can be a bit overwhelming to see 10+ emojis in a title. • Add Hashtags. There are so many reasons to add hashtags to your title. Remember this is Twitter! Your title will be searchable on Twitter once it is tweeted. Add hashtags for your Face- book Periscope groups or personalized or trademarked hashtags. I belong to a RoundTeam group on Twitter that auto-tweets my tweets with a certain hashtag, so I sometimes include that in my Periscope title. • Think SEO & Twitter. Target your audience with your title! What are the key words your audience searches the most? Make sure you have that in your title and hashtag it. For me that would be something like #HomeschoolCurriculum or #MealPlanning. (SEO = search engine optimization) • Think about your replay audience. What will make someone want to replay your scope? This is a great way to gain followers. Someone may have missed you live, and your great title will make them want to watch your replay. 12. Save Your Title *After you type in your title on your Periscope screen, “copy” it. Tap on your title - “Select All” and “Copy” it! Sometimes Periscope is finicky and the connection is bad. You may need to jump off and do a “Part 2.” It’s faster & easier to just paste the title onto the new scope. 13. Check The Location Settings Before you hit “broadcast” you need to make sure all the settings on the bottom are set the way you want them. The most important one for me to check is that my location is turned off. This is my per-

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sonal preference. I’m a mom and I don’t really want people to see where my kids and I are. Again, you need to read my safety chapter at the end of this book. You won’t want to miss it! 14. Check That The Twitter Bird Is “On" This is really important! You need to have your Periscope account linked to your Twitter account as I already mentioned several times. This allows Twitter to send a tweet when you go live, therefore making your Periscope searchable — and you get a little free press. 15. Take A Great Thumbnail Prepare to take a good thumbnail! Remember your thumbnail is the first frame of your periscope. Now one thing to note is that if you are using Katch, they use a screen shot from about 10 seconds into your scope. So, I hold my phone on my thumbnail for about 10 seconds. I’m talking as I hold the screen shot though! You have to start talking immediately — more on this next.

How to Create a Great Thumbnail:

• Make it interesting. Try to find an image that has to do with what you are talking about. If you are talking about money saving tips, then a shot of you holding money in your hand might be great. • Use an object or product. This is probably redundant, but if you are talking about a product or a book, then point your camera at that when you hit broadcast. • Use your website. If you are discussing a product or a blog post, then by all means have the camera pointing at your site. • Create a graphic. Lots of people create a quick little graphic on their computer with their title on it for their screen shot. • Write your title out! You can simply write your title on a white board, chalkboard, or piece of paper. • Use your face. If you want your thumbnail to be an expression on your face, then go for it! Just know that Katch will get a strange thumbnail. 16. Do A Private Scope First Are you still a bit nervous about jumping on and doing your first scope? Then you can always do a private scope. All you have to do is ask a few friends to join you on Periscope for a private scope. You just click on that “lock” icon on the broadcast screen and enter in the names of those who you want to join. It’s a great way to play around on Periscope and see how the whole “live” thing works. Honestly, I still suggest getting on live and just making sure your title says it’s your first scope. People will have a lot of grace for you.

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7: READY! SET! — SCOPE!

ow that you are all prepped and ready to go, it’s time to hit “Broadcast!” Before you do though, read through these “Periscope Pointers” on how to have a great “live” broadcast. Remember, you can delete it as soon as you are done if it is really horrible. Also, know that it really does take time to get used to scoping. Roll with it! No one is perfect! I forget to incorporate these tips into my scopes all the time. I’ve finished a scope and realized that I forgot to introduce myself. Ha! That is the power of “live” broadcasting. Nerves take over. NI still get nervous and second guess myself every time I get ready to click that little red button to broadcast. That’s very normal. Personally, I just say a little prayer that I will bless the people coming on to my periscope — then just start. Before we get to the “Periscope Pointers for Broadcasting,” there are a few things that would be handy for you to understand.

HOW TO END THE BROADCAST

Would you like to know how to end your scope? Ha! That would be handy information to know or you’ll be talking forever! To end your scope, swipe down on the upper part of your screen. It’s best to not swipe from the middle since this will pull down your phone’s notifications. Once you swipe down, the “stop broadcast” button should be there. Just say good-bye, hold your smile, & click the button to finish!

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HOW TO FLIP YOUR SCREEN

This is a pretty important detail to know since the camera starts recording away from the screen. There are two ways to flip the screen once you are recording: • Double tap on the screen: Sometimes you’ll have to double tap more than once to get it to work. • Pull down the stop broadcast button: There is a button to flip the screen next to the stop broadcast button that can be used to flip the screen. You will want to tap on the screen below the button to make the button go away. It’s hard to see comments with this tab pulled down.

HOW TO BLOCK TROLLS

Trolls are unfortunately part of Periscope. I’ve had all kinds of trolls on my scopes. Some were simply commenting with bad language, others saying horrible things. Honestly, I do try to block them immediately if they are blatantly trolls. Other times it’s hard to tell.

Blocking is simple. Simply touch the comment that was rude and an option to “block” pops up. I do try to quickly double check the faint comment that I touched before I hit block. It’s pretty easy to click on the wrong comment and accidentally block the wrong person. My best advice is to kill them with kindness. I’ve shown grace to some of the trolls on my scopes. They usually say sorry and jump off. You need to remember that: Hurting people, hurt people! These trolls are trying to find joy in life by hurting others or getting a rise out of people. So, just keep going and block them if you get a chance to do so. The funniest thing I’ve had happen with a troll was on one of my scopes when I was talking about my favorite Bible verses for working out. When I saw his comments, I kept thinking, “Who comes

46 The Scoop on Scope onto a periscope where the title says ‘Bible’ and says things like that?” So, I decided to tell him that we were all going to start praying for him. He jumped off. It made me and my audience laugh. Basically, block someone if you want to. Just don't get too worked up about it.

What If You Miss The Troll’s Comment And Can’t Block?

Most of the time trolls don’t stick around. However, I don’t want that person coming back to my scopes. I simply go to my Katch account and find the person’s handle. Then I go back into Periscope and find them in the search menu. They usually don’t have any profile set up or have a rude profile bio. Once you find them, just block them.

Viewers Can Block Trolls As Well

A viewer can just tap on the comment and block the troll. However, it only blocks the troll on the viewer’s screen, NOT from the broadcast. The comments will continue to appear on everyone else’s screens until you (the broadcaster) block them. I try to block trolls as a viewer on other people’s scopes just so those same people will be blocked from my scopes.

WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOUR SCOPE FREEZES OR DROPS?

Just jump right back on! This is why I mentioned copying your title in the last chapter. If you have your title copied, you just paste it, add a “Take 2” and pick up where you left off. The one time I didn't save my title, my scope froze (when a call came in).

TO ASK FOR HEARTS & SHARES OR NOT?

Huge scopers often ask their viewers for hearts and shares as a means to get them to reveal their information. “I’ll give you my 5 Awesome, Amazing Tips once we hit 5K hearts!” or “Share this if you want me to tell you my life changing secrets to a brand new you.” Luckily, Periscope just made some changes so that your total number of hearts is not viewable until after your scope. So, people can’t withhold information for a specific number of hearts to be given. Still many large scopers ask for hearts, follows, and shares in a way that I’d never be able to get away with. This technique doesn’t work for most of us commoners. I find being straight forward is the best approach. You’ll see in my tips that simply giving your audience a little Periscope 101 is an easy way to “ask” for hearts, follows, and shares. Just tell people how to give hearts, then thank them for them. Honestly, half the time I forget to mention hearts. I really love connecting on Periscope with people, so I do feel comfortable asking people to follow me so we can connect more. As you watch other people’s scopes, take note of how they do it during their broadcasts and try it on your own.

