In the world of mobile live-streaming, two apps have entered into a fierce competition to offer the best experience for both broadcasters and viewers.
Meerkat and Periscope both have their advantages, the question is: Which one is right for your brand?
Also Read: Latest Meerkat Update Brings Cameo, Facebook Integration, and Library
While Meerkat was the first to launch, Periscope’s acquisition by Twitter simply made that advantage irrelevant, especially after Twitter decided to selfishly promote its own app and make it difficult for Meerkat to keep on growing.
Months later, things have changed though. Both apps have evolved and Meerkat’s decision to also integrate with Facebook made it less dependant on Twitter’s good will.
What They Have In Common
Let’s start with what Meerkat and Periscope have in common.
Obviously, they both serve the same purpose: live-streaming directly from your mobile device. And, they are both available for iOS and Android.
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On the viewers’ side, both Meerkat and Periscope allow users to post comments or ask questions that broadcasters can then respond to, via a chat-like interface.
And that’s it, that is all they have in common. So to decide which one is right for you, we will have to look into what differentiates one from another.
Periscope
Periscope is owned by Twitter. And as such, it has benefited from the expertise the platform could provide. Periscope runs smoothly, its interface is stable, light and easy to use. The downside is that Periscope pretty much works only with Twitter.
Periscope also offers a bunch of features that will be very useful to community managers and social media marketers. For example, the app provides immediate data as soon as your broadcasting is over, allowing you to monitor how many people viewed your stream, how many likes or comments the video got, etc.
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Periscope also allows you to replay your streams during the 24 hours that follow your live broadcast. This is more important than it seems, as recent campaigns involving the app show that most users view replays rather than those joining during the live streaming.
Read: Turkish Airlines case study
Meerkat
Meerkat launched first, but almost disappeared when Twitter acquired Periscope and decided to pull the plug from Meerkat.
A few months later, Meerkat is still alive, although not as popular as it was in the beginning. Its latest upgrade allows it to integrate with Facebook, essentially to make it less dependable on Twitter.
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And that is what also makes it different and interesting. With Meerkat, you will not get much data, nor will you be able to replay your streams after the live broascasting is over. But, Meerkat streams are embeddable, so you can share them anywhere on the web. Moreover, given that it integrates with Facebook, that means you can publish live-streams on your brand page. And that, Twitter’s Periscope cannot do. Yet anyway.
One issue with Meerkat though, is that there is a 30s delay on a live-stream. Of course this can turn into your advantage in the rare situation where things go wrong during a live event.
Read: Meerkat Opens Its Developer Platform
Conclusion
Both Meerkat and Periscope are very interesting apps into today’s fast moving and intrusive world. Brands that master this new type of content will surely build a stronger connecton with their followers.
Deciding on which one is the right one for your brand will have to be based on the criteria we have just told you about. But ultimately, it will come down to find where your audience is. And Periscope tends to be a lot more popular these days, on Twitter at least.
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