Posts Tagged ‘conference’

Posted on March 1, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

How to pitch a startup – Be really good or really outrageous?

Going back to my startup weekend days, reading about Startup America and other conferences and groups trying to help launch the next big thing, I’ve been thinking about how to pitch a startup. Last week the Launch Conference was held in Santa Monica, CA as one of those events helping startups. It was organized by Jason Calacanis. While there was a lot of hype around the event and everyone waiting to see various startups pitching at the conference to an awesome group of investors one startup pitch stood out over the rest. That one startup pitch was by domo. You can watch the video below.

The domo startup pitch video reminds me of the GrocerEye winning pitch from the Founder Conference 2010. Take a look.

This brings me to the thought process about pitching a startup to investors. Earlier today Jason retweeted about how @GreenGoose raised $100K in 3 minutes while pitching at the Launch Conference. You can watch the GreenGoose video here. http://bit.ly/hGzG4z. Was the GreenGoose startup outrageous or over the top? No, but they had a really good demo and product.

What do you think? How to pitch a startup; should you be really good or really outrageous or both?

Posted on August 10, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

16 trends I’ve noticed from marketers attending recent geo / location-based events

Flickr Photo By ashley.adcox

Over the last few weeks team @TriOut (@LawPower, @GreggVM and myself) have been on what seems like a location-based check-in speaking tour. All three of us delivered talks at the NCTech4Good conference on non-profits and location-based applications and yesterday we spoke at the inaugural Marketing Mondays at the RTP headquarters. Two weeks ago TriOut Founder, Lawrence Ingraham spoke at a NC New Tech meetup to a group of VCs. My list of recent speaking opportunities have been focused on location/geo/TriOut as well.  From giving an overview of  what is location-based marketing at the Triangle AMA Social Media Boot Camp, moderating the Triangle Interactive Marketing Associations panel called “Doing business the hyper-local Social Media Way” and participating in a  Social Fresh Panel called The Evolution of Foursquare Marketing. Next for team TriOut we’re speaking at the Triangle AMA’s August Luncheon (8/19), the topic is Location-based marketing, it’s more than simply checking in. You can rsvp here. In October I’m traveling to Miami to speak at Blogalicious a women’s social media diversity conference to cover location-based applications and privacy. We have a few more upcoming speaking events that have yet to be announced as well.

While speaking at the various events on location-based applications/services I’ve noticed a few trends such as majority of the attendees are marketers and some are not using Foursquare or any location-based app themselves. Other trends I’ve noticed from attendees have been that everyone doesn’t have a smart phone and many are looking for use cases/case studies to see why everyone is talking/blogging about location-based applications. Basically they want to know why all of the hype! Majority of the attendees have been women and surprisingly the privacy conversation has come up less than I have expected. I’ve been thinking about some of the questions from the events and created a list of 15 trends I’ve noticed from marketers attending recent geo / location-based events.

1. For many marketers their first location-based application is Foursquare which is 1 1/2 year old
2. Quite a few marketers have never heard of Loopt and/or aware of the fact that it was launched in 2005 and has 4 millions users
3. Most marketers are familiar with the following location-based applications: Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, MyTown and Whrrl.
4. Agencies/Marketers are learning about TriOut via social media channels and/or speaking opportunities the TriOut team have been participating in.
5. Marketers really don’t want another application to have to manage outside of Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and WordPress/blogs
6. Marketers are not familiar how location-based tech jargon is used such as geo-fence, check-ins, badges.
7. Marketers are unaware of the fact there are over 67 different location-based applications.
8. Few marketers are thinking about what is the value for the customers and are trying to sell products vs provide a valuable  social experience using location-based applications.
9. Marketers are not taking advantage of location-based applications that provide check-in analytics via dashboards or they’re having a difficult time gaining access to it.
10. Everyone wants an easy way to check-in to multiple location-based applications or have customers to automatically check-in but are not thinking about the user adoption.
11. Agencies/Marketers are trying to understand where does location-based applications fit in with their clients social media strategy.
12. Everyone is excited about the opportunity to use QR codes
13. Most marketers are unaware of Google’s location-based applications and how they work with businesses (Google Places, latitude, tags)
14. Some marketers don’t see the value of location-based apps using game mechanics to gain users
15. Marketers are not thinking long-term relationships with location-based applications and want instant periciatpion from consumers.
16. Everyone is looking for case studies and are trying to duplicate the success stories they read via blogs.

While speaking on location-based apps I try to drive home the message to think about the customer and what can a business/brand provide to a customer to make them want to check-in. Also when it comes to location-based marketing its sometimes about what you can do offline more than online to increase your results of a location-based promotion.

Have you attended a recent meetup/conference/panel on location-based applications? If so what were some of your takeaways?

Posted on November 10, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Where did October go? Traveling, speaking, panels & conferences, oh my! Speaking in 2010?

If you walk in local malls in the Raleigh, NC you’ll already see Christmas decorations and I’m like where did October go and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. But seriously where October go? Here’s a list of events I participated in the month of October and beginning of November. It’s like a flash to me.

