All-Natural Homemade Pumpable Lotion

I am on a big DIY kick lately. One of the main things I wanted to learn how to do was make my own lotion. I use lotion often (especially during these harsh Chicago winters) and wanted to save money and be able to have exactly the scents I wanted.

The first few lotions I made were great, but very thick and a bit hard. I wanted to find a lotion recipe that I was able to put into a pump and also into small containers to keep with me. After much trial and error, I found a recipe I was able to adapt - and now I want to share it with you!

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup Old Fashioned Oats
• 1/2 cup almond oil (I also have used jojoba oil and it works exactly the same)
• 1/2 cup organic extra virgin coconut oil
• 3 tbsp. beeswax pellets (I use the pellets as they're the fastest to melt)
• 1 tbsp. Vitamin E oil
• Essential Oils for scent (optional)

Instructions

1. Put the water and oats into a Mason jar and soak for 12 hours at room temperature.

2. Drain the oats, keeping the water from the oatmeal. You want to end up with 1/2 cup of oatmeal water. You'll be left with oats for breakfast! Set aside the oatmeal water for a later step.

3. In a bowl that can be heated (I use a glass measuring cup), add in the almond oil, coconut oil and beeswax. Heat this in a double boiler until fully melted.

4. Put the oil mixture into the fridge for 45 minutes.

 

5. Place the oatmeal water, Vitamin E oil and any essential oils into a mixing bowl. Scrape the container from the fridge into this bowl and mix both mixtures together with a handheld mixer. Continue to whip until it looks like soft, creamy lotion.

6. Pour the lotion into an empty Ziploc bag and snip off a corner (like a homemade pastry bag). Squeeze the lotion from the bag into your pump bottle.

7. Use and enjoy! You can store this lotion at room temperature.

 

Marshmallow Dreidels for Chanukah

Tonight is the first night of Chanukah! Here is one quick and super easy dessert I will be bringing to my family's Chanukah party this evening.

What you need:

• Wax or parchment paper
• Cookie Sheet
• Microwave safe bowl

Ingredients:

•  1 1/4 cups chocolate chips or candy melts (I used chocolate chips)
• 12 large marshmallows
• 12 thin long pretzel sticks, salted or unsalted
• 12 chocolate kisses
• 1 tube white icing for the Hebrew letters

Directions:

1. Line a baking sheet with the wax or parchment paper
2. Insert a pretzel stick into each of the marshmallows, you will want the pretzel to go in almost to the bottom of the marshmallow. I then cut off the top of the pretzel stick so the "dreidel top" wasn't too long
3. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips or candy melts. Do not over heat or they will begin to burn.
4. Stir the chocolate chips or candy melts, then dip the bottom of a chocolate chip into the melted chocolate and stick it onto the bottom of the marshmallow, on the opposite side of where you have inserted the pretzel stick
5. Place the marshmallow on its side on the wax or parchment paper to allow the chocolate kiss to set. Repeat with the remaining marshmallows
6. Place the cookie sheet into the fridge for 30 minutes to ensure the kisses stay attached to the marshmallow
7. Reheat the chocolate chips or candy melts so that it is soft again. Using the pretzel stick as a handle, dip each of the treats into the chocolate so that it is coated up to the top of the marshmallow
8. Place the dipped desserts back onto your lined baking sheet and repeat with the remaining marshmallows
9. Put the cookie sheet back into the fridge for 30 minutes so that the outer shell of chocolate can set
10. Taking your white icing tube and add Hebrew letters onto one side of the dreidels
11. Let the dreidels set for 30 minutes
12. Serve and enjoy!
    
    
     

Building a Thriving Online Community

We have all heard the saying “Your vibe attracts your tribe,” and know that an engaged social media community is key to online success, but how exactly do you go about building an online community? What does it mean to have a successfully engaged community?

For a brand, your community is the number one reason to join social media. Not only is your community made up of current and potential consumers, but it’s also where you will find both brand advocates and brand ambassadors – people that will help amplify your messages to their networks, so your reach is spread way beyond just that of your own. More and more, you can find studies that show that people trust recommendations from friends and family over brands, so these social media advocates are gold for companies.

