Event Planner Series: What to Think About BEFORE You Start

This is the beginning of a series of posts on Event Planning and Producer Guidelines. New planners take heed, even though you will learn these over time by experiencing and producing events on your own...this series will be a great intro to what to watch out for. For more experienced planners...brushing up on tips and tricks to get you through your event never gets old!

So, you have your initial call with your client to discuss the event, what they are looking for etc. You need to make sure you walk into that meeting prepared. You want the business and you want to come to the table with options and an opinion. Anyone can just produce someone's event. As a planner you should be prepared to speak up and lend your expertise. That is why your client chose you right?

Here are questions event planners need to ask before the project starts. These questions will act as a guideline for you on how prepared your potential client is, how much of work load you will be taking on and whether you are a good fit or not.

Questions All Event Planners Need to Ask-  Before You Start:

Why have the event?
This is an important question to ask. What is the purpose of the event. Is it to raise money, awareness, a celebration or PR. You will find out a lot about your client, what they are looking to achieve and how you are going to fit into the project. If it's a wedding or a social event, make sure you understand what your client wants to achieve in the few hours their guests are attending. Is there a theme? For branded and corporate events make sure you talk about the median you are using for the event. Think conference vs. press event vs. guerrilla experiential event.  

Who are the key players?
You will need to find out who will be on the team. Who will you be working with and how will you be working together. Responsibility wise, what is it that you will be taking care of and can you assemble and use your own team.

Who should Attend the event?  If it is a social event find out who will be invited and who is in charge of getting people to the event. Does your client have their own invitation list or do you need to work with them on getting traffic through the door. For a corporate or brand marketing event find out who should be the main target audience and discuss ways in which these people can be reached. Does your client have an existing alumni list, do you need to work with their social media, PR and marketing teams to figure out a marketing channel to get foot traffic to the event.
How are you going to Market the event?

Timing
Make sure your client is clear on the amount of time the project will entail and discuss realistic expectations. Do you have enough time to produce, does your potential client understand what needs to be done in the time they have allotted. If the timing on the project is short, be clear about the number of staff you have and whether you will need to increase your staff numbers.

Budget
The big money question! Does you client have realistic expectations for how much they believe the event will cost. Can you make it work within their budget.

If you don't ask these questions from the get go you might be surprised along the way while producing the event. Make sure you start the project off with a very open flow of communication and you will get to a good place in the end.

Don't forget to take notes, type them up and send them over to your potential client. Everyone should always be on the same page. It will help keep everything clear and prevent misunderstandings.


Photo Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1131288

Socialnomics 2013 by Erik Qualman

This is a must see video for all marketers. It's a video of stats that comes out every year courtesy of Erik Qualman. The latest edition was just released, and I wanted to make sure you saw it! To see more about Erik Qualman and his work visit: http://www.socialnomics.net

The Stats from the video:

Social Media Statistics 2013 from Video

1. Over 1 billion users on Facebook
2. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 3rd largest and 2x the size of the U.S. population
3. Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30-years-old
4. Each day 20% of Google searches have never been searched before
5. In 10 years over 40% of the Fortune 500 will no longer be here
6. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
7. 1 in 5 couples meet online; 3 in 5 gay couples meet online
8. 1 in 5 divorces are blamed on Facebook
9. What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…
10. Ford Explorer launch on Facebook more effective than a Super Bowl Ad
11. 69 percent of parents said they are currently “friends” with their children on a social media site
12. 92% of children in the US have a digital footprint/shadow
13. Every second 2 new members join LinkedIn
14. More members join LinkedIn per day than the entire enrollment of all the IVY League Schools
15. Social Gamers to buy 6 billion in virtual goods by 2013; movie goers only buy 2.5 million in concessions
16. Every minute 72 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube
17. If Wikipedia were made into a book it would be 2.25 million pages long
18. 97% of Pinterest Facebook Fans are Women
19. 53% of people on Twitter recommend products in their Tweets
20. 90% of people trust online recommendations from people they know
21. Only 14% trust traditional TV advertisements
22. New Yorkers received tweets about an east coast earthquake 30 seconds before they felt it
23. 93% of marketers use social media for business
24. Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Germany, Turkey, South Africa, Canada, Argentina, United Kingdom, Egypt
25. “We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it.” – Erik Qualman
26. “We will non longer search for products and services, they will find us via social media.” – Erik Qualman
27. “Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.” – Erik Qualman
28. “The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years.” - Erik Qualman

