Twitter has introduced live 360° video that allow viewers to look around a full 360 degrees by tilting their phones or swiping the screen. In a demonstration of the product on Twitter’s blog, live streamer Alex Pettitt shows how with Twitter’s video app, Periscope, viewers can tilt their phones up, down, right or left, or if you swipe on the screen, to look around in full 360 degrees. Desktop users can use their mouse to look in all directions.
“The responsiveness is smooth, at least in this example, providing a whole new element to the Twitter video consumption experience, and it’ll no doubt add another consideration for live broadcasters and their content,” comments Social Media Today writer Andrew Hutchinson.
360 Sunset in Florida. First ever #Periscope360 with @Brandee_Anthony https://t.co/AZWbnnT15S
— Alex Pettitt (@Alexpettitt) December 28, 2016
Live 360 videos are marked with a badge. Although everyone on Twitter and Periscope can watch live 360 videos, currently only select partners can broadcast the videos, according to Periscope. Periscope is testing 360 broadcasts with a small group of partners, and will be rolling out the feature more broadly during the coming weeks. Interested, broadcasters can apply to join the waitlist.
An Important Step for Twitter
The new product represents an important step for Twitter. Twitter is attempting to catch up to Facebook, which already introduced 360 videos. With its much larger audience and reach, Facebook could overwhelm Twitter as a live-streaming destination.
Twitter had a tough year in 2016. The social media network faces tough competition from Facebook as well as emerging youth-oriented, photo-centric apps like Instagram and Snap. It’s fighting to grow its user base and add new products and features to secure its future.
“Making big changes to a platform with a wide audience — in Twitter’s case, though it isn’t growing as fast as Facebook, one with more than 300 million people — is always going to be tricky. But the company needs to continue to make big bets, particularly in video (it acquired Periscope), if it’s going to find a new way to ignite growth,” writes Matthew Lynley at TechCrunch.
A Marketing Bonanza?
Proponents argue that 360 degree videos and other forms of virtual reality offer the new frontier of public relations and marketing. They enable brands to provide customers a high-impact, memorable experience, they say. Combining branded content and virtual reality will substantially increase engagement. However, skeptics caution that virtual reality’s time has not yet arrived and adoption will be slower than proponents anticipate.
“The formula, of course, isn’t that simple. And as with any medium of messaging, the message itself must be well crafted and executed,” writes Claude Harrington in Business2Community. As with other types of video, success requires employing key metrics to measure success.
Bottom Line: Twitter’s introduction of 360 degree videos represents an important step in video marketing and the network’s competition against Facebook. Even if they don’t create 360 degree videos this year, perceptive marketers will keep a close eye on the progressing technology and on how innovative brands are implementing it.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
