Hanging out with Comic Relief at the World's First Online Comedy Club!

Last week I took part in a new kind of comedy show created by Comic Relief and Google+ from the comfort of my very own dining table!

The Hangout Comedy Club from Comic Relief is the world’s first online club of its kind. Using the Google+ Hangout feature, it aims to bring us the funniest comedians wherever we are, finely selected from the pick of the Edinburgh Fringe festival.

After applying for front row seats (what was I letting myself in for?!) I received a call from a lovely lady at Comic Relief who confirmed that I was one of the lucky (or brave!) nine people who were chosen to have a front row seat which meant that I would be able to interact and chat to the comedian of the evening, Stephen Bailey. After a quick test to make sure everything would run smoothly for the show, I was sent an email which included all the details of the Hangout and a link to join it online later on.

Regularly warming up the audience at ITV’s Loose Women and Let’s Do Lunch with Gino and Mel, Stephen Bailey also won the Comedy Cafe New Act Competition last year and is currently receiving outstanding reviews for his Edinburgh Fringe Festival show; Power Couple which depicts the two sides to every relationship with his very own boyfriend Gary John Senior!

If a front row seat at a comedy club is not your idea of fun, then you do have the option to apply for a back row seat which means you can join the hangout anonymously, and instead watch and laugh as the show ensues with as many friends as you like.

Before the show began and Stephen arrived, I was prompted to make smiley and unhappy faces at my laptop so that a clever Comic Relief tool called the Laughometer could accurately measure how amused I was going to be during the show. After the show the Laughometer measures participants’ highs and lows and suggests a proportionate donation for the viewer to give. This can be adjusted at the participant's discretion and whether you choose to donate or not is completely up to you -  such a feel good feature of this initiative! 

At 8pm Stephen arrived and all nine of us ‘front-rowers’ introduced ourselves to him and asked a few questions which got us all laughing together in no-time! I’ve used Hangouts before and it does take a short while to get used to it as a new way of interacting, but if you are used to using Skype and FaceTime it won’t take long before you get the hang of it!

I am really looking forward to the next line up of comedians from Comic Relief and I think this initiative has the potential to be absolutely amazing, what’s not to like, a laugh to change a life for a good cause. 

You can find out more about future Hangouts and watch past shows here.

Katie x

Bodie and Fou - Inspiring, French and Beautiful - What More Could You Ask For!?

We love Bodie and Fou - a chic, inspiring online boutique for design lovers in search of cool modern styling for the home and unique beautiful gifts. If you're revamping your home or looking for an interesting present, this is the place to visit - the products are simple, elegant and unusual and anything I've bought from there always sparks up a conversation.  

There's nothing more inspiring for us than seeing entrepreneurs with a passion for lifestyle so when we found Bodie and Fou, we knew we'd be advocates for life, and we’re among good company as their celebrity fans include Helena Christensen and Claudia Schiffer! Bodie and Fou is run by two French sisters, Elodie (Bodie) and Karine (Fou) who source home and fashion items styled beautifully across their website and blog.

It's no surprise their online store has won multiple awards as has Karine's blog which has landed her in the top charts with Vogue and The Telegraph where Karine shares her inspirations, insights into her personal life, creative interior ideas and DIY projects.

Simple, beautiful design takes over the online store which sets off the products perfectly. The duo talk about 'la famille' being one of the most important things in life and you can see the appearance of this in their striking photography.  

My favourite part of the site (apart from the products of course) is the 'About Us' section - not your usual factual page but an inspiring montage of images with keywords detailing all the things they love, from contemporary design to their little girls, and from beautiful moodboards to Sydney... it’s all so inspiring!

Although we are always finding new products to love our current favourites are listed on our 'Products We Love' page. Katie's Top Pick is a pretty map of America taking her back to her world travels and mine is currently a gorgeous but simple gold triangle necklace... perfect with a tan!

Discover your favourite Bodie and Fou items on their website here or find out more about this inspiring pair on Karine's blog here.

