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meerkat-periscope

Meerkat and Periscope: What’s the Hype?

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Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock this past month has heard about Meerkat and Periscope, a competitor created by Twitter. As the “breakout app” of SXSW being used by Mashable’s Pete Cashmore on a selfie stick walking around Austin and Julia Louis Dreyfus during her VEEP panel, Meerkat was hard to ignore. Now Periscope pretty much does the same thing and has stolen all of Meerkat’s thunder. So what do these apps do actually?

Remember when Charlie Sheen went all crazy with #winning and strippers and held a Ustream of him ranting? I remember – I am ashamed to say that I watched. If Meerkat or Periscope were around back then, Charlie likely would have used that instead. It is the mobile version of Ustream, allowing its users to live stream on the go. So why then is it so ridiculously popular if there was already a similar service? Well, first off they’re integrated with Twitter (Periscope is obviously more so integrated). In a nutshell, when you start streaming, a Tweet goes out. With Periscope, you have the added ability to be able to see reactions to your stream from Twitter embedded in the app. Also, if you think about it, no one has really improved upon the ability to live stream until now. Improvement, you ask? Meerkat allows you to record and schedule your stream for a later time, while Periscope allows users to save videos to replay them later.

So what’s all the hype about? Well, if you’re an everyday person who isn’t a celebrity, politician, or reporter, you aren’t likely to have a big viewership with Meerkat or Periscope. No one really cares what you have to say in real time. If you do happen to fall into one of those popular people categories, it’s the compelling content that is going to keep followers coming back (or maybe not? Here’s a live stream of a fridge at the Washington Post that’s quite popular. Maybe it’s just the big brand that keeps people watching… or the novelty?).

A big challenge for both Meerkat and Periscope as I see it (if either or both stay alive), is that in order to succeed, they really have to encourage the top-level influencers to keep the everyday user tuned in. Periscope may be the present day cool-kid app (Sorry Meerkat), but it’s more time consuming than a simple tweet or Instagram. So if the influencers get bored and don’t use it, the everyday user is going to peace out.

While the live video concept of Meerkat and Periscope is compelling and dramatic, the apps can only continue if both the influencer continues to stream interesting content and the user is available to consume it.

My final thought that I just can’t get around when it comes to streaming-type apps like this is this – who has time to watch live programming anymore? Didn’t God invent the DVR to get around what these apps offer? Even if it’s programmed content (from Meerkat) or a stream that you can save to watch later (from Periscope), I’m still not compelled to tune in at a certain time to be able to view or save the content.

Finding Furry Creatures at SXSW 2015

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I traveled to SXSW 2015 with my client Domain.ME. Their expectations? Party like a rock star, celebrate #MeDay and lounge (when I say lounge, SXSW style, this means visiting lots of brand lounges. The PayPal lounge was my personal favorite). Sound like a cushy gig? Actually, it was exhausting. It’s taken me a full week to recover and I even set some serious ground rules for myself to prevent me from over-doing SXSW. For example, I announced early on that I gave up alcohol for lent (well in truth, I gave up alcohol for lent until 6pm in the evening) and I would turn down all those offers for free food, drinks and apps.

SXSW can be overwhelming, so it’s important to set a focus around a topic or a track you’d like to follow. My travel partner Leticia Barr decided to follow the Social Good track and spent a lot of time at the SXgood venue set up for that. My roomie, Heather Whaling really focused on entrepreneurship to help bolster her already super successful firm, Geben Communications. I decided to focus on furry creatures. As such, I set time to meet or interview any of the furry creatures I met at SXSW. Here are my highlights:

Here I am at the Mashable house having a little chat with Morris the Cat from 9Lives. Key takeaway? Beyond meow, cats don’t have a lot to say. (And yes, he was a real cat!)

Morris The Cat + Danica

Got to meet Cookie Monster and share some memories from my very first job way back in the days working on Sesame Street. Cookie did not remember me, but he did encourage me to nom nom.

Cookie Monster + Danica Kombol

Spent some quality time with the HootSuite owl (both in the Hootsuite lounge and on the streets of Austin). Shared my true love for the platform and we did some serious hooting and hollering together.

Hootsuite Owl + Danica Kombol

Squirrels can be, well a little squirrely, but this one stopped me outside the convention center to share his love of books. While I’m not a fan of squirrels (in my mind, they are urban rats), this one was a book worm like me, so we cuddled up with a book together.

Squirl Squirrel + Danica Kombol

Lastly, I took a tour of the convention stalls. Ugh, convention halls with the endless rows of booths and those booth people acting like carny hustlers, beckoning you to visit to get a free sticker, candy, or download another useless app! I was about to bolt this bad booth experience when I bumped into the adorbs Betsy Fore looking like a 1950’s star in a cute doggy adorned pinafore. She has just launched this truly cool product called WonderWoof. Small, stylish, and looking like a bow, it attaches to your pup’s collar. WonderWoof allows you to track all your mutt’s activities through an app, so you can make sure your canine is getting enough sleep, exercise and kibble to get him through the day. While WonderWoo is not a furry creature, the product she offers is ideal for my furry creature, so I devoted my one videotaped SXSW interview to woof!

