Banyan Branch

Written by Megan Fleming

SXSW Interactive is one heck of a ride… 5 days packed with amazing speakers, insightful panels, innovative people and ridiculous parties. This year was my first SXSW experience, and I spent the first 3 days completely overwhelmed and looking, I’m sure, like a deer caught in the headlights. When I had finally begun to work out a survival strategy for the conference, it was beginning to wind down! I know a survival guide would have helped me, so I thought I’d share what I learned with all of you future SXSW newbies. Here are my top 5 tips:

1. Plan ahead:

Save money by buying your pass and booking a hotel room early. As a last-minute attendee, I cannot stress this enough. Spend some time researching before you leave for Austin and bookmark the panels and keynotes you want to see. RSVP’ing for the parties you want to attend in advance will also cut down the time you spend waiting in lines and ensure you actually get in. And finally, pick up your badge the day before the conference starts – the picture below shows only a small portion of the 2 hour line many got stuck in on day one – it’s worth the extra trip!

2. Be selective and accept the fact that you won’t make it to every event:

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of great panels and events going on, but try to get over that feeling as soon as possible. Curb your ‘missing out’ anxiety by accepting early on that it is humanly impossible to experience everything at SXSW. Do yourself a favor and pick out 2-5 events you want to attend each day and just enjoy them.

3. Don’t be shy:

Everyone is in the same boat. The majority of people at SXSW Interactive are there for work, and most of the time they’re wandering around Austin lost just like you. Don’t be afraid to sit down at a table of random people, say hi, start a conversation, and hand out those business cards. Take advantage of the designated hashtags at sessions and parties to jump into the online conversation too. The thousands of people who flock to SXSW Interactive are some of the most innovative and creative in the world. Get to know them!

4. Take care of yourself:

Don’t miss out by getting yourself sick. There is a smorgasbord of free food and drinks available everywhere at SXSW—enjoy it, but don’t skip out on sleep. Be sure to give your body time to rest and recover from all the late nights and over-indulgence. Drink water between all those free drinks, find some time to relax, and choose carrots over chips once in a while!

5. Get the Tools:

It’s time to pack. Don’t leave home without:

• Business cards – hand those suckers out!
• Phone charger – trust me, your phone/tablet is not ready for the amount of calling, texting, tweeting, emailing and Google mapping you’re going to put it through.
• The SXSW app – This handy app allows you to bookmark sessions and links directly to your social properties.
• Twitter – follow the #SXSWi hashtag and specific event hashtags to join online conversations and meet people who are in the same room.
• Pen and paper – yes, I’m totally serious. With so many people plugged into the wireless network, you’re not always guaranteed to have a fast/working connection. And remember what I said about batteries? It’s better to be safe than sorry.
• Comfy shoes – the amount of time you’re going to be on your feet is definitely worth an investment in some good shoes.
• A water bottle – Between the heat, the drinks, and all the caffeinated beverages you’ll be consuming, it’s important to keep drinking water.

I hope these tips help you out when you make the trip to your first SXSW. If you’ve been before, chime in and share your tips in the comments!

Here’s your weekly roundup of major news points from the social sphere:

• Google’s new privacy policy is now in effect. Did you clear your web history?
• Twitter ads will start appearing on your smartphone soon.
• Pinterest’s potential pitfall is explored along with the question of whether the photo-sharing site will be taken advantage of by marketers.
• Here’s a look at some brands that are “winning” Pinterest—no surprise that it’s mostly style, travel and home décor.