With love, Jane x

The Recipe for Social Media Success Part 4 - Evaluating Your Presence

In our final part of our Recipe for Social Success we're going to be talking about evaluation and how to easily and effectively measure your progress across all platforms.

As we know, within your social media strategy, objectives should be set. We advise all our clients to set regular goals whether it be across their general presence or for specific campaigns. 

You may hear people say 'it's very hard to measure social media success', and, in a way it is, but you wouldn't start a marketing campaign without setting objectives, metrics and discovering the ROI so why would you start social media activities without doing the same?

What to Measure...

• Link with your initial overall or campaign objectives and decide exactly what you want to measure. If one of your objectives is to increase brand awareness on social media then you may want to monitor reach across the platforms you are active on for example. If it's to build your presence then the obvious statistics to focus on is the number of active users
• As we've said before we believe that a key statistic you should be monitoring is engagement rates. Engagement is the way to a successful social media presence so we would recommend you include this is your tracking

 How to Measure...

• You'll find there are basic analytics for each platform available online either through the platform itself or at an external source. These are the best and most simple places to start to evaluate your social media presence. Start with a few key stats on each platform to monitor so you become familiar with them

 When to Measure...

• Measure your statistics on a weekly basis to give you a good overview of your progress
• Use these weekly recordings to create a monthly social media evaluation which delves deeper into your metrics and looks at the impact of specific types of content on your presence. We've created our own system for these here

The more you understand your social media stats, the better presence you'll be able to build. You can start to tailor your content around topics you know increase your engagement rate, you can post at specific times you know your fans are most active and can discover who your key influencers and potential advocates are.

We hope you enjoyed our 'Recipe for Social Media Success' series of posts. You can find all the previous parts here...

Part 1 - Creating a Strategy

Part 2 - Developing Content

Part 3 - Getting Organised

Jane x

App Review: Timelapse Your Favourite Memories with iTimeLapse Pro!

After spending a weekend at a festival in Lewes with friends this summer (read my earlier blog post here) I was introduced to an app called iTimeLapse Pro, a simple app that captures a series of photos and allows you to create a video of condensed moments all set to a backing track of your choice... and here's my review of this snappy little app!

For our first attempt we decided to create a Timelapse of a typical Katie & Jane working day involving an early morning exercise session, working from Jane’s office, followed by an afternoon of social media training and featuring dogs, tea, trains and many, many, to-do lists.

To get started you must first select ‘New Project’ and from that point you can choose whether you want to take photos manually or using a pre-defined time-frame. While creating our first Timelapse video, we chose to take images every two seconds. The app allows you to pause and un-pause throughout the Timelapse so it makes using the more 'automatic' way very easy.

We began to capture as many images as we could throughout the day, however, in hindsight, for a thorough (i.e. longer) Timelapse video, it would be good to capture more images so you can easily cut them without losing the length. However the great thing about iTimeLapse Pro is that you can make as many edits as you need to before finishing the project including adding extra images and deleting many that are unclear or blurry too.

After editing the frames, we chose a backing track from iTunes and rendered the video which compiled all the images together. A tip here, I found it difficult to work out how many frames I would like per second as there isn’t an option to test how it will look.

As soon as it is rendered you have the ability to watch the video and export it to your phone's camera roll. Unfortunately, the video was too large to share via email so I had to upload it to YouTube instead.

So here it is; head over to our YouTube channel here to see a Timelapse of Katie & Jane’s working world, we hope you enjoy it!

Score: 7/10

Price: £1.49

We love... The idea behind this app and being able to add a backing track from iTunes, it really enhances the Timelapse!

We'd like to... Practice more! It wasn’t the easiest app to use first time, and there was a lot of guesswork as to how the finished product would look, so stay tuned to see many more improved attempts here soon!

Here's the link to download from the App Store so you can create your own masterpiece!

