Tag Archives: sxswi

Common Themes from the Content & Distribution Track at SXSWi 2013

Posted on March 14, 2013 by | Leave a comment

This year’s programming for South By Southwest featured an entire track devoted to the subjects of content and distribution.   The sessions in that track varied wildly from ultra-tactical (“How to Rank Better in Google and Bing,”) to the esoteric (“#CatVidFest: Is This the End of Art?”) Despite the wild array of subject matter and expertise that are the hallmarks of SxSW Interactive, common themes did emerge over the course of the conference, and communicators should take note.

Don’t forget we’re talking about human behavior.

In addition to the hundreds of panels devoted to the discussion of storytelling and other content tactis, the Interactive program also devoted considerable space to user experience design (“UXD”) and different aspects of psychology.  Why?  Because ultimately, marketing communications exist to influence human behavior.   Sitting in sessions that picked apart the psychology of habits, the social behaviors that drive the rapid spread of a meme across social channels or discussed how YouTube’s treatment of comments encourages troll-like behavior among those commenting on videos really drove this fact home.

The discussion of what makes media spread in the panel titled “Spreadable Media,” offers a profound example.  Think about it: we sit in front of our screens, and an avalanche of Tweets, Facebook posts, links in emails and other content floods our attention.  As human beings, we make specific choices about that content. What’s worth passing along, and to whom?  And in which channel?  And as part of what conversation?

“If we just think in terms of going viral, we’re not treating the audience as having social agency or cultural effect,” one of the panelists (I didn’t catch which, though I captured the quote verbatim) noted. “We strip away the politics of what goes viral.”  Simply referring to a piece of media as “viral” in nature glosses over the choices that went into mobilizing the material, which means that we overlook the very mechanics of the message, and what caused it to resonate with the audience.  And I think that any marketer can agree, that is stuff worth knowing.

Content needs to be quality.  Everything else is a waste of time, and can injure your brand.   

There are myriad reasons why it’s important to be selective about what you publish – and that message was emphasized in a variety of sessions.  Quality content that’s useful to the audience generates the kind of engagement signals (e.g. time on page, click-throughs, shares) that search engines notice.  The same sort of quality content is that that is most likely to spread and augment your brand’s image and credibility.

It turns out that the downside to publishing content that doesn’t make the grade with the audience isn’t simply a waste of time.   Lightweight content that doesn’t deliver value to the reader will cause visitors to “bounce” (immediately leave) from a web page, sending a negative signal to the ever-vigilant search engines.   Bad content can also result an active departure from the brand audience, by motivating people to disassociate from the brand by un-liking or un-following social presences, or unsubscribing from an email newsletter.   Content for content’s sake is a bad idea.  It won’t trigger the human behavior you’re after, which in turn won’t result in the search engine ranking the brand desires.

Now that you’re back home and have had a chance to unpack – both your luggage and your brain – what were the theme that stood out to you at South By this year?

sarah avatarAuthor Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media, and is the author of the e-book “Unlocking Social Media for PR.”  Follow her on Twitter at @sarahskerik

Want to make your media spread?  PR Newswire can distribute your content — text, images, video and any combination thereof — to digital audiences both broad and narrow.

 

 

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Want to make a viral video? Don’t forget the PR! #SXSW

Posted on March 10, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Newsflash – brand videos don’t go viral.  According to the #ComedyTech panel yesterday at South by Southwest Interactive, viruses go viral; videos spread.  To simply describe that spread as “viral” implies an organic, infective power that simply doesn’t exist — and worse, it overlooks the mechanics of creating a video that successfully develops a life of its own online.

Whether or not a video spreads on the web and in social networks is largely predicated upon three things:

1) Whether or not the video is funny (seriously, when’s the last time you shared an inspirational video? Or a boring one?)

2) The video’s originality.

3) The PR push behind it.

According to the panel, the real driver behind the spread of videos online is getting “a big voice” behind the content.  That big voice can be a celebrity, or it can be generated by media coverage.  Enter the PR department.  Deliberate media research and engagement can deliver the credible media exposure that gives a video message the best shot at internet immortality.

Give your messages a boost with video and multimedia content distribution from MultiVu, a PR Newswire company.

sarah avatarAuthor Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media, and is the author of the e-book “Unlocking Social Media for PR.”  Follow her on Twitter at @sarahskerik.

