The first thing you need to understand about using Meerkat is that it's an app you install on your phone. At this time Meerkat is only supported on iOS but they're working on an Android version and at the time of this writing you can sign up to become a beta tester for it by emailing hello@meerkatapp.co
Getting started with Meerkat.
To get the app go to the App Store and type in Meerkat. You'll know you're installing the right Meerkat app if you see the black and yellow them with the cute little drawing of a Meerkat. To use Meerkat you have to have a Twitter account. Meerkat integrates with your Twitter account to login and relies on Twitter functions like retweeting to help build and promote your streams.
Once you have Meerkat on your phone and you've opened the app you'll have a couple of options. You'll have two buttons. One is labeled "Schedule" and the other is labeled "Stream". When you are broadcasting live video from your phone this is referred to as a stream. So when you tap stream it means you'll be going live with your video that moment. If you tap schedule you'll be prompted to enter a time when you intend to be live. People can then click to subscribe to your stream if they'd like to be notified or intend to watch. To get a good sized audience you'll want to get as many subscribers as possible. Whether you stream now or schedule a stream you have a place to enter a short title.
How do I get people to watch my stream?
There are many ways you can promote your stream. The fastest and easiest way is to promote your stream on Twitter. If you scroll to the bottom of the featured streams you'll see a button to do just that. You can also share a link to your stream on your Facebook and other social media accounts. There's a couple of different ways you can do that.You can share the link to your Meerkat profile page or you can share the link straight to your stream. Your profile page is simply meerkatapp.co/username. For example my Meerkat username is webstarts so mine looks like Meerkatapp.co/webstarts. From there people can choose to follow me on Meerkat and be notified when I'm streaming.
One of the best ways to get people to watch your stream is have them follow you. You can get them to follow you by asking them to tap the follow button in the upper lefthand corner while they're watching your stream. They can also follow you from the profile page I mentioned above, or they can follow you from a Meerkat follow button that can be placed on your website or blog. You can get the code for the follow button by going to Meerkatapp.co and click on the "Get a follow button" link in the top right. Here's mine...
To promote the link straight to your stream you'll need to get the stream link from your Twitter account. When you schedule a stream or broadcast a stream a link to it will be posted on your Twitter feed. Go to your Twitter feed and copy the link. You can then share that link wherever you'd like. Some ideas are through Facebook, email, blogs, and on your website.
One of the most coveted ways to get people to watch your stream is to be featured on what's called the leaderboard. When you use Meerkat you earn points. The people with the most points are featured on the leaderboard. Every Meerkat user can quickly and easily view the leaderboard by tapping the icon in the top righthand corner of the app. People on the leaderboard will frequently be featured on the start page of the app, making them more discoverable and therefore increasing their viewership.
How do I score points?
There are a bunch of ways you can score points and move up the leaderboard but they're essentially split into these three things.
1. Get people to subscribe to your streams. To do this you'll need to schedule your streams and then promote them ahead of going live. The more subscribers the more points.
2. Get people to watch your streams through the weblink. Meerkat wants to spread the word about their product and they're going to reward you with points for getting people to click on the link to watch your stream online because they know this will lead to more people discovering their app.
3. Get people engaged with the stream. The more you can get people to participate in the stream the more points you score. That means asking people to comment, like, and retweet. Encourage people not to be shy and ask a lot of questions that encourage people to share.
What if I just want to watch?
Meerkat understands not everyone feels comfortable streaming. You don't need to stream to enjoy Meerkat. As a watcher Meerkat gives you the ability to connect with celebrities, experts, and interesting people in a way you may have never previously experienced. Watchers can ask questions, make comments, retweet, like, and so on. The whole idea behind Meerkat is participation and interaction. You comment using your Twitter account, everyone in the stream can see your profile on Twitter, and so there's nothing anonymous unless you create a fake Twitter. By people using their real identities it keeps away the trolls and haters.
Sometimes you may be the only people watching in a stream and for some people this may feel a bit awkward. To break the ice and engage in the conversation try saying hello to the stream and share where you're watching from. Streamers love it when the audience engages them. In that sense it's nothing like the way we've been trained to watch a presentation. The key is to remember it's a two-way conversation so don't be afraid to make yourself known.
Summary.
At the time of my writing Meerkat is just about six weeks old. So there's still a lot to learn about this new way of engaging with people. So please forgive me if I didn't cover everything or if things change. If you'd like to add a correction or really anything feel free to leave a comment below. Better yet follow and watch my stream on Meerkat by going to Meerkatapp.co/webstarts. If you do that I'll answer any questions and help you get started.