SXSW: Day #4

People usually complain about Mondays. I'm one of them (I LOVE my weekends), but this particular Monday was an amazing one. Great panels, awesome good, fun parties. Here's your Day 4 recap!

The day started out foggy and humid. Made for some eery photos (not to mention a bad hairday), but luckily the sun came out that afternoon.

"Brand Journalism in the Real World"

*Panel was cut short by a (false) fire alarm.

Featuring the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs and the Editorial Director at Twitter

• The biggest content marketing challenge is producing the kind of content that engages prospects and customers.
• Brand journalism: researched storytelling that is not a traditional media outlet, but rather an in-house voice for a company.
• It's in the company's best interest to have someone telling stories and breaking the news on their company. It has to live in a communications/marketing role.
• Talk to people in a very human way. Go to where the people are that you want to reach.
• Should be an ongoing conversation, not sporadic interactions.
• The best way to have a reputable brand is to be honest and be open. Go off message and show that everything doesn't have to be so slogan-y.

"Social Media in the Underground World of B2B"

No photo for this one - I was too busy taking notes. Some quality social media tips here! Panelists represented Text 100, Xerox, NVIDIA, Cisco and IBM.

• Be a trusted leader in your industry.
• The two biggest issues in Social B2B: measuring ROI (return on investment) and resourcing.
• Find the best social citizens within the organization to enact the social strategy.
• Create a safe environment for people in your organization to learn about social media and how they can use it for their job.
• NVIDIA and Cisco have screens (LCD, iPads, tablets) in high traffic areas in the office - these devices show real-time Twitter feeds so that employees can see what's being said about their brand. This generates curiosity.
• Demystify the idea that "social" is scary and has no impact on their job.
• Who better to represent your company than your own employees? No one knows your brand better than them.
• It starts with listening. If you're not going to listen, don't do social media.
• Don't have the "launch it and leave it" mentality. You need subject matter experts to invest time and help sustain it.
• Know the value of being present. If you're not present, your competitors will be.
• When deciding how to measure ROI, go back to what you're trying to measure, what your goal was when you started.
• The standard approach to ROI - Are you reaching your audience? If you are, are they engaged? And if they're engaged, are they advocating on your behalf?
• ROI isn't just about numbers.
• Stop thinking about "what is my Twitter/Facebook strategy?" and instead "what is my business objective?"
  

The team met up for lunch at the Turf N Surf food trailer. I got the blackened tilapia tacos and they were delicious!

"Getting Good: Practical Tips for New Designers"

This was a discussion led by a designer and a front-end developer from web design firm Happy Cog. While the panel was geared towards other web designers, I really got a lot out of it! They had a lot of wonderful tips for creativity and work habits.

• There are many roadblocks to creativity...
• 1 - So much inspiration, so many resources - it's overwhelming!
• Write down your objectives before you start hunting for inspiration.
• Don't start each project looking for inspiration, and don't start each one from scratch. Rather, create repositories of ideas to pull from. If you find an inspiration and use that single piece, your work/project will end up looking too much like the original.
• 2 - Workflow.
• Create an elegant workflow. Explore shortcuts.
• If you feel clunky and cluttered when you work, your work will reflect that. Leave the office with a clean desk so when you return in the morning, you don't feel out of sorts.
• 3 - Disappointment, your work is not meeting your expectations.
• The "creative gap" - we have amazing taste, but we don't quite know how to recreate it. That leads to frustration.
• Train your inner critic to evaluate what worked and what didn't.
• Improve the quality of your questions when you ask for feedback from coworkers/superiors.

"Blogging: Why So Many Women Are Doing It"

Indiana Adams of Adored Austin and Alessandra Colaci of Republic of Wow.

• Traditionally, women have been storytellers in their communities.
• Blogging is a modern day quilting circle. Women share their hearts and lives with each other. Women have an inclination to be more social than men.
• Women are trusted and brands approach them to be a voice and influence their readers.
• Indiana Adams example: loved the new Tom's wedges, wrote a blog reviewing them with an affiliated link to the Tom's online store, and she sold 750 pairs through her blog!!
• Women are not one dimensional. Women's blogs make more sense when they share several different areas of their lives. Don't make your blog about a single topic.
  
• Are you writing as a catharsis for yourself, or are you writing for others? Everyone has a story to tell, but there is certainly a struggle between the two - sharing everything, or being more reserved and censors with others in mind.
• Write your posts and add the links later. Be authentic.
• Start conversations on Twitter. Brands read them!

After the 5:00 panel, the marketing team walked over to Rainey Street (where Google Village was set up the day before) for the Bazaarvoice party. Free tacos for dinner meant that I'd successfully eaten tacos for FOUR MEALS in two days. Loved them all, but was glad to have something besides tacos once SXSW was over after Tuesday.