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Periscope Pointers For Broadcasting 1. Always Think About Your Replay Audience This is probably one of the #1 tips I can give you as you begin your broadcasts! You always need to be aware that you have two audiences: your “live” audience & your “replay” audience. So, even if you know every name coming into your scope, remember you could have someone new watch your scope later. I like to say “Hello!” to my replay viewers at some point in my broadcast and thank them for watching. Remember, people can watch the replay of your scope for up to 24 hours. This is why the next few tips are so important! 2. Don’t Stare At Your Screen One of the worst Periscope killers — especially for your replay audience is to come onto a scope where the person is just starting at the bottom of the screen blankly waiting for someone to come on. Think replay! Don’t wait to start talking until someone joins your scope. You almost have to ignore the number in the corner. Just talk and look at the camera! 3. Start Talking Immediately I cannot stress enough how important it is to always have your replay audience in mind when you are Periscoping. The very beginning of your scope is probably the most crucial moment for your replay audience. If you don’t start talking right away, people may click off and watch something else. It doesn’t matter if there is no one joining your Periscope yet, talk to your replay viewers. Say, “Hello!” and begin to engage your audience. As you wait for people to come on, it’s great to introduce yourself and what you are going to be talking about. You can also go over basics of scoping, like telling your replay audience that they may not be able to ask questions, but they can still give hearts and share your scope. Don’t jump right into your material at the beginning. Give an introduction (see below) and give people a bit of time to come in — but not too long! 4. Introduce Yourself Be sure you always introduce yourself at the start of your scopes. This is a fun time to ask icebreaker questions, too. You can ask people if this is their first time on one of your scopes — well, maybe not if this is your first scope, though that would be funny! You can have people give you their name and where they are from. You can ask them what the best part of their day has been. You can get as creative as you want — or skip the questions all together. Basically, you want to engage your audience. Information to be sure to include at the beginning, middle, and end of your Peri- scopes: • Your name • Basic introduction of yourself

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• Your website or business • Where else to find you • When to find you on Periscope • Where to find whatever you are talking about (Remember, some people come onto your Periscope in the middle, so it never hurts to reintroduce yourself if you see more people coming on) 5. Give A Little Periscope 101 I usually assume that I could have someone very new to Periscope on my broadcast. I like to start my scopes by giving a few highlights of how to participate. Think of it as a little “call to action.” You can explain HOW to “follow,”“share,” and give “hearts.” Any time I mention sharing or hearts, I always explain how to do it. “Simply tap on the screen to give hearts. You can share this broadcast with your followers on Twitter, Facebook, or here on Periscope by either clicking on the little person icon with the numbers at the bottom right of your screen. If you have an Android, swipe up or swipe right if you have an iPhone. And remember if you are watching this on replay you may not be able to join in on the conversation, but you can still give hearts and share this! Thanks so much!” Then tell them to click “share” and to follow you. Don’t be too overbearing! I truly just want to be able to connect with people more, so I try to remember to tell them how to follow me. I explain that following me is the best way to be notified when I will be on live. 6. Bring Value Don’t just jump on and try to sell something or ask for business. You need to have value for your viewers. Share things that you know they would like or need to know. Be a blessing! Again, this is where planning is important. I talk more about adding value in chapter 11. 7. Have A Point & Get To It Too often scopers take too long to get to their points. You can, and should, chat with your live audience at the start of your scope, but don’t let the side conversation go on for too long. I do find that at times my audience is really talkative and start asking me questions and getting me talking. I have to really focus on getting to the information that I promised in my title. If I’m just doing a “hang out” or DITL scope (that’s “day in the life” for those like me who aren’t “hip” on the new lingo of acronyms), then I know I can just chat with people. However, if I’ve said I’m going to give 5 tips, then I give my 5 tips! If people are still coming to the broadcast when you start giving your tips, know you can always give a little recap or they can watch the replay. 8. Know There Is A One Second Delay When Flipping The Screen This is important to know. When you double tap your screen to flip the camera around to either yourself or to something you are looking at, you need to pause for a moment. Your audio will cut out for a second.

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9. Look At The Camera Lens It’s hard to get used to looking into the camera lens when you are staring at yourself talking. Your natural instinct is to look at what you look like. Don’t do this! Look into the camera lens so you are “making eye contact” with your audience! 10. Cross Pollinate As you are scoping, be sure you tell them where else to find you. My followers know that my Facebook Page is the best way to find any schedule changes. I also talk about my Pinterest account if I have more resources for them there. I always talk about my blog and posts that I’ve created that will help them with whatever we are talking about. If I’ve recently taken some fun pictures of something I’ve done, of my day, or of my kids, then I might talk about my Instagram account. This tends to happen very naturally if you are keeping your Periscope topics in your wheelhouse. If I’m doing a Homeschool Q & A session, then my homeschool blog posts and YouTube videos come up naturally. I really think my “magic sauce” has been the cross pollination I was doing between my blog, my YouTube channel, and my scoping. I created almost a little spider web. I’d write a post, make a video that went along with it, and then talk about it on Periscope. 11. Don’t Forget This Is “Social” Media Be social. Interact. Don’t ignore your viewers. Don’t just talk at the screen and ignore all comments. First, you do have to consider “trolls.” I’ve seen scopes where the viewers are completely distracted by vulgar comments. Often viewers start trying to get the scopers attention to block the lame-o. So, keep an eye on the comments. However, don’t just read every single comment! It takes practice to finish what you are saying before reading the next set of comments. Basically, you just have to be sure you are being “social.” Follow up with people. I love doing this through my Katch & Twitter accounts. More on this in chapter 9. 12. Tell Your Audience How To Ask Questions This is so important to do! I tend to be a little A.D.D. when it comes to Periscope. Too many “shiny objects” (comments) distracting me from making the point I’m trying to make. It’s important to interact, but it’s also important to finish your thought. I like to tell my viewers to copy their questions so if I miss it as I’m answering another question or making a point, they can just copy them again. It’s also a good idea to tell them to put their name on the comments. This way you can address them by name. If their name is not in their handle, it’s hard to know who you are talking to. Plus it makes things more personal to use their name. 13. Recap If you are giving tips or advice, it’s a great idea to recap. You can do this throughout the scope. Sometimes I repeat the already mentioned tips just before I move on to the next tip. This helps people who just jumped on know what they missed. Of course, they can always go and watch it on the replay.

