1. Social is here to stay
If there was one consistent theme at SXSW, it was this -
social is here to stay. Social media can no longer be viewed as a fad to be ignored. Too many smart companies are achieving success within the social space. If your company isn't at least exploring how social could help, you need to start.
2. Mobile on the horizon
Looking at the panel lineup, it seemed like the second most popular topic to social media was mobile marketing. With the rise in smart phone adoption among the masses, it's easy to see why. Mobile might not make sense for your business at this point in time, but keep the idea on the back burner.
3. SXSW is about networking
As a first timer going to SXSW, I thought the conference was all about the panels. I couldn't have been more wrong. Sure, I got some interesting insight and ideas from the panels, but they weren't even close to the most valuable part of the conference. SXSW is about the networking that goes on at the parties, at dinner, at lunch, in the hallways, and other random moments.
4. Make your business more open
Charlene Li gave an interesting presentation on Open Leadership (she has a book by the same name coming out soon). In it she proposed that in order for a business to succeed today, it must be open. As Li puts it, "Technology is no longer the shiny object." A culture of sharing is rapidly developing and in order to succeed, you must embrace being open on an organizational level.
For a few moments she veered into the social media ROI discussion, and one point really stood out. It's hard to measure the ROI of social media because what you're really asking is to measure the value of a relationship, and how do you really measure or quantify that?
5. QR codes might not be ready for prime time
Did you know that almost all SXSW badges included a QR code? I did, and still didn't use them. Besides my own anecdotal evidence, I didn't see anyone else using them either. And if you can't get a massive group of technology geeks using your product, then it just isn't ready for the masses. I like the concept behind QR codes, though, so like mobile it's something to keep on the back burner.
6. Content strategy can't be ignored
When you designed your last website, how much strategy did you wrap around your content? Like most, you probably had your designer spend countless hours on the wireframes, then populated the site with dummy content until your official copy was ready.
But to have a website that sells (or brands) well, you need to have focused and purposeful content. A good content strategy will get as detailed as the words used in your navigation links, imagery, and even your social media content. But a good content strategy also takes time to create. For those of who subscribe to waterfall project management philosophies - your website content can no longer be thrown into a two week time slot at the end of the project.
7. Encourage user participation with game mechanics
Want your users to complete certain actions on your website? Make it a game.
Josh Williams, founder of
Gowalla (a location based mobile application) gave some insight into the world of game mechanics and virtual goods in his presentation,
Chasing Virtual Good in the Real World. In it, he talked about how he was able to get users to change their behavior by altering the mechanics of the game. As Williams put it, "where there's a number, there's a game." Things like points, RSS subscriptions, comments, and more can all be turned into elements of a game.
Did you go to SXSW this year? What were your takeaways?