 

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Tips for Surviving & Thriving at SXSW Interactive 2013

Posted on February 28, 2013 by | 3 Comments

sxswiMy colleagues and I are counting the days until we (and tens of thousands of others) descend upon Austin, Texas.   South By Southwest is just around the corner, and while the music and film festivals will make the headlines, for techies and marketers, Interactive is where the real action is at.

Every year at SXSW, I regret my inability to instantly clone myself.  There’s so much to do, see and attend that one can’t possibly do it all.  Over the years, my colleagues and I have devised strategies to get the most out of our time in Austin.  Here’s a collection of our pro tips for wringing every ounce of awesomeness out of SXSWi!

Sessions & networking

Everyone talks about the parties, but for me, the sessions and the networking are why I go to SXSW.  It’s important to plan your schedule, paying attention to session locations.  While Austin’s downtown is compact and walkable,  there isn’t enough time between sessions to make it from the convention center  to an outlying hotel.  My advice – pick a venue for the day and stick to it.

Indisputable proof of the value of analog content at SXSW. Sarah Skerik & Nettie Reynolds take shelter in this picture by Victoria Harres.

Indisputable proof of the value of analog content at SXSW. Sarah Skerik & Nettie Reynolds take shelter in this picture by Victoria Harres.

“Pick two things a day,” says Shelli Whitehurst, CEO of Melbourne, Australia based digital agency Code Name Max.  “Stick to a stream, and be ready for magic to happen.”

That said, flexibility is also important – because SXSW is the land of serendipity.   Some of the most interesting and valuable sessions I’ve attended were happy accidents.  If the session you planned to attend is full, turn on your heel and march into the next session happen across, even if you think it will be of little interest to you.  I bet you’ll be surprised.

“The biggest value of SXSW is the critical mass of smart people,” notes Tom Miale, CEO of the start-up Funnlr. “Because of that mass, it’s also daunting for first timers. Plan ahead to try to meet those twitter followers or virtual friends that you’ve cultivated, but also be flexible and be able to “go with the flow”. If you have a bit of spontaneity and a good attitude, you’ll end up having some great conversations.”

One of the best sessions I attended last year was about the impact of gamer culture. I’m not a gamer. At all. But wow did I learn a lot at this session. Be open minded!

“Make good use of the scheduler ahead of time to create an overstuffed schedule for yourself that you do not have to adhere to,” suggests Vicky Harres, PR Newswire’s director of audience development.  “And keep it real. You’re not going to make it to every fabulous presentation you want to hear. There’s just too much. So mark the ‘absolute gotta see’ and then stay open to opportunities to connect with people and perhaps see a panel on something totally off-topic for you that may end up inspiring some creativity.”

Getting around Austin 4sq

One thing that’s worked well for me and some of my colleagues over the years is driving in from our out-lying hotels, rather than relying upon the notoriously slow-to-appear and often overcrowded SXSW shuttles.  We park in a ramp a few blocks from the action, and are able to come and go as we please.   And doing so allows us to follow the advice of Austin local (and good buddy) Nettie Reynolds, a former journalist and now principal of the custom content house Nettie Ink,  reminds us to get away from the downtown crush and see more of Austin.

“All the east side places rock! Don’t leave them out,” she says. “And the best place in the South for coffee and music is Strange Brew.”

During the conference, despite your best efforts, you will need to travel between venues, and time might be tight.  Happily, Austin offers a unique solution that doesn’t involve you sprinting 10 blocks to your next session.

” Use the pedal cabs. Best way to get around,” notes Tony Uphoff, CEO of Business.com.  “Set your meetings up at Starbucks for easy spotting. Stay away from the vacant lot parties. Don’t fight the chaos. SXSW shouldn’t work but it does. Just go with it.”

Creature comfort & connectivity

“Keep your mobile phone charger with you at all times and a Morphie, PowerStick, or other on-the-go-charger so that you don’t lose access to location based mobile and social media apps,” insists Jenny DeVaughn, Sr. Director, Employment Branding and Social Media at Randstad Sourceright. “Some of the events aren’t announced until last minute and you don’t want to miss out!”

Other things you’ll need at SXSW:

  • Comfortable shoes.  Several pairs.  You’ll be logging miles and miles on your feet, and the days (and nights!) are long.
  • A water bottle.  Staying hydrated is really important!
  • Mints. You’ll be in close quarters.
  • Portable snacks (e.g. granola bars).  Skipping lunch is easy, as you dart from session to session, having great conversations along the way.  Keep the wheels from falling off your wagon by carrying a little pick-me-up in your bag.
  • Business cards, a note pad, and pens.  Even though SXSW is the ultimate digital experience, when you’ve sucked the last of the juice from your array of devices, you won’t be totally dead in the water.  You can still scrawl notes (or your next blog post) on your note pad. And business cards are important too.   Order the cool “Met you at SXSW” freebies from Moo.com (at this point you’ll pay a rush printing charge, but you can pick them up in Austin.  Cool!)