Bazaarvoice rented out Lustre Pearl for their event.

Interior of Lustre Pearl bar. Yeaaaah, definitely coming back here for a photo shoot someday. Gorgeous.

Backyard of Lustre Pearl

Interactive game (controlled by iPads) in the front yard

After leaving Rainey Street, three of us walked over to the GSD&M party.

Backyard of GSD&M

Frost Tower all lit up!

SXSW: Day #3

Day #3 was probably the most exciting of my SXSW experience - definitely the busiest! I had back-to-back sessions in the morning with some pretty noteworthy speakers. The first was the founder of Instagram, a hugely successful photo sharing app for iPhones, and the second was a sports panel moderated by Mr. Jimmy Fallon. Here we go...

"Is Photo-Madness Creating Mediocrity or Magic?"

How many people can say they have an Instagram photo of the man who created it?

• Instagram spans generations and languages, a way of speaking and seeing the world without really speaking.
• It's a very unique platform and can be used by people who don't normally use social media. The founder (Kevin Systrom) said that his parents can't comprehend the purpose of Twitter and they'll never get the value of "checking in" via FourSquare, but they understand the importance of capturing moments on camera.
• Good advice from the photography panel: disconnect from your phone for at least 30 minutes a day in order to give yourself creative space.
• "The risk with digital photography is that we are less deliberate. Let's make sure we remain thoughtful."
• Some of the most meaningful photos in our history aren't taken by professional photographers.
  
• "One of the biggest challenges will be to sift through the many millions of photos we take in order to find the most meaningful ones."
• Mobile photography will continue to spread. But edit more and be more thoughtful - "don't share your ugly baby photos!" -Koci Hernandez
• Other awesome photo/editing apps include: ProCamera, Filterstorm, ScratchedUp, Lo-mob, and The Amazing Typewriter.

"Digital Sport: Know More, Do More"

Jimmy moderated the panel and was downright funny, just like he is on television. Other panelists included Fred Santarpia of VEVO, Andrew Wilson from EA Sports, Stefan Olander of Nike, and Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix.

• There are two types of people - those who purchase/own music and those that experience it. The future is about consuming music. This gives artists an opportunity to interact with fans with no filter. That's going to change the way that music is even released. Artists want direct connection and may look to release music continuously. We may see the traditional "album release" go away.
  
• Nike has evolved into a service business. "We can no longer say, 'just do it.' We have to help people do it."
• Nike's mission has evolved from "a better shoe" to "a better you."
• The majority of the session was about how technology drives sports, music and games. Pretty fascinating stuff, but a lot of it I didn't write down. I was too busy being entertained by Jimmy Fallon!

Side note: Ogilvy PR joined forces with the artists of Image Think to create some powerful visuals for some of SX's key sessions. An artist listened to the panelists and sketched these story boards in real-time. They were displayed in the room for our next session, and Ogilvy also printed out copies for attendees to keep! Cool, cool stuff.

"The B2B Social Media Book"

We took a break from the usual hour-long sessions to attend a 20-minute book reading by Jeffrey Cohen of Radian6 and Kipp Bodnar from HubSpot. We got so much out of that short period of time, and afterwards we bought the book to add to our marketing library and had it signed by Jeff and Kipp. Can't wait to read the whole book.

• 60% of the sales cycle is over before a buyer talks to a salesperson.
• 73% of CEOs don't believe marketers drive revenue.
• "Prospects don't care about your products. They want solutions to their problems." - Jeff Cohen
• The shelf life of a link shared via social media is 3 hours (!!).
• Publishing and sharing content online is the single biggest lever to lead generation.
• Your goal on social media: get people to share your stuff.
• Create awesome content and reduce the friction around sharing it. Put calls to action (CTAs) everywhere!

The afternoon continued with free tacos for lunch and free sweets in the Ask.com Sugar Rush Lounge (cake balls from Holy Cacao, triple berry pie from Sugar Mama's Bakeshop, and chocolate covered popcorn from Cornucopia).

The sun FINALLY came out after two days of rain!

"How to Be an Idea Factory"

This session was led by Matthew Diffee, cartoonist for the New Yorker and Texas Monthly. The ideas he shared had little to do with my exact work responsibilities, but everything to do with workflow and keeping your creativity!

• "I'm not talking about sustained, long-range creativity, say, for writing a novel. And I'm not talking about casual creativity every now and then. I'm talking about day-to-day, being creative when you have to be."
• Even if you do collaborate with others, there are times when you just need to step away and think by yourself.
• Why are some people more creative than others?
  
