We are already in the second month of 2017 and I must admit, I am in LOVE! I am in love with live streaming live events and experiences. This past month our video production company live streamed our first 3-day conference and we learned so much. Despite all of the challenges with the event venue and our dedicated internet bandwidth needs for our equipment, things went amazingly well and our services received high reviews.

Tips for Live Streaming Excellence

As we have well heard, video is “it.” 2016 was coined the year of video by many digital marketing experts, and it will continue to reign. Live streaming events, experiences, workshops and special announcements will continue to evolve for both professional and personal use.

A Few Pointers for Your Next Live Streaming Opportunity

Live Streaming Camera Suggestion – the Mevo

If you want to get multiple-shot options from one single camera with wide-angle lens to cover the area your speaker(s) are presenting from, the Mevo camera by Livestream is my #1 choice.

We use this in our production services and purchased the kit that includes the boost for extra battery. I also include purchasing the optional insurance via Amazon.

The Mevo also:

• Has a facial-recognition technology to it that can follow your speaker in auto-mode. Again, just some cool and useful stuff!
• Allows you to edit in real-time as you record.
• Can simulcast to other platforms including via Livestream, Facebook Live and YouTube Live (currently working on sharing to other platforms like Periscope, too!)
• Plus, it saves the footage to the camera itself via a micro SD card.

Bandwidth Needs

Depending on the venue, there are certain bandwidth needs you’ll have if using a Mevo or similar camera to live stream properly. To read up on what these may look like, check out Livestream’s eBook for the details, HERE.

For Live Streaming Perfection, Have a Plan B

Regardless of what camera equipment you have in mind to use, have a Plan B. We ended up having to use our Plan B because the venue’s firewalls and technology didn’t allow us to properly stream. This was a big learning lesson all the way around for the hotel venue and for us! We had bought dedicated bandwidth, communicated with them on our technology needs, but they were not aware that they were not actually set up to follow through on the business agreement.

All of that to say: HAVE A PLAN B, and C, and so on …

A good Plan B option is to always have the following:

• iPhone
• Extra phone charger
• iPhone mount
• Full-length tripod. I have one like this tripod (to attach iPhone mount to). It’s functional and easy to transport.
• Gaff tape – Gaff tape is important for safety (tape things down so no one trips on the wires) and to secure things as needed (i.e. charging cable running down tripod to wall). It comes off easily and doesn’t normally damage most surfaces.
• Extension cord – always a good thing to have anyway.

Facebook Resources for Live Streaming

If you aren’t using a live stream platform like Livestream, you will want to create an event page on Facebook for the group of attendees to be able to view the live streamed content.

Learn how to create a private or public Facebook event page, HERE. Learn how to add photos and video to your Facebook event page, HERE. Learn how to create an event on Facebook (via a business page for example) HERE. And for more great event information for Facebook events, go HERE.

You’re Off to a Good Start!

We just covered the tools and tech for a successful live streaming of an event or experience.

How are you feeling?

You might be feeling good knowing a bit more about live streaming events, but also still wonder how it all comes together. That would be more than a blog-full, however, so let’s explore a few best practices to keep in mind and maybe we will look at this further in a future post.

Live Streaming Best Practices for Events

Pre-Event Review

Review the entire event flow as those who are there in-person will experience it. What are some of the key moments that can be made into digital activities for those viewing from your live stream?

Event Materials & Collateral

Looking at the event flow, are there handouts or presentation slides that would be beneficial to have as digital copies for those tuning in via the live stream? What is your preferred way to deliver that to them: email attachment, shared as a link within the live stream directly to the resource, or as a resource they get a link to – and must provide their email address to download? There are so many ways to connect them to the resource, think of “who” is tuning in and “how” they are related to the experience. What is the best way to meet them where they are?

Replays

Will you offer replays? Good to know this from the start as you look at promoting it, or possibly monetizing the event being live streamed.

Moderation

Will there be someone moderating the live stream conversations the entire time, partially, or not at all? A good thing to know in advance as far as how you will promote it and what additional costs this may add to the budget.