More tips!

In this post, 19 Tips for Getting the Most out of SXSW, we offer some more practical advice for SXSW.  We also love this deck from Dave Delaney of Delaney Digital Marketing Consulting, which echoes our own advice, and adds even more tips:

Are you going to SXSWi?  Tweet me at @sarahskerik and we’ll meet up in person.  And therein is my last pro tip.  SXSW is a great place to meet people you’ve known digitally but have never met in person.  Don’t forget to immerse yourself in the human side of the event!

sarah avatarAuthor Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media, and is the author of the e-book “Unlocking Social Media for PR.”  Follow her on Twitter at @sarahskerik.

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SXSW 2012 Video Recap: TnT TV Episode 4

Posted on March 16, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Tom Miale and Thomas Hynes recap their fourth day at SXSW Interactive 2012. Hear them discuss branding opportunities, the future of Facebook, the business of journalism and everything else they saw, learned and heard.

See you next year, Texas. Thanks for watching! – The Toms

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SXSW 2012 Video Recap: TnT TV Episode 3

Posted on March 15, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Tom Miale and Thomas Hynes recap their third day at SXSW Interactive 2012 under finally sunny skies. Hear them discuss marketing strategies, the legacy of print culture and everything else they saw, learned and heard.

Tune back in tomorrow for more TnT TV from the Toms, reporting live from SXSW!

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Lessons for PR: Think like a Gamer

Posted on March 14, 2012 by | 1 Comment

I wasn't the only one taking furious notes a the "Gamify & Socialize: Beyond the Buzzwords" session at SXSW featuring Bing Gordon, legendary gaming pioneer and prominent Silicon Valley VC.

“Every C-suite should have a gamer in it.  Gaming is the new MBA,” asserted Bing Gordon, video game pioneer, venture capitalist and Silicon Valley heavy hitter, during a live interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek reporter Brad Stone at South by Southwest last weekend.

At that moment, he was in danger of losing me.  You see, I am not a gamer, nor am I interested in video games.  My gaming career ended when I got my driver’s license at 16 and I ceased to hanging out at the mall, swilling Orange Julius and playing Ms. Pac Man.  (For those doing the math, I’m in my 40’s.  Let’s leave it at that.)   To be blunt, I don’t “get” gaming, the gaming culture or the gaming mindset.

Within a few minutes, however, Bing had my rapt attention, as he outlined the characteristics of the generation that has grown up gaming, and how the gaming mindset bleeds over into real life, and translates into business success.

“People who grew up playing games think differently,” Bing noted.  “They find the edges.  They aren’t afraid of losing.  They find the edges and they open doors.  And they expect continuous improvement.”

Gamers have also cultivated a culture of independent learning, according to Bing.

“We’re moving from an age of learning by listening to one of learning by doing,” he said.  “Gamers don’t read manuals.  If you tell me you read the manual, I know you’re over 30.”

Within his discussion were some great lessons for communicators, especially those who still aren’t well versed or comfortable in social media.  Here are the key lessons:

  • Experiment.  High-scoring, serious gamers dive into a new game and immediately lose.  They do again, and again – a perfect analogy for the principal of “failing fast” we’ve all heard discussed.  But there’s something else going on.  As they lose, gamers learn.  They are, in Bing’s words, “finding the edges.”  If they see a door, they open it to see what’s there. Experimentation is part of their DNA.   If you (like me) didn’t grow up gaming, it’s probably not part of your genetic code.  If that’s the case, cultivate your inner experimenter.  You won’t learn anything if you don’t dive in, and learning social media is the perfect opportunity.  Get thee on to Twitter and Pinterest, and get going! You’re not going to break anything.
  • Learn by doing.  Within the last week, friends have asked me if I would 1) send them instructions for uploading photos to Tumblr using a mobile phone and 2) sit down with them and teach them Twitter.  Fact is, both are very easy (the instructions provided by the companies are extremely brief and very simple. But there’s something holding my friends back from just doing it themselves.  Learning is an important skill.  If you tend to hang back and await instruction, make a point of learning something independently. You’ll see how easy the world has become – and you’ll learn more by figuring out things yourself.  Building the ability to learn independently is crucial if you want to keep pace with your audiences.
  • Expect continuous improvement.  Gamers are always “leveling up” – moving on to higher levels within the game.  They constantly get better and better, breezing through lower levels that were once a struggle.  In short, they expect to learn and improve, continually.  None of us should be happy with stasis.   If we’re not thinking and evolving – and if we’re not experimenting and learning – we’re not going to continually improve ourselves, the outcomes generated by our departments.

