Twitter Archives - Terry White's Tech Blog

September 30, 2015September 29, 2015

22 Features We Want to See in the Next Update to Periscope

Periscope is Twitter’s live streaming social media network. With Periscope on your iPhone or Android phone you can live stream to your followers and guests anytime you want, 24 hours a day. Periscope and apps like it empower regular people to broadcast to a worldwide audience for the cost of your data plan/internet connection. I find myself using it more and more and watching “scopes” from others when I have few spare minutes here and there throughout the day. As much as I like what Periscope has done in the short amount of time they’ve been up and running (March 2015), there is definitely room for improvement. I had started a wish list of features that I want to see, but I figured I would invite my Periscope followers to weigh in on what they wanted to see. Hey Periscope! Together we came up with this list:

The ability to bring someone into your scope. For example, if I’m scoping from an event it would be cool to say “now let’s see what’s going on on the other side of the convention center with Larry.” I would hand it over to Larry and he would be live from his phone on my broadcast. I could take control back at any time.
We would REALLY like the ability to scrub, fast forward/rewind replays. As it stands now if you have to leave a replay at some point, when you return to watch it later you have to start over from the beginning.
We want the ability to see the complete list of viewers at the end of a broadcast. This was a feature in the early days, but now we can only see the names of the last few people that joined. I would love to see the COMPLETE list of all viewers.
Time to word wrap the comments so they don’t go all the way across the screen. Comments are great, but often the content suffers because the comments in landscape go all the way across the screen. Yes I know we can hide them, but I still want to see them on one side.
Ability to schedule a broadcast. I like the instant nature of Periscope, but it would be cool if people could have a little advanced notice. Not everyone can drop what they’re doing to tune in. So I’d like to be able to say “Watch me on Periscope today at 5PM to see……”
Put a “stop broadcast” button on the main display. As it stands now you have to swipe down to reveal the stop button. It would be cool to have the option to display it on screen at all times. Yes I know if that were the case some might press it by accident, but really so what. They would learn and not do it again or turn it off in the prefs.
Ability to keep broadcasts longer than 24 hours. Right now Periscopes expire after 24 hours and disappear forever. It would be nice to have the option to keep them longer. For now I’m using katch.me and it seems to offer all the things that Periscope should be doing on their site.
Ability to save videos WITH the comments/hearts. Periscope can save the raw video from your broadcast to your phone’s camera roll. However, it will be just the video/audio without the comments and hearts. It would be great to have the whole broadcast with all the feedback intact. This would make it easy to repurpose it on other sites.
Fix the Saved Videos issues. OK, this is not really a new feature request. This is a cry to fix the existing feature above. You can save the raw video to your camera roll, but since they implemented the landscape broadcasting feature it’s really messed up. Landscape videos show up vertical on your camera roll (at a 90° angle), worse when you flip to the selfie camera the video is recorded the opposite way and totally unacceptable the saved videos are very very low res. At this point you might as well turn this feature off as the vides are pretty much unusable.
Ability to show other content on your smartphone (pictures/videos). It would really be cool to bring up a photo or video from your device and show it in your broadcast.
Share links at the end of a broadcast that people can tap/click on. A lot of times we’re talking about products, websites and services and it would really be cool if the broadcaster could share links at the end that people could actually tap on and go to.
Ability to follow someone on Twitter. It’s odd that a Twitter owned product doesn’t allow you to follow people on twitter from Periscope. I can view people’s profiles and usually their Periscope user name is the same as their Twitter handle, but there is no direct way to follow them on Twitter.
Manual control of the camera and focus. One of the most frustrating aspects of using Periscope in less than ideal conditions is that it offers zero control over the camera. If you were to shoot a video or still with your iPhone you could tap to focus and even hold down your finger to lock the focus and exposure. None of these controls exist while you’re in Periscope.
Recently Watched Tab – This was suggested by one of my followers and I like it. It would be cool to see which broadcasts you recently watched so that you can get back to the replays and follow those broadcasters that you’re not already following.
Groups – Periscope allows you to do private broadcasts to “some” of your followers (this also needs to be fixed), but it would really be cool to be able to private broadcast to a group or share a broadcast to a group.
Profile Views – How cool would it be to see who’s viewed your profile?
Ability for the broadcaster to type comments – I didn’t get the usefulness of this suggestion at first. Then I realized that there have been times that I’ve been broadcasting in places where I couldn’t really talk. It would have been great to be able to answer questions via text comments instead.
Filtering for banned words. I’m quick to block someone from my broadcasts if they are being rude, disruptive and attacking me or others. It would be great to have the ability to create list of banned words to prevent the comments from being made in the first place.
Private messages. As it stands now if you type a comment everyone sees it. Sometimes you may want to send a private comment to a broadcaster such as contact info.
Show the duration of a replay. When you start watching a replay there is a tiny progress bar at the bottom of the screen, but you have no idea how much time is left.
Ability to manually scroll back comments. Sometimes comments go by that we miss. It would be great to have the ability to scroll back the comments and/or slow them down
Allow web viewers to login and do Commenting and give Hearts on the Web

Follow me on Periscope here.