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I highly recommend recapping your points at the end of your broadcast. This blesses those who have watched all the way to the end to fill in any gaps they may have missed. 14. End Well Be sure to end your Periscope well. Remind people who you are, where else to find you, and when you’ll be on Periscope again. This is that wonderful “cross pollination” I was talking about. I always tell my viewers my blog name again, as well as other social media I can be found on. I also remind them what my Periscope schedule is. If you don’t have a Periscope schedule, that’s okay! This is a great time in the scope to tell them when to be on the look out for you. BE SURE REMEMBER TO ASK THEM TO FOLLOW YOU! This is the most important “call to action” step at the end of your Periscope. 15. Hold That Smile As you are getting ready to hit the “end broadcast button,” you want to hold your smile for a few seconds. Periscope will cut off a few seconds at the end of your scope. So, it’s a good idea to hold your smile and wait a moment or two. Basically, don’t talk while you are swiping. You will be cut off for your replay viewers. 16. Have Fun & Be Yourself This is the best bit of advice I can give you! Just have fun with it and be yourself! If it turns out horrible, just delete it by going into your profile. So, take deep breath and be yourself. You will not come across well if you are trying to scope like someone else. Be the best you you can be! Then relax and have fun!

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8: WHAT TO TALK ABOUT ON YOUR SCOPES

ow do I know what to talk about on my scopes?” This is a very common question. The easy answer is that you need to know your goals and niche. What’s in your wheelhouse? For me, I’m a Christian, homeschooling mom. I speak, write, and blog about homeschooling and all things relating to life as a mom of five. So, motherhood, homemaking, homeschooling, and Bible studies are all in my niche. It’s important to know who your “customer” is and what solution you have for them. HWhat I think about before each of my scopes is, “What value will I be giving to my viewers?” I personally add a little extra question for myself in asking, “How can I bless my viewers today?” I don’t care what your business, blog, or niche is, if you are not imparting value, then your Periscope days will not be very fun. Not that everyone coming onto Periscope is thinking, “What’s in it for me?” But they kind of are to some degree. There are certain Periscopers I get really excited to see because I know they are going to offer me encouragement, education, tips, resources, and more when I am on their scopes. Think about what you know that others might want to know about. What is your gifting or tal- ent? What is happening in your life right now that someone else might relate to? What blog posts are you writing? What products do you want to give an extra push on social media? What affiliate links can you market?

HELPFUL TIPS FOR FINDING THINGS TO TALK ABOUT ON PERISCOPE

1. Make A List I’m a list girl. I will make a list at the end of the day of all I’ve done just so I can check things off. Lists are awesome for keeping you organized. The same rings true for Periscope. I always have ideas rolling around in my brain. If I don’t write them down, then they disappear forever. Okay, sometimes I do actually remember bits and pieces. My memory is not the same post-kids. I have two lists: one on my “everything” notebook and one on my phone. Anytime I have an idea for a blog post, video, or scope, I jot it down. In my “everything” notebook, I have colored

52 The Scoop on Scope tabs that I use to highlight the topics of the pages. I have one color for my periscope ideas and a separate color for things I learn on Periscopes. 2. Use Google Once you know your niche, you can Google topics in your niche most searched. This helps me to not only get blog post ideas, but Periscope ideas. I’ve been blown away with how my traffic increased once I understood what people were asking about within my niche. 3. Make a Schedule with Set Topics Several of my scoping friends have set topics for specific days like my friend Melanie Wilson (@ pyschowith6) who does Motivation Mondays. If you scope more than once a day, then you can have a set theme for each time of day. MacKenzie Monroe (@BoldTurquiose) is a friend who has her Cultivating the Lovely Show as her morning scope and a different theme for her later scope. You can also have just one show that has one theme like Crystal Paine (@moneysavingmom) who does “Your Morning Motivator” and incorporates lots of different messages that all fall under the umbrella of her theme. 4. Topics Or Themes To Consider: • Numbered Lists – People love numbered lists! “Top 5 Tips to …,” “10 Reasons to…,” “6 Fun Facts about…” I’m sure you get the picture. Lists are actually a really effective way to give information on Periscope. They help you stay focused on your topic and give your audience a way to follow along. • Tips – Everyone loves tips! Periscope is an amazing format to give and receive great tips! Plus, tips add value! I’ve already explained why that is so important. I’m sure you guessed that you should number your tips. • How To’s – Tell people how to do anything you know how to do! You can even have just learned it and feel the information is important to share! You’d be amazed at how something that seems very basic to you can actually be really helpful to others. Hey, if you’ve done one scope, then you can scope about what you learned from that experience. • Q & A – These are fun scopes to do. They can be scary to start since they require people to jump on and ask questions. However, if you have a Q & A session about something that you know people want to know, then I guarantee you people will eventually come in. I love doing Homeschool Q & A! It’s probably one of my most popular scopes. I do them once or twice a week. One tip when you are just starting out and do a Q & A scope, have pre-determined “most commonly asked” questions that you can talk through in case you have a small audience. • Ask Questions – I’ve been amazed at how people love coming onto Periscope to help me out. “We are talking about ‘x,y,z!’ Come & help me …” You can fill in the blanks. See my fashion show example below.

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More Ideas

These tips are from a scope I watched a while back. They’re originally from Mark Shaw (@Mark- Shaw). I left off a few of the things that he suggested that I’ve already discussed.

1. Fashion Shows Now this is actually a fun thing to do! I did a few “fashion shows” before a speaking engagement. I picked out several outfits and asked for tips. Then the next day my friend came over and we did a little collaborative scope and I showed everyone what the outfits looked like on — my mini fashion show. Now, in case you aren’t familiar with a collaborative scope, or it’s sometimes called a “scope hop,” let me explain. In this case, we started on Heidi’s periscope (@whiletheywerenap- ping) while I was in one outfit. We let everyone on that scope pick which outfit I should try on for them next, then we told them to come to my scope. We jumped onto my phone and finished the scope. It was so much fun! Everyone really seemed to enjoy it! 2. Competition I haven’t done this yet. You can give people a little competition to do while on your periscope. It’d be great to have a prize or a little freebie for those who win. 3. Lessons of the Day Share with your audience what you learned that day or what great “finds” you discovered. 4. Scope Yourself Doing Something Lots of people do this. It’s great! Chalene Johnson (@ChaleneJohnson) periscopes while she records her podcasts! Brilliant! This is multi-tasking at it’s best! Give your viewers a little behind the scenes view. They’ll love it! I do scopes from our homeschool room, because I remember being a new homeschool mom and just wishing someone would invite me to come watch how they do things. 5. Reviews This could keep you busy forever on Periscope. I love doing book reviews and curriculum reviews. You can review anything! Books, movies, restaurants, vacation spots, travel, and more! The list could go on and on! What’s great is that if you are reviewing a product, you can post the product on your site or Facebook page with an affiliate link. 6. Share New Things You’ve Discovered This kind of goes along with the “reviews” tips, but it can be something that is new to you. Is there a new blog you’ve stumbled upon? A new book that looks interesting and you’ve just started reading? Fun podcasts that you’ve been listening to? Great YouTube videos that had you laughing? Adventures you’ve been on? Anything! Be creative & share!

