Twitter's working hard to boost the value of their video offerings, especially live video, which has become their key area of focus in recent times.
Earlier this week, they announced that pre-roll video ads will be made available on Periscope content - both live and replays - and now, they're adding new, dedicated analytics tools and features to further boost their live-stream offering.
Here's what's been announced:
Active Audience
First off, they've added a new 'Activity' tab which displays various types of engagement on your Periscope streams.
As you can see, the new notifications listing provides an overview of who's viewed your content, new followers you've gained and which specific videos of yours they watched that inspired them to follow you. These data points can be a good indicator of your content performance, providing additional context as to what you're doing that's helping to build your Periscope following.
Periscope has also noted that they're looking at other metrics and notifications to add to this tab as they examine how people are using it.
Streaming Analysis
In addition to this, Periscope's also providing a much requested feature - an in-depth analytics tab for your Periscope streams.
The dashboard provides an overview of all the key broadcast metrics, including video duration, viewers, 'hearts', time watched (both live and on replay) and time watched per viewer. These data points provide essential insights to help you understand and refine your Periscope strategy - knowing the specifics of each video will enable publishers to formulate more focused strategies and improve future performance.
You can also filter the results by specific dates time periods, and export them for your own analysis.
Broadcasters have been calling for streaming analytics for some time - some have even noted that advertisers have been turning away from Twitter due to lack of audience measurement. The new Periscope dashboard will provide more assurance - though it will also, inevitably, put their audience figures in direct comparison with Facebook Live, which may not work in Twitter's favor.
Periscope Moments
And the last new Periscope feature announced is the ability to view Periscope videos direct from Twitter Moments.
Moments are LIVE! You can now watch Periscope video directly from a Moment on Android, iOS coming soonhttps://t.co/PogD5HJQQG
- Periscope (@periscopeco) March 29, 2017
Hard to say what this adds to the process - Moments hasn't become the a significant element of the Twitter experience, but Twitter has tried to make it more relevant, giving users the ability to create their own Moments, which is effectively Twitter's own variation on the social storytelling trend that's become popular on other platforms.
But then again, Twitter has also demoted Moments from the lower function bar, pushing it into the new 'Explore' tab, which seems a fairly clear sign that Moments is not delivering as they would like.
But now you can add Periscope content into your Moments that people may or may not see. So there's that too.
In fairness, Moments does offer a lot of potential, when used the right way, and the addition of Periscope content expands the possibilities - and it may prove particularly beneficial for live events, adding direct connection to the video feed along with surrounding tweet context.
If you're a Periscope user, these new tools will be welcome additions, providing new ways to measure and improve your performance.
The new Periscope analytics dashboard is available from today in the web version of your Periscope profile. The new activity tab is rolling out on both Android and iOS in the next few days and you can watch Periscope video in Moments on Android from today (iOS coming soon).