Musings of a Marketing Maven

Yes, I con­fess to suf­fer­ing social media fatigue this sum­mer. I went into stealth mode on Twit­ter and hardly blogged at all. (And to be hon­est, I didn’t miss it!)

Instead I spent loads of time online with my fam­ily col­lab­o­rat­ing via Base­camp, a “closed com­mu­nity.” We shared mem­o­ries, pho­tos, laughs and tears as we got ready to help my mother and her twin brother cel­e­brate their 80th birth­day. It became addic­tive – each morn­ing we rushed to our com­puter to see who had writ­ten what last night. We laughed and cried. We dragged our spouse and the kids into the mix.

Tweet­ing and blog­ging sim­ply couldn’t com­pare to the appeal of our real-world social net­work. Time I might have invested there went into the fam­ily mem­o­ries project.

A week after the big birth­day party – the 50-person fam­ily reunion – we’re still col­lab­o­rat­ing via Base­camp. Every­day, we’re still talking.

As my brother Dana wrote so elo­quently today, shar­ing is the secret to a thriv­ing fam­ily community:

Recipe for Memories

1 part shared expe­ri­ence
2 parts (or more) of laugh­ter
(optional) 1 part surprise/OMG’s!
Many parts LOVE
1 free­dom to share
2 (or more) peo­ple to giggle/guffaw/pee pants about the mem­ory later

Take expe­ri­ence and roll out onto life’s table using both hands. Shape with words of awe and laugh­ter, sur­prise (or any other emo­tion handy). Mix in the love—-fold gen­tly but don’t be afraid and be too gen­tle. Love can han­dle the rough stuff.
Now, this is the tricky part: take 2 or more peo­ple and have both of them put their fin­ger­prints all over the expe­ri­ence. Really get into it and make it their own. Twist it, turn it, shake it up, turn it over, run towards it and then embrace it for all you got.

Next, allow it to sit for awhile to “per­co­late”.
Come back to it later-in some cases, YEARS later. Add the free­dom to share.
Slice it, serve it up and allow oth­ers to enjoy with you with a dash more of laugh­ter, some tears and lots of love.
Laugh­ter, tears and love are the spices that make it a gourmet meal.

Bon Appetit. This is your life served up just the way you lived it. Eat well.

Thanks, Dana.

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