Photo credit:RealTimJones
October 1- 4 – IzeaFest, social media and marketing conference,  as a panel moderator
October 7 – Triangle Social Media Club as co-organizer

Photo credit should read: (cc) Cameron Gawley - www.buzzshift.com
October 14- 20 – BlogWorld, Panels: Social Media, the bad and the ugly and use blogs to reach a multicultural audience panels ( I stayed in Vegas way to long)

Photo Credit: Digital Papercuts
October 22 – NC State Fair Deep Fried Triangle State Fair Tweetup - attendee & consultant

Photo Credit: eldebe™’s images

October 23 – The Social Media Business Forum

Photo credit:  lance

November 4 – Internet Summit – Online Video Panel

Photo credit: david.patterson
November 5 – Raleigh Real Estate BarCamp - Personal Branding and Social Media Tools Panel

To say the last thirty days have been busy is an understatement between traveling, speaking and all the same time managing projects, it’s good to have awesome friends and partners such as Jeff Cohen, Kipp Bodnar and Ryan Boyles. Thanks guys.

As we begin to wrap up 2009 and plan for 2010, I’m already schedule to speak at Social Fresh in Nashville, TN on January 11. I’m excited about 2010 and I know it’s going to be a great year but as I Gary Vaynerchuk says if you want to be successful you have to work your butt off!

Need a conference speaker for 2010? Email me info at socialwayne dot com

This #shamelessplug blog post is sponsored by FriendWayne.com

Posted on January 19, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

I have Crocs around my neck & why social media might sell you a pair. How to manage a national brand.

Last weekend, I attended the Chicks Who Click (CWC09) conference in Boulder, Colorado. Don’t let the name fool you, the conference featured some of the smartest women in social media, marketing and entrepreneurship.

Photo  by GirlOnTheBand

It was organized by  Denise Smith a marketing and events specialist and Gwen Bell a brand manger, a few men were in attendance also. One of those gentlemen was George G. Smith Jr. ,Crocs social media specialist.  If you’re not familiar Crocs, then take a look at the picture below and I’m sure you have seen a pair of Crocs somewhere. 

Photo by Zé Eduardo

If you didn’t know, Crocs is based out of Boulder, Colorado and it was truly a win for them to send George to the Chicks who Click conference. As Crocs social media specialist,  George was frequently asked questions about brand management, using social media to engage in various online communities and deal with the thousands of people who say “I hate Crocs” online everyday.

 

Another big plus for Crocs was sending George to the conference with a lot of swag. I’m talking buttons, cell phone cases, stickers, pouches and more. It doesn’t end there, everything George was wearing during the conference was made by Crocs and conference organizer Gwen Bell had a pair of “hot” red Crocs boots that most of the ladies attending the conference were wowing over.

Photo by cr8tvjen 

Needless to say, Crocs was well represented at the conference, and everyone who attended, if they had a negative opinion of Crocs before they attended CWC09, they left with a positive one. 

So how is Crocs using social media? For one, they have George G. Smith Jr., a young smart, funny, (see Baby Got Back karaoke video by George) who “gets it” . George is on Twitter as @georgegsmithjr, and is very active in listening and engaging with people who are having conversations about Crocs on Twitter. But George is not just using Twitter, hes has some social media listening tools (I’m not going to reveal) setup to know when anyone is mentioning Crocs on the web, plus he’s blogging and participating in Facebook groups, even a few that may surprise you such as the “I Dont care How Comfortable Crocs Are, You Look Like A Dumba**” group with over 1.3 million members“. Ouch!  How does George deal with a such a large community with groups that either love or hate Crocs?

Well, rather than me try to tell you everything I’ll let George tell you. While in Boulder, Colorado I had a chance to interview George about Crocs and social media while we visited Lijit’s office (thanks @tarable). Here’s a list of questions I asked George about Crocs and social media:

• So how do you manage the brand of Crocs when you have people who love them or hate them? For example someone tweeted: @trixie360 yeah, why does he want to uglify America? This country is already obese and ignorant… do our shoes have to be hideous too?
• How did you become the crocs social media maven?
• What is your favorite pair of crocs and color?
• As Crocs being a national brand and a non tech company, what challenges do you face explaining to everyone the value of social media to people within your corporation who don’t get it?  For example: @YannR on Twitter was talking about why Crocs doesn’t blog. What’s the reason behind that?
• If you could build the ultimate Crocs social media campaign with an endless budget what would you do first, and which existing social network would you try to reach first and why?
• You have your twitter account that you’re active on; Will you begin using the @Crocs Twitter account soon or do you think it’s more about building the personal relationships with individuals representing the company versus the company tweeting?
• Why would you suggest  other non tech companies to get involved with social media?
• What would be the number 1 reason you would tell someone why to buy a pair of Crocs?

 The interview.
 

 

I must say that I’m really impressed with George and what Crocs has allowed him to do with their brand. If you own a national brand take note of what it takes for your company to use social media:

1. If you don’t get it, hire someone who does.
2. Make sure the person who’s representing your brand is passionate about your product or company
3. Understand the tools, the communities and how to participate in them
4. Use offline meetings/conference to build your brand and support your local community
5. Listen to and engage to both positive and negative feedback about your brand online.
6. Have fun and enjoy what you do.

Just in case you didn’t catch the end of the interview, I made a promise to George that for the entire year of 2009, I’ll wear my black Crocs badge/iPhone case at every meetup or conference I attend (I have Crocs around my neck).

 

Thus starting “my Crocs 09 tour” flickr group.  So if you see me at a conference or meetup let’s take a picture for George. Here’s me and Peter Shankman from HARO. Next stop for my Crocs? The inauguration.

Need help understanding social media? Contact me.