Case Study: I'm a Winner!

Do you like free things? Do you love music? Do you, like me, enjoy time travel? If so, you'll understand why I was hell-bent on winning tickets to the recent iHeartRadio iHeart80s party!

Since I drive an old car, the only source of music I have is my FM radio, and more often than not, it will be tuned to the 80s music station, iHeart80s. When I heard the iHeart80s DJs begin promoting an all-star 80s reunion show, I was bound and determined to win tickets. They do an excellent job on this station of building up hype, with frequent spots promoting the event sandwiched between hits by the stars, peppered with comments from the DJs on how excited they were to attend. They even discussed what they planned to wear and which songs they were hoping to hear, so before long I was caught up in it and I knew I HAD TO BE THERE. (Note: just because I teach and consult in marketing does not mean I am in any way immune to it!)

Now, the wise person would have just purchased a ticket, but what happened to me was like a fever: I KNEW I was going to win tickets, so I didn't have to buy them! I even fantasized about meeting the band I was really wanting to see, the 80s reggae masters UB40, as well as front man for the Aussie band Men at Work, Colin Hay. Believe me, I daydreamed myself right into the green room and imagined all the selfies I would take with my musical heroes. And all of this was to come to me for free, obviously. 

(not actually me...)

The standard way to win tickets (ask anyone) is the famous call-in at the right time and be the right number caller. This practice was huge in the 80s, so it makes sense. I certainly did it as a teen, trying to win tickets to see basically the same bands. I had the radio station's 800 number saved on speed dial on my cordless phone, which was state-of-the-art for the 80s, if you recall. Try as I might, though, in the 80s I never won concert tickets through a call-in. That didn't stop me this time, though. Since I basically time travel all the time, I was thrilled to re-enact the 80s and call in many times a day in attempt to win these tickets, and I did it for days. Days and days, actually - right after I dropped my daughter at school, again at lunch time, and later just before dinner. No dice, though, I never even came close. Caller 10 was my best...

As the concert date drew near, and I had still not won tickets, I did start to despair (and look up making the actual purchase of tickets more than once) but then, the producer did a spot that changed everything: she announced that the radio station would also be giving away tickets through social media posts. Well HELLO, I thought, THIS is something I can win at for sure! (Being that I teach social media marketing, I literally HAD to rule this.)  

The method of winning tickets via social media was simple: go to their partner 7-11 and take a photo (many of us chose to take selfies, see below) and tag it with the appropriate hash tag (#bigdealssweepstakesentry) and hope that your photo was selected. So, guess who went right out and did just that? Yes indeed, selfie queen, above. And a few others did the same, and posted on Instagram: 

The number of hopefulls posting similarly on Twitter was higher, because the demographics for this radio station (as well as the concert) are typically older, and thus more use Twitter than Instagram, so I knew that I had a good chance on Instagram. Me, that is, and the few other Gen Xers who actually use Instagram, and were not shy about cluttering up our grids with shameless promotional posts in exchange for concert tickets. 

Not that I am obsessive or anything, but I swear I was checking Instagram about every 30 minutes for 24 hours before I got the message I'd been waiting for, that I had somehow known all along I would get, confirming my status as the winner I know myself to be: 

And that was it, no more waiting for the right time to call, no more dial-busy-hangup-dial-again cycle and no more hysteria. I had tickets and I was going! All I had to do was convince my friend to go with me dressed in my ridiculous 80s ski jacket and show up with my photo ID. I happily posed for photos for the radio station's website, where I later found this photo posted along-side those of all the other winners. Winners, see? 

And guess what, it really was a great show, and while I was there I realized that though I *knew* I would win tickets, it was a show I would gladly have paid for, so I really was thrilled. Can you tell? 

I was truly grateful, so I took to social media again (obvz) to thank the radio station. I used the very medium that won me the tickets (though a different platform) and later the radio station's account "liked" my post. That's social gratification and hopefully acknowledgement that they are doing it right. Way to sell to your 40-year-old-nostalgic-woman audience! 

One final difference between winning concert tickets in the 80s by the phone and today is that though often the callers were broadcast when they won, screaming with delight, that was fleeting and only heard by those tuned into the radio at that moment. Today, with the social media post, as well as the photos the radio station snaps as "payment" for the win, there is a public record of the attempt and the win. From a marketing perspective, the more entries the better it looks for the one doing the giveaway, in terms of statistics as well as exposure and endorsement. So while I am here thinking what a winner I am, look who is actually winning: It's the brilliant marketing team at iHeartRadio who really know how to use new media, even if it is for time travel. Bravo! 