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7. Share Your Journey Why do you do what you do? How did you get started? What is your story? You can talk about what you’ve learned in your marriage or parenting. Any tips you’ve learned in your life are all worth sharing. 8. Market Brainstorming (Q & A) I’ve totally done this! Periscope is INCREDIBLE for doing market research. I often test blog post ideas on Periscope and see what the reaction is. One of my most successful posts came from a story I told on Periscope. I’ve actually written several posts that were inspired by Periscopes. I even embedded the Periscope onto the bottom of the post. I’ll tell you more about how I do this in the blogging section. (If you’d like to see the post, here it is: http://wp.me/p4hrab-EX) 9. Share Your Area Well, as you see in my safety tips, I do believe you need to be careful about what information you give out when it comes to your personal location. However, you can certainly share about things in your general area. I also like doing scopes when we are on vacation — as long as I have a house sitter! I don’t want people to know my house is unoccupied! 10. Interviews I love interview periscopes! I’ve been interviewed a few times by the “Periscope Expert” Kerry Shearer (@kerryshearer). I haven’t done an interview yet on my own scopes, but plan to do them in the near future. You can do interviews with the person “in person” (in the new landscape format) or using Google Chat, Skype, or FaceTime. 11. Give-Aways Everyone loves a good give-away! Why not do a give-away on Periscope? just be sure to allow the 24 hour period for your replay audience to join in! 12. Trivia I’ve been planning on doing a fun “How well do you know me?” scope for a while. I figure I’ve been sharing some fun facts about myself over time. It will be fun to see how many people have been paying attention as I share all my crazy stories.

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9: WHAT TO DO AFTER YOUR SCOPES

ust because your scope is over doesn’t mean that you can’t still do more to promote it! Here are a few tips on how to take the “social” aspect of Periscope to the next level! First I’d like to cover a few questions you may have now that your scope is finished.

TO DELETE A SCOPE OR NOT TO DELETE A SCOPE? THAT IS THE QUESTION.

JWhat to do with a #PeriscopeFail? Know you are not alone. Most scopers have at least one really bad scope that they consider whether or not to delete. I’ve had several. I had kids melting down in at least two. I had my location settings accidentally on in another. Sometimes the kids are just too goofy or loud. What’s helped me to decide was to have a friend go on, watch it, and give me their feedback. If you decide you don’t want to keep the scope, you can stop the replay at the bottom of the scope or delete the scope completely. Just be sure to delete it off of your Katch account as well. I also delete scopes from my Katch account that I’ve used in a YouTube video. I’d rather have people watch it on YouTube where it is monetized.

WHY ARE THE VIEWER NUMBERS SO DIFFERENT EVERYWHERE?

Have you noticed that the total viewers is sometimes different than the little peri-person in the corner of your scopes? Then you add in the replay viewers and it gets really confusing. Just know that viewer numbers are different. They really don’t count toward anything. They do help me know what may have been a better scope topic or better time of day. Just don’t stress about numbers. It is exciting to get large numbers on your scope, but it doesn’t really matter what your total number is when you are first starting out. Once you get established, it will be yet another way to demonstrate to potential sponsors and clients your ability to promote them and their products.

A Break Down Of Your Scope Numbers

Peri-person icon in the bottom corner during scope: This is the total number of viewers on at one particular time. This number rises and falls. When people start to share your scope, the number usually goes up. As you are coming to a close, the numbers go down.

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“Total Viewers” numbers after a scope: This number is located under your title after a scope. It usually only shows the total number of live viewers who are using their smart phones. You will notice that there is a list of names of viewers followed by “more viewers” & “web” viewers. Periscope keeps changing what they consider “total viewers” to be. In my opinion, the number should reflect your total viewers - live viewers, web viewers, and replay viewers. They haven’t called me for my opinion yet, so I’m not holding my breath. Replay numbers: At this point your replay numbers are not added to your total viewers. As I just mentioned, some day I hope they will. Numbers on Katch: Your Katch number of live viewers is usually only your live viewers, not your web viewers or your replay viewers. Honestly, this number never seems to match with anything on Periscope exactly. They may just capture a number at some point in the broadcast. Again, not a big deal — but it would be nice for others to be able to see a closer number to your actual total (including those replay viewers).

How Come I Can’t See All My Viewers?

This is one thing I hope Periscope will change soon. They show you a few of your viewers and the number of hearts that they gave you during your scope, but not all of your viewers. Now onto the fun tips on how to be “social” and follow-up!

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Periscope Pointers For Following Up 1. Follow-Up Following up with your viewers is so important. Answering questions you missed or just thanking people for coming by your scope is a great way to encourage your audience to keep coming back. Again, it makes Periscope personal and helps you connect with your followers and new viewers. The easiest way to follow-up to comments and questions is by using your Katch account. More on this in #4. I should point out that you don’t want to forget to add any links or information that you mentioned on your broadcast. A quick tweet or Facebook post with the details you discussed is always appreciated by your audience. Don’t forget to link your periscope to that Facebook post or tweet, so those who didn’t see the scope can click to watch. If you are in a networking group, then post your periscope.tv link on that Facebook page to promote it. 2. Retweet Your Scope Share the scope to Twitter again! Go to your replay and hit “share” to Twitter. I delete the first part of the prepared tweet and add a little comment like, “Be sure not to miss this fun scope!” You can do this a few times during your 24 hour replay period. You can even add new hashtags to the tweet to optimize its reach. 3. Post Your Scope To Facebook Put your scope on Facebook! There are two ways you can do this. You can now share to your Facebook account directly from Periscope. You may want to set up a separate group to share your scopes with, but I personally just share it as “public” (which sends it to my personal FB page). Then I share it to my Raising Clovers page from there. I don’t do this for every scope. Just the ones that I really think are worth sharing. You can also post your scope to Facebook by using your Periscope.tv link. What I like about this way of posting to Facebook is that I can add additional information about the scope there. I always make a comment to “see it by ____ o’clock before it disappears, but if you are seeing this later than that then don’t fear. Here is the link to my Katch video.” You can get the link to your scope from your Twitter account. Look for the tweet that was sent when you started your scope, and you’ll find the link there. You can also get the link from your Periscope.tv/{yourhandle} site. 4. Get A Katch Account Right now there are two main websites where your audience can view your past periscopes. The first one is Watch on Periscope. At this time I am not recommending Watch on Periscope. I had prob- lems with them adding strangers to my “following” list. So, I was getting notifications about random scopes — many of which were not G-rated. I also had a blogging friend have her Periscope and Twitter accounts hacked through her WOP account. So, until I’m certain that this security glitch is fixed, I don’t recommend them.

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The website I do use is Katch.me. I’m sure you guessed that by the title. What I love about Katch is that it allows me to see all my comments in one place. It also makes the names on the comments clickable! If you click on the person’s name who made the comment, it connects you to their Twitter account. There is also a new company on the scene that I’m trying out right now called Fullscope.tv. They are still in their beta stage at the time of this publication. They have the ability to track ALL your viewers, see who is most engaged, store your broadcasts, send tweets to your viewers — all kinds of great stats and ways to connect with your audience. I’ll be scoping about it. So, be sure to check my Periscope landing page for details: www.raisingclovers.com/periscope Now you can EASILY reply to comments that you may have missed. Before I had Katch I was re-watching every scope and trying to write down people’s handles and questions as fast as I could. It was really time consuming. Now, it’s so simple with Katch and FullScope. All the comments are right there to easily view. I do want to add that it’s important to delete any troll comments from the Katch scope. If you had a troll comment during your scope it will be recorded by Katch, so be sure to go and delete it.