Live Streaming Follow-Up

What follow-up after the event would you like to have with live stream viewers? Will you offer a Q&A session exclusively for them, a follow-up group call, or a PDF of notes?

Once you have made your way through these steps, you are ready to join the live streaming phenomenon. If you don’t feel confident at first you can always practice with a few close friends until you get the hang of it. However, once you see the response you get from your audience you will fall in love just like I did.

Fall in Love with #LiveStreaming by @CazGaddis #RocksDigital
Click To Tweet

Have you used live streaming yet? Share what you thought of this tool at your event, workshop or experience!

Save

The post Fall in Love with Live Streaming appeared first on Rocks Digital.

So I’ll explain briefly the core motivations used to drive behavior and give examples of how to apply gamification techniques in retail, personal care and online businesses.

Still reading? Or has your mind drifted off to a social platform, interactive game or phone app?

Don’t chastise yourself because you grabbed your phone to play a “meaningless” game to kill some time or unplug for a bit from your day. Know this: It’s not meaningless.

It’s actually intentionally designed with you, the player in mind. The creators of such products including apps like Asana or FitBit, games like Candy Crush or social platforms like Facebook and its partners have developed the user experience based on human motivation.

This is what Yukai Chou defines as the industry of gamification. It’s called “gamification” because it was the gaming industry that first mastered creating an experience designed solely around a human focus.

Yukai’s 8 Core Drives of Gamification

After a decade in research, Yukai Chou created a great guide on gamification and a system called Octalysis; eight core drives that can be infused in to the design strategy of gaming.

1. Epic Meaning & Calling

Player does something greater than themselves or feels was “chosen” to do something.

2. Development & Accomplishment

The internal drive of making progress, developing skills, and eventually overcoming challenges.

3. Empowerment of Creativity & Feedback

Being engaged a creative process where players have to repeatedly figure things out and try different combinations.

4. Ownership & Possession

Players are motivated because they feel like they own something.

5. Social Influence & Relatedness

This drive incorporates all the social elements that drive people, including: mentorship, acceptance, social responses, companionship, as well as competition and envy.

6. Scarcity & Impatience

This is the drive of wanting something because you can’t have it.

7. Unpredictability & Curiosity

Being driven by wanting to find out what will happen next.

8. Loss & Avoidance

This core drive is based upon the avoidance of something negative happening

The key approach is to use one or more of the core drive variables, while keeping the power of storytelling top-of-mind in your marketing efforts and business strategies.

You can apply the theories of gamification to countless benefits and suituations. From New Year’s resolutions, hobbies, retail, non-profit cause and beyond–gamification can change the way we motivate people as well as the way we communicate our messages.

Business Gamification Examples

Here are a few great examples of how gamification has altered the consumer experience:

• Quiz: An interactive quiz called QuizUp partnered with Google Maps to increase the number of people using Google Maps. Their video case study showed how their “Earth From Above” QuizUp greatly impacted Google Map’s awareness, brand engagement and installs.  They used a mix of gamifying the quiz with time-constraints, levels, interactivity with other quiz takers, leaderboards and titles.
• Game:  Popeye’s Chicken game incorporated several core drives for the launch of their limited-time chicken offering. This game also uses advanced facial recognition to detect when a player blinks or is “chicken.”
• Business model: Gamification isn’t just in the digital space. One of my favorite online and off-line examples of gamification is Nerd Fitness. In 2009, Nerd Fitness was born from Steve Kamb’s thoughts, “I’m a nerd, I like fitness…so why not combine the two and turn life into one giant video game?” He now helps hundreds across the digital space and through in-person gatherings to “level up your life, every single day” in their health and mindsets. How awesome is that?!

Applicability to Your Business

Now it’s time to apply these principles and examples to you, your brand and/or business. Grab a pencil and paper and answer these questions:

1. How can you apply gamification to your business model?
2. What would be the business goal of your app or customer experience?
3. What does success look like?

Before proceeding with integrating gamification into your strategy make sure you know who your audience is and what game elements would be right for them.

Did any ideas spark on how you can get more engagement with your brand through gamification?

If you are already using gamification in your business model, how is it working?

