Remember the day you realized you could find that parking lot in downtown Houston by clicking around in Google street view? You were a freaking genius that day. Well, friends, now you can create your own virtual 360 adventure.

Simply because there may not be a better example than National Geographic’s 360°: Swimming With Bears in Kamchatka, check out that interactive test drive.

Not to get too technical, when we say video, we actually mean 360° spherical photos. Anyone, anywhere, with any camera phone, can create some wildly immersive experiences for friends, family, travel buddies, the occasional coworker on your Facebook and, finally, to your marketed audiences. Simply take a panoramic shot and upload. Easy peasy, lemon squeasy.

Back to XBOX 360, er, we mean Facebook 360—the one thing we’ve learned about each brilliant new shiny object is Facebook’s ability to give us the tools and the creative space to develop content that works for our audiences the best. Facebook, you did the damn thing.

Scope it out.
Imagine being able to see the latest-and-greatest interactive art exhibit through the screen of your phone because you are in Houston and the exhibit is in Paris. What if you could view an entire gym’s space to get an idea of how clean it is and what equipment is available? The power of photos is very real and data across every digital channel clearly supports this fact. People are highly interested in how things look (duh), including places. With Facebook’s new feature, places and spaces of businesses can showcase another dimension of who they are. This great new tool can also feed into most folks’ interest of getting a sort of behind the scenes access into how a business or organization looks on the inside—so make sure your personality is showing.

Braving the outdoors…indoors.
Quite frankly, we love to get out to climb up mountains, hike uncomfortably small passageways and generally do anything that connects us with our world. However, we also need the comforts of fast internet speeds and central air conditioning to get work done. If you are like us, you know how photos of white sands and clear water can make the summer heat a bit more bearable. It gets the mind churning and even sparks wanderlust. Being able to see a 360 of the Grand Canyon could be the thing that finally tips a person to book that vacation. This tactic is great to push people to check out the places they have always wanted to see, or maybe, the places they don’t know they want to see yet (Houston is seriously amazing, guys).

Bring on the FOMO.
There are times where concerts, movements and gatherings work really well when you can help an audience visualize the grandeur of it all. It lets them know just how big BIG can be. Using Facebook 360 can either cause people to feel a sense of belonging (Hey! I relate to these people! And look how many of them there are!) or a serious case of FOMO. At times, either outcome can be wildly valuable.

But listen—the best way to decide the best way to use new tech tools is to try them out for yourself. Start by getting busy with your camera and publish those suckers to Facebook. It’s time to do what we marketers do best and do endlessly: test, learn and apply.

Panning way out, Facebook just graced 1.5 billion people with 360 Video.

A Literal Facebook Ollie

Condensed

When people typically think of creative cities, they think of major metropolitan areas like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, forgetting entirely about the Gulf Coast. When Houston is mentioned, it’s only credited for the oil and gas industry, cutting-edge medicine or NASA. And hey, those industries are vital and wonderful and are a part of what make Houston great. But Houston is also a sprawling metropolis teeming with other forms of talent and creative expression.

In Houston, you can regularly find local muralists out and about, painting the side of a building to brighten up the neighborhood. Even those hideous electrical boxes have been transformed into works of art because the folks at Up Art Studio looked at them and said, “why not?”

Or take the #WeAreHERO project, created by the good people of Primer Grey. They didn’t just take beautiful photographs or make a pretty backdrop. They took a heated political debate around nondiscrimination and used photography to connect it back with the community, encouraging people to have tough conversations and love one another. That’s the kind of making that pushes our city and our country forward.

Aside from the cool shit artists, designers, and writers are working on, Houston also has it’s own small army of folks who want to make it easier for any Houstonian to make their tinkering dreams a reality.

Like the masterminds at Sketch City, who have created a warm and welcoming community of hackers where anyone can learn how to code, work on community-centered projects and make something special. (Sketch City meets every Tuesday evening. Heads up!)

Or perhaps you’re more of a DIY, get-your-hands-dirty kind of person. Our friends at Houston Makerspace and TXRX Labs are in the business of making resources available so you can make your own jewelry, wood work, learn how to grow a garden, or whatever else your heart desires. If you don’t know how to do these things, they even offer classes to get you all set up. 

So what are you waiting for? There’s a creative movement happening here in Houston and you can be a part of it. If you can imagine it, then you can create it. You just have to be willing to look.

June 17-23 Is The Official National Week of Making. #ThanksObama.

“Makers and builders and doers—of all ages and backgrounds—have pushed our country forward, developing creative solutions to important challenges and proving that ordinary Americans are capable of achieving the extraordinary when they have access to the resources they need.

“Makers and builders and doers—of all ages and backgrounds—have pushed our country forward, developing creative solutions to important challenges and proving that ordinary Americans are capable of achieving the extraordinary when they have access to the resources they need. During National Week of Making, we celebrate the tinkerers and dreamers whose talent and drive have brought new ideas to life, and we recommit to cultivating the next generation of problem solvers.” -President Obama