I left the session with an entirely re-configured impression of the gamer set, and Bing’s advice really rang true.  I’m not going to rush out and start gaming but I am taking the principles outlined by Bing to heart, and I encourage my PR brethren to do the same.   Why?  Today’s connected environment demands agile communicators. Collectively, we need to outpace our audiences, evaluating and tapping into new networks and technologies before they’re widely adopted, leaving us behind and struggling to catch up.

Related reading:  the session with Bing has sparked some interesting media coverage with lots of different angles.  Here’s a selection of other session recaps:

What Gaming Should Teach IT Leaders

Structuring your Business like a World of Warcraft Guild

 Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media, and is the author of the free ebook Unlocking Social Media for PR, a great resource for those who still haven’t found their comfort level with social media.

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SXSW 2012 Video Recap: TnT TV Episode 1

Posted on March 13, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Tom Miale and Thomas Hynes are back in Austin. They found a dry place to recap visual storytelling, the cloud and everything else they saw, learned and heard at Day 1 of SXSW Interactive 2012. Special thanks to Affinity Tattoo and Piercings on 6th Street for providing the set.

Tune back in tomorrow for more TnT TV from the Toms, reporting live from SXSW!

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SXSWi Day Two: Journalism, Big Data, Smart PR, Newsjacking

Posted on March 10, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The Hootsuite owl has landed at SXSW

Rise of Analytics: Impacting the Editorial Process panel:  Publishers have massive amounts of data to look at now: website, mobile,social, etc., but should this data be allowed to guide all your editorial decisions? At some point you still have to you ‘human’ understanding of who your true audience is. You can post cat videos every day and bring in lots of bounce traffic, but is that what’s best for your publication? Probably not.

An interesting point came from the audience from a PR person who says he has been told straight out by editors that the story he is pitching wouldn’t get enough clicks and so they are not interested.

At the appropriately crowded “Fear of Missing Out” panel

Newsjacking:

An example of how to stand out among other news: when Apple iPhone 4 Antenna-gate broke, Next  Media Animation created an animated news of Steve Jobs becoming the evil “Darth Vader”.

1. Catch the wave (when an interesting news begin, e.g. Cobra escapes from Bronx Zoo).

2. Adopt an editorial mindset

3. Plan your spontaneity

4. Keep it fresh

5. Be genuine and relevant

6. Sow the seeds

It is *still* raining.

From the ‘Philanthropy Is Not the Future of Journalism’ panel: “There is no such thing as free funding. With money always comes an expectation.”

Related reading:

Newsjacking tips & basics

More smart, less stupid PR

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The Ultimate in Agile Engagement: Newsjacking Basics #sxsw

Posted on March 10, 2012 by | 6 Comments

The time to newsjack is right after the story breaks. It's the ultimate in agile engagement - paying attention, and responding quickly and contextually.

Newsjacking – defined by David Meerman Scott as the practice of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story – might be the ultimate form of agile engagement.  The topic was widely discussed at SXSW this year – Scott had a book reading from his latest work, and a panel, which featured the Bronx Zoo Cobra, discussed the topic at length.

Timing

Newsjacking starts with paying attention, and at the same time, being prepared.  In order to take advantage of the “news hole” around a specific story angle, your organization has to move quickly.  This may mean rethinking your processes.  If your usual press release requires days (or even weeks) of re-writes and approvals, now is the time to revisit that and do some streamlining.  Newsjacking works only when your message is deployed immediately after the news breaks. If you’re hearing about it on mainstream media, chances are good that it’s already too late.

The message medium

You can also think about how you deliver a newsjacking message.  Videos and infographics, for example can be incredibly effective – both in terms of capturing attention and developing socially active pass-along value (read: viral sharing.)  But first and foremost, it’s a good idea to think about your audience.  Focus on the group that is most likely to react to (and run with) your message.   Think about where they live, and what sort of content is most useful, attractive and sharable to them.

