Uwe Gutschow

Hour-by-hour view of mobile social activity during SXSW Interactive

This is awesome!

GM's disappointing show at #SXSW Interactive

If you were one of the main sponsors of SXSW Interactive and had the entrance to the conference center dedicated as your engagement area, wouldn't you want to do more than just show cars? (Disclosure: I work on a competitive  auto account)

So here's the thing. I saw Jaffe's interview with the GM dude and I realize that there was more to their efforts than meet the eye - Gowalla badges, QR codes, influencer outreach, etc.

But this all reads too much like a 101 on social media for dummies. The use of QR codes seem like an outdated concept (by about 5 years) at an event that's so focused on innovation. Gowalla badges seem more tactical rather than a longer term approach. 

I guess these partnerships were chosen because both are official sponsors of SXSW interactive. How predictable.

When you have some of the brightest technical minds at an event, wouldn't you want to engage them more? What about throwing out a challenge to the community or asking them to help design a feature of the vehicle?

So, just how successful were some of their efforts? Judging by buzz.... somewhat, but not very. 

Looking at the attached graphs and taking into consideration SXSW interactive started on the 12th of March (with some people arriving on the 11th), photos on flickr (in pink) grew very little. 

Twitter mentions jumped a bit, but it looked like "Prius" mentions jumped way more than "Chevy Volt".  Interesting,  especially since Prius had no presence at SXSW interactive.

 

  
 
 Here are some more pics of what they did:

Random screen pulling in Chevy tweets

 

QR codes on vehicles

 

Making you work to get more information about the vehicle (soz the focus).

 

Why would I do this?

 

The coolest thing they did was to provide power strips inside the conference center. Nothing more pleases geeks than power for their laptops :)

 

Pepsi at #SXSW Interactive - cool effort

I thought the Pepsi Refresh efforts at SXSW Interactive was really cool.

Here are some photos:

and of course, some free internet

At the other end of the conference center they had a really cool display of what was hot at SXSW. It's a zeitgeist that displays what is hot right now, through Tweets, Foursquare check-ins and Flickr photo uploads.

I love this practical and visual display of real-time data to inform your decision on where to go and what to attend.

 

Also check out the live site that is displaying this: http://pepsicozeitgeist.com/ . But of course most of the geeks have left, so activity has dropped off significantly.

Although this was merely used as a display, it would be great to turn this into a searchable, navigable mobile application that fulfills a functional role for SXSW attendees.

Who's Role Is Social Media - Agency, Client, Social Media Guru?

This is the topic I suggested for DigiDay Social happening today. Since I'm not going to make it to the event, I thought I'd post my thoughts and ideas on my blog. Here's the topic:

"Most agencies and brands now have the Social Media Guru and are building teams around them. But ultimately, social will be a part of everything we do, so is this model of building separate teams sustainable? Meanwhile, different groups are trying to "own" social on behalf of brands. Is it the job of a digital agency? A PR agency? The tech platform provider? The fact is, Social is a new channel of communication and requires expertise in a new discipline and a NEW way of thinking"

1. First off I'd like to propose dropping "media" from Social Media and just calling it Social. Why? So that media people don't get confused thinking that this is just another platform to buy on... it is not.  And because we need think more about the behavior and motivations of people, not the platforms like Facebook.

2. Social is not another marketing tactic. What I mean by this is that it's not..."how can we socialize this idea" or "what is the social media component of this campaign". It needs to be part of a new way of thinking about marketing (and of course doing business), not just advertising.

3. ..And because this is a new way of thinking that will eventually be just a common way of thinking, integration is key! I love the way Geoff Livingstone phrases this:

"The siloization of social media within communications departments and their agencies represents a strategic error. Integration is the key. And I’ve said this before when I was a stand-alone social media firm. Every marketing department, every communications function, each practice area, and all teams should have this capability."

That's the theory bit, now for practical implementation.

The Agency Role (communications agency, could be digital, advertising, whatever...) in Social - Own the conversation around initiatives

1. Listen for consumer insights and opportunities to be a part of the conversation. 

2. Turn these opportunities into conversation focused initiatives and useful content and tools.

3. Partake in relevant conversations that has to do with initiatives.

4. Measure and analyze.

The Client Role - Own the conversation around the product and brand

1. Listen to consumer conversation and partake in the conversation in a helpful manner.

2. Respond to people who have product issues, questions, and just general comments.

3. Listen for product insights to feed back to the product team.

The Social Media Guru/Agency 

1. Help client and agency set up process and workflow to manage the shift from messaging to conversation. Share best practice.

2. Provide industry knowledge and insights on trends and how to leverage them.

Yes, this is over simplification and there is a lot more to it... but we have to look at this as an integrated model where each party has a role to get this thinking through our organizations. Outsourcing these type of efforts is not a sustainable long term approach.

I'll post some examples of work recently completed that demonstrates this, shortly.