From explaining Mark Zuckerberg’s mysterious trips to China to the sudden death of UberTwitter, the best Quora topics highlight social media insiders spilling the secrets outsiders were never meant to know.
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Lanyrd
Quick Pitch: Lanyrd helps you get more out of conferences.
Genius Idea: Via Twitter, track event sessions and keep up with favorite speakers — at all stages in the conference lifecycle.
Some newlywed couples work to produce an offspring on their honeymoon. Most don’t labor towards birthing a startup. But that’s exactly what British entrepreneurs Natalie Downe and Simon Willison did on their post-nuptial adventure. After traveling in Europe and Africa, the couple caught ill in Casablanca and extended their stay and booked an apartment to recover.
The pair have a shared love for building projects in their spare time — which is why, with all that extra time in a bedroom, they managed to create and release an early build of Lanyrd. Within two hours of its launch, Downe and Willison saw the site generate more than 14,000 visits.
After finding immediate success with social media denizens, the couple applied to Y Combinator’s accelerator program. Lanyrd was accepted and has since relocated to Mountain View, California to complete it. The site remains a largely bootstrapped effort, though the couple did accept the $150,000 in convertible debt offered up by Start Fund.
Willison calls Lanyrd “the IMDb of conferences” — except that its content is crowdsourced. The site asks its users to do the heavy lifting for them by filling in the blanks on each conference: sessions, speakers and content. The incentive? The same as at any conference: self-aggrandizement. Organizers will go to any lengths to promote their events. Speakers want to flesh out their profiles by adding past, present and future engagements. And everyone wants to see useful conference content.
“Conferences are traditionally insufficient for transferring knowledge,” says Willinson. “Longer term, this is about capturing the value of what’s shared.”
Lanyrd’s tie-in with Twitter is ingenious — and almost spooky. Sign in with your Twitter handle, and you’ll automatically be greeted with a smorgasbord of contacts and upcoming conferences, drawn from your Twitter relationships. You may see that Lanyrd knows you spoke at a trade show last month, or that you’re on a panel this fall. The site already lists 6,000 crowdsourced conferences and 30,000 user profiles.
Downe and Willison opted to use Twitter’s social graph — rather than Facebook’s, say — because they believe the “follow” has more aspirational value than the “friend.” You likely already follow the people you’d like to know, the speakers you’d like to see talk. According to Lanyrd, you’ve already composed a list of the thought leaders you’d like to bump into at an upcoming conference. So Lanyard is well positioned to find the sessions of social relevance to you.
Since users are encouraged to add speakers and their Twitter names to sessions, the speaker need not be a Lanyrd user to have a Lanyrd presence. On signing up, you may notice your conference history has already been charted for you by your Twitter followers, organizers or fellow attendees.
Next up, Lanyrd has its sights set on South by Southwest, held in Austin next month. The startup launched its unofficial guide to the show Tuesday to help users find which sessions their Twitter friends are attending, and stay current on slides, videos and notes.
The SXSW tool marks Lanyrd’s first real test at a major conference. At worst, the event will provide a trove of data and real-world experiences that Downe and Willison can use to better determine how to serve users while they’re attending conferences.
Downe and Willison describe the chain of events following their June 2010 nuptials to their present day found status as an unexpected, whirlwind affair. Their story, and their startup, are still in their nascent stages. The couple will graduate from the Y Combinator program in March, and may be forced to return to the UK when their visas expire. But location may matter little to a startup that has successfully leveraged the power of an international hit like Twitter.
Image courtesy of SimonWillison.net
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
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Matthias Galica is CEO of ShareSquare. Via a self-serve mobile web app CMS and QR codes, the ShareSquare platform enhances real world promotions for artists, agencies & brands. Mashable readers can sign up for the private beta for free by clicking here. He will also be presenting on the topic of QR code adoption at the Where 2.0 Conference.
Nearly every year since 1994 has been hyped as the year that QR codes pierce the mainstream, but in 2011 the hubbub is finally reaching a fever pitch.
This is thanks to a confluence of factors: Critical mass in smartphone penetration, a large installed base of many barcode-scanning apps, and an approaching social tipping point of awareness. QR codes are finally becoming an effective tool for driving offline-to-online interactions at scale.
Combine this with the fact that enhancing real world promotions in music, film and brand marketing is among the best applications of this technology, and next month’s SXSW has the potential to be the breakout event for QR codes in America.
Unfortunately, many well-intentioned early adopters will waste the opportunity by not delivering enough value or making some very simple mistakes.