Two boxes you want “checked” in your Katch account settings:

• Auto-Katch – Be sure you have the box checked next to “Auto-Katch all my streams.” This allows them to “catch” your scopes automatically, so you don’t have to add “#katch” to every scope you want caught. So, check the box! • Tweet Replay – Go to the Notification Replay section of your settings. You will see a spot to check next to “Tweet replay links from your @{your handle} account.” This allows Katch to actually send out an additional tweet like we discussed in a previous chapter. Another cool thing about Katch is that they give you an embedding code for your website. So, it’s easy to just cut and paste the code onto your site or blog post and have your Periscope viewable there. More on this in chapter 9. * I wish I was sponsored by Katch to write this. At this time, I’m not. So, you can know that this is coming from me, not them. 5. Record Good Scopes With The Hearts & Comments I upload many of my favorite “scopes” to my YouTube channel. This extends my view time — & monetizes them! I don’t always do it. When I do upload to YouTube, I include lots of links below the video to the different things we discussed on the Periscope. I also add a little intro and final thoughts to the video itself. Now, if you’ve set up your Periscope account properly, you will automatically get a copy of your scope in your camera log on your phone. However, this video doesn’t have any comments or hearts on it. So, unless you are reading each and every comment, it gets a bit confusing.

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*Be sure not to switch in between portrait and landscape views on your phone if you intend to save the scope. Your video will not change views. It will play in whatever view you start in. Recording your periscopes with hearts and comments is really quite simple. These are the easy steps I use to record my scopes using Quick Time. One thing to note is that this has to be done within the 24 hour period. Also, I should point out that I use an iPhone & a Mac computer. If you use different devices, the instructions may be a bit different.

From Your Phone:

• *Be sure to hold your phone in the format in which you want it recorded. So, hold it in portrait if you want the portrait view caught or in landscape if you’d like landscape caught. • Plug your phone into your computer • Make sure your mute button/switch on your phone is NOT on. You want the mute off otherwise the sound will not record. • Make sure your notifications are off on any app that will show up on your screen while you are recording. Personally, I turn off text messages, Periscope, Facebook messages, phone calls, tweets, — anything that sends screen reminders. • Pull up Quick Time — well, you need to have it installed to do that, so install it if it’s not there. You will get a little “finder” box that pops up. If you have a Mac, then QuickTime will appear in the corner of your computer tool bar at the top of your computer screen • Click on “File” & select “New Movie Recording” • Once the new screen pulls up, you will be looking at yourself most likely. So, you want to get your computer to record the correct image (not your face). • Click on the little “v” to the right of the circular record button. There will be a dropdown. You want to select “Camera on iPhone” and “Microphone on iPhone.” You must have these two items selected to be sure you capture the recording correctly. You should see your phone screen on your computer now. • Get your phone to the periscope you want to record. Don’t start the replay until you have everything above completed. • Once you have your phone ready to start, begin by first clicking on therecord button on your computer screen. • Next hit play on your smart phone to start your Periscope replay. • You can check the volume being recorded by sliding the volume bar up on QuickTime. This is to the left of the record button. • When your Periscope finishes playing on your phone, just click the record button again to stop the recording.

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Save The Recording

Two ways: • *I just click the “x” to close Quick Time and a window pops up that asks me to “save the recording” or not. I created a folder on my computer that I call “Periscopes to Save.” So, I just save it there. • *You can also click “File” >> “Export” >> “1080i” to (file name or iMovie) As I mentioned in chapter 6, I actually have a YouTube video that walks you through the process on how to upload your videos to YouTube. Here’s the link again: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mmc84Ds88f8 Another option to record your scope with comments and hearts is to record your Katch video. Katch just added hearts and comments to their videos. The only thing with recording from your computer screen using Quick Time is the audio. I’ll eventually create a YouTube video to show everyone how to record from your computer screen. Until then, the tip above works great — and records the actual “streaming” hearts, which Katch does not.

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10: MAKING MONEY WITH PERISCOPE

eriscope in and of itself is not a monetized forum. There are no ads on Periscope at this point. So, you do not make money just by hitting “broadcast.” I am a blogger. The biggest product I have right now is “me!” Yes, I have affiliate programs and an eCourse I promote, however, right now the most important “product I sell” is me! This may sound really weird, but hear me out. I am in the business of adding value to my viewers. The value you get out of Periscope is theP value you put into it. I am helping my viewer get to know me. If they are enjoying my broadcasts and the advice that I give, then they are more likely to want to subscribe to my blog, my YouTube channel, my various social media, etc. I want my viewers to trust my discernment to only advise them on products and programs that are going to be of the most benefit to them. This is pretty much the same on many social media platforms. My end goal is to get people to my website. Yes, on YouTube I am monetized by views and grow there by subscriptions. However, even on YouTube, my most important goal aside from views and subs is to get people to my blog to subscribe. “Why?” you ask. Well, let me explain. YouTube could go away tomorrow and you would lose your entire platform. This is true with so many social media forums. If they tanked and ceased to exist, where would that leave you? I guess I’m asking, where are you putting all your eggs — in one basket? I’m going to get into the nitty gritty of how to best utilize Periscope to make money, but I really wanted to be sure you don’t miss this point: If Periscope goes away tomorrow, will you lose your “followers” forever?

TIPS FOR MAKING MONEY USING PERISCOPE

1. Grow your Email List Your email distribution list is your most valuable asset! This is how you let your audience know where to find you, what new product you might be offering, and what new affiliate program you think would be of value to them. Personally, I use Mail Chimp for my email distribution. I have many friends who are very happy with Mad Mimi, too.

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2. Create a Mini Commercial Do you have a product or an affiliate program you promote? Well, look no further than Peri- scope for some good advertising! You really have to think of Periscope as a mini commercial for whatever it is that you are doing. One thing to point out here: If your audience thinks you are only on Periscope to sell to them, they will stop coming! You have to add value before you earn the right to discuss a product — & that product better add value, too. Okay, end of my “please don’t be a pushy sales person on Periscope” rant. Even if you don’t have a product, Periscope becomes a little advertisement for what they will find on your main platform. For me this is my blog and YouTube channel. As I already mentioned, my goal is to get people to my blog for subscriptions. So, Periscope is my own personal little promo for my blog. I have subscriber freebies that I like to share with my audience. So, I guess I do have a product — it’s just free. *I do need to point out that you need to let people know when you are discussing an affiliate or sponsored program just like you would on other formats. Consider putting it in your title. A little “#aff” or “#ad” is all you would need. 3. Get Sponsors As I already mentioned, Periscope is like a little commercial for you or your sponsors. This is just one more platform that you can tell your sponsors you have to promote them. Be sure to include it in your media kit. 4. Upload your Scope to YouTube This is the fastest and easiest way to make money since YouTube is a monetized forum (just make sure you’ve set up your monetization). Now that scopes can be shot in landscape format, uploading to YouTube has never been easier. I just shared my step-by-step guide on how to do this in the last chapter. I still edit my videos before I put them onto YouTube, but not everybody does. If you are mindful during your scope that you will be uploading this particular scope to YouTube then make sure that you do proper introductions and end the scope by asking for people to subscribe to your YouTube channel as well. Multi-tasking at it’s best!! 5. eCourses, Webinars, & Podcasts — Oh, My! Not to get all Dorothy on you, but these three can be combined here. If you have programs like eCourses, webinars, or podcasts, then why not Periscope about them! Not only can you tell people about your upcoming events, but often you can get them involved. What is awesome is that you can use Periscope to record any of these three programs! You might have to edit parts, but many people have figured out how to make their Periscope audience a part of what they are doing. How much more exciting can it be than for your audience member

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to see their handle on the screen or hear you mention them on your program. It’s so great to be able to add audience participation to these non-interactive forums. Heck, you are actually killing two birds with one stone, just like I mentioned with YouTube, if you record your program during your scope. We all love productivity like this.

