Hey there, we are here today with Business Growth Time. We have the phone here for Periscope, we have a special guest today, too, and of course my co-host, Terry Bean. Hey Terry how are you doing?
Janet, I am doing excellent which today I think is what’s the E’s going to stand for in Janet E Johnson, this is going to be excellent. I can hardly wait to see when people hop here.
Well Terry and I have this thing where we, I am more of a planner. I like to, you know, have that plan laid out. Terry likes to, you know, go with the whim of things and he’s been kind of helping me, you know, go that direction a little bit. Well that’s why we have our guest here today because Periscope brought me together yesterday afternoon with our guest Stephen, welcome Stephen! So glad you could have fun with us.
Absolute pleasure, thanks for having me Janet.
Absolutely. Well let me go backwards a little bit and explain how
I met Stepen and then I want him to introduce his story and his background, too. So I did a Periscope yesterday afternoon right before I was headed up to a meeting and I was in the St. Louis park area. And I’m in Farmington, which, nobody you know, if you’re around the world you don’t know. It’s about a 45-minute drive, it’s a little hike. So I happen to be headed to a meeting and this gal hopped on, Kohleen shout-out to Kohleen coz she’s on the Periscope right now, too. She said are you headed to
Applebee’s because I was talking about their campaign and this is something I want to kind of discuss with Stephen today, too, and talk about that. And I was talking about the Applebee’s campaign they did yesterday and she goes, are you going to Applebee’s?
And I said I should but now I’m not planning to and she goes well we’re going to Applebee’s in St. Louis Park at 6:30. I’m finding an echo, is that you Stephen?
I pulled up your Periscope, sorry.
Oh no problem, no problem. Okay. So long story short, I said hey, why I don’t I come meet you! Then next thing I know I go meet Kohleen at the Applebee’s at 6:30 while I’m in the area. And here’s Stephen, and here, what are you doing? Let’s go into what this all became and what this was about?
The way it started was Applebee, Applebee’s approached me about streaming their new menu items for taste to change. So I was watching so many of their live streamers early in the morning. So I was watching Geoff Goldberg walking through New York. Up hops Kohleen and mention she was from Minneapolis. Are you getting an echo?
You sound like you’re rocking the stadium Stephen, I love it dude! You just keep up! Check, check, check, check. Go!
So I pinged Kohleen and said well I’m streaming from Applebee’s later why don’t you join up? She said sure, where you headed? I said St. Louis Park. She said that’s my Applebee’s. I said great, feel free to invite friends, I got a gift card to make this happen. And lo and behold a few hours later there we all were sitting in Applebee’s.
Who knew! Isn’t that kind of crazy? And the interesting thing is Stephen and I had a lot of very, very, we have a lot of very similar connections but we’ve never connected ourselves and here we are in the same city. Small world.
One of my first Twitter follower was Gary Loper and I was looking over your digital inventory and you got a stream with him. I was a little awestruck this morning. But that was a neat face to see pop up. Like I’ve said, going back to 2009 he was probably one of the first people I followed.
Huh! He’s awesome. Yeah, remember Gary being on the show Terry?
Yeah, like 4 episodes ago. Yeah, he’s a great guy. I love all his networking tips and knowledge that he shared. Very, very cool.
He’s a power guy to get connected.
Yeah.
He’s very cool. So I like the fact that literally 30 minutes ago Janet and I were talking about what we were going to talk about, making sure we are on point. And she said oh by the way I think I have a guest. So he’s got 350,000 Twitter followers, I’ll fill you in when we get there. And I’m like oh that is so not Janet!
I love it. Very good!
I know. He was going last night to be, but honestly it’s not
necessarily me anymore with the kids and all. So it was just some crazy but the key is putting it back to Periscope, none of that would have, we wouldn’t have ever met each other because it all happened because the power of that live streaming on Periscope.
Yeah. This all began 24 hours ago with one iPhone to work, you know. I got the alert that Geoff Goldberg was going live. I tuned in, bumped into Kohleen made plans for the evening and here we are 24 hours later, you know, a complete social cycle.
It’s crazy, yeah. And then we, Kohleen and I figured out, she had started following me on Periscope due to Brian,
@iSocialFanz. So let’s get into that campaign. I don’t know if Terry followed that but I’d love to talk about that campaign and what they did with Applebee’s yesterday because it’s crazy. And so I want to give a shout-out to all three of those, all 3 of them had been, you know, they Stephen were in the studio all day long. So I want you to fill us in Steven. And Stephen I want you to talk about that and then I guess we’ll fill you, fill everybody in at the end where they can find you and all that stuff, too.
Oh for sure. Well you know big huge hat tip to Be The Change Revolutions, probably my favorite digital agency-social media.
They’re just, they’re awesome. Jonathan Brewer’s director of awesome for them and he’s just, he exudes love, humility and he’s such a knowledgeable powerhouse. You know, yesterday was, on camera that was iSocialFanz Brian, Vincenzo and Sunny, first time engaging Sunny for me. I engaged Vincenzo and Brian on almost a daily basis so seeing them in play was, there was nothing out of
place. Having Sunny there, I think, was certainly a rose between thorns and a great girl.