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Internet Fat Cats: Memes and Marketing

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By Molly Daly

I’d wager to guess that almost every Facebook user has seen a meme in their day. There’s a decent chance that those memes feature cats. The Internet has had a long lasting love affair with felines and many cite the ancient Egyptians as unknowing inspiration to future generations.

The concept of Internet memes has spread from culture sites such as Reddit and 4Chan and worming its way into the mainstream and life as we know it. For “meme management” pioneer Ben Lashes, it’s a way of life. After success with perhaps one of the oldest cat memes, Keyboard Cat, Lashes left his job as a music distributor and started managing memes full time. Keyboard Cat has made several television appearances, and his likeness was even used in a Pistachios commercial, with over 2.5 million YouTube views on the ad alone.

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Photo courtesy of YouTube.com

Lashes manages other popular memes such as Nyan Cat, and Grumpy Cat, among others. There’s a bit of a feline pattern here, but that’s no surprise to a Redditor or a cat lover. (Or in my case, both.) Therefore, I am pleasantly surprised by the recent leaps Internet cats have made towards television and film.

grumpy cat

Photo courtesy of GrumpyCats.com

Grumpy Cat, who was boosted to extreme popularity thanks to Reddit, has hailed many accolades. Voted Meme of the Year at the 2013 Webby Awards, she now has over 1 million Facebook likes under her dwarfish belt, was a star at SXSW – and just scored a movie deal. I can only hope the proposed Garfield-style family film lands on its feet.

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Photo courtesy of LilBub.com

 

Another figure in the feline field is Lil Bub, who won big at the Tribeca Film Festival with her documentary on cats and the Internet, titled Lil Bub and Friendz. If this blog post caught your cat fancy, I definitely recommend checking out the trailer.

There’s no question that the popularity of Internet memes affects marketers in a big way. So how can brands catch the breaking memes before they become too mainstream? “Become a nerd about memes,” says Ben Lashes, in an interview with Big Think. “Watch culture websites like the stock market.” For me in particular, this advice is not hard to follow.

Danica geeking out at SXSW13

SXSW, The Land of Hipster Chic

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By: Danica Kombol

Every business trip I take is accompanied with anxiety about what to wear. What will the weather, the crowd, the vibe be like? I’m devoted to ridiculously high-heeled shoes so I have to balance my walking goals with my fashion goals. My first trip to SXSW had me particularly vexed about what to wear. Just what is Austin geek fashion and how will my Gucci clogs figure in to this? I have now attended SXSW enough times to realize the clothes do not make the attendee We’re talking super geeky techies and while there’s a certain fashion innuendo, it’s hardly anything I needed to worry about. In fact, I realized all you need to do is just show up with a good geeky pair of glasses and you’ll fit in just fine. If you’re a guy, add some facial hair and a t-shirt and you’ll be at the height of SXSW fashion. To prove my point, I took it upon myself to capture the best whiskers and specs at SXSW interactive 2013. Check out my gallery of photos below.

 

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Watch Live: SXSWi Innovator Interview Series

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Tune in live for the SXSWi Innovator Interview Series for the skinny on all the action at SXSW 2013 with Sound{TRACK}! Sarah Evans (@PRSarahEvans) is interviewing some of tech’s biggest names at the Samsung Blogger Lounge (powered by Watchitoo) on March 12, from approximately 1:00p EST. Sponsored by the good folks at Cox Communication’s social portal, Cox Blue.

Guests include:

Watch the live stream here:

SXSW: A Simplified Guide to Finding Your Way to the Best Stuff

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By: Lexi Severini

Everywhere’s founding members Tamara Knechtel and Danica Kombol are 2 of the roughly 300,000 prospective attendees at this year’s SXSW convention in Austin and we’re all collectively envious of them.

If you happen to be a part of that oh-so lucky pool of people who have already, or will be descending upon Bat City in the next few weeks, consider this list your guide to new and sought-after SXSW social apps! I also threw in a couple of apps that will help you navigate the scene itself!