An online community is simply a group of like-minded people, that have gathered together around a common interest, idea or goal. It builds as people find your content and your brand, and begin to engage with it. Engagement can take many forms, depending on the social media platform. It can be simply following you, or deepen to include engaging with you, sharing and promoting the content you put out, and talking about your brand both online and off.

Most importantly, you need to keep open two-way communication with your community. I am a huge advocate of treating online and offline relationships in exactly the same way. When you meet someone new in person, you introduce yourself and find out what you have in common, how you can relate to this person. You take an interest in them and find out what THEY are interested in. There is no difference when you meet people online that are members of your same community. If you are running the social media for your company, you aren’t above or outside any of the community members, you are one of them, the same as everyone else is.

Creating meaningful relationships online means you will be doing a lot of listening in the beginning. You want to find out what is important to the other members, what they want to know, and then you are better able to begin crafting and sharing content that provides value to your followers and fellow community members. Yes, your content will sometimes talk about your company and your product, but the focus needs to go far beyond that. You will be focusing more on the personal interactions, rather than broadcasting information or talking AT people. You will need to be able to respond to all comments and questions that come from members of the community, not shying away from anything negative they might bring up. In fact, sometimes negative feedback is the best way to learn and grow! At first your followers will be just that – people that have gathered because they heard about your brand, or want to learn more, but if you nurture each relationship, they will turn into loyal community members.

What’s next? How do you keep your community interested and engaged?

Here are some of the tips I have learned:

1.     High Quality Content: The most important tip I have learned is that is not ever about you. It’s about the community. You want to consistently provide the highest quality relevant content possible. Content varies. Sometimes it takes the form of a how-to, or it can be something inspirational that will resonate with your community members, or something written or shared to entertain them – the key is to listen and talk with people long enough to find out what they want to know, and then provide that to them in a unique way.

2.     Consistency: How often do you post? Do you disappear after posting an article, until the next one comes out? You want to build trust and let people see that you are someone to use as their go-to for information, so being consistent in your messaging and responses is important. Consistency goes beyond posting schedules. It means that all your messaging is the same, no matter who it comes from in the company. It means that you do what you say you are going to do and always follow through. You are credible and build trust through being who you portray yourself to be.

3.     Honestly Care About Your Community: What if suddenly everyone in your community jumped ship and went to follow a similar brand? You would have no company any longer. The people in your community are your brand’s life blood and if you look at them that way, it is easy to be grateful for each and every one of them. So let them know! Respond to each comment or post. Remember that people have millions of choices of what brands to support and they’ve chosen YOURS! We’re all busy, but they’ve taken the time to chat with YOU! Show people your gratitude. Maybe that means reposting a blog post they have written, or asking about their day when they’ve posted about having a tough time. Again, this is no different than how you would treat an in person relationship with a friend. Say thank you when someone shares a photo or a post. A simple acknowledgment can be makes someone’s entire day.

Remember that all relationships take time. There is no overnight success when it comes to building, nurturing and growing an online community. There are ebbs and flows and sometimes people leave. Prepare to work really hard at these relationships, but know that the time spent will be worth it.

What are some of your tips? Tweet me at @lucyrk78 and let me know!

Building Online Communities

I hear and read a lot on Twitter lately about people looking for quick magic answers on how to build thriving online communities, and people looking for advice on “how to best reach our audience.” Those two things are not the same – communities are groups of like-minded people that get together for a myriad of reasons, but that always share knowledge, ideas and most importantly conversations. On the other hand, an audience receives this knowledge, these ideas, etc… The best way I can describe the difference is: a community is engaging and interactive, while an audience passively receives information.

A community is something that will live with you throughout the lifecycle of your brand, when built and nurtured “right.” They will get to know you, and you will get to know them. Both you (and/or your brand) and the members of the community will ideally grow as a result of your relationship.

Like any other relationship in your life, both online and off, it takes work. Think of the friends you have offline – how did that friendship begin? What makes it continue to grow, deepen and become more meaningful? Do those same things with your online communities. There is no reason to be any different online than you are offline.

If you are building an online community as a brand, there are a few steps I would recommend, to help you get started.

1.      See where people are already talking about you. If people are talking about your brand and excited about it more on Twitter, start there. If there are more people you see mentioning you on Facebook, start there.