She’s real, Terry do explain who Sunny is. She’s real, real cute gal and just bubbly as can be, so yeah, she’s fun.
I like cute and bubbly.
Yeah and she tipped the bill. Attention Aron Media where the media outlet that we’re broadcasting that. Aaron is, Aaron Beaver 8pm warrior on the Twitters is very much a kindred spirit to Jonathan, just exudes love, just really high quality work. He’s good under pressure, just an amazing team. So for me, the gift was even to be associated with them. The campaign itself, I think they closed out with a digital footprint for a 1-day campaign of over a billion impressions online which is quite a 1 day impact for O’Brien to have.
B?
With a B.
With a B, not an M buddy, B.
With a B.
Wow.
I’m waiting for the rest of the stats to come out either later today or tomorrow. But the fact that the Applebee’s website didn’t even crash is a testament to the technical savvy and forethought that the team put into this.
Sure, yeah.
But just the revolutionary campaign from a brand that get’s it. I don’t know if you know this but the Applebee’s branding themselves, getting marriage proposals in the social channels. People proposed to Applebee’s for marriage. A talk about intimate connection with your audience, you know. It doesn’t get more playful or intimate than that.
Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, they did a really good job of, so Terry the how it works was they had #tasteforthechange and they picked certain social media, I don’t know how they shows them but people, you know, people that had an audience, you know.
Influencers.
They live-stream all day long. So we were lucky enough to be on the live stream and that it came in and they kind of cycle it through on Applebees.com?
Correct.
So they’s just showed Periscope or is it Applebee’s all over the country and possibly all over the world, right? So it was just a constant feed of people enjoying some of the Applebee’s goodness – your neighborhood restaurant at it’s finest.
Yeah absolutely.
That’s cool. Great use of the tool.
I think Applebee’s is a brand that just gets it, you know, they know how to connect with their audience. They really know how to love their community.
And for an aspect right there I love the effect.
They were able to, they were willing, let’s put it that way, to take a chance on this because it might have not worked. You know, this is a newer technology, the whole streaming thing. They did have, they were using Meerkat also. They were using Periscope, Meerkat, I don’t know if they were using other streaming platforms or not but I know they had a mix, too. So I think it’s great that they took that chance. And you don’t see big brands doing a lot of that.
What could they really lose though, I mean, think about it? There wasn’t a heck of a lot cost that went into it. You guys volunteered and threw out some gift cards, right? They got crazy exposure. A billion you said, a million with a B still! I mean, that’s a, just a great use of, you know, taking advantage of a really cool opportunity. Can you imagine being in that conference room when someone says hey I think we’re going to do this. It’s going like this, this is what I hope to have happened. Nobody said, “yeah we’re going to get you a billion hits,” that didn’t come out of anybody’s mouth, I can assure you. And look at how it went, it’s crazy. Hope other people will follow suit. With the authenticity there. I think most of us in the social sphere really, really clinging to that idea of being a little more grounded, you know, more real and kind of actually going forward from time to time. That’s a great story, thank you.
Yeah, my pleasure. Here’s a great insight to really what happened. Applebee’s has a great community. None of us that were live streaming are strangers to one another. I would say everyone that’s streamed yesterday is someone that was familiar to me and I would have imagined that I’m familiar to them. I can’t say that with absolute certainty but I can say with absolute certainty that I recognize everyone and it seemed everyone that streamed yesterday, I’ve seen them before. Sunny was the only new face to me. So from a risk management perspective, Applebee’s already knew what to expect. There were no wild cards in the nick. Probably I would be the most wild card because I’m not an avid streamer. I’m an avid watcher and I participate in streams but they knew exactly who was coming on camera on behalf of the brand. They knew their brand advocates. Bringing them all together was just a moment of genius on their heart.
Will they do it again, what do you think?
I’d imagine.
And how soon is too soon?
Well the did a Jason Derulo of their Time Square last month. Now that the Cameo is available on Meerkat, there’s a whole another level of possibility that’s in front of them. Might as well keep an eye on what the Applebee’s brand’s doing live streaming because they’re taking the innovative lead. They’re utilizing new technology for brand advocacy.
I agree, I agree.
Well let’s
Do they give a lot of hearts coz really we want to talk about that?
We are getting some hearts, we are getting some hearts. I’m seeing some hearts.
Not you and I, Applebee’s. I don’t care about our hearts.
Oh did they get a lot of hearts? Did they get a lot? You guys get hearts, too, but you know. I don’t know. But you know what, let’s talk about that. I would love Stephen’s point of view on, you know, the title of this is Comments, Likes, Shares and Hearts, you know, oh my! It’s getting crazy, you know, the whole hearts thing and the likes and the comments and you know, we want people to interact but yeah, we need to interact, too. And I really think Stephen is, you’ve done a fantastic job on and Terry, I know you’re an advocate of this, too — communicating, actually talking to your audience versus talking at the audience. Add to that.