Katie x

Working Summer Lunches by Katie & Jane

The launch of our business at the beginning of the year had a huge impact on our working world. All of a sudden our kitchen tables turned into our work desks, we were rushing from meetings to networking events and trying to find the perfect place to take our clients. Eight months on, we thought we’d share our top tips for keeping yourself happy, healthy and energised on-the-go!

Working from the Kitchen Table

When working from home by yourself it can be very easy to graze all day, or completely forget to eat at all! I like to make up a batch of my favourite Thai Tom Yum Soup for a quick (and spicy!) lunch to eat while reading a few articles from the day’s news or catching up on some of the latest app reviews. Tom Yum translates as ‘hot & sour’ and it's a delicious and nourishing lunch to eat either at home or to make in advance and heat through at the office. I like to add king prawns but it's lovely with beef, chicken or tofu too. Find my favourite recipe here.

A Katie & Jane Perfect Working Lunch at Home

At least twice a week Jane & I will work together at either her house or my apartment. We found very early on that we would have so much to do and talk about that we would forget to eat, surviving only on coffee and green tea... not very healthy. So now we make an extra effort to prepare something quick and easy and of course vegetarian for Jane!

We love these homemade Avocado & Bean Wraps as a fresh and nutritious midday boost. They're perfect for leaving the filling in a dish on the side and helping yourself as and when you want one using crisp lettuce leaves as an alternative to tortilla wraps. The brief time out helps us to make sure we have a break from our laptops to reflect on our work and chat about what's happening in our working week.

Recreate it: After cooking mixed beans (black-eyed beans are my favourite) and quinoa, mix with a little feta cheese, cucumber, avocado, spring onion and sun-dried tomatoes, then fill your romaine lettuce wrap and enjoy!

Brain Food

A social media training day can be long and is filled with a lot of information to take in and many decisions to make. A little while back we were fortunate to work with an exciting new brand called Hattie’s Wines and while we were training on-site we were treated to a gorgeous tapas board featuring continental cheeses, breads, olives, Italian meat and a refreshing summer salad. It was all served on beautiful wooden boards - a great idea for feeding a team of people.

Although Hattie's Wines offers hand-selected wines without the 'wino' waffle, we did refrain from sampling their amazing selection while working but are very much looking forward to their new website being launched soon! Find out more about Hattie's Wines on Facebook and Twitter and join a community of women passionate about having fun and talking about wine in a no-nonsense way.

We love these tapas boards from Bodie & Fou below, perfect for recreating your very own tapas-style lunch! Click the image to find out more...

On-The-Go Eats

In the busy world of running and growing your own business, time is of the essence and most of the time food preparation is the last thing on the list.

For lunch, we love Innocent Veg Pots which you simply heat up in the microwave for a few minutes to fill you up and keep you fueled throughout the day. My favourite pot is the Thai Coconut Curry and Jane’s is Mexican Sweet Potato Chilli - the pots contain around two portions of vegetables helping you on your way to five a day!

A great on-the-go afternoon snack is a Naked Juice which can be easily taken from the fridge and into the car on the way to a meeting and apart from being delicious, they're quite filling too! Find out more about the Antioxidant and Superfood juices here

The Perfect Place to Take Clients

The problem with taking a client out to a working lunch is that it’s so hard to find somewhere that balances a great atmosphere with enough space and a quiet, relaxed environment. The newly opened Fig & Olive in Middleton is a hidden gem in the heart of the beautiful Coppice Garden Centre. Being surrounded by so much nature, while eating indoors is a real treat and the menu caters for everyone with lunchtime delights including Beef Teriyaki Glass Noodles, Pan-Fried Lobster Cake, and a light, but filling Hot Smoked Salmon and Beetroot Salad. Find out more about the gorgeous outdoor area, Barry the turtle and their delicious homemade cakes here.