Case Study: Storytelling in the Digital Age THE STORM

I love telling stories (I once had a work review go south because I was "too chatty", which was before I entered the world of communications), so when I get the chance to use digital media to tell a story, I am thrilled. As a social media strategist, it is my job to teach my clients to use new media to get their own story out into the world, so a recent storm which knocked down a tree (no damage or injury!) serves as a perfect case study. Follow along with me as I re-tell the story of the storm and show you how I shared it as the events unfolded.

One Sunday about a week ago, I awoke to a huge sound, at first not unlike the racket of several plastic trash cans all being knocked over at the same time (this has happened, thanks raccoons trash pandas...) but which concluded with a sound I'd never heard the like of, which turned out to be the sound of a huge Cypress tree next to my building breaking and crashing down into the street, just missing several parked cars and my landlady's bedroom window. Nobody was outside at the time and no damage was done, so although we were quite sad about the tree, it became a neighborhood event and actually pretty exciting. Below, see how I used various social media channels to tell the story.

After confirming nobody was hurt, I threw a raincoat, hat and boots on and grabbed my phone to head outside for the next 4 hours. Snapping away, my first post shows the scene from a bit of a distance, and includes my car to make it personal. Instagram is my favorite platform for imagery, so I started there, and tagged local news agencies while I was at it, because my local images have been picked up for news reports in the past. (This was not selected; I later learned that there were trees down all over the city because this was a huge storm, and many of them had serious property damage, so we really were lucky!) At this point, I didn't know what # were trending, so I made up my own, like #treedown and #winter2017

Next, I created a collage to show more detail on the tree and posted it to Instagram, sharing as well to Facebook: 

And speaking of Facebook, the next thing I did was start a Facebook live broadcast, where I introduced myself and then walked around showing the scene in great detail. During the broadcast (which I tried to keep to about 5 min or less because that is the length of peoples' attention spans, on average), I asked my viewers if they were also experiencing any trees down in the storm, and I heard from a few friends that they were. As soon as the DPW showed up, I quit my broadcast to make sure I was not in their way. (Note: don't endanger yourself or irritate others for the sake of a live broadcast!) 

Not published, here is an "outtake" photo showing my car and the caution tape. After taking this photo, I made a quick video as I walked up to move my car, as directed by the DPW. I didn't do a live broadcast, just a quick 20 second video because the sound of the tape slapping in the wind was intense. This I posted to Instagram. 

As the work progressed, I posted a couple of comments with no images on Facebook about the sound of the chainsaws, and the intense piney scent of the cut tree. I posted another short video to Instagram of the chainsaw action, as well as one of the DPW truck departing with the 4th load of branches from the cleanup. Then I posted this image to let my followers know that the work was nearly done: 

AND I found something happy to put into the story: my landlady was allowed to collect the cuttings of the stump, which were heart-shaped! I love the colors and shapes in this image, which is perfect for Instagram: 

As the branch was cleared from the car, the neighbors and I watching were too tense to film, but I did snap some photos of the action and later created a photo collage as the car was freed and then cleaned of layers of sawdust: 

Cleaning the freed car; neighbors and DPW workers:

When the car was freed, and the branches were cut and hauled away, we all felt like we'd been through a major ordeal together! We were so deeply impressed by the DPW crew and how fast and carefully they worked. I made sure to post and thank them, still trying to work in a positive message: 

After being outside for 4 hours, I retreated inside to warm up and get back to my day, but I did want to wrap up my story later that afternoon, so I created a visual "card" post that I shared on Facebook as well as Instagram an hour in advance, to let people know what time to tune in for the conclusion of my story. This is one of my favorite strategies to build a following between platforms, by announcing on one that I will be doing something on another. I made sure to note my handle: 

As I began my Instagram live story, I took a screen grab which showed the results of the DPW's work. Because Instagram stories are not saved after broadcast, my followers could not watch the video afterwards on their own schedule, which is why I generally prefer Facebook live. The interesting thing about Instagram live is that they put a banner across the top of my followers' feeds, so after I began, several more people joined to see my tour of the aftermath.

For the most part, I only use Twitter for business posts, but Twitter rules for news, so I used it to research other storm reports from the area. As you can see from this screen grab, clearly things were worse elsewhere: 

To wrap up my story, I did the quintessential digital cliche: I took a selfie with the tree! (see above) This I posted across platforms to let all my followers know that everything was cleaned up and handled. I included myself in the image to bring it back to a personal level, and because I like to mix POV images with images of myself. After this, not only was I exhausted from the excitement, but I had dominated the feeds of my followers enough, so I logged off and spent Sunday evening with my family. 

