The Ocean Agency

1)  The Future of Influence Panel:

Influence evolves as the social media landscape changes. How is influence changing? How do we target influencers in a world where just about everyone has the potential to have an immediate impact? This panel attempted to answer many of these questions, and was one of my favorites of the entire week. Here is the full recap.

Major takeaways: Anyone has the potential to become an influencer on the web overnight. While this is a rarity, it also creates an environment where more voices than ever matter. As a brand, how do  you move beyond responding to the loudest voice and identify the quieter voices that carry a lot of impact?

2) Will Web 2.o Kill Real Estate?

Do we even need real estate agents in this day and age? How do real estate brokerages maintain a cost effective model while incorporating new technology. This round table discussion got pretty heated with developers, agents, and technology consultants from brokerages in attendance.

Major takeaways: Theoretically, with equal access to information, home buyers, sellers, and realtors are on an equal playing field. There is also bureaucratic structure between listing services, brokerages, and realtors that creates an a-symmetry of information. While this a-symmetry of information has been slowly eroding, it still exists. As it continues to erode further, realtors need to focus on networking and relationships, over controlling information and antiquated notions of expertise.

3) Social Search Panel:

Social search has emerged as a way to capitalize on our social graph to answer subjective questions more effectively than traditional search.

Major takeaways: Social search fills a need, as we look for more reliable and trusted answers to subjective questions. Social search also aggregates real time information in a way that is valuable for news rooms and advertisers alike. These two approaches and uses of real time search are exemplified by OneRiot, and Aardvark.

4) Web Video Thunderdome!

Web Video Thunderdome, a panel led by Bud Cadell and Mike Aruz from undercurrent, took a look at “viral” video content. They compared branded and unbranded successful online video, and invited the audience to participate in choosing a winner for internet video of the year. They also made a strong case for killing the word viral once and for all, focusing instead on creating content that is “spreadable” and remarkable.

Major takeaways: Brands are competing against more than competitors, they’re competing against things like bunnies, kittens, and hilarious kids singing along to popular songs.

Brands can compete through video, but they need to focus on creativity, video brevity, and remixing pop culture phenomenons. Be remarkable, tell more complex stories, collect your fans, invite participation, and start small riots.

My favorite branded video from the panel:

5) Connecting with Chicago — In Austin

Chicago has been rated by Hubspot as the number 3 social media city in the world, and it was absolutely apparent at SXSWi. I got to meet such fantastic, smart, and creative digital Chicago folks. People from well known digital PR folks, the SEO team from the Tribune, digital creatives,  or developers. Ocean feels more connected to the digital world in Chicago than ever, and we have SXSW to thank.

6) Yelp versus Foursquare versus Gowalla Discussion w/ Dshan

Geo-location was the star of this year’s SXSWi. Gowalla and Foursquare were consistently battling each other for users attention. Gowalla and Foursquare even had their parties on the same night. Foursquare has added 100,000 users in the last 10 days, and Gowalla used its home turf advantage (it’s developed in Austin), to create innovative give-aways and brand tie ins.

Regardless of who won, Derek Shanahan, the creator of the 20 something bloggers Ning network, opened my eyes to an aspect of location that I had never though about before: The power of geo-location lies in influencing purchasing decisions.

Foursquare has been so successful because they sell themselves as a service that influences pre-purchase, while review services like Yelp market themselves as a post-purchase review site. As a business marketing yourself online you need to evaluate your options:

Yelp may influence purchasing decisions more than Foursquare, even though Foursquare is the service that sells itself as something that changes behavior.

As a business what is your geo-location strategy? How are you targeting customers both pre and post purchase to drive business?

7) A world of streams

I’ve spent more time looking down at my phone this week than ever before. I found my friends by their foursquare check ins that got pushed to twitter, was reminded of panels and parties through emails that got pushed to my phone, and stayed in touch with the office through gchat. It was a week of constant connectivity, and one that helped me formulate a better idea of what a future of social interaction based on streams may look like.

8 ) The Parties

There were so many amazing parties with fantastic friends, both new and old. Of all the parties, 3 really stand out as special:

1) Len Kendall’s meetup for the365 at the Gingerman.

• The 365 is a website where a new creative person enters a 365 word post, image, or video about a day in their life. It is a fascinating site. At the meetup, I was lucky enough to talk with Len as well as other Chicago developers, SEO specialists, and marketing professionals whose work we can all learn from. It also helped that the Gingerman has a beautiful outdoor patio and it was a 70 degree and sunny day in Austin.

2) The Beer Sphere/ Town Holler Party at Club Deville

• A single post by Faris directed a couple of hundred people to Club Deville in Austin. As I walked into the partyI was stopped by someone who turned out to be Faris himself and Rosie, who showed off an iphone application called “tabbed out“, which connects your bar tab to the credit card in your Itunes account, and allows you to pay the bar right from your phone (at select locations). Definitely my idea of a party: Cool new Iphone app and thought leaders in the advertising industry, who turn out to be extremely nice.

3) The Big Omaha party:

• I tried to stay away from most of the big parties, as I don’t do extremely well in crowds. However, I had a lot of support at the Big Omaha party on the rooftop at Lanai. I met some fantastic people and had a blast. Until Gary Vaynerchuck decided to show up and throw his secret wine party, which quickly turned the party into a sweaty swarm.

9) Taking part in an enormous social media campaign

• I was lucky enough to be party of the Chevrolet and Onstar sponsored road trip to SXSW. I will always remember my ChiChevySXSW experience.
• It was also amazing to be in the center of an enormous social media campaign, to see the metrics that are reported, and to talk with Christopher about the campaign.
• Being part of the Chevy social media campaign really made  me think about buzz versus content, and about the need to re-evaluate social media metrics, but that’s for another post.

10) Talking with both Jason Kinzler from Pitch Engine and Justin from Made by Many.

• Pitch engine is a tool that we love here at The Ocean Agency, which incorporates new media into traditional press releases. It was cool to talk with Jason and learn more about what drove him to create Pitch Engine.

• Made by Many is an agency our size from London who sent their entire team to SXSW. They built an entire website for the endeavor. I had the pleasure of talking to Justin, who explained that the value of SXSW for his team lies in both becoming closer as an agency and the creative atmosphere which leads to new and innovative ideas for clients.

11) Learning about Spotify and BandCentral, among hundreds of other tech products

• I wish I spent more time at the SXSWi trade show. There were so many amazing products and companies on display that I couldn’t take everyting in.
• Spotify is a music service based in Sweden that has millions of users in Europe, and combines both a free and paid model. Many in the music industry and tech world see Spotify as a music industry savior, and many expected owner, Daniel Ek, to announce the U.S. version of the service at the conference. He didn’t, but he did have a fanastic Keynote.

I realize that this post was absurdly long, but I felt that all of these 11 highlights were worthy of some text. Looking forward to SXSWi next year!

What would you add to this list if you went to SXSWi? What did you think I missed?