FINALLY…

There are so many different ways to use Periscope to make money. I’m just scratching the sur- face. If you really want to find more information on other ways to make money, — watch Peri- scope! There is usually someone on talking about how they use Periscope to grow their business. I am new to Periscope and the whole social media platform. I just started blogging a little over a year ago. However, the growth I’ve seen has been amazing. I went from making $5 one month, to over $400 the next month just from properly cross-advertising using Periscope. So, know your niche as I’ve talked about all throughout this book and GO FOR IT! Give your audience what they are looking for — and you will be successful! Don’t disregard Periscope in its ability to grow your business and increase your income just because there is no direct way to monetize it. You can make money using Periscope!

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11: TIPS FOR BLOGGERS & BUSINESSES

’m a blogger, but you already knew that! Bloggers are among those who really should consider jumping onto Periscope. There are actually a TON of businesses that should be getting on Periscope to promote themselves and their products and services. Periscope has been such an incredible tool for my blog. Not only am I gaining TONS of information from some of the very best in the business, including free advice and tips on just about anything that pertains to my life, blog, business, and interests, but I’m also able to connect with my audience in a totally intimate way. IMy subscribers & followers can now ask me questions “live’ and hear from my heart. They get to know me better, — and bonus! — I get to know them better! When I know my audience better, I’m able to best serve them. It’s so incredible! The connections and relationships that have grown from Periscope have been such a treasure!

1. Create a “Periscope Landing Page” Periscope is still so new that most people really don’t know what it is. Creating a Periscope page helps them find you on Periscope — and find your website. Unlike other social media, in order for your audience to truly “use” Periscope to watch and participate in your scopes, they have to install an app on their phone. I’m sure some day people will be able to participate on their computers, too. Until then, we need our future followers to first install the app on their smart phones. Therefore, I highly recommend having a Periscope landing page. Here you can explain the basic ins and outs of what Periscope is, how to participate, and how to get the app and follow you. I even embed my uploaded Periscope YouTube videos on this page. This way they can watch one of my Periscope videos without leaving my site — and they’re viewing it through a monetized account. I link to my site’s Periscope landing page frequently. As I discussed in the last chapter, my goal is to get people to my site to subscribe. I love Periscope, but I use it for this purpose — driving future subscribers. So, I find that linking directly to my site instead of to my Periscope.tv page is a better way to accomplish my goal. I do still want people to follow and watch me on Periscope! That’s one of my goals, too.

View my Periscope page to see how I’ve set it up: www.raisingclovers.com/periscope

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2. Adding A Periscope Button I remember being really bummed that there was no “follow” button or way to link to my Peri- scope profile from my website and YouTube channel. All other social media outlets have the ability to link to your profile and follow you from their site, but Periscope didn’t yet. Well, the big news right now on Periscope is that they finally have a “linkable” profile page on their site: www.periscope.tv/{your channel}! One thing to note is that this site is not “followable” yet. Like my new word? What I mean is that even though you can link to your own Periscope.tv page, there is still no way to have viewers “follow” you if they are viewing the page from their computers. There is a follow button that pops up on a person’s smart phone, but not from computers. I’m sure they are very close to making the follow button work on computers — maybe even by the time you are reading this book. The other big news now is that they have created a Periscope button that you can embed onto your site to take people to your profile on Periscope.tv. This button changes from blue to red when you go live. What I like about the button is that you can stick it in a side bar of your website, so someone visiting your site can see it and know when you go live. This really is big news for those of us with websites! You can create this button by going to www.periscope.tv/embed. There you enter your handle in the space provided and get an embedding code to put on your site.

Here’s the thing, the button is little. I do like that it changes colors when you go live, though. Personally, I like the button I created.

This button is large and bright — and dare I say pretty? I just add a link to send people over to my profile page on Periscope.tv from this button. So, they start on my site and then can go over to my Periscope.tv site. I also made a button that links to my Katch account. One fun way to incorporate the Periscope button on your site would be to add a section on your landing page that has buttons for people you recommend to follow. You can actually create buttons for other people using that periscope.tv/embed page. So, you could let people know who

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you like to watch and have a button to take them to their periscope.tv page. How’s that for network marketing! 3. Mention The Blog Posts, Products, And Services That Relate To The Topic Of Your Scope I already talked about “cross pollinating” in the broadcasting section of this book. This is so important for businesses and bloggers. You want to grow your platform and your readership. There is no better way to do this than to scope about things that you write about. You can use Periscope to promote your website, blog, posts, products, services, affiliate programs — whatever you do. It’s really easy and natural to discuss these things when your scope topic is about things on your site. Also, don’t forget about your other social media. You can talk about your Pinterest, Instagram, Face- book, YouTube, — all your accounts! You just have to be sure to do so by adding value to your audience. Ask yourself why is it a benefit for them to follow you there. 4. Preparation is Key Prep your area, your background, and think through your title and main points, etc. Use the print- able at the back of this book that has all my Periscope Pointers listed to make sure you are all set to go! Unless you are getting on just to chat, have a game plan! Write out your tips! Make notes! 5. Add Value There is nothing more important than making sure you are adding value during your scopes! People may be coming on just to chat with you, but if you want to grow your Periscope platform you need to add value. As I mentioned earlier, I like to ask myself how I’m going to bless my audience with my periscope. I give information away for free! If I add value in all my various social media platforms, then I am growing “real” followers — ones who don’t just subscribe to get a freebie, but stay for more! 6. Write A Blog Post About Periscope This is a great way to let people know you are on Periscope. The more of your audience you get over to Periscope, the more they engage in all that you are doing. Then you can link them to your Periscope landing page with instructions on how to find you and follow you. 7. Consider Having A Schedule I already mentioned this in my tips, however, as a blogger and business professional I think it is really important to have a schedule for your audience so they’ll know when to find you. It doesn’t have to be every day. You can have one or two scheduled scope each week and then just jump on from time to time in between those scheduled times if you want. I originally only had one scheduled time for my Periscopes: Mondays at 2pm. Now I try to scope Monday - Friday 10am & 2pm PDT! I’m not always perfectly on time, no one really is. Life happens! Your audience understands that. Start with one scheduled day to scope. Add it to your calendar. Get used to being on a scope schedule and then add from there.