• Influencers of creativity include: you, your environment, your process.
• You... what you think, what you feel, what you know and what you do. You need to be patient and not let your emotions get the best of you. There's nothing more difficult than trying to be creative when you're angry. Be self-disciplined and persistent.
• "The worst enemy to creation is self-doubt."
• "Despite the carefree air that many creative people affect, most of them work late into the night and persist when less driven individuals would not."
• Your environment... right place, right time. Find what/where works for you.
• Starting is the hardest part. Don't leave your desk cluttered with yesterday's stuff.
• "Unplug yourself. You don't know what you are capable of until you shut it all down."

There wasn't much that caught my eye for the last session, so a coworker and I walked to Rainey Street where the Google Village was set up. Free drinks, koozies, fun Google bags, and cupcakes at Bar 96. It was a lot of fun! From there, we walked to The Stage on Sixth Street for The Interactive+Film Fusion Party for free tacos, as well as the live music of the John Evans Band.

Treats compliments of The Cupcake Bar

Later that night, I met up with my sister and we were able to experience some of SXSW together. We walked around downtown a little bit and then got free ice cream at the Coolhaus trailer. You get to pick your cookie and your flavor of ice cream to make an awesome ice cream sandwich. Sarah and I had a potato chip and butterscotch cookie (sounds weird, but so good) with a vanilla bourbon ice cream.

We ended the night at Alamo Drafthouse where we saw the premiere of the movie "Nature Calls," starring Johnny Knoxville and Maura Tierney. It was a pretty stupid-funny movie, but it was fun to experience some of the Film portion of SX and see Q&A with some cast members afterwards.

*Day #1 SXSW Recap

*Day #2 SXSW Recap

SXSW: Day #2

What better way to kick off Day #2 than with free breakfast, compliments of the Today show? Two food trucks were parked in front of a nearby hotel, and they served six different breakfast items to all SXSW attendees. Over the weekend, I was able to try two of them - the Breakfast Bomb sandwich (eggs, cheese, bacon jam), and Le Today Toast (french toast sticks with blueberry jam drizzled on top). Such a delicious start to the morning.

"More Smart, Less Stupid: PR for Better Business"

Being a public relations grad, this was one of the sessions I was most looking forward to. Got there early, got a front-row seat, and settled in to soak up some great PR tips.

Panelists included the president/founder of Waggener Edstrom, the CEO of Porter Novelli, a media officer from WCG, and the Global Communications leader from Honeywell Aerospace.

• The panelists looked at several case studies (Susan G. Komen, American Airlines, Lowe's and Netflix) and said that there would be "no pointing fingers, just pointing at PR lessons learned."
• You have to have engagement with the people that love you, and the communicator of your brand should always be sitting at the business table.
• Regarding policy decisions - it's a road map. You should already know where your constituents are and how they feel. If your organization is going to have certain political/social opinions and views, know it before hand and don't change your mind later.
• Some people think they're the good guy and they'll always be the good guy, so then they get sloppy. People who get sloppy don't feel the need to listen because they think they have it all together.
• There's nothing wrong with admitting fault and apologizing. But speak like a human being.
• We don't own our brands - we share them with our customers.
• Public relations professions need to hold up a mirror to help their clients see what their decisions will look like.

"Rude Awakening: Content Strategy is Super Hard"

Panelists from Brain Traffic, Bond Art+Science, Gnostyx Research, and Wells Fargo

• "Content strategy is rising because organizations all over the world have begun to realize that they desperately need to handle their rapidly expanding online communications. Unless the planet gets hit by a comet, this trend is unlikely to reverse." -Erin Kissane
• Content is so much more than the product. It is a process that goes to the heart of who our organizations are.
• The plan is nothing, but planning is everything. You plan a little, but then just jump in and do it.
• Let the content define the layout and form. Think content out, not the container/platform it's displayed on.
• Sculpt your message for maximum impact.
• When we're talking about content, we need to think about how to create content for flexible reuse in the future.
• You need to know what your users need, as well as what your organization needs to say.
• Content strategy is about getting business stakeholders and editorial teams speaking the same language.

After the 12:30 session, the marketing team ventured to the east side of town for lunch at Takoba. If you haven't tried this place, bump it to the top of your "restaurants I must try" list. They were only serving brunch on Saturday, but their fish tacos during lunch/dinner are to-die-for! Authentic central-Mexican food. You can't go wrong!

"The Secret Lives of Links"

I don't have any photos from this session, but the speaker (Jarod Spool, User Interface Engineering) was hilarious. He started the hour by having us all stand to join him in dancing to Beyonce's "Single Ladies," and he kept us laughing the whole time.