Don’t Underestimate the Brainstorm

Brainstorming is an integral part of most creative businesses, and the event industry is absolutely no exception.  In fact, we at BENG! love the brainstorm session portion of our projects that we offer "Free 'Storms"for our clients.  It's a great way to get our team to relax and in the right state of mind, and our clients follow quite quickly. We keep our brainstorms open, free and easy - as they should be. Of course we have creative objectives to reach, but sometimes you need to break the ice before you can move forward on a project. We believe the brainstorm does both: 1 - it takes you right to the heart of your project. 2 - It gets you in creative line with your client, team and sets you on the right track for your project. 

How do we do it?

There are so many articles out there that negate the positive elements of brainstorming. We agree the traditional brainstorm where everyone gets a pencil and a notepad and goes around the room taking turns on ideas isn't the most effective way to get to your creative objectives. So, how do we do it? How should you do it? Here are some helpful tips:

1. There Is A Time and Place For Everything

Know your audience, know what you are trying to brainstorm about and feed into it. You need to find the right time and the right location to create an environment that fosters creativity. It's not about sitting in a room and not coming out until you're done.

2. Understand your objective

Know before you begin what you are going to discuss, plan your meeting attendance accordingly and have a plan. You cannot expect that everyone sits in a room and shouts out ideas until the perfect one arises, you need to nurture the environment and the relationships. You foster the ideas, and 

3. Be prepared
Get some research done. Think about what your goals are and how you want your team to achieve them. Come to the meeting prepared with "thinking" points so that you can share and provide input to the conversation. Everything is a work in progress during a brainstorm...so no one should feel under prepared, but you should at least have had a moment to think about the topic.

4. Guidance is Key 
Define a clear leader in the brainstorm. The person should be in charge of the open flow of conversation, ideas, and positivity. Sometimes the best work is found when going off topic, but you have to know when enough is enough. Also, having a leader will help your team feel safe and comfortable, knowing that negativity wont have a place in the room. 

5. Don't Force It, Sometimes 2 Times is A Charm

Sometimes we have to do more than one brainstorm. The questions and ideas that come up in the first one lead to more roads to explore and that can take time. Don't worry if you don't leave the room with a concrete idea or direction...brainstorms can help you in the right direction and sometimes you need more than one.

Tips on how you or your agency brainstorm? Any unusual places? Let me know nicolen at bengny dot com

Event Tip - Check In Easy

Some clients resist change, other embrace it. When working with clients who still love the old fashion check in tables with paper lists (categorized in every way imaginable) and alphabet signs, I always say STOP! There is an easier way. One that requires less work, and runs faster. Registration should be a breeze, whether it’s for a cocktail party or a conference. At BENG! we test out several different options and go with the right one that fits each event. Every event is different, and the technology you use should reflect that. Recently, I used Check In Easy for a cocktail party one of my client’s was producing. It was a breeze! Not only do you get an accurate count of who is there and who isn’t, it is digital. Which means you don’t have to spend hours trekking through your excel files or left badges to see who was actually at your event.

Why Check In Easy?

It was created by planners, so they know what we go through at registration.

You can easily download their apps to your iPhone or iPad and get started. Once you have your account, anyone can log in with your info, download and get people check in. Which is great if you are working temp staff and see there is a rush at the door and need a few extra hands. Keep in mind that if you are a Droid user, this system is not for your. As far as I can tell it is a Apple friendly company. 

Packages

Check In Easy has several packages for you to choose from. Have a small event coming up that you would like to test with Check In Easy? Use their free package (up to 50 guests) and see how it works for you.

Try Check In Easy or any of the other check in apps that are out there. It will make your life easier and your client will be happy! It’s a win-win.

Facebook Stats: Top 10 Countries, Brands, Pages and More

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy I have been able to spend some quality time at home, which has also meant some great reading. I came across this great compilation of Facebook Stats by Simply Zesty and thought I would share.

Top 10 Countries
With 1 billion users world wide I don't think this list comes as a surprise, but it is interesting to see who compiles the 1 billion.

 

Top 10 Pages
It's a mix of YouTube, Google and celebrities.

