Up Periscope: Latest social media

[gfron1]

Last night I delved into the social media app - Periscope. A Twitter company that's been around for around a year, but just now seeing a little action, it may be the best fit yet for me as a chef. I wasn't sure if I could do anything interesting enough to hold the attention of viewers, but last night, unannounced, I set up my phone camera and let it roll during dinner service. It was a very slow night because of a snow storm, so it was a good chance to practice. I want to see what happens on a busy night when I might not otherwise be able to see the questions being posed. My understanding is that the live broadcasts stay viewable as a video for a week after the event. So those of you with a couple of hours to kill: HERE It can be watched on your phone or computer.

[Deryn]

I can't watch it because I don't have Safari, Chrome or Firefox.

Did you watch it yourself? You must have. Was/is there sound? What was it focussed on? Single camera? Trying to 'picture' this.

Some of us in Canada recently 'experienced' on a Canadian TV station (GustoTV) several weekend evenings of horrendous 'live video' being shot in a couple of restaurant kitchens for several hours each with NO sound. Supposedly 'busy nights' but it was dead, dead, dead unfortunately. I trust yours is not like theirs.

Edited November 18, 2015 by Deryn (log)

[gfron1]

I think you'll find this is a different beast. I'm assuming GustoTV is more those cameras (GoPro or something like that) that get uploaded. This is social media. So, there is sound form me, and text from viewers with opportunities to "like" what you're seeing or hearing. Folks asked me questions throughout, some about food, some about my personal life ("how many hours do you work a day?"), some about my foraging. At slow spots I walked around with my phone to give a tour of the kitchen, my knife collection, at one point I stripped down so they could see my cool Japanese butchery t-shirt. Primarily, I had it set up to view the plating, and I would bend into the frame to talk about what I was doing, where the ingredients came from and such. 

[KennethT]

I thought this was fascinating, on a couple of levels. I can see how this type of interaction can help build your brand among consumers.

I didn't have time to watch the whole thing - just bits and pieces.... how did you feel that it worked with your timing? Did you feel like it was a distraction during the times you were busy?

[gfron1]

Of course it was never really busy and even with a slow night it was a distraction. At one point I kept saying, "If I miss your question retype it when I'm looking at the screen." But it was fun. It was fun on the level of when I go out to my tables each night. Chefs who don't like people are really in the wrong business. I want to interact. I want to see how people respond to my cooking. I want to know who I'm feeding. And that sorta plays into this app, although they aren't eating the food.

 

Did you catch that two tables pulled up the app and started following from their tables? One even joked, "Where's my next course." That was fun and made me watch what I was saying...I was cussing up a storm about a M/W lamb chop.

[KennethT]

That's hilarious.. I didn't see that part - I'll have to go through again and look for it!

[heidih]

Very informative and enjoyable - methinks you have on air star quality-  the humor tempered with clear explanations. What serendipity that it was a slow night as that really allowed us watching to get a good sense of your cooking guts.  Do post again with a link if you continue. I forage a bit but you have inspired me to take better advantage.of my local bounty.

[gfron1]

Thanks. All I could think when I watched the screen was - damn, son, you need to get some sleep. My eyes looked seriously tired. But that's the life! Props to you for actually watching the video. Much more fun when its interactive.

[donk79]

Very interesting to watch, even well afterward.  Thank you for sharing!  I cannot imagine what this would be like on a busy night, but an awesome thing to do on a slow one.

[MattyC]

Will have to check your stream out - I've done a few broadcasts on there for some of my special dinners - did a 32 course that was like 7 hours, had a decent number of people watching and chatting, was fun. I tried to answer questions and joke with the people in the chat, I enjoyed it a lot.

 

I think it's a good market to get in to, the few restaurants that stream service on there tend to suck big time, IE some form of bad techno music and line cooks standing around. So if you had a decent stream, interesting and fun, you could probably get some pretty big viewing numbers.

[Chris Hennes]

Neat. Makes me wonder about adding one of their little "on-air" indicators to either signatures or profiles here. It would make it easier to catch people when they are actively broadcasting. It looks like I'm too late to the party to see your broadcast.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Yes, Chris, I just tried, and the page said "No broadcasts in the last 24 hours" for Rob. I did click on live broadcasts, and was able to watch, so you don't have to sign up for Twitter or Facebook or anything to watch these videos.

 

I must say what was shown to me was very lame, which drove me off the site in a little over a minute, after two separate videos with no selection of what is fed to you at first, and then a scroll that goes too fast to really read. That's okay, because when you make an effort, most titles aren't descriptive of the content anyway. What I got was people jackassing, trying and failing to be funny. No wonder it took a while to catch on.

 

That's no reflection on Rob's content (which unfortunately I couldn't see), and I'm very disappointed that I didn't get to virtually visit his restaurant with special commentary from the chef himself.

 

Maybe if you do this again, Rob, you could give us an advance heads up on eG so more of us could catch it. I'm even more disappointed when I think that realistically, this snow storm slow night may have been the "perfect storm" to make this broadcast happen at all. (Not sure how to make a wistful emoticon.)

[huiray]

Cool. Thanks for sharing! Interesting to see what you were up to. I simply clicked on your link and the video opened up and I ran it, sound and all. (on an iMac, OS 10.10.5) I confess I didn't watch the whole thing through but, like KennethT, skipped through it after watching the first 10 minutes of it. I'll try watching the entire 1+ hour of it at a later time.