2.      Get to know the people in the community as you build it. Again, all relationships take time. Give yourself time to get to know each member. What do they like to do? What other brands do they like besides yours? Where do they spend their free time? What sort of work do they do? These are all things I would like to know about potential close friends, whether they are online friends or friends offline.

3.      As you’re getting to know each member in your community, you might find certain members have more in common with others. Help make those introductions. Help them grown their own communities!

4.      Be you. Have you ever been at a dinner party and there’s that one guest that only is talking about himself, boasting about things that you couldn’t care less about? Don’t be that guy. You are representing your brand for a reason – your sparkling personality! Don’t be afraid to show it and let people get to know more about you, as well as your brand. Don’t let a keyboard make a conversation awkward or any different than it would feel if you were talking with a new friend in person. (for the record, I’m often quite awkward when meeting new people, but that’s ok! We’re human.)

5.      Be consistent. What do you say about those friends that make plans, then cancel them, or see you for a date and then disappear for 3 months? Honestly, we ALL have that friend. Personally? I call them flakes. And it’s not a good thing – it’s annoying, right? To never know if you can depend on that person or not, or know if you make plans, that they won’t fall through last minute? Again? Perhaps I’m repeating myself, but it’s one of my most favorite movie quotes, so I’ll say again, “Don’t be that guy.” Be reliable. It’s a good personality trait no matter what you’re doing.

6.      Remember to keep things relevant. If you were reading this article, and knew from the headline that it would contain tips about building a community online, and suddenly there were paragraphs about my dog’s fear of thunderstorms, you’d be pretty confused, right? That’s because how my dog feels during rain has nothing to do with steps in building community. It’s something you might find out being IN a community with me, as I talk about my dog all the time, but it has no relevance here. You might get sidetracked once in a while, but try to keep your voice and message consistent and clear, and most importantly, relevant. People joined your community for a reason – don’t give them reasons to leave, or find it’s not what they wanted to be involved in when you came together.

7.      Be a community insider. You are a member of the community just as much as anyone else there is. Don’t look at it as being any different – share successes of members of the community, comment on things they share with you, join conversations.

8.      Bring online, offline. As you grow and get to know your community, see if you can meet anyone for coffee. Do you travel for work often, as I do? Even better! Now you’ve got the opportunity to meet even more people! I like to organize “Tweet-Ups” in each city I visit, so not only do I get the chance to meet more people in person, but other members of the community get to meet each other. You’ll be surprised how many people live in the same city and don’t ever meet up. I like to bring together, and it’s always so much fun!

9.      Try to have an attitude of gratitude. At the end of the day, your brand is nothing without people that like it and support it. So why not continually remember that, and always strive to make those people feel as important as they are? Surprise gifts are fun, but not always necessary. Inherently, people like to be acknowledged. Don’t you? I know I do. A simple thank you isn’t always so simple to some people, it means a lot more than you think.

10.   Remember to always monitor the community. If you aren’t paying attention to certain metrics, how do you know if your community is growing and thriving? How will you know what you’re doing well within the community and what more people would like to see you doing?

I wish Top 10 Lists were about 20 items longer. I’m so passionate about the communities I’m fortunate to be involved in and would love to say so much more! For now though, I’d love to hear what YOU have found – what makes your community great? How did you begin to grow it? What have you learned from your community that you didn’t know before you started?

Here's a shot from a recent Tweet-Up in LA!

You Could At Least Have Bought Me Dinner

As a blogger, I often find it hard to price my services. I find it easier when it comes to marketing and PR, but harder when it comes to giving out quotes for social media and blogging. Although it might not seem like it, the days of working as a full time social media person or blogger are still relatively quite new. There are as many variables as there are people looking for work – engagement rates, social media following numbers, conversion numbers, reach, what topics you write about with authority, what brands you have worked with – the list is almost never ending. 

Dinner in Exchange for Work?

I also find that because so many people see this as a way to be “livin’ the life,” i.e. working from home, seeming to set your own hours, looking at it as getting to be your own boss – prices fluctuate all over the board. Add to the equation, not everyone writes or creates content as their full time job. Bloggers and people that work as social media community managers and consultants rarely discuss their pricing with others – perhaps this is to remain competitive, or maybe it’s to avoid competition and bidding wars altogether.