• AT&T eased its unlimited data throttling policy after consumers complained that it was too heavy-handed. Score another one for the people!
• President Obama took the White House in 2008 largely because of the online support he translated into real votes. Grassroots social media are now extending the GOP race.
• Foursquare dumped the Google Maps API in favor of OpenStreetMap, an open-source initiative that calls itself “the free wiki world map.”
• We compiled a list of the new Facebook Timeline features for brands, which bring storytelling and images front and center.
• Kodak announced it is selling its online photo business to Shutterfly for $23 million. Kodak, the photography pioneer, filed for bankruptcy in January.
• Put down the phone and learn to be alone was the message delivered March 1 at a TED talk by Sherry Turkle, a professor of science and technology at MIT. Turkle recently penned a book called “Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other.”
• LinkedIn unveiled its new “Follow Company” button, which allows users to keep tabs on their favorite companies and organizations.
• The American Journalism Review scorched Twitter for asserting the micro-blogging site “beat” the news media in reporting Whitney Houston’s death.
• Zynga revealed its long-awaited social gaming platform on Zynga.com, called “Project Z.” The move to its own site is supposed to ease the company’s codependence on Facebook, allowing for a gaming environment that’s free of status updates.
• Facebook launches Offers, scraps check-in deals.
• Where did Chinese citizens go when the country’s monolithic internet firewall was breached and they had momentary access to anything on the web? Straight to President Obama’s Google+ page.

Have a great weekend!

Already the social hub of job and industry information, LinkedIn’s new follow button aims to make keeping tabs on your favorite companies, finding new career opportunities, and staying engaged with the latest industry trends easier than ever.

“Follow Company,” an embeddable button companies can add to their websites, functions similarly to Twitter’s “Follow” button. Instead of searching for a company’s profile on LinkedIn, you can now simply click the Follow Company button on its website. As long as you are logged in to LinkedIn, you will automatically begin following that company’s public profile and seeing its updates in your LinkedIn feed (much like you see the status updates and posts from pages you like on Facebook in your newsfeed).

As LinkedIn points out, this is one of four simple ways to follow the companies you’re interested in. Check out the video below to see how it works:

The new follow button is a big step for LinkedIn. The company launched a “share” button in 2010 that let users share articles with people in their business network, and this is a logical next move. With 150 million active users and 7,610 searches per hour, LinkedIn seems to be on track to achieve its long-term strategy: becoming a major marketing platform for brands.

As more people follow brands on LinkedIn, the more important it will be for brands to have available content in this channel. The new Follow Company button puts more emphasis on a company’s need to actively engage on LinkedIn, so if you manage a company profile, take heed. Whether you’re posting job openings, updating the company profile with new hires, client work, case studies, etc. or sharing stories from the company’s blog or YouTube channel, for example, the people who follow your company will be expecting regular content from you.

Will you follow a company you’re interested in on LinkedIn? If you’re a community manager, will your business be implementing the new Follow Company button?

It might feel like “social media” popped up all of a sudden just a few years ago. In fact, online communication spans several decades. Take a look at the origins of the business of social in this infographic by Sociable360 and posted on Visual.ly.

Where do you think social media is headed from here?

Here’s your weekly roundup of major news points from the social sphere:

• Twitter beefs up security & makes HTTPS its default for Twitter.com.

• Apple released OS x Mountain Lion this week.

• Mark Zuckerberg joins Pinterest!

• Twitter rolls out self-serve ads (to American Express users.)

• Klout acquires Blockboard to take its influence meters mobile.

• Could we finally see Facebook Timeline for brands?

• Facebook launched verified accounts this week.

• Google+ rolled out its “What’s Hot?” Volume Slider this week.

• YouTube updates its Annotations and adds more social features.

• LinkedIn blows past its revenue goals and analyst expectations.

• World leaders Nikolas Sarkozy and Mayor Bloomberg join social media, with Sarkozy tweeting and NY Government embracing Facebook.

• Take a look at some of the latest stats on Pinterest activity.

• Microsoft launches msnNOW with integrated Facebook data.

• We analyzed the Twitter buzz on Komen for the Cure and Planned Parenthood.

• Looking to ramp up your social media strategy this year? Check out our list of suggestions for balancing your social media diet, and Soshable’s reading list.

• Need to refresh your Twitter background? We’ve updated our handy guide to creating backgrounds for Twitter.com to reflect the new profile layout!