We hope this post has inspired you to ditch the supermarket sandwich and get creative at lunchtime whether you're in an office or working from home. If you want to know more about anything we’ve included in this post then send us an email at smile@katieandjane.com

Katie x

Hanging out with Richard Branson & Elon Musk

Sir Richard Branson continues to be a source of inspiration and motivation for us and last week we watched the live stream of the very first Virgin Unite Google+ Hangout between himself and Paypal, Tesla and SpaceX founder; Elon Musk. They both answered questions about entrepreneurship from various tech hubs across the world including the Branson Centres of Entrepreneurship in South Africa and the Caribbean, the Start-Up Loans initiative in the UK and Virgin Mobile in Colombia.

Elon's vision for the future is based on his passion for wanting it to be better than the past. He said during the Hangout that, if you’re in the business of making useful things for people, then you’re on the right track... it’s as simple as that!

Elon also spoke of his new project Hyperloop which he claims could make a 380-mile journey in "about half an hour" compared to 3 hours. Hyperloop seems to involve sending passengers through a low-friction tube in a capsule. Aimed at being a practical solution for people separated by 1,000 miles or less, the motivation behind it originated from his disappointment at reading about California’s high-speed rail project. To find out more about Hyperloop click here.

On creating a business, Richard said to "come up with an idea that will improve people’s lives and just do it. Lots of people come up with great ideas, but it’s important to turn them into actions and give it a try, and if it fails, pick yourself up and try again." This is certainly the way we think when we're discussing our new ideas, if we don't try something (after careful planning & research of course!) we know we'll regret it even if it doesn't go so well. Our motto, similar to Richard's 'screw it, let's do it' is 'what's the worst that can happen!?'

During the Hangout, Richard also spoke of the UK Government and the need for it to foster small companies, as most are fragile and have a low success rate, and shield them and let them grow so they can become sustainable. He said the big companies always try to stamp out the smaller ones, but it’s an issue of survival - British Airways tried to eliminate Virgin from the airline industry but Virgin outshone them putting the customer experience at the heart of their offering as a way to standout, and sued BA for their dirty tactics.

Richard also talked of entrepreneurs using their flair to help address the world’s larger and more complex problems. I have long been a supporter of The Elders, a concept originated from a conversation between Richard Branson and the musician Peter Gabriel to create a group of dedicated individuals who use their collective wisdom and influence to help tackle some of the world’s most important problems. Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, and Gro Harlem Brundtland are only some of the devoted people who make up The Elders, first backed by honorary Elder Nelson Mandela. Find out more & join their cause on Facebook

His final note was to have fun, look after yourself in the process and surround yourself with people who can share the burden of the business and enjoy the good times. Most importantly, he inspired the 5,000 viewers by encouraging everyone to dream big and believe those dreams will one day become a reality. Richard then said farewell to Elon in America and (we assume!) went off to enjoy the sun on Necker Island!

To view the entire hangout in full click here. The conversation was moderated by Yonca Brunini from Google who will be hosting more Google+ Hangouts featuring some of the world’s top entrepreneurs soon.

Katie x

Social Media Recipe for Success - Part 3 - Getting Organised!

We're at part three of our Recipe for Social Media Success, parts one and two looked at creating an effective strategy and engaging with consumers but this section focuses on how to source and organise your most important social media asset; content.

Content Sourcing

We believe engagement is the key to a successful social media presence but it's easy to create a presence and not find effective engagement methods. Through our years of managing platforms for brands, we know that successful interaction comes from the posting of interesting, valuable content. But how do you source the inspiring content?

A few tips...

• Pick the right sources - follow, friend and read other relevant social accounts. Don't forget to retweet, share and link to the interesting content you find. The other accounts will give you some inspiration to generate your own content but will also allow you to build a meaningful relationship with them

• The aim of content sourcing is to create a bank of relevant content to then develop into a content calendar that spans across years, months and weeks. We've developed a customisable content calendar planner to help you do this

• Keep a list of burning questions from fans - these can form the core of your social topics. Take the time to read questions, while responding and adding key topics to your bank of content to release at various times

• Use Google Keywords - this free tool is useful for discovering keywords you may not have thought about for your brand. You can then develop themes around those keywords and creating unique, interesting posts

• Remember quality over quantity! It's better to find a few really interesting, unique posts each week than hundreds of random, un-inspiring ones! If that means you only have content for three posts a week on Facebook for example, then so be it

Content Organisation

So you now have a bank of relevant content to push out to your online consumers via social media but how do you organise this information? We've found that creating a social media schedule and adding content to that is one of the most valuable things you can do. It saves time, ensures posts are timely and also enables a focus on key messages.