Outside of blogging and social media, there are not many other industries where people would see no problem with asking someone to work for free, guest blogging, or helping with marketing plan writing or design…I had a handyman come over today to hang some pictures, install a couple locks and make a plan to put a fence in my backyard, and it would never occur to me to say to him, “Thanks for spending two hours here. I’ve got a soda to offer you, cool?” It would never cross my mind that he wouldn’t expect to be paid, so why do we, as bloggers and community managers?

I’m not sure I’ve got the right answer to this. I do, however, have a ton of questions that come to mind when I think about it. I’ll be asking you these questions during this Monday’s #contentchat (June 22^nd, 2pm CST). I’d like to get YOUR thoughts on things like:

1.      Is low self-esteem an inherent trait in bloggers? Those that work in social media? Why else wouldn’t we feel strong enough to demand we’re paid what we’re worth?

2.      Is there ever a time it’s ok NOT to be paid?

3.      Is there any truth to the statement, “I am not yet expecting to be paid while I’m growing my readership” ?

4.      Why do friends think it’s ok to ask us to write for them for free? My friend is a lawyer, should I ask him to take on whatever case I might one day have, and represent me for free? Maybe for a free lunch, in exchange for all the hours he will spend on my case? (not to mention the cost that he incurred while attending law school, in order to put himself into a position TO help me)

5.      Does it make you feel good if people ask you to do blogging or consulting for them, but don’t offer to pay you? Does it make you feel like a ‘thought leader?’

6.      Is it just too hard to say “NO?”

I feel that as bloggers, and people that are regularly engaged on social media, we are already sharing a lot of our knowledge or “secret sauce” items that we’ve learned along the way, and picked up via experience working in the field. Why, then, do people still want to “go to lunch and pick your brain?” If they find what you have to offer so valuable, why would they expect us to simply give away what we do for a living?

On the flipside, how would our paying clients feel, after finding out we’re doing work for ‘friends’ for free? Wouldn’t that jeopardize all our other business relationships?

My biggest “problem” is that I love to help people. I love the moment of discovery when you realize that something you’ve said or shared gives them their lightbulb moment. So I can, at times, find myself in a position of sitting at “lunch” with people and freely sharing, only to feel later on down the road that perhaps I’d been taken advantage of.

I can’t wait to further discuss this with everyone in #ContentChat Monday! I hope you’ll join me – I’m sure a lot of us have experienced this very thing, yes?

5 Steps Towards Getting Started in Social Media

I love social media. That comes as a surprise to no one, I’m sure! I have met some of my closest friends through social media – some that I have never even met in person….yet.  I have also brought brands to acquisition by building up their social media networks and taking that marketing offline. There are so many ways to use social media daily both in your life and your business, you really are cheating yourself out of some truly amazing relationships and experiences if you’re not invested in it.

If I were to tell you to go learn how to play guitar, you’d know how to do it. You have seen people play guitar, you know what a guitar looks like, and you have the ultimate goal already decided: play guitar. You know you could find people that already play that you admire or are friends with that you could ask, “What kind of guitar do you suggest I get?” or “Do you have any teachers in this area that you’d recommend I start taking classes from?” You could even get onto YouTube or find another source of How to Videos, and start immediately. You wouldn’t overthink it, and though it might seem overwhelming at first, you’d just start.

I believe you look at getting started in social media much the same way. You have seen people do it, you know plenty of people that do it and do it well that you can ask for advice, and though it seems overwhelming, you are ready to just start. The hardest part about starting something new, is that you don’t know what you don’t know, so you don’t always know what to ask people, or how to ask for help. Luckily, social media is one of the biggest topics these days, and you can Google and read articles and advice ad infinitum on how to start, and how to create your first social media plan. Overthinking it is natural, and while you will tell yourself many times to simplify your thinking on it, it still creeps up, even years down the road. That’s ok!

Though you didn’t quite ask for MY advice, you’re still reading this blog, so I’m more than happy to share how I would recommend you get started. While this is in no means an exhaustive list, I hope it is a great jumping off point to get you started on an amazing adventure!