Here’s the replay of the brainstorming scope via Katch

In case you missed it or are new to Periscope here’s my Periscope getting started video:

Also check out the TW Broadcast line of mounts for LIVE streaming here. Get 10% off ANY Arkon product with discount code “twhite”

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September 18, 2015

Follow me on Twitter and you Could Win a NEW Anker Backup Battery

I am a fan of Anker’s battery backup products and cables. I worked out a giveaway with them that will allow me to giveaway their NEW PowerCore+ 10050 battery backup for your mobile devices. To enter all you have to do is follow me on Twitter here and retweet this tweet. On Sunday, September 20th 2015 I will pick a US or UK based follower that retweeted the tweet.

You can check out the PowerCore+ 10050 here.

September 14, 2015September 13, 2015

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet On Periscope – 10 Killer Tips

The latest update to Twitter’s live broadcasting app, Periscope brings the long awaited landscape orientation that it so desperately needed. I have a renewed interest in using Periscope and now have the choice to broadcast in portrait or landscape based on what’s best for the content I’m showing. I’m also noticing more and more people getting on board. That’s why I created this NEW video that goes into detail about How to Get Started on Periscope and it even includes a live Periscope broadcast to show how much fun you can have using Periscope:

I shared some tips in the video, but here are some tips that every Periscope user should know:

Make sure you have sufficient bandwidth. The Periscope app itself does a test before even allowing you to start your broadcast, but I like to know even earlier. So I run the Speedtest App to check my speed. You probably want at least 2mbps upload speed to have a good experience.

Create a compelling title for your broadcast. Remember that you’re competing for the attention of your viewers. If they see an Untitled broadcast or a title that is weak or not very descriptive then they will likely not tap on it to watch. For example I could have titled this post “Periscope tips and tricks”, but “The Ultimate Cheat Sheet On Periscope – 10 Killer Tips” sounds way better. Bonus Tip: Add a few emojis to the title so that it stands out even more.

Time to Break Your Egg. When you first sign up to Twitter or Periscope your profile pic will default to a picture of an egg.

You need to change it before doing your first broadcast. Unless I know your name, I will likely never tap to watch or follow anyone with an default profile pic. I will dismiss you/it as spam.

Introduce yourself every time you broadcast. This is one that I have to remember to do each time. You might think “why do I need to introduce myself? These are my followers.” That’s true, but what you have to remember is that a lot of people may be watching you for the first time that have not followed you yet. They saw your tweet, they saw someone else’s share, or perhaps they saw your broadcast on the Periscope map. They don’t know you!

Continue reading “The Ultimate Cheat Sheet On Periscope – 10 Killer Tips”

August 6, 2015August 21, 2015

Live from Facebook Mentions vs. Periscope

You didn’t think Facebook would sit idly by while Twitter did LIVE streaming via its Periscope App did you? Early yesterday evening I got an App update to the Facebook Mentions App announcing that it now has a feature called “Live from Facebook Mentions.”

What’s Facebook Mentions – Live?

Facebook Mentions is Facebook’s dedicated App for those of us who are Public Figures and have a “verified” Page on Facebook.

While I was certainly honored that Facebook verified my page without any action on my part and the fact that they even created this separate celebrity app, I really didn’t find that it was all that useful compared to the regular Facebook Pages Manager App. Well that all changed yesterday. Now I can bring up the Facebook Mentions App on my iPhone and start a live broadcast at any time. People that have previously “Liked” my Page will get a notification and they can watch the broadcast and make comments via text in the broadcast itself. The best part compared is that after the broadcast is over it appears as a regular video post on my Page for anyone to view after the fact. I also like that this post can be edited so that I can add links, additional information to the items or sites that I mentioned in the broadcast.

What’s Periscope?

Periscope is Twitter’s Live broadcasting service. Like Twitter it’s free to use. You can download the iOS or Android version and start broadcasting immediately. When you start a new broadcast the app sends a tweet to your Twitter followers as well as a push notification to any of your Periscope followers. People can watch the broadcast either in the Periscope App or on the web in a browser. People can also make comments via text in the App that you can respond to verbally and they can also tap the screen to give you “hearts” (their version of Likes). The idea behind Periscope is to be able to show the world what you’re seeing in realtime. After the broadcast is over it will be available for replay by anyone that follows you in the App or has the link for up to 24 hours. After that it automatically self destructs forever.

