'What I Did on Summer Vacation ...'

Happy Day After Labor Day folks! Hope you got all your barbecuing done this weekend, because now it's back to school, back to reality and back to work. Summer hours are a thing of the past, but before you stow your flip flops, here are some of my favorite things I've worked on during the Summer of 2016: A Weekly Whacky Video Series From KFC to Zappos' #ImNotABox, from McDonald's to T-Rex chatbots ... this has been a busy summer of video for me. I launched "What Were They Thinking?" with our associate content editor Taylor Knight on June 3, and we have created 14 videos together (actually 16, since we did some extra work to get ahead when possible). It seems as though our audience gets a kick out them, which was my goal: to entertain while shedding some light on the good, the bad and the utterly confusing things in marketing. This past week we shot a video based on my first viewer suggestion, which was awesome to receive, and great fun to put together. Robert Rose Dropping Serious CM Knowledge on the TM Audience I met Robert at the 2015 Content Marketing World (2016 CMW is going on right now, and I sadly can't be there due to a MASSIVE client project, so ALL my content love to the some of the hardest working folks in Cleveland!) and got to see him speak multiple times throughout the event. Following that, I caught a number of his webinars and podcasts, and knew that the opportunity to work with him myself was high on my 2016 to-do list. Well, during this past June's Intergrated Marketing Virtual Conference, I did just that, moderating his session, “The Content Show That Never Ends: Repurposing Like a Media Company.” Not only did I get to use song lyrics from Emerson, Lake and Palmer in my intro of this wonderfully smart dude, but he broke down repurposing content in a way I hadn't thought of before. The virtual show is still available on-demand, but only through Sept. 27, so register and CHECK IT OUT! Insta Stories Being Easy Like Whoa I know, I know ... I shot a video back in the spring about how whoo-hoo, look how easy Snapchat is! I created an account for Sass Marketing ... and then barely did anything with it because it was such a headache. Then Instagram Stories came along, I rolled my eyes, but then sat down and wrote a Pros and Cons list about the newest Insta feature (you know, an app I use CONSTANTLY) and decided, okay ... maybe this could work for me. Then Taylor shot this fantastic video breaking it all down, and well, I highly recommend watching it: [brightcove videoplayer="5090556995001" playerid="4057790005001" playerkey="AQ~~,AAAB3F0Fgjk~,iLMUk1o09xryy1Ypo80LdwzRrrPX3phQ" width="480" height="270" autostart="false"] I got access to Instagram Stories in mid-August, and I have to say, I'm a fan ... personally and professionally ... which leads me to this: There's More Sass on Social! That's right ... there's now 200 percent more sass out there on the interwebs (I think ... math and I don't get along). I launched a Facebook Page AND an Instagram account in August because I didn't want to keep hijacking our brand accounts. So find me in both those spots to get behind the scenes photos and videos from my "What Were They Thinking?" shoots, random photos of my desk and whatever other antics I get up to. What fun things did you work on this summer? Tell me all about it in the comments!

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'What I Did on Summer Vacation ...'

A Weekly Whacky Video Series

Melissa Ward

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Melissa Ward