I Talked a Client Into Trying Periscope and We Were Both Nervous

There is a new thing this spring and it is a little terrifying. Apps like Periscope and Meerkat let you broadcast live video from your phone to anyone who wants to watch, right now, no editing, no second takes. Whatever happens, happens, in front of everyone.

I got a little obsessed with the idea and talked a client into testing it. They were nervous. I was nervous. The whole appeal is also the whole fear: it is live, and you cannot fix it.

Why I thought it was worth the fear

Everything in marketing is so polished now. Edited videos, perfect photos, captions written and rewritten. Live video is the opposite of all that. It is raw and a bit awkward and undeniably real. And I had a theory that real is exactly what people are starving for after years of glossy feeds.

You also cannot fake it. A live stream proves there is a real person there, right now, willing to just talk to you. That builds a kind of trust a produced video never quite reaches.

What we actually did

We kept the first one small and simple, on purpose:

• A short behind-the-scenes look at the everyday work, nothing staged
• Answering questions live as people typed them in
• No script, just a rough idea of what to show and a promise to keep it short

It was clumsy. There were awkward pauses. The client fumbled a couple of things. And it did not matter at all. The people who tuned in loved exactly that. The comments were warm and human, the kind you rarely get on a polished post.

What I am taking from it

The nervousness was the point. The fact that it could go wrong is what made it feel real, and real is what connected. I do not know if Periscope becomes huge or fades in a year, these apps come and go fast. But live video as a thing is clearly not going away, and the lesson underneath it will outlast whatever app wins.

That lesson: people are tired of perfect. Sometimes the awkward, unedited, human version beats the polished one, and the only way to find that out is to be brave enough to go live and test it. We were both scared. We did it anyway. I am glad we did.