Facebook Mentions Live vs. Periscope

Obviously Facebook Mentions Live (FML <- LOL) is the new kid on the block and will come at a disadvantage to Periscope that has now been out for 5 months. Periscope has had several App updates to address user feedback and finally released their Android version. FML is only iOS at this point and currently limited to only those with a Verified Public Figure Facebook Page.

Video format

Periscope’s video format is portrait. This pisses off most people not viewing the video in the app and while Periscope has promised to deliver landscape video it hasn’t made it on the scene as of this post. FML on the other hand is a square aspect ratio. This makes it less frustrating to view, but means that they may never deliver landscape video. As you might expect the quality of the video/audio to your viewers will depend on the strength and speed of your data connection. When I’m on WiFi at home both Periscope and FML look awesome. On slower cellular data connections Periscope can be sketchy.

Your potential viewing audience

Here’s where it gets interesting. While your Periscope broadcasts automatically announce to your Twitter followers that you’re LIVE, it can be missed if someone is viewing your tweets in the moment. Unless your followers are diligent about scrolling their timelines and viewing your tweets, your broadcasts will only be seen by a fraction of your followers. Periscope does have the advantage that people can follow you on Periscope separately from Twitter, but from what I see the average number of Periscope followers to Twitter followers is usually a small fraction. For example, I have over 43,000 followers on Twitter, but only 3,227 followers on Periscope. My buddy Scott Kelby has over 288,000 followers on Twitter and only 10,830 followers on Periscope. I think that the lower number of Periscope followers is largely due to the fact that people can only follow you on Periscope from the iOS App or recently released Android App. There’s also no way currently to give someone a link to follow you. You can only give them your user name (ie. @TerryLWhite <- yes follow me please).

On the FML side you already have an audience on your Facebook Page. I have 39,736 Likes on my Page. That’s my potential audience each time I do a broadcast. Facebook does play games though when it comes to showing your post to your followers. Look at the graphic above and you’ll see that last night the post had only reached 1,725 of my audience. The more popular your post is the more people that Liked your page will see it. So with that being said not all 39,736 people were notified when I did my 1st broadcast. There’s no way to control who gets notified and who doesn’t.

If you want more people to see your post/broadcast you can click the Boost Post button and PAY to have to promoted to more people. It’s a shame that people ask to follow you by clicking the Like button on your Page, but unless they manually visit your page regularly they may not see many or any of your posts via notifications or in their timeline unless you pay for them to see it. Let’s face it that while social media is free, Facebook and Twitter make their money from advertising.

Comments and adorations

Both Periscope and FML allow people to make comments during the broadcast. in the case of Periscope the comments appear superimposed over the video and some find that distracting. FML on the other hand displays the comments at the bottom of the screen below the square video. With Periscope if your viewers like what they are seeing they can tap anywhere on the screen to give you hearts (adorations). I haven’t seen anything like that yet in FML. However, I did see at the end of the broadcast that I had “Likes” not sure how I got them at this point?

Replays

Both Periscope and FML offer the ability for people that missed your live broadcast to see it after the fact. With Periscope your broadcast remains active for up to 24 hours in the feed of everyone that follows you. Anyone that got the tweet when you went live can still click it to watch after the fact. Recently Periscope was updated to allow you share a link to anyone. The obvious downside is that if you send the link to someone and they don’t watch it within 24 hours, the link won’t work afterwards. Periscope also offers the option to save the raw video to your device after the broadcast. This means that you can post the video anywhere you want afterwards but note that it will be a vertical video. FML on the other hand puts the raw video of your broadcast on your Facebook Page immediately after the broadcast ends. That’s VERY COOL because there’s not expiration date. It also means that I can edit the post after the fact and add more info and links to the things I was talking about during the broadcast. Also since it’s a regular Facebook Post you can share it with others on Facebook that aren’t on your page. If you right click the video on your page you can copy the URL and share it anywhere like here.

Why not broadcast to both at the same time?

I came up with an idea to broadcast to both Periscope and Life from Facebook Mentions at the same time. It became a product from Arkon called the TW Broadcaster Pro. Check out my video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbslnsl41_I

The Bottom Line

Periscope is cool and I use it regularly. However, I’ve always felt that many of my fans were missing out if they’re not on Twitter or don’t follow me on Periscope. I’ve posted links to the Periscope replay on Facebook afterwards but again the replay is only available for 24 hours. If Facebook opens up Live streaming to the regular Facebook app, Facebook Pages app and Facebook Groups App I think they would ultimately win as there are more people on Facebook than there are on Twitter. Twitter should open up Periscope a little more by offering direct links to follow people even on the web and they should give the option of allowing replays to last longer than 24 hours. If Facebook wanted to “own” the Live Streaming social media world they certainly have the base to do it. Live from Facebook Mentions Live may be just the beginning of their strategy!