  • Journalists pay attention to sources – they check them out because they don’t want to end up being hoaxed or having to retract a story.  It’s important to remain (and convey) credibility when you newsjack if the media are your target.
  • If your target are consumer audiences, think about channels like Facebook and Pinterest – and use visuals.  You’ll capture more attention with a compelling visual on these networks.
  • Twitter is where news spreads like wildfire.  However, if you’re going to newsjack, you need to have a link to share.  A blog post, press release or landing page are good assets to which you can point your tweets.
  • Press releases (and newswire distribution) can be especially effective in newsjacking, because they deliver your message with speed and authority.  Use a press release to deliver expert commentary on an industry merger or trend, or build immediate visibility for visuals, such as a video or infographic.

Key tactics:

While your message and medium will vary depending upon the opportunity and your organization’s degree of preparedness, there are some basics to adopting newsjacking as a strategy.

  • Listen.  You need to be dialed into industry news in order to identify the opportunities for newsjacking. That means finding stories very close to their sources.  Follow key players on Twitter – that’s probably the most immediate source of information available.
  • Know your audience. Some of the most successful newsjacks I’ve done personally have been piggybacked on issues I know are important to my audience.  When a major social network launches a new feature, or the search engines deploy changes to how search works, I jump on those stories and decode them for the public relations crowd.  The “What this means to you” angle is always a good one, and forces you to keep your audiences’ interests in mind.
  • Focus your language.  Use the keywords in the breaking news story in developing your newsjacking messages and landing pages. People will search the most prominent terms, and to be successful, your message needs to be found right along side.
  • Pre-identify your influencers, and cultivate them.  Newsjacking efforts (heck, all of your communications efforts) will be aided if you can get the attention of folks who are influential within the areas your organization operates.  Credible and focused inflentials (thought leaders, bloggers, end users) are often the sources reporters turn to for commentary, and they can be a vehicle for your message.
  • Be ready to rip. I’ve already mentioned the importance increasing the clock speed of your internal communications processes. Get your communications, marketing, legal, social media and visual design teams on the same page, and build common understanding of newsjacking and what’s required to take advantage of real-time opportunities. Don’t forget to loop in sales, customer service and, if necessary, your vendors.

Communicating in real-time essentially forces an organization to synch its communications with the market – and the audience. Once you get systems and processes in place, though, we think you’ll agree that that agile engagement is a new communications best practice.

Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media, and is the author of the free ebook Unlocking Social Media for PR.

Image courtesy of David Meerman Scott

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SXSWi Day One: games, data, curation, storytelling … and rain.

Posted on March 9, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The view from under Vicky's umbrella

As South by Southwest kicks off, Austin is awash in people, flowing with ideas, drenched in jargon and deluged by Mother Nature.  It’s raining – a lot.  But Texas has suffered mightily from droughts recently, so we’re not complaining.

After meeting for breakfast, our team scattered.  “The Toms” (Tom Hynes, blogger relations, and Tom Miale, multimedia engagement ) headed toward one of the hotels for the journalism track.  Vicky and I dove headlong into the crowds at the convention center.  On tap – sessions about visual storytelling, gamification, video curation, big data and branding.

The key take aways:

Tom Hynes:

The key to telling a good story is first asking yourself Would I Share This? Ideally, the answer would be yes.

Rewrite your stuff. Even Spielberg has an editor.

Google says we have 3 seconds before someone hits the back button. Translation: sell yourself and do it quickly.

Victoria Harres

Brands: users define your brand and user experience designers hold the success of your brand.

Brands: users define your brand ..and user experience designers hold the success of your brand in their hands.

Brands as Patterns : #hashtags are patterns.

Tom Miale:

Big data is scary. By 2013, 667 exabytes of data will be generated…Only 5% of that will be structured.

The interview to end all interviews! Rovio announced the launch of Angry Birds Space today.

Sarah Skerik (me!)

I attended a session featuring Electronics Arts founder Bing Gordon, who also sits on the boards of Amazon and Zynga, and is an enthusiastic gamer. The conversation covered a lot of ground, and Bing offered some interesting perspective on game mechanics, and the nature of gamers themselves.

Gaming is the new MBA.

Every Fortune 500 company should have a gamer in the C-suite.

Gamers believe constant improvement is possible.

We’re moving from an era in which we learned by listening, into an era in which we learn by doing.  Gamers find the edges, and lose quickly.  They don’t read manuals. They see a door, and they open it.

Games are a system for creating meaning.

I also attended a session on video curation, which was the subject of an entire blog post titled Socially active videos and how curation drives visibility .

Related:  The view of SXSW Day One via Storify.

Day one is in the books.  We’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media, and is the author of the free ebook Unlocking Social Media for PR.

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