Sure, well I mean the hearts and likes, the portion of what you’ve asked or the statement you made; anytime you can incentivize communication, you’ve done a great thing. We’re in an era now where attention is the currency. The game notification of hearts, for example, is brilliant on Periscope’s part. The more hearts you get, the more you know your audience is paying attention. And truth be told, it’s just telling you they’re staying tuned in. That’s huge. That’s a big deal.
Don’t they have really, really fast finger. Coz if they’re doing like this, they can do it in thirty seconds.
403 hearts in 12 seconds, that’s a new record!
And the neat thing about that is it only counts 500 at a time then you have to leave the broadcast and come back in and then you can add more and allowed to leader board but you can only add 500 at a hop. On Meerkat it’s a bit different. The value proposition is all built around engagement. You actually have to have people talking to you from within your audience to move up in the leader board. They have to share your broadcast, liking it and talking to you. To me that’s a little bit truer. I also like that comments pushed to Twitter so you got a recap of the conversation. You can go back and you can re-engage everyone that was in your broadcast, I love that.
That is cool.
Yeah.
But the offers that you can get back with people is really really key, right, because so often, like Janet talking we end up talking as opposed, not following up and responding. It’s not just broadcast tool that everybody wants to be. It’s an engagement tool, you have to do your part of the engagement going back to that conversation.
Yep. Let me give you a brand use for that on Meerkat. If you’ve got a hashtag and you can get people to use the hashtag within the Meerkat chat, then you can use a tool like SpiderQube to auto aggregate everyone using that hashtag within a brand chat. You now have an automated CRM where you can go back and re-engage everyone that was talking to your brand. And it’s instant.
Spider Cube?
spiderQube from oneQube. You can find Robert, the creator. He’s @MediaLabRat on Twitter. Neat guy, neat mind.
Love neat guys with neat minds. I like neat girls with neat minds, too. It’s important to point that out.
That’s great. Well this was fun, this was a blast and this has a lot of information. I think we could go on and on about that whole likes and shares and the new hearts thing. Now that we have all these new platforms, I actually have a content guide that I broke down the different type of social media content that you can use out there and I’m re-doing it right now to add the live streaming because I had nothing about live streaming in there. And it’s social media, too. It’s actually a, you know, en-pointe social media compared to anything else out there. So it’s really really neat the way it is world moving. It’s a fast moving game you’ve got to keep up with it.
It this like Web 4.0, 5.0, where are we in?.
Not sure anymore. But Stephen we didn’t give you a proper introduction. I would love you to share with our audience your background, where you came from and what you do now and where they can find you?
Sure. My background is in food and wine where I am guilded with Court of Master Sommliers. I started in social media part time down in Orlando many moons ago. Realized I could generate an income building social media profiles, get that part time. My part time income rivaled my full time income so I did the right thing and went part time. I’ve been full time for 4 years now building Twitter profiles and Facebook pages for people and brands as the Digital Cat Herder doing the grunt work in social media that nobody wants to do but it has to be done as some point. You can find me on Twitter @stephencaggiano, easy.
Perfect. And we’ll put that in the show notes so people, do you want to spell that because your last name is kind of a tougher one.
S-T-E-P-H-E-N-C-A-G-G-I-A-N-O
Perfect. And we’ll have all that.
And can you say, “thank you Cleveland goodnight,” because I really want to hear that, too? Dude, you really have the whole arena rock thing going on, it’s really kind of cool.
Let me know when you can end it and I will do it.
That will be great! Where, are you in, so you’re in or near Minneapolis, is that accurate?
Correct, I’m in Minneapolis.
Where did you go to high school?
Merid Island, Florida.
Okay, so you are like, you know it’s kind of warm here and my aunt says to go to Minnesota.
I have meant exactly last night. I said I have one question for you: why?
Will you go back to Florida ever? I mean like move back in it?
Possibly. I mean I would say my ultimate goal would be San Diego.
Yep, we talked about that last night, too. That’s where a lot of marketers like San Diego. I don’t know what it is but it’s hot happening spot for you, I agree. Well, we’ve tried to get out of Minnesota in the mid-west but somehow we get stuck here, I don’t know. Well awesome, this was such great information. I’m so thankful to Brian, you know, @iSocialFanz, he’s kind of a one that, in a roundabout way and he doesn’t even know we’re connected. And so it’s very very interesting, the world of social media, so it works.
And it happened in that speed, I like it and it really did. That was straight up internet speed.
Exactly, exactly. So thank you very much. Thank you guys for joining us. If you haven’t yet, we have a Facebook group called Business Growth Time, feel free to join that then you’ll be updated on the latest shows that we have out there. And then also you can follow any of us, we’re all three on Periscope now so definitely follow us there, too. Thank you. Thanks a lot Stephen. Thanks Terry.
Than you Cleveland and good night!
Yes! You guys have a great one. Thanks. See you.