Follow me on Periscope @TerryLWhite

Like my Facebook Page here.

Follow me on Twitter here.

Get the Periscope App here for iOS .

Get the Periscope App here for Android

Get the Facebook Mentions App for iOS here (if you have a verified public figure page) .

July 10, 2013July 11, 2013

Thanks goes out to my now over 75,000 Subscribers on YouTube!

I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for subscribing to my YouTube Channel. I just blew past the 75,000 mark and I’m thrilled that so many of you like my content. Having over 75,000 subscribers and over 13 Million Views is no small accomplishment and again thanks.

Hey if you’re in the subscribing/following kinda mood, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter (approaching 25,000 followers) and Like my Facebook Page (over 15,000 likes). Also add me to your Google+ Circles (over 25,000 have me in their circles) and follow me on Behance.

In other news

My Learn the Adobe Creative Suite with Terry White App has now been rebranded to “Learn the Adobe Creative Cloud with Terry White” as well as some bug fixes. Be sure to download the update. (note – I did have one person tell me that he’s having issues with it on iPad 1. So if you have an iPad 1 you might want to hold off till I confirm).

Grab the app here:

August 8, 2011August 8, 2011

Will Google+ Kill Facebook or Twitter?

My initial response to that question is "no." However, If I were taking bets i'd say that Twitter is more at risk than Facebook. I find that people I know that LOVE Twitter love it mostly because they don't like Facebook. Maybe it's the whole "friend" concept vs. "followers". Maybe it's because Twitter is short, sweet and too the point at 140 characters. I'm not sure what the real attraction is of Twitter over Facebook for those users that prefer it, but the one thing I can say is that Google definitely took a hard look at both services and decided to integrate the best of each into their own Google+ network.

Circles instead of Friends

Like Twitter, you don't have to be someone's "friend" to follow them. You can just add them to one of your Circles and you'll see their public updates. However, like Facebook's "lists" (my favorite Facebook feature) the whole Circle concept makes it easy to control what you share and with whom. You can target both status updates and photo albums to specific Circles of users that you create.

Speaking of photos

I would dare say this is probably one of the most used features of Facebook. Facebook users post millions of photos each week! I think it's the photos aspect that makes a Facebook user prefer Facebook over Twitter. While you can share links to photos on Twitter, it's just not the same.

Google+ Hangouts are cool too

Google+ Hangouts is a cool little feature that lets you set up a LIVE video conference chat with up to 10 people. I gave this feature a whirl while I was watching my new studio being painted. Yes, I invited people to watch paint dry 🙂 OK, I was bored and didn't want to be bored alone. I fired it up. Positioned a spare laptop upstairs and we all sat around chatting about photography, Adobe questions, and of course painting. It worked extremely well. The only downside was the limit of 10 people. But hey, it was free!

Who will win?

I think it's way way way too early to say that Twitter or Facebook is going to die because of Google+. First of all Google+ isn't open to the general public just yet. Most "everyday" people I talk to have never even heard of Google+. This is why I think Google+ will have a hard time overtaking Facebook anytime soon. In order to beat Facebook they'd not only have to do just about everything Facebook does and in most cases better, there would have to be a groundswell movement of hundreds of thousands of users away from Facebook and I just don't see that happening. The reason is, most Facebook users I know (everyday folk) like Facebook. They don't see anything (much) wrong with it. They use it everyday to keep in touch with friends/family and for the most part they are happy with the way it works.

Yes it could happen. Look at MySpace. MySpace was king/queen, but you never hear anyone talk about it anymore. Facebook killed it. So yes it could happen, but you'd have to look at the reasons why MySpace has almost disappeared. It had no class! MySpace was all about letting you create and unfortunately "customize" your presence. This lead to many non-web designers creating really crappy looking MySpace pages. These pages were a pain to read and for some reason everyone thought that you wanted to hear their favorite music the minute you entered their page. I absolutely hated using MySpace and the only reason I was on it was to see the pages of people that I was communicating with. I spent as little time on it as possible. I think this is why it was easy to beat MySpace with something "better" or at least more consistent. I don't miss MySpace one bit. It won't be so easy with Twitter and Facebook.

This begs the question, is there room or desire for all three? I certainly don't need something else to do. Having a Google+ presence means that I now have one more thing to feed and maintain. Share your thoughts in the comments below.

I'm inviting 150 of my fans to join Google+

Like I said above, Google+ isn't available to the general public just yet. However, if you're wanting to get in just click this link and be sure to add me to your Circles! Thanks!

Which one do you prefer?

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Tags : social networking