Top 10 Things I learned from my SXSW Experience

Posted by admin on Apr 5, 2010 in SXSW | 0 comments

1. Share your passion.  “Keep Austin Weird” is the motto of the SXSW home city, and it’s really about celebrating the passion people there display.  Whether it was art, films, music, or interactive, everyone wore their passion on their sleeve, and it’s a freeing, collective sense of, “these people get me.”  Whether you’ve quit your day job to pursue your passion (and you’re “crushing it” thanks to Gary Vaynerchuk), or simply geek out with others who share yours, it can be invigorating and life changing.
2. Tech Geniuses are people too.  It was truly amazing how accessible people were at SXSW, from bumping into new media reporter Robert Scoble, riding the social media bus with Social Media Club Founder Chris Heuer, riding the elevator with Jamie Lynn Sigler (although not a tech genius, it was still very cool!), meeting author and social media evangelist Gary Vaynerchuk, to meeting and chatting with Twitter CEO Evan Williams.
3. Location, location, location.  After Facebook and Twitter, everyone’s been wondering, “what’s next?”  It was evident at SXSW that Location Based Social Networking is emerging as the next big thing.  Like any social network, the power of it is in the number of people using it, and while it was estimated that only about 30-40% of the tech geeks at SXSW were using it, it showed some incredible potential.
4. Content, content, content.  People turn to the Internet and social media to get information that’s entertaining and immediately relevant to them.  If you’re a company, your product must be relevant (at least at one point in peoples’ lives), and fortunately, you’re an expert in that area.  Brands are already prepared with answers to questions when people call them, but they need to post it where people can find it when they go looking for it.
5. It’s how you use it (your content).  It’s not enough just to push your content.  As National Geographic pointed out, it’s using your content to provide a contextual experience.  Think about the user experience and how your content can enrich their experience.
6. Openness is the new Transparency.  Twitter CEO, Evan Williams, used the analogy of a door, “It can be transparent and you can see through it, but when it’s open, it’s about getting in, shaping it, and defining it.”  While most companies still struggle to be transparent, most consumers have moved past transparency and expect to be able to define and shape those they choose to work or do business with.
7. Sponsorships that make Sense.  Chevy sponsored by the “Volt Lounge” – a place to relax, get work done, and power up – as well as providing power-strips at many of the outlets around the convention center.  Not only did this provide a MUCH needed service to the many attendees who carried multiple devices, but it also had a very direct tie-in to the launch of the Chevy Volt, their new electric car.
8. You can’t do it all.  There were approximately 15-20 interactive sessions going on during any given hour at SXSW.  Despite wanting to learn it all, you can only do so much (although Twitter allows you to attend 2-3 sessions at a time).  Likewise, there are so many new technologies to try out, there’s no way to keep up.  Try as many as you (sanely) can and count on the other tech thinkers to help you filter the winners.
9. Mobile location still has a long way to come.  There are many, many different ways for a mobile device to access location – GPS, Cell-ID, Triangulation, etc. – and there are even more ways to try to use that information.  When building apps or programs that use location data, there are many different advantages and disadvantages to the way you choose to use it.
10.  You can’t fake authenticity… and social media is all about authentic engagement with your customers and prospects.  You can’t scale it and you can’t farm it out to someone else to do on your behalf (or worse, give it to the intern who doesn’t yet understand your culture).  As Gary Vaynerchuk put it, “people’s bullshit detectors are better than ever.”  You have to treat social media interactions the same way you would as if the person was sitting in front of you – they want to feel like you’re listening and genuinely care about them.