• We took a look at LinkedIn for brands in our latest “What’s the Hype?” post. Get your company page up to speed with these latest features.

Have a great weekend!

Here’s your weekly roundup of major news points from the social sphere:

• Facebook officially signed papers for an IPO, possibly coming in May. See reactions to Facebook’s IPO here. Can the social network keep growing?

• Pinterest is now on par with Twitter and Google for referral traffic.

• Facebook debuts a Timeline Movie Maker for its new profile layout.

• Twitter updated its policies on censorship in various countries. Founder Biz Stone explains how here.

• How many of your tweets are actually worth reading?

• Facebook‘s profile changes have boosted visits to its partner sites.

• Twitter rolls out branded pages to more companies, including NBC and Al Jazeera.

• President Obama hosted the first-ever presidential Google+ Hangout, fielding questions from YouTube, G+ and more.

• What did Seattleites tweet about during the snow & ice storm last month? KIRO TV included our snowpocalypse analysis here.

• Best Buy trades in celebrities for tech innovators from Instagram and Square for this year’s Super Bowl commercial.

• Which Super Bowl team is winning in social? ESPN breaks it down, with a little help from us!

• Bill Gates hosted a live webcast yesterday, fielding questions on the Gates Foundation’s latest efforts:

A Conversation with Bill Gates: Global Development Opportunities from The Gates Notes on Vimeo.

• While Apple gains in the smartphone market, Android still dominates.

• Microsoft lays off a part of its marketing staff in a restructuring of its marketing efforts.

• Google updates its privacy policy, and Microsoft takes the opportunity to show its advantages over the updates.

• YouTube looks at subscription-based services for its channels.

• Tumblr looks to hire writers and editors to talk about…Tumblr.

• Twitter and ExactTarget set up camp at the Super Bowl as a real-time hub for marketers during the big game.

• Looking to ramp up your social media strategy this year? Check out our list of suggestions for balancing your social media diet, and Soshable’s reading list.

• Need to refresh your Twitter background? We’ve updated our handy guide to creating backgrounds for Twitter.com to reflect the new profile layout!

• We took a look at LinkedIn for brands in our latest “What’s the Hype?” post. Get your company page up to speed with these latest features.

Have a great weekend!

Here’s your weekly roundup of major news points from the social sphere:

• Could Facebook & Twitter help predict electoral results in 2012? Social media is no doubt a major communication platform for presidential hopefuls, with NBC News hosting the first Facebook debate this Sunday.

• Google+ continues to grow, with a 55% increase in monthly traffic in December.

• Moo.com is giving away Facebook Timeline business cards. Get yours while you can!

• Twitter users rung in the new year with over 16,000 tweets per second, a new record!

• President Obama joined Instagram this week.

• Klout and SoundCloud raised $30 million & $50 million respectively, allowing them to bulk up their services.

• Pinterest is hot in the news lately. Could the vision boarding site be the “next big thing?”

• How are users interacting with the new Twitter branded pages so far? Find out here.

• Got a question for the U.S. State Department? Ask them on Twitter Fridays. But don’t tweet these words.

• Did Twitter have anything to do with rumors of President Castro’s death?

• Check out the new features in Google Analytics.

• Are Sprint‘s data plans “truly unlimited?”

• Google Chrome‘s latest beta update increases speed & security.

• Woohoo! Bigger Instagram photos in our Facebook albums!

• Is internet access a human right? Ask Google‘s VP.

• Can’t bear to be away from your Facebook profile long enough to take a shower? Now you don’t have to!

• In case you didn’t notice, Kanye West took to Twitter to share his big plans for 2012 and beyond.

• Are you an Internet Explorer 7 user? Facebook Timeline isn’t.

• Siri is doubling iPhone data usage.

• Take a look at Microsoft Windows 8.

• Looking to ramp up your social media strategy this year? Check out our list of suggestions for balancing your social media diet, and Soshable’s reading list.

