My new hashtag series sparked from a number of different places…
Beginning in October, I had the pleasure to doing 2 Instagram Meetups. One with NBCU’s Health Week. Another was an Instagram walk in Central Park with Estee Lauder using the hashtag #mysimplepleasures as the theme. Both had sparked my love for events, exploring, photography, and social media.
And finally, meeting with many people for informational interviews. The last one I conducted was with Monica Lo and Megan Nuttall who’s advice to “Do things that matter” has stuck with me ever since. Starting this series matters to me. I love creating new ideas and sharing what I’m most passionate about, social media.
Above all, lets just say I was recently left discouraged from doing the things that I know I’m capable of — there is nothing greater than proving people wrong and since then I am left with this reminder:
“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
And with that I will leave you with my first of many #hashtag series. Enjoy!
Last week I participated in the Curators Conference. As I did not want to pay $400 for admission, I decided to take what I like to call the “Hustler Approach” and volunteer for the event. To say the least it was a gruesome 12 hour day, but well worth not having to shell out the cash for the conference. Another positive was getting to experience the inner workings of running a conference, something I’ve always wanted to do.
While being a volunteer does face the disadvantage of being able to seeing every speaker, a few speakers I did manage to see stood out to me. Specifically Soraya Darabi, who is the co-founder of Foodspotting and was formerly in charge of NYTimes’ Social Media. As most speakers took the approach to talk about their company and what they do, Soraya instead, walked us through an hour by hour snapshot of her day with the apps and websites she uses daily– curating her life through social.
Her day consisted of this:
Cir.ca: News, re-imagined. (New app -not yet released.)
Path: Staying connected with family & close friends.
Work Flowy: Organize your brain. This tool helps organize personal to-dos, collaborate on large team projects, take notes, write research papers, keep a journal, plan a wedding, and much more.
Sparrow: Combining email and social at the same time.
BrandYourself: Curating SEO results, your personal brand, and Google results.
Foodspotting:Visual guide to good food and where to find it.
Spotify: Digital music service that gives you access to millions of songs.
Highlight:Gives you a sixth sense about the world around you, showing you hidden connections and making your day more fun.
Svpply:Online shopping. Helps you find the products you love, from the people and stores you find interesting.
This break down left me wondering– is this even true? Does anyone have a breakdown hour by hour of applications they use? Probably not, even Soraya mentions she only uses specific apps and only the most productive ones that meets her own needs. Perhaps it isn’t possible, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have productivity in mind.
Continuing to thinking about this concept I asked myself —Is anyone this organized? What is my daily routine?
Looking at my past few days, weeks, even months I realized I honestly don’t have one. I love to stop what I’m doing to help others but I haven’t really helped myself. Feeling completely unorganized with managing my own priorities, this is something I need to start changing.
“Small sustainable changes are more likely to stick.” I may not have a solid play-by-play of every hour of my day, but I can start by making small sustainable changes.
Things I would like to try for 30 days:
Dedicate an hour a day to:
Writing
Reading
Learning Italian
Gym time
Personal time– Including everything I need to catch up on in life, from Twitter updates to planning my birthday trip.
Cooking one new recipe a week
Trying one new restaurant per week
Meet 5 new people per week
Like Matt says, “the next 30 days are going to happen whether you like it or not, why not do something you’ve always wanted to try.”
I thought I would try out something new and find the most intriguing campaigns and promotions of the week. Hopefully, turning this into a more weekly occurrence.
To kick things off, this week’s picks include an e-commerce brand’s Facebook approach to achieving more “likes” and customer interactions, a foodie favorite of mine whose Summer Cookbook snagged a collaboration with Apple and Starbuck’s “Pick of the Week”, and a beverage brand hitting the pavement in your local borough.
While Facebook no longer allows you to “Like” before entering Facebook contests. I love Birchbox‘s approach in thinking outside the box to get more “likes” and customer engagement through their Facebook channel. Now I will have to wait until Monday to learn more about promo code. Oh the suspense!
I am such a huge fan of Tasting Table, so when I saw this at Starbucks today I literally did a double take. I am so glad that they were able to do this summer cookbook campaign with Starbucks and Apple, more people need to know about this brand.
3.) Vitamin Water – Guerrilla Marketing, Hitting the Streets
Vitamin Water brings the product offline and into the hands of the community. I saw them passing out Vitamin Waters last week in Fort Greene, Brooklyn and now Astoria in Queens. I love how they have been using this summer’s heat to their advantage and getting face to face with consumers. More importantly, they’re not taking it to Times Square, they are hitting the local community, which I find to be a great strategy since now I remember and am writing about their brand which means it’s working.
Nicole Monahan 