First thing – what is Periscope?
Periscope (winner of Apple’s 2015 app of the year) is live streaming video mobile application.
What’s live streaming video?
Live streaming video is if you want to broadcast video directly to the world live. You know, it’s what the reporters do on sidelines of football game or weather guys in the middle of a storm. Before Periscope, you used to have do this with certain broadcasters like Ustream but now you can do it quickly through the mobile application for free.
Periscope tracks viewers and comments and if an audience member likes what they are seeing, they can send you a heart. You can talk to people in real time (they can’t talk to you but can send you messages which everyone viewing sees) and you can respond live without having to text back like Twitter.
Right now the mobile application has about 1.8 million daily viewers.
Why would you use Periscope on the farm?
1. Your customers want to see real dairy farming.
Think of this as a spontaneous farm tour. Is a calf doing something cute? How’s the milking going today? Are you moving the cows from one barn to another? These are all things that your customers would find interesting and you can show them it in real time and answer any questions they may have. It’s also a lot easier than writing everything down on Facebook.
2. Your customers like farm animals and want to see them.
I know you deal with cows all day long and when they do something funny or cute, it might not be that interesting to you. But it is to your customers. They don’t see cows very often (or ever) and to see how you interact with them or how they interact with each other is pretty cool.
3. Your customers have questions about dairy farming and you are the best person to answer them.
You are an expert at how you farm and people like to hear from experts. Even if you don’t think so, we know people trust a farmer’s opinion a lot when it comes to the health of the cows to the sustainable practices you use on the land. Be honest, be friendly and understand this is a chance to really share your knowledge on your favorite subject.
4. Your customers don’t know everything you do.
Most people familiar with ag know that farmers wear a lot of hats like (vet, mechanic, nutritionist, truck driver, heavy e equipment operator, etc…) you can show them this live. It can be tough job (even Mike Rowe says so) so let them know that you’re not doing this to get rich, you are doing this because you are passionate about your land, your animals and your family.
5. Your customers are new to Periscope, too.
This is a brand new platform (it only launched a few months ago) so you can take advantage of being on here early and probably finding new fans that are influencers in their perspective fields. Plus you could be the only farmer they know – don’t you want to be that farmer.
Next I’ll publish the “How to set up Periscope” but it’s pretty easy.
Get Periscope on Apple or Google Play.
Have fun out there and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
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