• We are so grateful to be included in Forrester Research Inc.’s October 2011 report by Sean Corcoran, “How to Choose the Right Partners for Social Media Marketing.”Check out the report here!

Happy new year!

Written by Amy Rainey, account manager. 

As it faces off against the iPad and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, the new Kindle Fire is a tough competitor in this holiday season’s tablet wars. After a week with the Kindle Fire, I’m very satisfied with my purchase.

I wasn’t very interested in the first iPad when it came out, particularly since it lacked a camera and microphone. I was busy editing videos, Skyping with friends on the other side of the country, managing my blog and playing with new photo apps on my phone. Why would I want a $500 device that was purely for media consumption, not creation? Nearly two years later, I now long for such a device.

I want to be able to check my email, participate in a tweetchat or flip through photos on Facebook, but I also want to be able to enjoy long-form content, whether it’s a movie, a magazine cover story or a novel, without distractions. That’s where the $199 Fire comes in. For me, the Fire represents a break from incessant pings and notifications. I love my constantly connected life, but I also love taking the occasional break to focus.

Image via Engadget

Although I’m happy with my newfound distraction-free device, it, like all tablets, has its advantages and drawbacks. Let’s take a look.

Highlights

(more…)

Written by Tracey Warren of Ready Set Grow Marketing, our Official SIC Blogger.

What a difference a day makes.

The word on the street for day 1 was: ok content, panels, etc., but day 2 ROCKED! There were so many great sessions to go to/learn from/be inspired by.  Or maybe it was just that day 2 was so amazing, day 1 just looked ok!

I started my day with Rand Fiskin of SEOMoz. Some of the biggest takeaways for me centered around stories.

-       If you don’t have stories to tell, social isn’t for you. But if you do…wow!

-       I can do lots of link building OR, better yet – just stay connected to my friends and making sure they see what I share.

-        Social needs to be a part of the formula – part of a holistic marketing practice.

Coming from an SEO guy – that was huge to me. You can find his slide deck at Bit.ly/inboundconnected.

Next was Derek Halpern from Social Triggers – Making small marketing tweaks for big results. No powerpoint! What a breath of fresh air.

Three keys takeaways:

1. Nobody cares about you and your business. They only care what you can do for them.
2. People want instant results – but it’s important to be realistic
3. Simplify. Is it easy for others to share what you do to help people? If not, simplify!

But, the prize for inspiration of the day goes to the afternoon session with The Communicatrix herself, Colleen Wainwright. You can read about her story yourself here.  Her laid back style puts everyone at ease – and she is hilarious. No wonder she was able to raise so much money in such a short amount of time. Always be AWESOME – it’s the new normal!

I left feeling inspired to take on a challenge like this and finding a way to make it my own. What could I do with a short amount of time and an audacious goal? Who could I help? Better yet, who is with me?

Follow all the live action at SIC on Twitter by following #SIC2011.

Written by Tracey Warren of Ready Set Grow Marketing, our Official SIC Blogger.

Sometimes a transformation can look like someone losing weight and getting fit, sometimes it a color makeover, but sometimes it can be something as simple as a tweak in the way you think about things.

The theme for SIC:// is Transformations and yesterday, many were transformed in a very serious way .Thanks to the great artist and folks at Spring Creek Group. They transformed a number of attendees into their fantasy – from the rockstar, to the cape wearing superhero. But, transformations don’t have to be quite that drastic.

For me, after hearing from Stefan Weitz at Bing, one of the simple things I might change is using Bing a bit more often, because of the relationship between Facebook and Bing.

The other thing that was obvious yesterday is it isn’t all about the presentations, but sometimes even more beneficial are the chance meetings in between. From the fantastic gals I met from Woot, or the employee from the Microsoft Store who told me to come in to the store and he will give me his “Friends and Family” discount.

Did you have any moments? Get new information? What changes might you implement in your business as a result of what you learned?

Follow all the live action at SIC on Twitter by following #SIC2011. If you’re at the conference, make sure to recharge in the Banyan Branch Blogger Lounge!