• Think about the "scent" of your links - how appealing are they to users? Are they easily found/displayed?
• Example of the Walgreens home page. The most-clicked links account for 59% if total site traffic, but only use 3.8% of the total page area. This goes against Fitt's Law, which states that the bigger and closer, the easier to hit. Logically, the bigger your links, the easier it is for users to find them. But not all sites are successful this way. You must figure out what works for your site and your site's viewers.
• The second worst set of words in web/link design = "learn more." The first worst phrase is "click here." The granddaddy of them all?! "Click here to learn more." We need to give web users a little more credit - they're smart and know what a link does.
• Myth: links are supposed to be blue and underlined. Luckily, we've gotten away from this. We've moved beyond blue and underlined, and links are displayed in other smart, logical ways.
• "Links don't have to look like links, but they should be easily found and designed well."

"The View from Inside Rainn Wilson's Brainstem"

It was so fun to see "Mr. Dwight Schrute" in person. Rainn was incredibly funny! I didn't take many notes, as he was just telling his story - his history and track record with the Internet, how he launched SoulPancake.com, and his somewhat abstract religious views. Not my favorite panel, but it was fun to be in the presence of a TV celeb. He even invited a random audience member (via a Twitter contest) to smash guitars with him up on stage.

More to come of my SXSW experience!

*Day #1 SXSW Recap

SXSW: Day #1

In all my years of living in Austin, I've never experienced the wonders of the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. Until this year.

I certainly have seen the photos and read the news articles, and I've aspired to one day attend, so I was over the moon when our marketing manager broke the news that we would be attending the SXSW Interactive conference as a team!

The excitement mounted over several months, and when the schedule of events was released, we literally spent hours mulling over the speakers and topics, trying to best strategize which panels we'd attend. (more on planning and SX "do's and don'ts" later!)

We picked up our badges on Thursday afternoon and already you could feel the energy start to pour into our city. However, nothing compared to the sight of the crowds on Friday when we arrived at the Convention Center for our first session. Being around so many creative, brilliant, talented people was both thrilling and overwhelming.

I decided to break down the days into separate blog posts, just to offer little bite-size chunks of information. I took SO many notes - my fingers were flying on the keys of my iPad and I felt like a wet sponge, just trying to soak up as much content as I possibly could. That being said, here are some of the main points I took away from Day #1 sessions...

"Brands as Patterns"

Panelists from Method, Inc., Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard

• The power of a brand is in its truth.
• A brand is judged by what it does, not what it says.
• If you don't know your customers, you are talking to yourself.
• As marketers, we need to be thinking about the journey, not just great moments.
• Brands need to be consistent yet different. How do you do both? Think of patterns - they're consistent and different at the same time.
• Successful music is built through the right combination of what is expected and something new. We lose audiences when things are too rigid and repetitive, or too chaotic. The art is finding the balance.

"Fireside Chat with Vic Gundotra on Google+"

Guy Kawasaki is a social media genius (kind of celebrity status in my mind, which intrigued me to go see him in person). It was such a treat to see him interview the founder of Google+, Vic Gundotra.

• Many people say Google+ is a ghost town, or Google+ will never be a successful social network. But Vic says to make sure you're using it correctly. It has had a slow start, but the people at Google are very happy with the growth.
• Google+ is as good for a whisper as it is for a shout.
• The majority of content on Google+ is shared privately.
• Google's goal is to serve users more relevant content. The best time to show you an ad is at the time of "commercial intent" - the exact time that you're searching for that content (i.e., if you're looking for a restaurant in Napa Valley, the best time to show you an ad is when you go to Google and SEARCH for a restaurant in Napa).

"Future of Entertainment: Viewer Becomes User"

Panelists from MTV, Showtime, GroupMe, GetGlue & Bluefin Labs

• People aren't watching TV alone anymore.
• The "water cooler" theory - you used to talk about TV shows the next day at work. That has all changed. Now, you can discuss your favorite shows with your friends in real-time, as the show is happening. TV is becoming social.
• Now we're all having a "second screen" experience - in addition to watching television, we have our phone, tablet or laptop out to watch Twitter feeds or interact with friends online.
• Apps such as GroupMe and GetGlue work with TV networks to say "hey, people are already using this app to discuss shows with their friends. Why don't we have you enter their circles and give them exclusive content?"

When Day #1 sessions were over, the team trekked through the pouring rain to enjoy the "View 512" happy hour hosted by local ad agency, Tocquigny. Their office is on the 17th floor of the Frost Bank Tower, so in addition to food, drinks and a fun photobooth, we had great views of downtown.