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8. Use Katch To Connect You all know that I think Katch is an invaluable tool for Periscope users, but it is so important for bloggers and businesses. Follow-up! I’ve learned that it’s easier for me to finish my points when I’m scoping if I know that the comments I’m not able to read while I’m talking are being caught on my Katch account. I’ve already admitted that I’m a bit A.D.D. on Periscope when it comes to comments. Many of us call it “#Squirrel!” It’s hard to not read every comment that goes scrolling by as you are scoping, but you really do need to focus on talking to your audience and finishing your thought before moving on to the next comment or question. It’s a balancing act that takes time to learn. I’m still getting the hang of it. Some scopes I’m better at than others. I find that letting my audience know to copy their comments and paste them when I’m ready for another question helps everyone feel more relaxed during the scope. I don’t want people to think I’m ignoring them. So, if I miss something, I can just go to my Katch and see all the questions and comments I missed. 9. Embed Your Scope On A Blog Post Another great tool on Katch is that you can embed your periscopes onto a blog post or a page on your site. It’s pretty easy — and very cool. Katch has already done all the work for you. You just click on “embed” and copy and paste the “embed code” on to the text portion of your website. (I should point out that I use WordPress). Once you publish the post, the scope will show up on your blog. It’s really neat. You can also click “embed” to get the shorter link for the Periscope, if you prefer to just link to the Scope. You can always just copy the url, too. My one big point here is to be sure to delete the comments that aren’t positive. If you have troll comments, just delete those and then post. 10. Use Periscope To Fine Tune Your Message What does your audience want to hear from you? Great question, huh? Well, I love testing out content on Periscope. I don’t always have prepared posts to discuss before my scopes. I’m often talking about things that I find interesting or tips about things I haven’t written about yet. It’s incredible to see what topics interest people. The conversation that comes up from the scopes also inspire blog posts. As I mentioned earlier, one of my best-performing blog posts came from sharing a story on Periscope. I had someone ask a question about what to do when your husband is not on board with having more kids. Well, I ended up sharing a story from my own life about that very thing. Everyone seemed to be so encouraged with my sharing from my heart that I decided to write about it. I also talked about watching our forever words on Periscope. I was about to scope about something that was frustrating me. I realized it was a bad idea and scoped about why we need to guard our tongues on social media. The conversation was so great that I wrote about that as well — & embedded that scope onto the post.

You can see the Watching Your Forever Words and see how I embedded the post here: http://wp.me/p4hrab-Hm

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12: SAFETY TIPS FOR SCOPERS

afety on social media is of the utmost of importance in this day and age. Honestly, these safety tips are as universal for anyone on social media as they are for scopers. Whether you are a mom with kids on the web or a business executive looking to increase your business through social media, these tips are for you! This past July my husband and I attended a homeschool convention together where I had the pleasure to speak. We sat through various workshops, but the one that was the most intriguing Sone given by a cyber security expert. My husband walked out of that workshop with his chin to the ground. He couldn’t stop talking about all he learned and how we needed to be more mindful of our online presence. I had already been aware of some of the dangers that loom out there on the world wide web, but this new information gave what I knew fresh perspective. There are bad people out there and some of them have bad sites where they post your information. We’ve all heard stories of old, creepy guys pretending to be teenagers who lure young girls into conversations and even go as far as to get these girls to do inappropriate things online. We live in a different time and we need to be aware of what information we are giving out.

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Seven Safety Tips for Social Media 1. Know What Non-Verbal Information You Are Giving Out It is amazing how much information we give away about ourselves and our lives visually. We don't always think about it when we are standing in front of our house. We might be watching the kids play and think it’d be fun to scope their game of catch or tag — but wait! You just showed your house number, street information, maybe a license plate or two, and a basic layout of your house and neighborhood. I see so many people on Facebook posting pictures of their kids sitting on their front steps with their house number in the picture. Not a good idea. • Is this really information you want available to any person in the world? It’s very important to look around you BEFORE you start a scope! What information are you about to give away? Is there anything you don’t want the world to see? Are there any identifying objects behind you? Anything that might look expensive — worth stealing? Street names or signs if you are out on a walk scoping? What’s on your walls? Diplomas, kids’ team pictures with the name of the organization they play for, your city name, and other information? You may have a fancy painting that someone might consider valuable. This is really important when you are using landscape mode. This is a new feature on Periscope as I write this. The first thing I noticed when I was in landscape mode was how much was in the background — including any messes. • It’s actually really easy to show exactly where you are without having your location setting on. Are you scoping while on vacation? You are visually indicating that your house is empty and available to be broken into. Hey, you may even have done a “house tour” scope! House tours show entrances, security, valuables, etc. You have basically helped a thief case your house. You did all the hard work for them. Now they know exactly how to get in and where the stuff is that they want! {I don’t recommend house tours, can you tell?} Are you scoping while you are out and have a sitter? You may want to be careful giving out basic information like that — unless you have a former linebacker babysitting. Your kids are probably safe in that case. {Fun fact: I have lived in the same neighborhood as professional football players — twice!} • Be aware of what your kids are wearing in the back ground.

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This goes for Facebook & Instagram as well! Your kids are really cute in their diapers and underwear, but if you had heard the stories this cyber expert told about what people do with these pictures you would think twice. People with bad intentions have a way of finding those kinds of pictures and posting them on child porn sites. So, I guess I’m asking you to think twice. You may have a private account, but people can still hack your account. Your pictures are not safe on social media. He actually suggested keeping photos of kids above the waist. He even suggested no swimsuit pictures. While we are on the subject of Facebook and Instagram & posting information — PLEASE don’t let your child post a picture of themselves with their new drivers license online! You have just let the world know how cute your child is and where to find him or her. So, if you really want a picture like that online, be VERY strategic of covering that information with their hand. Double check it before you post it! I actually just emailed one of our babysitters to tell her to take her ID photo down. 2. Know What Information You Are Giving Out Verbally It’s so important to be careful of what you say while on social media. The thing with Periscope is that you kinda just get talking about things and answering questions that pop up. There are nerves involved, too. Sometimes, it’s hard to be mindful in a “live” broadcast of what exactly you are saying and the lasting impact of your words. There is loads of information that people give away verbally: • Location: their city, neighborhood, street name — exact location when they are out. • Kids’ names, schools, and sports teams they’re on • Vacation: Whether they are home or not — Think Home Alone on this one! I try to not share that we are out of our house unless there is someone housesitting. • Friends & family members: you may be giving away their personal information that they don’t wish to have shared. • Answers to specific questions: Let’s talk about this one… Are you giving away answers to potential security questions? People on Periscope may seem like they are innocently asking questions about your life, but they may just be probing for answers to your security questions to your online accounts. An interesting thing to note here, although it is not verbal — if you are a woman and use your maiden name on your Facebook account, then you’ve just given your child’s most commonly asked security question away. Interesting to think about, huh? Another thing to consider as far as protecting your family and friends “verbally” online is — what are we saying about them that will be recorded indefinitely? We need to watch our forever words. We live in a different day and age where our words are lasting. As I already mentioned in the last

71 The Scoop on Scope chapter, I actually Periscoped about this! I ended up writing a blog post about it. You can check it out on the link in the last chapter. 3. Know It’s There Forever Since we are already talking about “forever,” I thought I’d point out one other thing that most people don’t think about. Once something is on the web, it is really there forever. Even though Peri- scopes are only viewable on Periscope for 24 hours, the scopes can be recorded by others. They can take a screen shot, too. You may be recording in a video format, but anyone can take a screen shot. This really goes for all on social media. The speaker stressed this point, since so many people feel like their photos are safe on these photo-based platforms when they have their settings on private. 4. Decide When It’s Okay to Use the Locator Setting As I mentioned in the earlier “Basics” section of this book, you need think about when it is safe to have your locator button turned on. At this time, the locator setting is so accurate that it can tell someone what room of your house you are in. Scary! I always suggest having the location turned OFF when you are at home. It’s up to you if you are out and about and want to let people know where you are. If you are live from Disneyland, then it might be fun to have it on. Just remember to turn the location setting OFF again when you start your next scope. 5. Know Who’s On Well, on Periscope it can be potentially anyone on the face of the earth unless you are doing a private scope. Other social media have ways of creating more privacy. Periscope really doesn’t, if you want to grow. You can block people, but you don’t always know who you should be blocking. Truly, even your private Facebook accounts can easily be hacked. So, you just need to be aware of your audience — and how vast it could be! Think “stranger danger!” 6. Don’t Be Afraid to Block People Some people are easy to block while you are on Periscope. They make a crazy comment - click! & blocked! It’s pretty easy! Well, what about other social media? What about people who aren’t outright rude or vulgar? Should you block them? Here’s my tip: Go with your gut! If you are creeped out in any way by a comment or maybe just their profile picture (so pick your profile picture wisely), block them! 7. Don’t Scope & Drive Last, but not least — PLEASE DON’T SCOPE & DRIVE! I see so many people doing this. It scares me and makes the whole scope uncomfortable for me. Have a passenger hold the phone and read the comments to you. I’ve heard from many people that they have seen their numbers drop after doing a drive and scope. So, just don’t do it! It’s not worth it!