I’ve spent nine months isolating the best practices and highest converting use cases specific to these applications. Taking over where Jamie Turner left off with his post on the 10 commandments for marketers using 2D codes, below is a “brass tacks” breakdown of the minimum value each marketer needs to offer to be successful.
It should direct users to a mobile-optimized webpage with functionality tailored to your audience and application. Below are recommendations based on the calls-to-action that we’ve seen achieve the highest engagement. You’ll notice the following themes recur: Exclusivity, rich media, downloads, social media, incentives like prizes and contests, and contextual relevance.
Must-Haves: Provide immediate music playback via an online service like YouTube or Rdio. Show a bio along with performance and venue information. Allow users to “Like” on Facebook and follow on Twitter.
Extra Credit: Link to native apps like those made by Mobile Roadie; offer free downloads in exchange for e-mail submissions; win VIP access or free schwag; offer mobile e-commerce through a provider like TopSpin or BandCamp.
Examples: The Grammys, Mitchel Musso.
Must-Haves: Show the trailer (ideally an exclusive); put sneak peek images into a slideshow; provide screening and venue information; pre-populate status updates and tweets to help new fans spread the word.
Extra Credit: Deleted scene downloads; free passes; ticket purchases.
Examples: Ironman 2, Ray Kurzweil’s Transcendent Man.
Must-Haves: Show screenshots; play a demo video; link to all your native apps (if you have them); display company info, “Like” on Facebook and follow on Twitter.
Extra Credit: Offer early access; send private invites, or register the scan as a check-in.
Must-Haves: Offer exclusive content or information; free prizes, coupons or giveaways; incentivize Facebook Likes and tweets to drive virality.
Extra Credit: Treasure hunts or collection games like those provided by SCVNGR; mobile e-commerce purchases.
Examples: Chevy at SXSW 2010, Calvin Klein.
Must-Haves: Install a good scanner like RedLaser on your iPhone, ShopSavvy or Barcode Scanner on Android, or use the native scanner inside BBM 5.0 on Blackberry.
Extra Credit / Example: Add a QR code to your business card.
Put your QR code on every single piece of promotional material you have. This goes for every marketer. Posters, flyers, stickers, merchandise tags, press kits, temporary tattoos; The more unusual the better. Any promotion without one is a missed opportunity at major events, especially tech-forward gatherings like SXSW.
There are pitfalls you need to avoid at all costs, or else your QR code campaign will fail miserably:
It’s also a good idea to set up your QR code and the corresponding mobile webpage with analytics. This will give you the ability to track and optimize your campaign, and if you’re using a plug-and-play CMS, even make updates during the event.
At my company, we’re seeing an average time on the mobile page of about 4 minutes, with bounce rates in the low 20% range. When your call-to-action is valuable, and well aligned with your application, you’ll find that you can delight your audience and capture the precious attention that you wouldn’t have before. Your mileage will vary on the total number of scans, which is why a shotgun approach with a variety of different placements will give you the best odds of standing out from the crowd.
We’re also upping the game for SXSW, which I predict will be a big event for QR codes. My company will be displaying real-time Austin heat maps of scanning activity happening on our platform, as well as aggregating leader-boards of the “Most Scanned Bands.” We’ll be giving those artists extra attention and visibility, in addition to some special prizes we’ll announce at the event. I hope to see you, your QR codes, and some effective mobile calls-to-action in Austin next month.
– HOW TO: Grow Your Sales and Revenue Using 2D Codes
– 2D Codes: The 10 Commandments for Marketers
– How The iPad Is Helping Businesses Go Green
– HOW TO: Jump-Start Your Career by Becoming an Online Influencer
– 4 Small Business Mobile Predictions for 2011
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, fberti
More About: 2d code, business, entertainment, location, MARKETING, mobile marketing, qr code, social media, social media marketing, sxsw
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For food and drink brands, crowdsourcing new products and flavors makes perfect sense. Not only does it increase engagement, it gives the people that consume the products a say in their development. That interaction makes them more likely to shell out cash when the item hits shop shelves.
Thanks to social media, it’s become easier to to ask your customers to contribute to product development or collaborate on other creative endeavors. Not only is it doable, it’s been done, and with great success, by major brands.
“This trend is a direct reflection of the new meritocracy caused by the rise of the social web. Now everyone had the same power to not only consume but also produce things,” said John Winsor, founder of Victors & Spoils, and the author of Baked In and other books about co-creation. “Brands can use the power of their digitally connected consumers to co-create new products or face the wrath of those same consumers as they go into competition with them.”
