How I’m going to use Periscope or Meerkat for Ministry

In case you missed what happened BIG in social media the past 2 weeks, both Meerkat and Periscope (owned by Twitter) released live streaming apps for your phone.

So!  Who cares?!?

Well, it’s a big deal because now, you can stream LIVE content directly through your Twitter account to all your followers and then some.  It’s a new and exciting way to vlog.  In fact, Amy Schmittauer, founder of Savvy Sexy Social goes into great detail the benefits of this much better than I.  The Huffington Post has a great post too about why we should care about Periscope and Meerkat.

Regardless, I love these apps because it opens up so many possibilities to do ministry.  Just in the first few days I’ve already started to use it for these things…

1. On the Spot Interviews. I grabbed my iPhone, a mic for the phone and went up and did on the spot interviews with staff members or people in the Church or nZone.
2. Behind the Scenes Activity. As you know there is so much happening between behind the scenes.  What a great opportunity for you to share with people who go to your Church or in your ministry what is happening during the week.
3. Promotion. If you have multiple services, what a great way to promote the other services by doing LIVE “cut ins” to what happened in between services or a preview of what is ahead for people to get pumped up about. Or, it could also be a way for you to share an event that is going on at your church.  For example, if you have an Easter Egg hunt at your Church, you can Periscope it to everyone to see.  It’d be a great way for people to see what is happening so they don’t miss the next “big event”.
4. Use it to Cross-Promote on other Platforms.  In Periscope you can save the video and then put it on your blog, Facebook, YouTube or other social media accounts to share what you just did (Meerkat does not have this feature).  It’s a way to use the share to others what you are doing.
5. Stream services.  It’s not ideal, but it could still be used to stream your services or other ministry events to people so they get a taste of what your church or ministry is like.

So what do you think?  Have you downloaded it yet?  What are you planning on using these live-streaming apps for in your ministry?  Post a comment below or on social media using the hashtag #ymsidekick.