Things to think about...

• Your content schedule - as you can see from our customisable content planner, it's best to break down your plan into themes and then content areas to focus on at various times. Add in relevant awareness days and you'll never be stuck for inspiring content again!

• Find your optimum frequency - after creating the content plan, if you decide you're only able to post and respond to people once a day then that is fine. It's best for you comfortably manage your presence and get used to engaging as it'll help you to grow it in the future

There's nothing more inspiring on social media than seeing a brand discovering what their online consumers want to see and creating unique content for them. The above tips and tools will help you to develop your presence and manage it in an effective way for you!

Have fun!

Jane x

Images created by A Beautiful Mess app.... read our review here

The Best Things in Life (in August)...

We had such fun answering July's 'Best Things in Life' in our favourite Red magazine we're doing it again this month!

These questions (with an added extra of our own) were taken from the August issue of Red. August's pages are filled with inspiring adventures through Asia and Australia, the summer-soundtrack - Love Songs, from Vanessa Paradis and a great interview with 'The Body' Elle Macpherson...

Katie

The best things in life are...

Festivals with great friends! There is nothing better than watching live music surrounded by some of your favourite friends, and in the sunshine too! I recently went to Gentlemen of the Road Stopover in Lewes, near Brighton created by Mumford and Sons, read my review here

My local park… Last month saw the UK celebrate their local green areas for Love Parks Week and it made me realise how lucky I am to have a clean well-kept park only a few minutes walk away. It’s so nice to be able to run through the park instead of being inside at a gym, or play tennis at the weekend (inspired by Andy Murray of course!) and it has also been the inspirational setting for outlining our next steps in business too! 

Finding new brands to love! This month we have been choosing our top picks from inspirational home interior brands. I just love the clean and stylish accessories you can find at Bodie and Fou, I can’t wait to kit out the apartment with a few of the products we love!

The life lesson I've learnt from travelling is...

Do more! I spent 6 months travelling the world back in 2010, and although I love home and the UK, this trip inspired me to make sure my life is filled with travel in the future. Meeting people from all over the world and living their lives for a while is an incredible learning experience. When I look at the time here I try to remember what the people around the word I have previously met would be doing…there are amazing women in Fiji that spend all day helping travellers move from one boat to another (backpacks and all!) to make sure they can safely get to the shore of Bounty Island. There are just too many places, too many people to meet and too little time!

 I wish I'd known at the start of Katie & Jane six months ago...

The tremendous support I would receive from my friends and family, one of my favourite quotes is “The greatest gift you can give someone is to believe in them”. Focusing on their belief in me helps me turn those business worries into positive actions!

My 'top pick' for August is...

I just love anything that takes me back to my travels and this gorgeous map of America from Bold and Noble does just that. Using typography to create the country, there are also maps of the British Isles, Ireland, Australia, Italy, France and London, all available from Bodie and Fou.

Jane

The best things in life are...

Sunny days spent with friends... either lounging at home in the garden or enjoying a lovely meal outside at Cote Brasserie in the Mailbox in Birmingham - my current favourite dish is Linguine with Seafood with Garlic and Chilli.

Pilates at my local studio, Equilibrium. I love working on the reformer (a weird-looking machine with weights!), it leaves me feeling calm and toned.

My dog Beau! His little face and wagging tail is the best thing to come home to! 

The life lesson I've learnt from travelling is...