We spoke to three major brands — Ben & Jerry’s, Coca Cola’s vitaminwater and Dunkin’ Donuts — to find out more about their recent crowdsourcing campaigns. If you are interested in the new people power that connected consumers wield, then read on for some delicious insight into how each campaign went down.
Ben & Jerry’s is no stranger to fan feedback; some of its best-selling flavors were born from customer suggestions, but in 2010 it took the concept a step further with the “Do the World a Flavor” competition.
Fans were able to invent their own variety of the popular ice cream via a fun online “Creation Station.” Finalists won a trip to the Dominican Republic to see a sustainable fair trade cocoa farm and the winning flavor was produced as an official Ben & Jerry’s product.
The specific aim of the contest was to raise awareness for fair trade ingredients, and with around 10,000 new flavor suggestions from the U.S. alone, Ben & Jerry’s achieved that goal. We asked Sean Greenwood, “grand poobah” of public relations for Ben & Jerry’s about the “Do the World a Flavor” competition:
Why did you opt for crowdsourcing for the campaign?
It’s always a tremendous opportunity for us to tap into our fan’s passion, creativity and their own interpretation of “Peace, Love and Ice Cream.” Our incredible fans come up with some great flavors. Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey, Chubby Hubby? Ever hear of those? Yep, all from our fans. The crowdsourcing offers an opportunity for fans to participate and create some fun, and as Jerry says: “If it’s not fun, why do it?”
How was the campaign a success for you?
It was a tremendous global opportunity for us to talk about our belief in the fair trade model. Since then, we’ve been hard at work making our own flavors using still more fair trade goods and communicating Ben & Jerry’s commitment to transition to using all fair trade ingredients, globally, by 2013.
Do you think crowdsourcing will be big in the future as a way for fast moving consumer goods brands to engage their audience?
I think any chance that companies have to connect with their fans in a fun manner is golden. For us, in this program, crowdsourcing was the hot fudge, whipped cream and nuts on top of our sundae!
Dunkin Donuts has run two very successful “Create Dunkin’s Next Donut” contests in the past, allowing fans to design their own perfect pastry product. Last summer they tried something a little different.
To promote the “mixology” potential of its Coolatta drinks, Dunkin’ Donuts asked fans to collaborate on a playlist of summery songs that would go well with fan’s favorite Coolatta flavors.
The campaign netted 300,000 new Facebook fans while over 40,000 Pandora users added “The ultimate Coolatta summer music mix!” to their list of stations and spent nearly 14,000 hours listening to the station.
We quizzed Ben Smith, interactive marketing manager for Dunkin’ Donuts, about the “Flavor Boogaloo” project:
Why did you opt for crowdsourcing for the campaign?
Allowing our Facebook fans to help us create an upbeat custom Pandora channel dedicated to playing, “The ultimate Coolatta summer music mix!” was a great opportunity to connect with our fans in a meaningful way while highlighting Coolatta mixology.
We leveraged Pandora as the home to the “The ultimate Coolatta summer music mix!” because of its reach and appeal.
How was the campaign a success for you?
The campaign was designed to raise awareness of Coolatta mixology and encourage Dunkin’ Donuts fans to try our Coolatta products throughout June and July, while also increasing engagement on the Dunkin’ Donuts Facebook page. We found the greatest success engaging with fans through sparking fun discussions of the best songs of summer and Coolatta mixology on Facebook and Twitter. As a result, Dunkin’ Donuts was able to achieve and sustain a high level of engagement throughout the campaign.
Year over year, Dunkin’ Donuts has seen double-digit growth throughout its frozen and iced beverage category.
Do you think crowdsourcing will be big in the future as a way for fast-moving consumer goods brands to engage their audiences?
Before jumping into the conversation on our social media channels, we always listen to what our fans are saying. Social communities are interactive by nature and listening to what our fans want to hear is how we have been able to engage with them in a meaningful way. By listening and participating in an ongoing conversation with our fans and followers, we have developed programs and promotions that are fun and interesting, while also encouraging brand advocacy with our fans’ and followers’ network of friends.
We will continue to provide our fans with a superior social media experience, and if we remain authentic and committed to listening to our followers and engage them as we have, I see our number of followers continuing to increase, especially as we continue our brand’s growth and expansion throughout the country.