Step 1: Examine Your Motivations & Set Goals

When I ‘want’ to do something, I always ask myself a bunch of questions before I start. Then, I use those answers to help me make a plan. At this point, you might want to ask yourself:

·        Why do you want to get into social media?

·        Do you want to use social media to stay in touch with people? (This is how I got started, I’d moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, and found social media was a great way to stay in touch with people from back home)

·        Are you going to use social media personally or for your business?

·        Do you want to be seen as an “influencer?” (I’d examine that motive, and suggest not going into it with that specific goal in mind)

·        Do I want to help people?

·        Do I have something to offer?

·        Am I introducing a new product to the market/creating brand awareness?

·        Would I like to create more loyal customers?

Then you will want to ensure you have the TIME and resources to put towards achieving your goals. If you are starting this for a business, you might need to hire people that have experience working in social media if you, yourself do not have the time to create meaningful relationships.

Step 2: Pick Your Platforms

Choose the platforms that best fit your goals. You don’t have to be everywhere, and in fact, you don’t WANT to be everywhere or spread yourself too thin. When choosing the ‘right’ social media networks for YOU, remember that it’s personal to each person. What works for me might never work for you.

The most important way to pick a platform, in my experience, has been the same whether I’m using social media personally or for business. Find where your people already are. If it’s for your personal use, what platforms are your friends using? Where can you find most of them? If this is a business account you are creating, where are your customers talking about your brand the most?

Step 3: Make a Profile on Your Social Networks

This is where the questions in Step 1 will come in handy. Once you have examined your motivations, only you know how clear they are. When you are filling out your profiles, I would suggest being as open, honest and transparent as possible. While that might not be for everyone, I find it works best FOR everyone. Would YOU want to interact with someone and begin developing a deep relationship, only to find out months down the road that they aren’t in any way who you thought they were?

I tend to naturally write like I speak, so I use language in my profiles that sound like the same ‘me’ you would meet if you were to pick up the phone and call me. I think that helps people relate and find similarities to me, and that (hopefully!) makes it easier to engage with me.

The best part about creating your profile? Once you hit “publish,” it doesn’t immediately get put into the Smithsonian. You are always able to adapt, pivot and change any part of your profiles at any time. As you change, your profiles and network will as well.

Step 4: Start Posting!

We can look at content strategy in another blog, but for now, as you are first starting out, it’s important to dive in. You will need to find your voice and what works best for you about what posts resonate with your community, what times they are online and able to see what you are posting, how many times each day you should post, etc. Have you ever tried to learn a new language? I’ll bet you didn’t do it simply by reading books about it – I’d be willing to bet that you learned the most once you just started trying to converse with people in that new language. Social Media, being online, isn’t as different as people make it sound from your life offline.

There are as many posts about what to post, when and where as there are people using social media. While some of that could be helpful, what is going to be MOST helpful I believe, is to hear this: Find what works for YOU.

Look at studies. Some will say visuals get more interactions than any others. Some will say use 11 hashtags on Instagram. Some will say never use visuals and don’t use more than 3 hashtags on Instagram. You get to choose what you will follow and you will learn what “to do” the more you use each platform.

What works for ME? I try to ask myself for each post:

·        Is this helpful?

·        Is this relevant?

·        Is this useful?

Then, I listen. A LOT. People on social media are some of the most honest when it comes to giving you’re their thoughts, feedback and advice. If you honestly listen, without judgment, you can find out whatever you need to know.

Step 5: Always Be Testing

You will hear a LOT about “A/B Testing,” to me, that means “Always Be Testing.” Remember when you set goals in Step 1? How will you ever know if you have achieved your goals, if you don’t analyze what you are doing?

There are free tools you can use to analyze each post and there are more in-depth paid resources out there. Again, find what works for YOU. I have start-up clients that don’t have the budget for fancy reporting tools, and we’ve been able to get just as much information out of the free options.

What analytics should you be looking at? Again, this depends on your goal. Some that you might want to look at are:

·        Shares, retweets, favorites, likes and comments

·        Do you get more interaction on posts when you use an image or when you don’t?

·        Does using a video in your post help get more engagement, than simply posting text?

·        What are the top 3 topics your community responds to most?

·        It this working? Are you getting closer to your original goals?