Apps to check out while you’re there:

  • Screen Shot 2013-03-08 at 3.58.22 PMHighlight: This start-up got a lot of attention last year, and it’s back for round two! Call it an app for the “socially adventurous” among us! This app lets you meet people based on similar interests who are in close proximity to you. According to their website’s description, “…as you go about your day, Highlight runs quietly in the background, surfacing information about the people around you.” This one might be creepily intuitive but these days, who doesn’t want to know about everyone and everything around them? And the goal of SXSW is to connect, so check it out and let us know what you think!
  • Screen Shot 2013-03-08 at 3.22.23 PMGauss: a.k.a. “The People Magnet,” Gauss utilizes information that already exists in your Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare profiles to assess the types of people it thinks you might be interested in meeting. By maintaining a list of things you would like to do, the app will notify you of people it thinks you should connect with. The good news is no one can see your info, and you get to choose if and when to connect with other users.
  • Screen Shot 2013-03-08 at 3.22.59 PMPearescope: Danica is what we call a “connector.” She somehow miraculously keeps a rolodex in her head of how and where she knows people from. This comes in handy for business moves etc., but if you don’t have that natural talent, this app is for you. Curious about or interested in a friend of a friend? Pearescope allows you to meet people by introducing you to other mutual friends. You’ll even be able to see who’s met whom and through which friend that you both have in common. An ideal way to capitalize on those 6 degrees of separation. Think LinkedIn, but in a socially intuitive app.

 

Apps to use while you’re there:

  • Screen Shot 2013-03-08 at 4.00.57 PMMashable SXSW Trendspotter- This website (with analytics by Topsy) will provide you with an up-to-the-hour look at the topics that are trending at SXSW based on categories like Music, Interactive, Brands, etc.
  • Screen Shot 2013-03-08 at 3.59.26 PMSXSW Go – This is a succinct mobile app created to help the busiest of SXSW-goers to stay organized and keep in the know. This app allows you to schedule your day, browse event media, find venues, and search for events/exhibitors. What’s especially great? It’s available on iPhone, iPad and Android.

 

SXSW can be overwhelming, but if you have the right arsenal you will survive. What other apps help you get around?

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#WeSing4Diapers Karaoke TweetUp

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From hosting social media influencers on a party bus in the Hamptons for our client Qualcomm while schmoozing with the likes of Khloe Kardashain Odom and The Real Housewives of New York’s Bethenny Frankel to throwing swanky blogger events at Sundance, in Harlem and at SXSW, Everywhere is known for hosting oversized social media events and managing social campaigns.

 

Beyond planning and socializing, It’s at events like these where we have the opportunity to go beyond the blog posts, tweets and bios of these socially-savvy individuals, and get to know bloggers first-hand.

 

Recently, we hosted an after-party on behalf of Macy’s, celebrating their Romare Bearden exhibit at a favorite local pizza joint called Nancy’s in Buckhead, Georgia. By chance, that’s when we happened to bump elbows with Kia Morgan Smith, super mom by day, blogger by night and founder of Atlanta Diaper Relief in every spare waking moment. Oh, and did I mention that Kia has five kids?

 

Many moms struggling to pay their bills and make ends meet are faced with a harsh choice some mornings: bus fare to work or diapers? Just like there is no free lunch, there are no free diapers. With this realization in mind, Kia founded Atlanta Diaper Relief, a nonprofit organization dedicated to giving low-income families free diapers.

 

Did you know that one in three moms in the United States struggle to find money to pay for diapers? Or that food stamps don’t cover diapers? Atlanta Diaper Relief provides diapers to mothers in need and hand delivers diapers to daycares.

 

Right then and there at Nancy’s Pizza in Buckhead, Kia and I decided to host a tweetup fundraiser…and to make it a real “wet your pants good time” with karaoke! Nancy’s is also home to Buckhead’s best karaoke spot, and the owner is a major supporter of local do-gooders. With Everywhere hosting, we decided to invite everyone we know and simply asked that all attendees show up with a bag of diapers.

 

The Everywhere team threw themselves into planning the karaoke tweetup with gusto. We invited every blogger we knew in a 60-mile radius, and soon our online invite list was brimming with rsvps. Our good friend, Marc Bolden, newly minted Ciroc ambassador to Atlanta, offered to provide as much Ciroc as we could possibly consume… but what to name the specialty cocktail? Our resident wit, Kelly Heisler, came up with the name “Baby Maker” and party-planner extraordinaire, Marleisse Stephens, researched blue and pink Ciroc-inspired drinks. Of course friends of ours know that we never do any event without TammePha Really Real cupcakes, whom we asked to concoct Ciroc-inspired flavors. Needless to say, she jumped at the challenge.

 

Truth? In Atlanta, there’s a different social media event nearly every week. With our social friends and tweeps, we get together to deconstruct Facebook or review the latest Pinterest campaigns – quite different from off-key singing and tweets! #WeSing4Diapers was just an old-fashioned good time with a great group of blogging and tweeting friends in attendance and a major fundraising component thrown in. When all was said and done, we collected more than 2,600 diapers for Atlanta Diaper Relief over the course of a few hours and brought 67 attendees to tweet, sing and munch on Ciroc-infused cupcakes. We also took over the Twittersphere in Atlanta that night – our Twitter impressions alone totaled 313,742. And along the way, we laughed so hard we almost needed diapers ourselves!