Notes from #SXSWSmall: What We Can Learn from Small Town Entrepreneurs

In the world of online communities, we need to learn to behave like one. The excerpt from my favorite session at SXSW11 as follows:

The business world is looking more like a small town. Strong downward economic pressures combined with advances in technology have forced rewriting the rules of business. Advances in technology have allowed all of us to collaborate instantaneously over great distances and not be tied to a single geographic area. Suddenly, the business advantage has shifted from multinational corporations towards small and local companies. When every one of your customers can talk to everyone else, it’s like a small town. When the human voice is valued over corporate mission statements, it’s like a small town. Now is the right time to look at the small businesses that have best succeeded in small towns, and find the lessons that everyone in the business world can use today.

Here are the notes that I captured from Barry Moltz and Becky McCray…

Lesson 1: “frugality is the new black” Plan for Zero – prepare for ups & downs and take a long term perspective. Focus on long term and stick to the plan.

Lesson 2: “if you found yourself in a hole… Stop digging” Spend brainpower before dollars and understand business cycles. Overnight success takes an overage of 7-9 years.

Lesson 3: Multiple your lines of income by diversifying to reduce risk. Nurture new product offerings.

Lesson 4: Work anywhere, anywhen.

Lesson 5: Treat customers like community. Any customer can interact with any other customer, just like a small town, treat everyone well.

Lesson 6: “be proud of being small” Act like a small business… Flaunt it! Build a community… Move from the community to the crowd. Build personal connections!

Lesson 7: “be local” Stick to your local culture. That’s what makes you unique

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SFAMA Presents: A Social Media Panel on Old Spice

Here’s another event that I had attended in August. SFAMA rounded up 4 prominent marketing experts for a panel discussion on the success of the Old Spice campaign. Here are my notes from the event…

• The Old Spice commercial was done tastefully… Not at the expense of women, unlike Axe.
• In social media, action is better than inaction
• Social media expects honesty rather than perfection.
• It’s about the commitment to social media interactions rather than simply campaigns
• Be ready to expose everything bit have a process to deal with situation. People are talking about you regardless
• Participate, measure, monitor
• In social media, the rich get richer
• Resonate with the “lifestyle” of your audience
• “give it time”… It take time to build a brand
• Social media… You get what you put in
• There HAS to be ROI though… Measure the engagement
• Should be treated as an OpEx and something that everyone in the company should participate in

Girls In Tech: The Fast Track of Mariam Naficy

Back in August I attended a Girls in Tech presentation with Mariam Naficy, the founder of minted.com. Mariam is a serial entrepreneur who found an early success with eve.com shortly after graduating from business school. Here are the notes I captured from the session:

On female purchase power…
Women are responsible 58% of spending online & 70% of spending offline. Lots of potentials to tap into.

On career goals….
Cut to the chase and get to the end goal as soon as possible. If you have an idea or vision, pursue it now. Don’t wait.

On business plans…
Biz plans are always flawed. A flawed business plan doesn’t mean you can’t be successful.

Be responsive.

On capitalization stragey…
Financial strategy in the beginning is important. Don’t over- or under-capitalize.

Be pragmatic

On marketing…
Now’s a good time to build brands through traditional media. Buy remnants in magazines. There are also lots of innovation in affiliate channels (ie: paid banner for target blogs)

Experiment lots. Seeding helps.

On ideas…
Most great ideas aren’t recognized in the beginning.

On oneself…
Believe in yourself and not care too much about what other ppl say or think.

Talk to your customers.