By tracking millions of #hashtags on a daily basis, Hashtags.org has developed some pretty sophisticated algorithms of our own to discern what tags across social media are beginning to trend upward (emerging trends), which tags are declining in usage, and just as importantly, which tags have "staying power". By "staying power", what we mean are, which tags, day in and day out, tend to consistently appear within the "Trending Hashtags" tab presented on our homepage?
While you'd expect to see certain stalwarts like #tbt, #rt, or #jobs, another tag that consistently appears on a daily basis is #periscope (as shown below):
But what is #periscope? According to their own website, Periscope describes itself as a service that "lets you explore the world through the eyes of somebody else". So, what does that mean? In a nutshell, Periscope is a social media live blogging service that allows you to broadcast your "point of view" to the world (or at least anyone interested in listening / subscribing), and interact with them in real-time. Founded in 2014, it was acquired by Twitter in early 2015, before even going live, and has remained "white hot" ever since.
So, why might #periscope be such a commonly used hashtag? Simply put, anyone starting a broadcast can tweet out to the general public / their followers their Periscope link, and include the #periscope hashtag to assist other users on social media in finding their broadcast. What a great use case for using hashtags to assist users in finding specific "content" of interest on social media.
Using our analytics service, we can get a quick gauge of the type of "broadcasting" volume / usage we might expect on the network. Below is a chart where we have tracked the #periscope hashtag for a span of one full week:
By viewing the chart we can see that #periscope peaked at nearly 16K tweets / hour, which is some pretty impressive volume. What's also interesting to note is the trend towards higher "broadcast" volume during the weekends, while at the same time, seeing expected peaks during the mid-day (U.S. Central time).
All of this is quite interesting, but in analyzing the data, another interesting trend comes to light once we take a look at #periscope's related hashtags:
For those that may not be too familiar with how Periscope works, when a broadcast has concluded, others can watch a replay and provide feedback within Periscope for up to 24 hours. After this time-frame, by default, the broadcast is removed from the app. So, why might #save be the most common hashtag that accompanies tweets that also contain #periscope? To be honest, I the writer was not sure until doing some additional research to understand why / what the meaning was. So, our very analytics assisted me in uncovering additional information I was not aware of prior. Turns out, #save (I know, I'm late to the game) is a new beta feature introduced earlier this month, that when included as part of your tweet, allows you to save your broadcasts indefinitely / until you decide to delete them.
How popular has Periscope become as a strategic social media platform? If just viewing the estimated analytics volume above is not evidence enough, even Trent Harmon, the most recent (and last) American Idol (#idol) winner is wisely using Periscope to connect with his audience / fan base.
Have your sights set on social media success? If so, no doubt, #periscope and hashtags.org analytics should be part of your strategy!