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BASICALLY:

Think identity theft! Think kids’ safety! Think break-ins! Just think safety! Be very aware of what information you are giving away! Think through — ahead of time — what information you want to avoid sharing. This is a great conversation to have with your spouse. It’s important to me to have my husband’s input as to what he thinks is safe to share online. We have boundaries as to what to share and not share. I try to ask my self why I’m giving out the information I’m sharing — & is it a good idea? Social media is fun. It drives business. It has a lot of redeeming qualities. However, at what cost? Count the cost of what you are giving away on social media!

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SPECIAL THANKS

y faithful Savior – As incredible as Periscope is, I need to give most of the credit for my success and growth to Him. He created the opportunities that Periscope opened up for me to bless my socks off. As a Christian, everything I do is from a heart that desires to radiate His joy and love to the world — Periscope just opened that door a little wider. My amazing husband – You are the best! Thanks for looking out for me! You always have my back — both in encouraging me to push forward and advising me to slow down when I need to. It’s beenM fun to watch you go from skeptical about this new, live streaming social media thing to being excited to see all the growth and impact it has had on my little ministry. Thank you for all your support and love! My spectacular kids – You guys have been so great and understanding during the writing of this book. Not that you minded a little more iPad time here and there. I love you guys so much. Thanks for your encouragement and support as I jump on Periscope and share our journey in homeschooling and life with the world. I’m so proud of you all! My “Biggest Fan!” – a.k.a., my mom – Mom, you are one in a million! Thanks for all you do to encourage me to go for my dreams. This may just be a book on Periscope, but it’s my first book of hopefully many. I just wanted let you know how much I appreciate you always believing in me and igniting my passion to write. My uber-talented designer, Melinda Martin – You did an amazing job with designing this book. Thanks for all your hard work and for staying up late and making me laugh as I asked you all my “newbie” questions. My dear friend, Tricia Goyer – You have inspired me more than I can put into words! As admirable as you are as an accomplished author, I’m more taken by how you live out your faith and allow God to use your past to affect the future of so many young moms. You’ve also encouraged me to stop “thinking” about writing and just do it. Who would have thought that my first book would be on Periscope. Can’t wait to work on our homeschool book together! My new friend, Crystal Paine – I’m so excited that we’ve gotten to know each other! It’s so fun that Periscope brought us together. You have blessed me with not only several great shout-outs on Periscope that helped grow my audience, but have also given me so much valuable advice on mon- etizing my blog and even formatting this book — not to mention all the advice I’ve gleaned from

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you through your book and your blog through the years. You are an amazing woman of intention and purpose who paves the way for so many of us moms to live out our dreams. My wonderful friend, Heidi Rohland – You are the one who got me on Periscope! You have been so supportive and amazing at promoting me on your scopes and your YouTube channel. You’ve helped me to navigate all the techie, crazy nuances of this digital world. I wouldn’t be writing this Scope book at all if it weren’t for you! I “pound sign” love you! My sweet friend, Kerry Shearer – Thanks so much for all your advice and encouragement. Your help has made so much of my success possible. From being interviewed on your show to all the phone calls and texts, you’ve been an incredible resource. You truly are the “Periscope Expert.” I’m so glad we reconnected. My kind friend, MacKenzie Monroe – You may not realize this, but all our voxing has encouraged me to “go for it” with my blog, scoping — and my soon-to-come podcasts! Thanks, for all your advice and support! My incredible friends at Mommy Scopes & Homeschool Scopes – You all rock! You were the “faithful first” to come over to my scopes and listen in as I figured out Periscope! I’ve really enjoyed getting to know so many of you as friends. A special shout out of thanks to Amy Wyler and Melanie Wilson who invited me to be a part of their groups. My awesome Raising Clover friends – I love my Raising Clover subscribers! You have been so sweet to follow me on this journey of blogging, vlogging, — and Periscope! I have loved connecting with you. Thanks for sticking with me and supporting me! My fantastic Periscope friends – From my followers to the mega gurus that I follow, thank you! I have learned so much from all of you! You guys have been so much fun to hang out with and get to know online. Your words of encouragement have blessed me! You’re faithfulness to keep coming back for more of my ramblings is a big part of what has kept me going on Periscope! * How’s that for some fun adjectives! :)

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The Scoop On Scope: Periscope Pointers PREPPING TIPS 1. Avoid technical difficulty: check your wifi connection & camera battery. 2. Turn off your notifications before you start. 3. Plan on a short first scope or two when you first start out. 4. Be prepared. 5. Check your lighting & background: look behind you reverse the camera on your phone and see what your viewers will see. 6. Check your mirror see what may be going on with your hair, make-up, & teeth. 7. Consider a tripod for recording your scopes. 8. Have a good camera angle don’t scope with your phone low hold your phone up high or straight on. 9. Invite people to join you on periscope publicize on your social media before you scope. 10. Consider having a schedule for your periscopes. 11. Have a catchy title creating a catchy title is one of the best ways to get people on your periscope. • Have a specific title (remember, people love numbers) • Add emojis & hashtags • Think SEO & Twitter • Consider your replay audience 12. Save your title. Don’t forget to copy it before your scope. 13. Check the location settings be sure it’s off if you want it off. 14. Check that the Twitter bird is “on”. 15. Take a great thumbnail. • Make it interesting • Use an object or product. • Use your website • Create a graphic • Write your title out on a white board, chalkboard, or piece of paper • Use your face 16. Do a private scope first.

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BROADCASTING TIPS 1. Always think about your replay audience. 2. Don’t stare at your screen waiting for people to come on. 3. Start talking immediately. 4. Introduce yourself. 5. Give a little Periscope 101. Explain how to share, follow, and give hearts. 6. Bring value. 7. Have a point & get to it. 8. Know there is a one second delay when flipping the screen! 9. Look at the camera lens. 10. Cross pollinate my magic sauce. 11. Don’t forget this is “social” media. Be social. Interact, and don’t ignore your viewers. 12. Tell your audience how to ask questions. Tell them to copy their questions and re-paste them in case you miss them. 13. Recap. 14. End well. 15. Hold that smile. 16. Have fun & be yourself.

FOLLOW UP TIPS 1. Follow up. See what questions or comments you may have missed. 2. Retweet your scope. 3. Post your scope to Facebook. 4. Get a Katch account. Use it to connect & embed your videos. 5. Record good scopes with the hearts & comments: consider uploading your favorite “scopes” to your YouTube channel.