 

One question --- you did bop around a lot fetching ingredients and whatnot for the dish (1st course) you were preparing in the initial part. Is that the usual way? Or did you "clear a space" for the video other than your normal work space so that in effect you did not have all the stuff right at hand as I imagine you might have normally?

[huiray]

Hmm.  This morning I went back to the linked-to page/broadcast and all I get is a page for gfron1 saying there have been no broadcasts in the last 24 hours.  I poked around the site but did not see any "archive" for past broadcasts.  I sent an email to Periscope asking about this and got back an automated response indicating I'm in the queue but did direct me to their help pages - from which I see this:

https://help.periscope.tv/customer/en/portal/articles/2017800-can-i-replay-a-broadcast-after-it-finishes-

 

So it looks like it is viewable for only 24 hours - unless you had an option to set it for a week? If so I don't see a link to access it, unfortunately.  Perhaps when they get back to me they might have something more to say...

 

p.s. On their main webpage the "Help" pages are actually named simply as "Support" at the bottom, rather than "Help". 

 

p.p.s. They also say on their "Help" page in this topic that there is a "Watch Tab" under "View All Recent Broadcasts" but on my computer screen (iMac) I don't see any tabs or menus etc that match the above. I am guessing those are available only on mobile devices and smart phones using an actual downloaded Periscope app?

[gfron1]

Im learning this at the same time as you. The friend who turned me on to it said a week, but must be just a day. So in that way its kind of like Snapchat where there's a limited viewing window.

 

Huiray - you asked about me chasing ingredients. That's normal. My lunch line has a set mis en place station, but dinner is more complex and so I run here and there. Tonight's looking relative slow so I'll do it again. I'll log on around 6MST and if you watch my Facebook page I'll announce it there. This isn't self-promotion since you all know me

[gfron1]

Just learned that I have an option to save the video to my phone, which I can then upload to Vimeo or YouTube. I don't know if its worth doing all that since its more about the immediate interactions, but good to know.

[MattyC]

Just learned that I have an option to save the video to my phone, which I can then upload to Vimeo or YouTube. I don't know if its worth doing all that since its more about the immediate interactions, but good to know.

I think for special events/menus that could be kinda cool? People can still interact real-time, but also since they're special it would have appeal for later viewing. I dunno. I've been thinking about stuff like that when my place opens, seems like it could be fun - I'd do things like that now but it would be boring to watch me standing in a kitchen under construction drinking coffee.

[huiray]

gfron1, I gather you canceled last night's broadcast (from your periscope page). Perhaps you might mention when you might do this again?

[gfron1]

I am going to try again tonight. Last night was bizarre. Its going to be slow around here til the day before Thanksgiving, but last night was packed...but, everyone was being cheap. Not one person ordered the tasting menu which is why you eat with us. They all did the "entree only" option. So nothing to show really. I'll be trying again tonight at 6 or whenever they roll in. Its a peril of a restaurant in the southwest - cold wimps! I think its in the 50s

[huiray]

Thanks. I'll look for it.

 

A side commentary – I think of this, like many other "social media" venues and stuff, as reflective of the short attention spans of the current USAmerican public, and in particular of the younger members of said "public". It needs to be of the NOW, needs to be COOL, and needs to massage their egos in some way. My personal opinion as a somewhat older person - but I think this is very, very sad and illustrative of how shallow much of current society is.

 

ETA: Even the phenomenon of "taking selfies" amongst older folks as well as younger folks is illustrative, IMO, of how self-centered folks are now as part of the LOOK AT ME vibe that informs so much of current discourse. This is, I hasten to add, not the same as what you are trying to accomplish here.

Edited November 20, 2015 by huiray (log)

[gfron1]

I wouldn't say that its different than what I'm trying to accomplish. I think about that all the time. I hate Facebook because its ultimately a marketing tool for me that's paid off very well. I'd love to shut it down and spend more time with the physical humans in my life, but the consequence would be all the friends from afar that I've been able to stay in contact with. Periscope is not how I want to spend my free time. However, I see an opportunity for a somewhat known, remotely located chef to get a bit more known. Its branding. There are many, many ways to do it, and I have my fingers in many marketing pots, and this is just one more that I'm trying out. 

 

My question is whether it will stall like Google+ or take off like Instagram. Will my investment have payout or not?

[huiray]

I'm looking at your live broadcast *right now* on your webpage on Periscope...and I have no video (Chrome, iMac) – just audio. I can see the comments dropping in and the hearts drifting upwards when they appear. But, no video, just a black patch. Refreshing, reloading, etc does not give a video.  I *can* view the just-recorded video/broadcast of your making Biscocchitos w/ both video and audio, though. I'll wait for the "uploaded" recording of your live broadcast to see if the video then "appears".

[gfron1]

That's something goofy on your end. I had lots of people noticing things on the video. Maybe check to see if you have the latest version? That was a fun broadcast.

[huiray]

I am running Chrome 46.0.2490.86 (the latest version). I am, however, NOT running any special app that I need to get from Periscope. I am looking at the site strictly using the browser alone.  If I need a Periscope app to see the broadcasts then I'm afraid I won't be.  I could see other live broadcasts on the Periscope site yesterday, though.  I can also now see (video and audio) of the recording of your live broadcast which ended 44 minutes ago. But when your live broadcast was running I did not get video, just audio.

[gfron1]

Interesting, and especially if some day you're able to, and I'm interested in embedding into a site, which I could see being useful.