Coca-Cola-owned Glaceau brand vitaminwater gave its fans the vote with a “flavor creator lab” on its Facebook page. The goal was to come up with a brand new variety of drink. Fans could vote for their favorite flavor, play games and answer quizzes to help determine which “functional benefit” the beverage should offer and even have their say on the design of the label.
The winning flavor — named “connect” — hit shop shelves in 2010, after 40,000 Facebook users had created unique label designs via the lab. Participants spent an average of approximately seven minutes engaging with the application. Matt Kahn, Senior Vice President of Marketing for vitaminwater, reveals the thinking behind their social strategy:
Why did you opt for crowdsourcing for the campaign?
Vitaminwater has always had a very loyal, interactive fan base and once the brand joined Facebook we heard more regularly from our consumers. At the time, the vitaminwater flavor creator program was a natural next step — it allowed for us to bring more exclusive content and real programming directly to our fans.”
How was the campaign a success for you?
The vitaminwater flavor creator was a three month, three step program that allowed us to have a two way conversation with our consumers. We gave our fans the tools to help develop something they were passionate about — in the end, we heard loud and clear what it was that they wanted when it came to vitaminwater.
Do you think crowdsourcing will be big in the future as a way for fast moving consumer goods brands to engage their audience?
Vitaminwater was among the first companies to use social networking to give fans such level of control over product innovation — a variety of vitaminwater was actually made by our fans, for our fans. Crowdsourcing was a great way for us to tap directly into our consumers — we were able to get them information faster and interact with them directly.
For savvy brands, product development has moved from a sterile lab to the social web and become a fantastic marketing opportunity. If brands want to engage today’s connected consumer, they need to get social and start listening.
“Today there is no choice. It’s either collaborate with your consumers using co-creative and crowdsourcing tools or perish,” Winsor said. “There will be collateral damage for those who don’t want to play.”
Did you take part in any of the campaigns above? Do you see crowdsourcing playing a big part in the future of food and drink product development? Have your say in the comments below.
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Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Synergee
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It’s easy to ignore someone when you don’t know or care to know anything about them. But it’s different when that person shows up in your social media stream, telling you about a lonely day on the street or simply wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day.
Underheard in New York is an initiative to help homeless New Yorkers speak for themselves through Twitter. Four homeless people — Danny (@putodanny), Derrick (@awitness2011), Albert (@albert814) and Carlos (@jessie550) — were given their own prepaid cell phone, a month of unlimited text messaging and a Twitter account.
The goal was to raise awareness and give a peek inside the daily struggles and unexpected challenges of being homeless in a major urban city. Between January 2009 and January 2010 the total number of unsheltered individuals within New York City rose an estimated 34%; this figure doesn’t include the tens of thousands staying in shelters.
Underheard in New York’s co-creators provided the men in the project with some basic training on how to access and use Twitter. Underheard in New York (@underheardinNY) was developed by Rosemary Melchior, Robert Weeks and Willy Wang, three interns at the BBH advertising agency. They, like all interns, were issued the challenge: “Do something good… Famously.”
The back half of that mandate is sure to cast aspersions on the project’s motives. The team has been careful and upfront about the challenge. Its website reads: “We decided famous was just another way of saying make people listen. Go big. Be heard. Make real change.” Weeks insists the initiative was started with the utmost sincerity.
While Underheard in New York has no direct fundraising component, Weeks hopes it will help people better understand homelessness and inspire them to volunteer or donate to shelters like the NYC Rescue Mission. The Mission helped select the four men, who all sleep there at night. The Mission has a long-standing relationship with BBH.
Weeks explained that these four men serve as a pilot group that the team hopes to expand with more Twitter accounts and voices from the New York area. Although the co-founders will close the initiative after their internships end, Weeks is looking at a bigger picture. “I think for us the project is over when it’s over, unfortunately. But hopefully the project has a lifecycle beyond what we’re doing. Maybe another organization will adopt our strategies, raise awareness.”
Most of the money and support has been coming from BBH, which has acted as advisors and provided $1,000 in funding, most of which has gone to paying for the phones. Accordingly, the four men are typing away on inexpensive, Samsung clam-shell phones. “Part of the point is that that very basic technology works for what we’re trying to do,” Weeks said.
Right now, the four accounts don’t have a ton of followers but they do contain some moving insights about loneliness, hardship and the basic human kindness shown by — and shown to — these four men.
Is a program like this useful only if it can go viral? What did you make of the tweets and will you be following them? Let us know in the comments below.
More About: charity, homeless, homelessness, non-profit, social good, social media, twitter
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