Meerkat: Live-Stream Your Life
Posted: April 24, 2015, 4:00 p.m.
by Laura Gregory.
These days social media is omnipresent. On a daily basis, it can be cumbersome and time-consuming to manage our personal accounts for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat and more. It’s no wonder people complain about younger generations constantly having their noses stuck in their smartphones.
In public relations, we don’t really have a choice when it comes to which social media applications we want to use. In the professional world of public relations, we have to be able to adapt to the never-ending stream of social media platforms and to determine which is best for our client or project.
Now, there’s a new option to add to the list. It’s called Meerkat, and no, I’m not talking about the cute little animal native to southern Africa that you’ve probably seen in the zoo. The furry meerkat’s identity has been stolen by a new app that allows people to live-stream from their smartphones to a feed connected to their Twitter accounts. Of course, it doesn’t all have to be live-streamed. Users also have the option to schedule videos. Once videos are broadcast, other users can comment on them and the comments appear on their Twitter feed.
Meerkat has taken the social network to another level. As if posting Facebook statuses, tweeting and constantly uploading to your Snapchat MyStory weren’t enough, now you have the option to broadcast your entire life via live-stream video on a regular basis.
In an article on gizmodo.com, Darren Orf writes, “Meerkat feels like a social media blessing and a curse, depending on what type of person you are. If you’re always doing fun stuff and thrive on Twitter attention, Meerkat is software manna from the gods.”
But, Meerkat has some competition. Periscope is another app available for users to broadcast live videos to the world, and it is owned by Twitter. Since acquiring Periscope, Twitter has been aggressive in its efforts to convert Meerkat users to Periscope.
An article on TechCrunch states, “Twitter is doing whatever it can to help its live video streaming acquisition Periscope beat independent competitor Meerkat. The moves by Twitter highlight not just the acute competition between the two apps — which are much more alike than they are different — but also Twitter’s push to position itself as a broadcasting platform, with the coveted content and audience that come with that.”
It is too soon to determine which app will reign in the live-streaming competition, and it looks like it will be up to the users to decide. So until then, best of luck in managing yet another social networking app on your smartphone and may the odds be ever in your favor.