 

Top 10 Brand Pages
I think we pretty much all know that every large brand has a Facebook page. Whether it is a good one or not can be debated, but most brands have adopted a page to round out their online and Social Media presence.

 

Top 10 Celebrity Pages
Celebrities (aka personal brands) have also adopted Facebook as a medium for getting their image out. Here are the most popular celeb pages:

Top 10 Media Pages
Interesting to see how far ahead Facebook, Youtube and MTV are in relation to the others. There are absolutely no newspapers or traditional media outlets in the top ten.

StartUp Watch: 3 Startups For Events

1. Planana
Planana is a ticketing and promotion dashboard for your event.There are so many ticketing sites out there, and this is not one that stands out for that. It is their promotion service that peaked my interest. Planana helps you set up your own event dashboard, and a reward system for your attendees. The system doles out discounts, VIP Access etc. in exchange for social sharing. An attendee shares the event on twitter or facebook, and they are guaranteed 40% off their ticket. All the rules are set by you, and you not only get additional publicity, but an easy ticketing platform.


2. Instagram Booth
BYO Booth is a photo booth platform based on Instagram. All you need to do is set up an Instagram hashtag for your event and the software will look for attendees pictures. You can then decide to stream them on a slideshow, create your own living wall at your event, post them to Facebook or print them. Pretty simple, yet extremely interactive and helpful for picture collection at events.

3. Refynr
The Refynr platform provides the technology for event producers to display live tweets on large screens during events. Producers can also create an interface for attendees to check or send tweets directly via a Twitter login. Great for conferences that require live tweet walls as well as other events where you want to capture the buzz. Just remember, live tweet walls means un-curated discussion...you can't control what is being said about your event, product etc.

Sources: eventmanager blog

Viral Video Friday

Happy Friday! As always here are the hottest videos on the web this week!

Besides that, I thought everyone could use a laugh...here is 3 Idiots 1 Car for what not to do when your car is stalled on a hill!

Don't forget to Like BENG! on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter with @BENGNY.

Check us out at www.bengny.com

Alcatraz Delivery Service and A Philharmonic Surprise!

 

Over the next few days, I want to post about some really neat campaigns. 

A Philharmonic Surprise

Recently, the Copenhagen Philharmonic surprised passengers in the Copenhagen Metro by hosting a flash mob. To help promote and celebrate the 2012/2013 season, the orchestral flash mob performed and recorded their version of Morning, from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt. I would actually find this a super pleasant surprise during my commute. 

Alcatraz Delivery – Prison Food Delivery Service

To promote the first season of the hit TV show Alcatraz in Spain, Leo Burnett Iberia decided on a different way to help promote and build hype for the show. The agency created a fast food delivery service called Alcatraz Delivery, which was actually based on an actual prison food delivery service. 

Each order is pretty much what you can expect from prison, and it was hand delivered by a prison inmate complete with accompanying police officer. Each order contained food and a package containing information about the show and the Premier. They even went as far as to create a customer service line. See the case study below. 

The Invisible Ad - A Unique Audience Capture

I can’t resist posting about great campaigns. I really like this ad campaign by LYNX Sunglasses. The invisible ad campaign was a concept created in an abandoned house in Sydney. All of the windows in the house were replaced with LED screens. To anyone passing by, the house looked silent and lifeless. However, if you put your LYNX sunglasses on, the house turned into an ad. Albeit a little steamy, I think the campaign is engaging and different. A unique way to capture an audience.

Banner Ads and Who's Looking

Some super interesting facts here thanks to Prestige Marketing. Have you used banner ads or are you considering using them as part of your marketing mix? Check out the stats.

Emotion and Audience Engagement

I am about to get started on The Power of Communication: Skills to Build Trust, Inspire Loyalty and Lead Effectively by Helio Fred Garcia. So looking forward to hearing more about the ways in which I can present myself in a way that is inspiring, firm and trustworthy. Something I feel every business owner needs. If you have the time…you should probably pick the book up too!

In researching the book, yes odd to research a book that you want to read, but with such little time I need to really figure out what is worth my spare time and what isn’t, I came across this Fast Company article. I wanted to share the highlights with you, so if you don’t have time to read the book in its entirety, you can at least get the gist.