Don't be arrogant or small-minded, instead understand the culture of the place you are visiting and you're guaranteed to have loads of fun and create many memories. Learn a few phrases, enjoy authentic dishes and do what I love doing the most... pretend you are one of the locals! I did recently in Burgau, Portugal below!

 I wish I'd known at the start of Katie & Jane six months ago...

That, with our go-getting attitude, we really can do anything we set our mind to - even if it is a bit 'out-there'! With a little research, planning and organisation along with our motto 'what's the worst that can happen?' we've discovered if we want to do something, we do!

My 'top pick' for August is...

My Moleskine Wellness Journal - Summer for me means feeling a little healthier and I love using this journal to keep me on track!

It's filled with food diaries, facts and nutritional values but also has sections such as Personal Goals and Inspirations to enable your mind to feel balanced as well as your body. 

Social Media Competition Guidelines Made Simple!

Did you know if you manage a brand page, want to run a competition and don't adhere to the social media guidelines, the page can be at risk of being closed down? The amount of times we've seen brand pages not following the competition 'rules' is huge  - every day we see even big brands breaking the rules so we thought we'd put out a post to make these social media guidelines a little more simple! Below are the key points to be aware of on Facebook and Twitter...

**In September 2013, Facebook eased their rules on running competitions on the site - you can read a breakdown of the new guidelines in simple terms in our blog post here

Facebook Promotions and Giveaways

Any brand which posts a competition or promotion on their brand page is responsible for the operation of that competition including rules, regulations, prize details and eligibility. This means you must have comprehensive terms and conditions detailing all the competition mechanics.

All promotions must be managed within Apps of Facebook on a Page App or Canvas Page. Applications are 'tabs' which usually sit at the top of the Facebook page. These tabs can be fully customised and include areas to add images, competition rules and details. We like using Easypromos to run competitions, a cheap, simple Application creator

Promotions must include...

• A complete release of Facebook by each entrant
• A statement showing that Facebook is, in no way, endorsing the competition
• Details informing entrants that any information they give is held by you, the brand, rather than Facebook

Promotions must not...

• Use Facebook's native features to enter the competition. Basically, native features are liking a post or photo, sharing a post or photo, tagging or commenting or uploading a photo
• Ask users to 'like' the brand page or check into a place to automatically enter the competition

A Quick Guide to Running a Competition on Facebook

• Use Easypromos (the first competition is free, after that it's around $10)
• Add the correct terms and conditions to the Easypromos tab
• Post on your Facebook page about the competition linking users to the Application tab but do not encourage liking, sharing or commenting on the page to enter
• The competition needs to ask users for contact details so winning entries do not have to be contacted purely through Facebook (although announcing the winners on the page after they know is fine)
• Having a dedicated place for your fans to find your competitions is not only within the rules and best practice but it also ensures your promotions are fair, reduces the risk for negative feedback on how winners are chosen and provides a reliable and trustworthy tool for regular engagement

Twitter Promotions

Although Twitter are not as hot on rules and regulations as Facebook, there's a few best practice guidelines that we'd recommend you follow to keep on Twitter's good side!

Competition Do's and Don'ts...

• Do - Retweets can be used as a competition entry mechanic but asking people to retweet an uninspiring brand tweet numerous times to win isn't very engaging
• Don't - 'Whoever retweets this tweet the most wins' is against Twitter's rules so ask entrants to enter by tweeting the answer to an interesting question with an accompanying unique, relevant hashtag

A Quick Guide to Running a Competition on Twitter

• Think of a relevant, unique hashtag to include in your competition tweets; one that has the potentially to create a stir on Twitter. It's best not to include your brand name to stop it looking too commercial
• Ask users to tweet using the hashtag (and your Twitter handle possibly) adding in the answer to a brand related question to increase engagement and interest
• Once you've picked your winners, make a big deal about them by including their Twitter handles in your preceding tweets

You can read the full Facebook Promotion Guidelines here and the Guidelines from Twitter here.

Hope that's made things a little clearer!

Jane x