Although this example occurred in my private life, these methods can be used to tell any kind of story, especially business events. If you would like help crafting your own digital story, give me a shout. 

www.carried-away.com

10 Ways to Livestream your Business

Teenagers seem to have a new dance these days: running around, phones held high, squealing and gesturing into the air, completely oblivious to anyone over 25... and friends, it’s not The Twist they’re doing, it’s livestreaming. And as usual, they can teach us a lot because the biggest trend for 2016 in business was exactly that! Hang onto your hats, Gen X, it’s a thing, and I can help you learn how to use it for your business.

My friend Sunny and I broadcasting live from an event

First, you’ll need to master the technical details, which can be found on my previous blog post. If there is anything I didn’t cover in sufficient depth, as my 12-year-old says, “Google It!” To get used to the practice, play around with live broadcasts on different platforms (you can always delete them later!) and once you have the hang of it, then comes the real work. What are you going to broadcast? Short of answering “everything”, let me share some ideas:

Tour of your office / studio: One of the first Instagram lives I watched was an artist standing in the middle of his studio with his dog, drinking a beer. He was speaking into the camera at intervals, but mostly panning around to his workspace, the materials he had out, his beer, his dog… OK the dog was getting the most “likes” but it was a fascinating few minutes where I and a handful of others got to hear someone speak who’s work we had previously followed online, and seeing the stacks of raw materials and the tools he used made me look at his work with even more interest. It was as good as being given a tour in person. Well, that minus the beer and getting to pet the dog.

Show yourself or staff sampling food at your restaurant: No the viewers still won’t be able to taste it, but the visuals can be so much fun for this kind of thing! The possibility for candid humor abounds here as well, especially if you are particularly expressive of face. Not that I saved it for the archives, but the very first live I did was on FaceBook as I sat at Starbucks sampling one of their new coffee drinks. Friends who watched it said they cracked up over the face I made when I tasted how over-sugared the drink was, so this kind of thing can be used to humanize posts.

Demonstrate a how to: The world of the instructional video is something that pains many of us who had corporate jobs in the 80s and 90s, so we should be thrilled that it has loosened up and morphed into the more casual realm of livestreaming. The best part is that many of the venues allow you to save the MP4 files so you can later edit or publish on your website or YouTube as you see fit. Not to be confused with internal training, which should still remain internal, but many of your customers would love to see how it is that you do what you do. Candy making, carpentry, hair cutting, you name it. Show it going on live, and you’ve connected on a deeper level with your audience / clients. Re-posting clips of actual genius elsewhere can boost your SEO and help demonstrate your expertise in the field.

Interview Staff: why not do an impromptu Q&A in the office? Let your viewers get to know you and your team beyond what you carefully edit and post. The nature of livestreaming lends itself to un-rehearsed chat, so keep it informal and short. I would plan to ask people something about their area of strength or have them recount a story they love to tell. People love to talk, and it helps us connect with one another.

Day-in-the-life: Follow someone on their daily rounds of work, or film yourself if it isn’t dangerous. This behind-the-scenes, cinema verite technique can be effective to show a process (similar to a demo video) or a routine, such as feeding animals in a shelter, delivering newspapers or anything else that lends itself to a ride-along mindset.

Special event: this is perhaps the biggest use of livestreaming, and it’s a perfect fit. Whether you are broadcasting to those who couldn’t attend, or trying to build cachet by showing something not open to the public, the special event broadcast meshes well with social media’s aspirational feel. I will admit to watching lives filmed at award shows and fancy dinners which I would never be able to attend in reality.

Document changes: Are you having furniture delivered? Cutting your hair? Demo-ing an old office building? All of these moments can now be shared live and as they happen!

Work-in-progress: One of my favorite things to see on Instagram is when an artist shows images of the same work at different points in its creating. The work-in-progress broadcast takes this to another level and can be used to show process as well as steps. You could do a panorama of all current projects in your workshop, for example, or do a quick kitchen view while food prep is going on, for example, and then follow it up with a still photo post afterwards. For example, film a short live video of gift bags being assembled at an event, and then post a photo of the finished product on your event page.

Announcement: Livestreaming is the new press release! You can film yourself or staff making a business announcement or reading from a press release. The way to make this dynamic is to post in advance, stating the time that the live will be broadcast and reminding your fans to tune in to see it. Who rules this type of hype? Apple.

Q&A: finally, a live broadcast can be used to take questions from customers. You can set it up in advance so that people tweet their questions with a # that you will be following, and you can read them and answer them live, or you can also take the questions on the spot. Just be sure to read the questions aloud so that your viewers know what you are talking about!

