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Memphis Social Media Marketing Professional
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Stop the Social Media Presses!

Meerkat throws a world-wide party and invites everyone!!

Meerkat, social media marketing, live video streaming

I should say at least everyone with iOS, but more about that later.

As I type, the unveiling of Meerkat’s Cameo feature is taking place under #CameoParty, and it’s exciting. Whenever there is anything this new there is the need for patience, especially when using technology live.

Cameo allows for the host of a Meerkat to invite anyone to jump in for a 60 second cameo appearance from anywhere. The invitation is sent and then accepted by the cameoer by pressing a button. The cameroist (I’m still searching for the best word here) then shows up live in a smaller box on screen to have the stage, or air-time, for a minute.

There is no exchange of live audio between the host and cameoer. The guest cameoing in can still see the comments at the bottom of the screen, though.

Android users seem to be chomping at the meerkat bit as the cameo feature is, at this point, unavailable for them. They can enjoy watching the stream but can’t participate. This stinks, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before that changes.

Meerkat’s reasoning for the new feature, which Matt Mazzeo (@mazzeo) aptly referred to in the testing days as a jam-session, is designed to increase participation. It seems to be doing just that as I saw people jumping on during #CameoParty with lots of tweets about being new to Meerkat or a first-time user.

As soon as Meerkat offered the ability to link to Facebook and stream from it, I tried that too. Love it! Cameo is a continuation of the Meerkat spread across social sites allowing scheduled streaming to be announced on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram. Users no longer have to have a Twitter account, either. You can Meerkat now with only a Facebook account. The most recent updates also allow you to save streams.

The actual #CameoParty is a great launch campaign! First of all, they had a designated hashtag. Second, they invited EVERYONE to the party! Awesome!! As for the actual, live-streaming party, it contained all the regular party features with the addition of party guests from all over the world. There were games, live music (some really talented cameoists out there!), dancing, wardrobe questions, drinking, fashion tips, and even live rapping.

There were a few party problems, but you know this is new so I’m very forgiving. There seemed to be a bit more lag time. When I was finished with my turn at “taking over @appmeerkat’s stream” during my cameo, I could still hear the end of my 60 second window as it switched back to the hosts. No biggie. There were more freezes and drops during #CameoParty than I’ve experienced during other Meerkats. Nevertheless, IT WAS SO MUCH FUN TAKING PART IN MAKING HISTORY!

What I really liked about Cameo? It was so easy! It’s really well done and again, Meerkat is the disrupter. When I accepted my invitation from the #CameoParty hosts, I pushed the button to accept and boom. There I was in all my no make-up, 44 year old glory. Despite that, because who really cares, it was easy to roll with and no surprises with how much time I had to talk. In the upper right hand corner, the cameoer will see a running time-clock counting down her 60 seconds.

While I was on, there were over 3300 who had attended with about 1880-1900 at one time. Cool party!

Meerkat Cameo, live video streaming, social media, LMCB Social, Memphis

Can’t wait to see how Cameo is used in the future. I know my wheels are turning!

Have you tried Cameo, yet? Interested in jumping into the ever expanding social media world but need help? Let LMCB Social help you join the party! Tweet me at @LMCBsocial.

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