The article starts off with: The default to emotion is part of the human condition. Yes indeed it is. It is rare to find anyone in a room who is listening to an inspiring speaker who doesn’t feel something emotionally either toward the speaker or the topic. Even if you dislike the speaker or the topic, you most likely do so in an emotional way. The primitive brain explained below, is what is important for leaders, business owners and for anyone who is looking for success.

The primitive brain and the limbic brain collectively make up the limbic system, which governs emotion. Within the limbic system, there is a structure called the amygdala, which leaders need to understand.

When faced with a stimulus, the amygdala turns our emotions on. It does so instantaneously, without our having to think about it. We find ourselves responding to a threat even before we’re consciously aware of it. Think of jumping back when we see a sudden movement in front of us, or being startled by the sound of a loud bang. We also respond instantaneously to positive stimulus without thinking about it: Note how we tend to smile back when someone smiles at us; how we are immediately distracted when something we consider beautiful enters our line of sight  

So, with this information, we need to understand that attention is emotionally driven. If you want to grab attention and keep it, you have to find a way to trigger the Amygdala in your audience. Whether it is in person, during a meeting, a social media campaign, marketing campaigns or a piece of advertising, it all comes back to something as simple as emotion. Frills, bells and whistles won’t work unless you trigger the right emotion.

As mentioned in the audience, here are five strategies for audience engagement:

1. Establish a Connection. You have to actually connect with your audience before saying anything important. “Techniques to connect include asking for the audience’s attention, if only with a powerful and warm greeting, followed by silence and eye contact.”
2. Say Your Killer Piece First. So you have established your connection? Directly after that, you need to say your most important piece of information. It should be a main framing piece that will help guide all that follows, and stay in your audience’s memory.
3. Never Finish Without a Recap. Always close with a re-brief of what your main most powerful framing statement was about.
4. Make it Memorable. We all have to keep in mind how much we are bombarded with information at every point of our day. Whether it’s TV, Social Media, Phones, Emails, and Meetings etc. Make sure what you are trying to say is simple, and easy to remember. Repeat your most important points.
5. The Rule of Three. The most important take away of the whole article for me was the rule of three. Have three main points, topics or examples…but never more than three. People just won’t be able to focus on more. Make it short and sweet, but keep it to three.

I am so looking forward to the book. Look out for a review on the book and it’s main principles…as soon as I get through it!

Viral Video Friday: Amazing Video Capture

Viral Video Friday starts now! Check out the best viral videos on the web this week, along with some funny ones too!

For your viewing pleasure, I am including an amazing video capture. The guys who made the video say:

A super slow motion video of exploding eggs and smashing glass filmed by the Phantom Flex camera….not your typical tea party.The frame rate was anywhere between 3,200 to 6,900 frames per second.

For more see:

Simply Zesty

Rules of Engagement - Getting The Word of Mouth Buzz

I recently read a great article by David Johnson. In his piece he dispels the notion of Return on Investment, and in it's place puts forward the notion of ROE - Return on Engagement. We all strive for word of mouth buzz. Why? Because it is cheaper to have someone tell their friends about how awesome your product or service is than to spend advertising, sales, and marketing dollars on gaining new customers. What is often forgotten through out the entire discussion of winning over new customers and social media campaigns to propagate word of mouth buzz is Customer Service and Customer Engagement.

David brought up some valid points. We put a lot of money, time and effort into running great social media campaigns. Tweeting, Posting and Blogging takes up time and energy - but are relatively low cost. What would happen if Marketers or Business Owners would set aside a budget for Customer Experience and Customer Engagement? Yes, you still need the Social Media Campaigns, you still need marketing, advertising and branding. But what if companies really started taking care of their customers. Here's how:

Managing Expectations.
There should never be a difference between what people expect and the actual level of service you provide. Of course, we live in a more realistic world, so let's just say companies need to minimize that gap as much as possible. Nothing new right? But think about it. If you fall short and the gap is large, customers will put out some negative comments. If the there isn't a gap at all, everyone is happy and content and you will get some good comments. The GREAT comments come when you go above and beyond the customer's expectations. Once you start exceeding, the customer starts to fall in love.
David likes to call this Customer Enchantment. And I agree with him. Too often, companies do what they can to get by.

