The Emergence of Live Video Streaming Apps [Part Two]: Meerkat vs Periscope with Brian Fanzo

April 15, 2015

Have you seen the Meerkat vs Periscope debate taking place across the social web?

Are you thinking of using these live video streaming apps as part of your social media strategy?

If you’re still confused on what Meerkat and Periscope are, or even curious which one you should consider, then this is the episode for you. This week on the Social Media Social Hour podcast, I’m talking with Brian Fanzo, AKA: iSocialFanz. During this episode we discuss live video streaming with Meerkat and Periscope.

About the show:

The Social Media Social Hour is a podcast for marketers and entrepreneurs looking to get on the social media fast track. The podcast is an interview format, where each week I get up close and personal with top brands and influencers to talk social media, tech and online marketing. Each week I also share tools that I personally use to help me with social media management, sales, marketing, accounts management, and productivity. The Social Media Social Hour is presented by Scoreboard Social.

In this episode, here is what you’ll discover:

About Brian Fanzo:

  • One of the early adapters (and one of the most popular users) of Meerkat
  • One of the first Beta users of Periscope
  • Partner & Chief Digital Strategist at BroadSuite
    • Helping enterprise technology companies utilize new technologies such as social, mobile, analytics, and cloud computing to be more productive and more of a social business
  • Hosts two weekly hangouts
    • Social Business Hour (#SBizHour) – Mondays at 4pm Eastern
    • Cloud T (#CloudTalk) – Thursdays at noon Eastern
  • Hosts a weekly Podcast called SMACTalk
    • For social media, mobile, analytics, and cloud

About Meerkat & Periscope:

  • What are they?
    • “The essential fear of missing out apps”
    • Live streaming apps that are embedded in leveraging your existing Twitter social community
      • Allow you with the click of one button to stream live
    • Viewers can comment in the app and comments appear on the screen for the streamer
  • Pros, Cons, and Differences:
    • Meerkat:
      • Pros:
        • Has adapted and provided feature updates regularly
          • Three times in one week!
        • Fueled to listen to the community
        • Main focus is the engagement aspect
          • Allows for two-way communication
        • Gamification aspect
        • Scheduling feature
    • Periscope:
      • Pros:
        • Very professional
        • Seamless video experience
          • i.e. double tap screen to switch cameras
        • You can see all Twitter followers inside the app
    • Cons:
      • Privacy element – no filter to live streaming
        • People aren’t always informed that they’re on video
        • Copyright infringement
      • Must grow into community aspect and building relationships
      • Missing filtered content
        • Can only search user names, not subjects or hashtags
      • No Android compatibility
    • Differences:
      • Periscope community seems to be more lifestyle oriented
      • Meerkat community seems more receptive to social media and more technical discussions

Mentionable Quotes:

  • “It’s mall about finding new ways to engage and connect with that digital audience.”
  • “Act like a fan – think of what you’re fans would love to see.”
  • “If you don’t make it easy on your user community to view what they want to, it’s too frustrating and it’s too hard and they’re going to eject.”

Items/people mentioned in the show:

Brian’s Social Media Six Pack:

  1. If you could only drink one brand of coffee for the rest of your life what would it be? Dunkin’ Donuts and I’m drinking it right now.
  2. How much did you pay to create your customized hat with your Twitter handle on it? $35 at Lids.
  3. If you could only follow one Twitter account for the next year whom would it be? Gary Vaynerchuk.
  4. What was the last book you read? Talk Like Ted.
  5. What was the highlight of SeaWorld? The dolphin show and watching my daughters’ eyes every time the dolphins did flips high in the air.
  6. What percentage of your Tweets would you say come from your smartphone versus a desktop/laptop? Close to 70% are from my mobile device and of the 90,000 Tweets about 13,000 had a picture in them.

Enjoy the podcast? Give us a rating or a review on iTunes!