I’d love to hear how YOU got into Social Media, what works best for you, and what you would add to this list! Please tweet me @lucyrk78 or post a comment and let me know?

 

 

Branding: What Does Transparency Mean, Anyway?

I have been in quite a few Twitter chats lately either focused on “transparency” for brands, or where the idea of transparency has come up. More often than not, I have watched people struggle with the meaning behind this term. While transparency for branding is not a new idea by any means, social media has done a great job, especially lately, in forcing brands to embody transparency and show a bit more of who they are, and how much they share authentically with their communities.

Who do we buy from? I’m willing to bet that 100% of the time, we buy from people and companies that we trust. I highly doubt that you would buy from someone that you have heard conducts bad business, or from a company known to cheat people. Trust is what businesses are built on, and what leads to engaged consumers that become repeat buyers. Transparency allows consumers to begin to get to know companies a bit more deeply, and if they believe in what they are coming to know, trust has already begun to form with that brand.

So what is transparency? Is it letting the public know what the CEO of the company is being paid, or trade secrets that make up the “special sauce” of each of the brands products? No. There is still a line between transparency and giving out classified info, and smart consumers know this. They know there are certain things that are solely between the stakeholders and founders, while there are is increasingly more that they CAN let the public “in on. When brands first began tweeting, we didn’t know who was sitting at their computer typing out the tweets. Today we do get to know the “face behind the brand,” and brand messages aren’t just about what the company is offering. Today we get to know how the employees of the brand spend their free time, and why they like their job at that company (and sadly for some brands, as we’ve seen, why some employees absolutely hate their jobs and are simply there for a paycheck). It makes it easier today to support brands you believe in, not just because they make a good product, but because they’re also a good company. Transparency can often make the difference between us choosing one brand over another, when they both have nearly identical products and price points.

 How does a brand learn to open up a little more and let a bit more of their teams personalities show through to their community?

·        Tell the truth: transparent brands admit when they’ve made a mistake, or sent out an errant tweet, or put out a marketing campaign that has missed the mark. They don’t ignore it, or delete it, or hope it just goes away. They own up to their mistakes and let their audience know how they will go about fixing the error and changing for the future. Oftentimes what may seem like a mistake that will cost them their business, can be easily forgiven by how well they recover and transparently engage with their community on what went wrong and what they will do to fix it.

·        Engage with open communication: Transparent brands don’t send out broadcasts all day, but rather they take the time to respond to tweets and messages people are sending to them. They make themselves available, even if it’s not on whatever editorial calendar they are working from. They pivot and change and adapt to what the community is asking for and letting the brand know they need, and they do their best to give those answers or resources to their audience.

·        Be a source for your community/consumers: By honestly listening to what your community is asking for and being in the right places where they are talking about what they need, brands are then able to give that information to them. If brands can openly and honestly discuss their corporate identity, their policies and their values, consumers can further realize they can trust this brand to focus on their needs, and help with their decision-making. Employees in a transparent company are accessible and there to truly help their community.

In this “digital age,” transparency helps keeps companies accountable. With more eyes than ever watching a brands every move on social media, “truth will out” faster than it ever has before. HOW a company does things is more important than WHAT it does, today.

It continues to be increasingly apparent that people trust recommendations from people they know more than any other form of marketing such as advertisements. Our trust increases when we see and believe in the transparency of a brand.

Why is every company not transparent? Are companies scared to be too transparent? I believe companies should be more scared NOT to be.

What are your thoughts? What brands do you see "doing transparency right?" Tweet me @lucyrk78 and let me know!

 

Perhaps I'm Just Not Cool, and This Won't Help (or) My Thoughts on Meerkat & Periscope

I’m not anti-Periscope or Meerkat. I think it offers amazing branding opportunities and chances to see different viewpoints and even parts of the world that I wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to. This is a great real time marketing opportunity for brands to showcase what they are working on, help with consumer education, bring their community along to events they are unable to join in person…it’s hard to stop my marketing brain from coming up with more and more instances where this will be enter into my strategic planning. I do sometimes like to be a voyeur and get an inside peek into certain people’s lives and this is just the thing to quench that thirst. It’s only been a few hours since the arrival of Periscope (oddly released before it was meant to be, or was saying that just to make us feel even more cutting edge for having adopted it even earlier?) and I’m already a fan, where I wasn’t of Meerkat.