8 Principles of #Gamification and Business Applicability by @CazGaddis #RocksDigital #Mobile
Click To Tweet

Do you have a favorite game or gamified app? Why does it capture your attention?

The post A Gamification Primer: Playing Games with Your Customer appeared first on Rocks Digital.

It’s time for all of the cobbler’s children to have shoes. If you’re reading this, you are likely to be a marketer or a small business. You’re apt to be busy, with little time to think about your personal brand.

We often focus on an urgent project and forget the most important part of the marketing plan: ourselves. So your career or business is the cobbler and your personal brand the cobbler’s children…who need their own shoes.

Let’s get the brand of you shared in a simple and sophisticated way, so that you can move forward with a digital footprint, err, shoes.

Before we get to the strategy, you are probably asking  “why is a personal brand important for me in the first place?”

Quite simply, if you own a business, your personal brand story humanizes your business. Your human experience, your personal brand story, is what can attract new prospects, partnerships and other promotional opportunities.

How could a powerful personal brand story help you relate to prospects and open opportunities for the future? As you continue to ponder that, let’s take some forward action towards that future. Yes?

4 Personal Brand Tools

Here are four ways that the most tech-savvy, or not-so-technologically-savvy people, can create a strong personal brand foundation in an hour or two:

• Grab your preferred account name across all of your desired digital platforms with Know’em.

Man! Before I found this website, I would have to go to each social media platform one-by-one to create an account. And, there were times where I would get to the third or fourth account only to find out my preferred account name wasn’t available!

This free tool allows you to search the name you want and see if it’s available in one conveniently smooth swoop.

The example below shows my account handle and its availability across various platforms. This saves lots of time and frustration and also helps establish your brand’s consistency right off the bat!

There are options to check across social platforms in categories such as entertainment, blogging, microblogging, business, news, health, information, music, news, photo, tech, travel and video. You can even check domain availability right on Knowem too.

• Create a personal brand center with a one-page website about yourself with About.Me or with Branded.Me.

There are a lot of one-page website tools out, however most of them have not been active on their social media for over a year and when researched only showed un-answered support issues. So I bypassed most of them and stick to About.Me.

My recommendations are like my gift-giving philosophy: I only buy (or recommend) what I myself have used or would like to have.

About.Me has been around for a few years and is a simple and effective way to promote yourself online with sleek design and one focused call-to-action. The menu features allow you to edit with ease.

You can also check out my podcast episode all about About.Me benefits and download my *freebie* on my top tips for maximizing the platform for your personal brand on I am SelfCrafted episode 16.

Another site that can be compared to About.Me, however with some distinguishing features, is Branded.me. You can create more than just a one-page account like you could with About.me. If you have a LinkedIn account, it will even pre-populate your profile details from what you’ve already entered in to your LinkedIn profile.

The biggest difference between Branded.me and other personal branding platforms, is that Branded.me allows you to blog directly from its platform.

• Use Behance to enhance your projects and portfolio.

Behance (part of the Adobe family) is an online platform to display your personal and work team creative portfolio. It’s very simple to plug in projects and work experience, and you can also link it into your About.me profile.

It’s a networking tool too, where you can follow other creatives. Think of it like how Pinterest displays pins we may be interested in, but they are people and their projects.

Behance is also is a place to post or apply for creative jobs.

• Find or get found on a whole pro-level on LinkedIn.

As of this year, LinkedIn -yet again- continues to go mo’ pro. It recently launched Profinder, a tool to find local freelancers for your project needs. Or, for some of us, a tool to get connected to those looking for our pro-awesome skill sets.

If you’re on the talent side, check out this article on LinkedIn’s “Keys to a Successful Profinder Profile”.

So there you have it. Four ways to establish or up-level your personal brand. Whether you’re a marketer, freelancer or business owner it’s imperative to always make a good first-impression. Your reputation is everything, so let’s put your best digital footprint forward.

Putting your best digital footprint forward with #Personalbranding by @CazGaddis #RocksDigital
Click To Tweet

Have you tried to craft your personal brand strategy? Any tips to share on what did or didn’t work?

The post 4 Quick Personal Brand Tips appeared first on Rocks Digital.