Livestream anything - even listening to music in your car!

As I said above, I really think you can livestream just about anything, and if you have other ideas, please share in the comments. Remember the purpose of the broadcast, and tailor your language and behavior to the occasion, but have fun with it. Of course you still want to ask yourself each time if it is in line with your marketing plan and your mission statement and if you answer yes, press that button!

Carried Away with Livestreaming!

Though I've been calling 2016 the Year the Music Died (still mourning the loss of David Bowie and so many others), for digital marketing purposes, it is the year of Livestream - see this completely biased yet interesting and data-filled post from Livestream.com to learn about global use of live streaming. It is a thing and not going away any time soon. Are you doing it?

We've come a long way since 2010, when live baby owls broke the Internet with a U-Stream of their owl box in Southern California which was watched by 20,000 people and generated 20 million pageviews - did you get caught up in that? I sure did, I can remember watching it with my (then) 6-year-old daughter and shouting "live baby owl cam" over and over!

The Royals and their Owl Box: breaking the Internet before Kim K!

The baby owl cam, and the many other wildlife streams that copied it, were first generation and required detailed infrastructure like still-mounted cameras, cables, cords and formal web hosting to reach viewers around the world. The model was built on live streams offered from courtrooms and other business applications, running 24/7 regardless of viewers or content. In the 6 years since, we've striped away the barriers to entry so that anyone with a smart phone and a social media account can now broadcast live. Niche platforms like Periscope, Swarm and others offered livestreaming early on, but it was not until the megalith that is Facebook offered it (in August 2015) that it took off on a peer-to-peer level. 

Livestream is now THE thing, and it isn't just for teens chatting to friends. Businesses at all levels are using it, from an artist live streaming new work in progress, to Fortune 500 companies livestreaming behind-the-scenes segments during business events and everything in between. It is ON. 

FACEBOOK: 

I've been using Facebook live, and really enjoying it. Some of my broadcasts have a business focus (in fact, I appeared on a panel discussing eCommerce, which was broadcast in it's entirely on Facebook live) while others are just random silliness, like OH Wow, I have to share what I'm listening to on the radio Right Now! I even did a livestream to talk about doing livestreams: 

covershot; actual vid below :)

The thing I like best about livestreaming is the comments feature: your audience can comment on your stream as it happens. I use this often to ask questions (who uses FB live? how many sleeping puppies are in this pile?) and of course the ability to click "like" on the video as it plays, so that the broadcaster can see which element is the most popular. 

INSTAGRAM: 

Despite the fact that I love (and teach!) Instagram, I think the live feature is weaker than Facebook's. Note, Facebook owns Instagram now, so many of the same features are available, with the major exception being that Instagram Live broadcasts are not saved and cannot be replayed. Since Instagram live was just debuted in November, we can be sure to expect plenty of changes as the service becomes more popular. Though I have plenty of followers on Instagram, my broadcasts get few viewers and I am playing around with timing. Key also is announcing that the broadcast will be done. During the 2016 Election, I made the following announcement and then followed up with a later post giving the time ("Going live at 7pm with my dramatic reading, tune in!").

Announce the upcoming livestream to gain watchers

I could just as easily have made this announcement on Instagram and done the reading on that platform (had it been available then,) but Facebook saved the video so that friends who could not join in the moment were still able to watch later. 

As mentioned, Instagram is just starting the whole live thing so I'm sure it will change as soon as next week, but for now, if someone you follow is currently live (when you open the app), you will see a purple "live" tag in their round circle which otherwise indicates they have posted an Instagram Story (these are short vids and images that only last for 24 hours on the platform in addition to the original photo grid / feed.)

From my home screen, I can see that @ivy_unicorn is live

Then I can go to my story screen and start my own live broadcast, and here is what I would see before anyone started watching me:

(filmed during the recent San Francisco RAINPOCALYPSE...)

I've noticed that the popular videos on Instagram so far are - SHOCKINGLY - livestreams of pet accounts. Yes, I have watched, and "hearted" repeatedly streams of people's cats playing. I mean, of course I just use this for business research purposes ;)

TWITTER: 

I have to admit that I have not yet used Twitter live (a whole new meaning to "live tweeting" eh?) but I got this email announcement yesterday that it is available now, so stay tuned because I will try it too.

I wonder how soon till Donald Trump starts livestreaming? Did I mention that 2016 was the End of Times....

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter: @carriedawaysf and share your livestream experiences in the comments!