I just have some questions. And concerns.

People like to be “famous.” It’s a sad part of our culture and with the new attention on apps such as Meerkat and Periscope, the opportunities to have million of eyeballs on anything and everything you do at any point of the day, makes this “insta-fame” even easier. There’s the saying “it’s like a train wreck, you just can’t look away” – will we feel the same watching a live stream of crime happening? Suicide in real time? Look at how famous serial killers become. Part of some peoples human nature is drawn to and obsessed with people who do bad things – will we make live streaming killers just as famous?

There is never a lack of news and trials about date rape, hazing, people passing out in college dorms and being taken advantage of while unconscious, only to find out through Instagram pictures that an incident occurred. How long til these acts are live streamed and simultaneously posted on Twitter streams across the world?

I recently brought up some of my concerns on the growing popularity of these new apps, and was quickly reminded that “live streaming on the internet is nothing new.” While that’s true, the attention it is now getting is new. And when people see that something is hip or popular, they want to be a part of it. Admittedly, I am drawn to it as well. Both good and bad, I suffer from “FOMO” quite often, and like most people in my online communities, always want to be an early adopter of new digital trends. I also have choices to make. And morals. And beliefs. And goals of who I want to be and the person I strive to become every day. And part of who I am is inherently curious and questioning (and more often than I’d like to admit even to myself, opinionated, generally loudly). Because of this, I have concerns.

When people do reality shows, there is a long involved screening process and many releases to sign. As more people are publicly live streaming, we are in a way, cast into their reality show with no release and quite possibly no knowledge that we are even involved. I can have live stream without anyone I can be filming knowing I am doing it depending on where my phone’s camera is placed. And while the people around me that are being filmed might never want to be included, they have no say in being distributed to anyone anywhere around the world.

I am also finding that watching unedited versions of people I know online and have long respected are losing a bit of my respect (or a lot, depending on what point of their streams I tune into) for their lack of humility. Ego is one thing I work hard at keeping out of my life, both personally and professionally. When someone mentions their “fans” in a live stream, I’m immediately turned off (and so is their stream). Why would you think I want to turn into you driving to work? Or walking your dog, streaming your inner monologues? Perhaps I need to vet who I follow and whose streams I watch more deeply, and weed out those that I’m not interested in. Perhaps my writing this blog is me being just as bad as some of the streams I’m discussing here – thinking anyone cares what my thoughts are on this topic.

Points of difference I’m enjoying on Periscope over Meerkat:

·        Replay – unlike Meerkat, Periscope saves live streams once they’re completed, and allows you to play them back later or keep them saved (streamers are also given the option to NOT have their streams saved)

·        Upon sign in, you are brought to a screen that shows you what streams are currently live, from both people you follow and those you don’t yet follow, as well as a list of recent streams. This is huge, IMO, as you can literally browse through streams to find what speaks most to you

·        Hearts – while you are watching a live stream, if you tap the screen, you send out a heart. You can send an infinite number of hearts, to show your appreciation to the streamer that you enjoy what they are doing. Both the person doing the stream can see this, as well as anyone else signed onto the stream with you

·        Comments do not post directly to Twitter – this was my biggest annoyance with Meerkat. There would be all these tweets in my feed that didn’t make any sense, there was no conversation to view around them, and no auto-hashtag to give them context. While I suspect this may change with Periscope, comments do not auto publish to Twitter and I love that.

Neither app currently allows you to preschedule broadcasts further out than 24 hours and I think for brands, that will be a game changer for whichever platform makes that available first. To be able to tweet out a date that you will be giving a talk or live streaming an event will definitely help experiential marketing.

I look forward to your thoughts on this. In the meantime, I’ll be delving in and joining people at home, at work, in their cars, at the store….

