.jpg)
Do you periscope? Even if you just watch, are you loving it as much as I am? I have seen the world, learned a ton, laughed a lot, and "met" lots of social media friends through periscope. It's fun and if you haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet, you are not to late.
What is Periscope? It's a live streaming app that allows you to watch anything, all over the world, at any time, LIVE. Want to take a stroll down the streets of Paris? Want to go on a boat tour on the Chicago river? Want to learn how a bakery stacks their cakes? How about learn to paint? I've been doing all of this, and doing it in the comfort of my own home, on my own time, while I'm folding laundry, putting on my makeup, while I'm decorating cookies, or whenever I've got a few minutes to spare.
How does it work? People broadcast live about anything, and you can watch it for up to 24 hours. Then it's gone. Yep, it disappears into nowhere. Some people save them and load them to youtube, especially if they are doing some kind of tutorial. Others, if you missed it, you missed it.
What's so fun about watching someone's live broadcast? Did I forget to mention it's interactive? It is! You can ask questions, make comments, touch the screen to send "hearts" which tells them you are enjoying what they are saying, without having to type a thing! Ever wanted to ask someone who's work you follow a question about it? Now you can.
Who is using periscope? EVERYONE. Regular people, business people, famous people, singers, crafters, bakers, literally everyone. Including me! For me it started by wanting to watch some of my fellow cookiers while they create amazing works of art with cookies. We share ideas, critique, encourage, and it has really become a positive community of bakers including cakers, cake poppers, cookiers, really you name it! It's a great way for businesses to reach out to customers and fans of their work too! Someone may ask "how do you do that?" and then get the answer LIVE! I have showed fellow cookiers how I package cookies to ship them, how I make caramels, the way I decorate cookies, and how I organize and store various baking tools. It's fun to share, and people love to watch.
How do you sign up? It's easy, just look for the Periscope app on iphone or android and download it. It's free. If you do it in the next 24 hours, you can see my most recent periscope of the back to school cookies I was working on today.
Above is what my scope looked like from the broadcasting side. I had everything set up to get started decorating. I use a tripod to hold my phone and then watch on my ipad so I can read comments people make and interact.
Sometimes I just do a tutorial type broadcast, and others (like today) I just wanted to decorate and chat with some people while I finished up my cookies. A lot of us like to decorate "together" in the cookie community.
There are also people watching who do not decorate cookies and have never seen the process of making a cookie like that, so they enjoy watching. Sometimes it inspires others to try something new.
It's fun to see how something is created. It makes you appreciate the work put into it. You can watch people that you follow, or watch people you don't know. There is a page that shows everyone broadcasting and the title of the broadcasts. You can pop in and out or stay for the whole thing. Give it a try and let me know what you think!