Our view of Periscope

“It may sound crazy but we wanted to build the closest thing to teleportation,” says Kayvon Beykpour, co-founder of Periscope, the live-streaming social media app that’s building momentum faster than a soviet submarine.

Indeed, if I had half their coding skills it would either have to be teleportation… or time travel.

Periscope is Facetime for exhibitionists. The concept is to put you in the moment, ‘looking through the eyes’ of the person streaming: whether that’s joining a peace movement in North Korea or catching your grandchild’s football match in Colne.

It’s probably too early for you and your business to be feeling the love for Periscope. You’re finding your way with Facebook or have just taken to Twitter and now something else comes along. Typical.

Publishing company Hachette used the app to fantastic effect with authors showing us around their hallowed workspaces (AKA spare bedrooms #whereiwrite ). Twitter notifies followers about upcoming live broadcasts and if you tweet it they will come.

This is an app that transports the public ‘behind the scenes’ so you’d better make sure that people are going to like what they see back there.

Our advice? Get a ‘PR Disaster Management Plan’ in place now. There will be no time later. There will just be Periscope, and lots of little fluttering hearts from people watching your reputation go down in flames. You’re going to wish there was a time travel app after all.