20 Things Chicagoans Never Say

 

1.      It’s 2am. There won’t be a line at Garrett’s.

2.      I’ve never had deep dish pizza.

3.      There’s 2 feet of snow and a lawn chair at the curb. I wonder why?

4.      Freeway.

5.      Let’s take the 90. Unlike our friends in the West, we’re on a last name basis with our expressways.

6.      Yes, I’d love to spend the day on Michigan Avenue!

7.      Want to get Superdawg? I can just run in and pick it up. Why sit in the car?

8.      I don’t own a North Face.

9.      Who’s Billy Dec?

10.   Let’s grab lunch at Taste of Chicago. It’ll be fun.

11.   What windchill?

12.   I never put on weight in the winter.

13.   Wait til next year? Nah. We’re goin’ all the way THIS year!

14.   I sure wish I could find a Starbucks.

15.   Jay Cutler totally deserved that contract.

16.   Michael who?

17.   I’ve never dated a guy with a beard.

18.   What do you mean “The Mob?”

19.   The Dan Ryan? Easiest way to get around the city.

20.   Earthquake!

4 Things My iTunes Library Taught Me About Marketing & PR

Can a song save your life? I believe it absolutely can.

Can a song teach you about your business? I believe it absolutely can.

 

1.       Eminem  “Rap God” - "I don't know how to make songs like that

 I don't know what words to use"

Let people do what they are best at.

 I understand that in startups, people wear many hats, I’ve been there and done that, but I also understand that it takes money to make money. Don’t have your web designers writing your marketing plans. Don’t have your graphic designer doing product development.  Let the web designers do what they’re good at, have them work with your graphic designer and get yourself a great looking, easy to use website, have them ensure that it’s mobile friendly, and let your marketers write the marketing plans. Leave SEO to your web guys and let your marketing team take on social media.  Outsource if you need to – this way, everyone will be performing most productively, and hopefully enjoying their work more and taking ownership in their responsibilities.

                                               

2.       John Digweed “Morphism”

Keep people waiting and wanting more.

 John Digweed is great at taking his time to get people from merely bobbing their heads into a full thrown rave. Always leave your consumers wanting more from you so they keep coming back, needing to see what you’ll be doing next, what promotions will be coming, and when they can “win” free product or contests from you. Music is just like storytelling – you always want to bring your audience along the journey with you. Just like John Digweed does by using a long build in his sets, he is entertaining his audience – brands need to be doing the same thing with THEIR audiences, with the way they build their sets/storylines/product stories. This will help build brand loyalty and hopefully keep your brand relevant and top of mind with your consumers – striving to keep your consumers coming back to see what is coming next.

 

3.       Rihanna “The Monster” or “Love the Way You Lie”

Be so good, they can’t ignore you.

I have to admit it. I don’t hate much, but I absolutely abhor Rihanna. The worst part of it? I absolutely LOVE her music. The other worst part? I have never been able to put my finger on precisely what it is I hate so much about her, there is just SOMETHING that 100% rubs me the wrong way with that woman. However, I will listen to “The Monster” for hours upon hours, even days, on repeat and not simply because I find Eminem genius. I think her voice lends itself perfectly to that song. I do not follow her media dramas, nor do I even want to get started on her relationship dramas – I am luckily able to completely tune that part of her out, but she is so good, she stays on my radar. These days, people want more than simply a great product, they want a great TEAM behind the product, and they want to get to know that team. You easily may not have the #1 product on the market, but you can have the largest fan base becoming repeat buyers if you can establish relationships with them and make them love YOU. Create interesting stories for your products, BE an interesting real human being in your social media work, even if you’re tweeting from behind a brand’s name or logo. Be so good they can’t ignore you – create useful and meaningful content that people are excited to share with their social media followers!

 

 

4.       Kenny Rogers “The Gambler” - “Son, I've made my life out of readin' people's faces…”

Know your audience!

This may be the most important piece of effectively marketing your product there is. Here’s a personal example – for the past five years, I worked in marketing for a coconut water company. I would always tell people that at some point in their day, EVERYONE was a candidate for coconut water. It was simply up to me to know my audience, who I was talking to, in order to let them know the right usage occasion for them. I wouldn’t tell an athlete the same reason and time to drink coconut water as I would a pregnant woman, or a student studying for finals. Knowing your audience is being able to quickly get a read on the person you are speaking with, how they like to be communicated to, and looking at what you want you need to get across from their point of view. In that way, you can convert someone that would never try your product, into a repeat buyer.