Reactive vs. Proactive
Customer service = Reactionary. Companies react to an issue, they react to comments, and are only motivated to react once there is a problem or something to react to. What would happen if we shift this so that companies are Proactive. Spend some extra time and treat the cusotmers to something that in the long run will not only make them happy, but also convert them to a long term customer and brand advocate. David included the story about the boy and the starfish, and I think it's a great analogy to how companies need to start thinking:

"...there are thousands of starfish beached upon the sands where a little boy, one-by-one, is throwing the starfish back into the water. When asked why he’s even bothering when there are too many to make a difference, the little boy replied after throwing a starfish back in the water, “It mattered to that one.”

So how do companies do this? They put together a budget for proactive customer service. Get employees on the same page - train them, make sure the employees are happy - and they will be able to speak for the company in a great and positive light. Empower your employees to be your brand ambassadors, and they in turn will reach out and create their own armies of brand ambassadors. Make your employees aware that going the extra mile will help everyone in the long run.

If you hear something come from a customer, go above and beyond to engage them or help them. This isn't the wine and dine 'em mentality of old school business. This is going the extra mile to exceed expectations. Example: You hear a customer is buying your product for his daughter's birthday. You go above and beyond the sale, to ensure that the product is properly wrapped. Then you offer some great items to make the deal even sweeter. How about a gift card for future use. Not only will the father feel like he is special and getting great service, the daughter will come back and use the gift card. She too will love the product, and will Tweet, Facebook and spread some brand love.

Viral Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! Before signing off for the weekend, check out Viral Videos and Fun page. You will find the top 5 most viral videos of the week, along with some of the funniest. Get laughing!

In honor of St. Patrick's day, check out a Guinness commercial created by AMV BBDO London.Round up your mates for Guinness on St. Patrick's Day features Roy, a border-collie sheepdog, and some herding sheep - aka a group of lads! Guinness almost always have great ads and great brand marketing campaigns.

Customer Experience Rules

In my research for this past week's posts I came across two great blogs: Stage Two and 3rdIdea. Both of them had postings based on Dustin Curtis and the Twitter storm he started with a letter and a site re-design of AA.com. If you aren't familiar with the Dustin Curtis AA.com story here is a short synopsis:

Dustin Curtis (interface designer by trade) became so infuriated with the poorly designed and confusing AA.com site that he not only decided never to fly with them again, but also to write them a letter describing his experience on the site.  His Dear American Airlines Letter can be read here. He also took the time to give them a quick re-design. After David posted his letter, an American Airlines employee (one of the site architects) contacted him and stated: "You are right. Our site is a mess." Of course Dustin posted this, and low and behold, AA.com fired the employee - even though Dustin never mentioned him by name, AA figured out who it was and fired them. The story ended up going viral, picked up by mass media. American Airlines didn't do a great job at reaching out to customers, or handling the press firestorm. Eventually it blew over.

The major piece to take from this story? Customer experience/engagement is key. In the world we live in, one voice can make a difference, because one voice can become thousands depending on who is listening. Dustin Curtis said it best:

Customer experience is the new brand.
I’m not referring to a brand as a logo and a typeface. I’m referring to the new kind of brand, the one is formed by the entire experience of a customer’s interaction. That experience gets branded into his or her memory and leaks into the buzz of modern culture. If you can’t make a good customer experience from start to finish, you’ve failed to generate brand value that will attract customers to come back for repeat business and tell their friends to come back, too. That’s how good customer experience directly affects the bottom line.

This rings true for customer service, customer experience and experience marketing. Everything needs to fit properly. Everything needs to be brand appropriate, fall in line with target audience and customer behavior, engage and ultimately work in order to make sense. You can build a beautiful marketing campaign, fill it with  quirky gimmicks, buffer it with stellar PR and advertising, but if at the core the customer experience isn't up to par, it won't work. And in the case of Dustin's customer experience example, you lose the customer.  As I said in my FLAWSOME post last week; you have to engage your customer correctly. You have to be authentic. You have to be transparent. You have to be willing to receive bad reviews and even publish them and then own up to them and show how you are changing - or why you made the decision to stay the course. Dustin is right. Customer Experience is the new brand, and Customers can make or break your brand in as little as 140 characters.


