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Not sure how many of you are into Periscope but I kind of love it. To those who haven’t used it, Periscope is a live video app/social network that is tied to your Twitter account (though since launching you can now use the app without Twitter). You film live video and people can leave comments, send you ‘hearts’ (if they like it) and more.

Some of the things I have watched on Periscope:

• Quebec preteen answering questions about her life en francais
• Skateboarders in Iran
• Part of someone’s birthday party in France

Of course, beyond the day to day stuff, people are also using Periscope to build their brand, holding live Q and As or sessions about certain topics of interest. Honestly, if you are comfortable on live video, it’s a pretty cool way to connect with people.

Like any live event, though, there are only a certain amount of people who can be there as it happens. Some people want to watch it afterwards, or rewatch it. Here’s an example from my life.

I am on a local committee related to economic development in my town. They had someone come and present about tax increment financing (TIFs) from southern Maine, a good three hour drive away. The scheduled the presentation to start at 4 pm. Several of my friends couldn’t make it but wanted to see it and I immediately thought of using Periscope to capture the event.

I could almost feel the room collectively eye roll as I took out my phone and began filming. I saw people began watching. There were 25 people in the room that day but 52 people watched live. The reason I did it though was for the people like my friends who wanted to watch it after.

Periscope has recognized that both live and recent videos are valuable, which is why on both the ‘Home’ screen and the ‘Map’ screen, you can easily watch live videos (the red dots) or recent videos (in blue):

You may ask yourself, besides going on the Periscope app, how can people see my Periscope videos after the fact?

Make sure your Periscope settings for your account are set to ‘Autosave Broadcasts’. Otherwise they go poof.

If you need some help with this, click here. Anything you’ve recorded before turning on this autosave won’t be on Periscope anymore. Trust me, learned that one the hard way!

Decide if you want them on your device or online somewhere instantly.

So there are pros and cons to each of these. If you just have your broadcasts downloaded to your phone, you can put them in some video editing software and spiff them up before, say, uploading them to Youtube or your website where they will live.

I am more relaxed (or we can say lazy) and want this to happen automatically, which is where Katch comes in:

Katch is a service you can use that takes your video and allows it to go live somewhere besides Periscope automatically. As you can see, once on Katch, we get options about it. Here is the link to where this video lives online: https://katch.me/breakingeven/v/19807ccd-9fdc-3165-b923-c0c6b7bf8f80 (PS Periscope people get really annoyed when you don’t film vertically, regular video watchers get really annoyed when you don’t film horizontally. I switched to horizontal about 2 minutes into this broadcast. Sometimes you just have to pick your battles!)

You can sign up for Katch with a Twitter account and get this set up.

If you want about a bajillion other ways to save your Periscope video, this Quora post has them. 

I think it’s best to think of your Periscope video as having two audiences:

1. The live audience that will ask you questions and give you feedback to roll with while you broadcast. For those people, be interesting and responsive.
2. The replay audience who is watching it after the fact for information. For these people, wherever your video lives, give them a context and a reason to watch (what are the main points? who was your audience? etc.)

Thinking of both these audiences will give you the most bang for your buck. The revolution may be televised but a lot of people are still going to watch it after the fact.