[image via 3rd idea & sylvainpaillard.com]

Invisible Children - KONY 2012

Happy Wednesday! It's gorgeous outside today NY! Before you take a break in your day and take a stroll outside I urge you to take a moment of your time and check out KONY 2012. This week was supposed to be about Experiential Marketing, and I know I am breaking the schedule by adding this post today, but it's important. Plus, KONY is one of the best Non-Profit Marketing campaigns I have seen in a long time, so it is totally worthy of a BENG! post.

Invisible Children has launched a program that I think everyone needs to see and be a part of. The campaign itself  is an amazing piece of marketing, but that is not what it's really about. The message is about Joseph Kony, a horrible war criminal, and the international awareness and effort to arrest him, disarm the LRA and bring child soldiers home.

I love that Invisible Children chose to make the campaign about Joseph Kony. Not in a celebratory way, but in a way that will make him infamous. There are posters, T-Shirts, an amazing Video and some serious buzz. Once this  campaign has run it's course, people will know exactly who he is and what he stands for. And hopefully once people realize, they will help. Whether it's through donating, spreading the word or becoming a volunteer.

Please watch the video, find a way to help, and pass it on to anyone and everyone you know! I will def. put my order in for a bracelet too!


Click here for the must see the video: http://vimeo.com/37119711

Experience - The Future of Marketing

Experiential is the buzzword of the year so far, and everyone says it is the future of Advertising and Marketing. The only problem is that the definition of Experience is still a little unclear. Experience means something different to everyone who uses it...and experiences it - no pun intended! So, how do I define experience? The fundamental definition would be an interaction with the physical world. Of course, for those who love to play in the virtual world, you could take it one step further and say it is an interaction with both the physical and/or virtual world.

Once you are able to exemplify how people react to their physical world, you can provide a way for them to experience the physical world through the eyes of your brand or product. That requires research - both psychological and market research to make sure the direction you choose is the right one. Take Febreze as an example. When the product was first launched in 1993, it was marketed as an odor killer and it was a major flop. The reason behind it? The people who need the product the most are immune to the smells that they should be trying to cover up. P&G ended up doing some research by monitoring subjects carrying out daily chores in the house. What the marketers found was that subjects were proud when they had completed a task, they had an emotional connection with the physical world around them. Febreze re-branded their product as a post-cleaning sensory award and the product is now selling $1 billion annually.

So, if you can find the way your product or service helps people physically connect with the world around them - the emotional connection, the spacial connection etc. - you can hone in on one of the strongest tools out there right now - Experience. You can use the connection and integrate it into an event that helps you provide an "AHA" moment for your target group. 

Stay tuned this week for more on Experience Marketing and some great case studies. 

Have you seen a recent experiential event that was really successful? Do you have thoughts on Experience - The Future of Marketing? Leave a comment below and let's get the discussion flowing...



Related Reading:
FastCompany How Alcoa, Starbucks, Arista, And Febreze Kicked Normal Habits And Found Success
The Power of Habbit

BENG! in the Press

It's been a few months now since we picked up our Ninja Star at the Best Event Awards in Milan, Italy. Such an honor to be nominated, and to have won - especially seeing the cases we were up against. We have had great feedback since winning and we always welcome questions, comments and chats about what we did, how we did it and what we were trying to do. 


Most recently, Event Marketer decided to feature us in their Green Lights section. The article explains exactly what we wanted to do and how to incorporate all of the incredibly important Eco-friendly elements into the event.  Click here to read the article.


For more information on BENG! visit our website.


Thank you to Rob Captijn, our Strategy Director, and Ballast Nedam for making this all possible!

Best Tweeshes!

Thank you to Simply Zesty for finding this great campaign. Millions of Tweets are sent around the holidays, and this year Belgian agency VVL BBDO decided to bring the wishes together and turn them into a melody. Wanting to start 2012 on a high note, the agency created a campaign to unite people all over the world.  Best Tweeshes were user generated messages that ended with the hashtag #tweeshes. Anyone sending a new years message ending in the hashtag would automatically contribute toward a crowd sourced musical piece based on their location across the globe. Each Tweet was assigned a different musical note, and when played together it turned into a very unique melody. Check out the Best Tweeshes website and listen to the music created!

[via Simply Zesty]

#Viral Friday!

Happy #Viral Friday! Here are the top viral videos on the web this week. Have a great MLK weekend everyone!