Ever heard a marketer say that their brand does not need a website? Not in 2010, but just 15 years ago you ”had to convince people that HTML was worth their time”. As I read the history of microsoft.com I was fascinated by the parallels between the evolution of websites over the last 15 years and the evolution of social media marketing over the last 15 months.
15 months ago social media marketers had to convince people that Twitter was worth their time. Today we are on the other side of the chasm. We have evolved from asking “What is social media marketing?” and “Should my brand be on Twitter?” (the answer, is yes :-), to “How can I use Social Media to fuel the conversation?” (now that’s a question!).
In a world where your brand is the sum of all conversations [about your brand], fueling conversations is key. But, how do you fuel a conversation? Which conversations should you fuel? Does success mean a million followers?
Ali Wiezbowski, Emerging Media Marketing Manager, Microsoft (@aliweeez)
Jesse Engle, Founder, CoTweet (@engle)
Morgan Stewart, Principal, Research & Education Group, ExactTarget (@mostew)
What questions are top of mind for you as you think about fueling the conversation on social? Submit your questions on Google Moderator (preferred) or submit your questions as comments. Look forward to hearing from you!
August is a special month for me as it was eight years ago on August 19th that I first came to America for college. By the way, the first city I visited was Toledo which is a small town in Ohio. It didn’t take too long for me to recover from my jetlag and doubt my decision to come to the US ;) When I started college at Michigan I didn’t even know the word ‘startup’ and I was adamant about not studying computer science – I didn’t want to be yet another ‘good Indian boy’. I wanted to be a mathematician, a cultural anthropologist, an artist, and not a PC. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would be in Seattle getting to work on the most exciting problems that truly impact the innovation machine –- which really is what makes America so special from Singapore or anywhere else in the world. In Toledo, as in the rest of America, innovation is encouraged. People are encouraged to take risks and innovate, and it is the startup community which is at the forefront of that change.
I am jealous of myself for having had the chance to work with so many of you and to be a part of the Seattle startup community. All of you entrepreneurs out there, you are truly my heroes, and I hope some day I too can join your ranks. As I’m about to move out to San Francisco, part of me wishes that I could go to a few more STS talks, and a few more Hops and Chops events, and meet with a few more companies. The last two years have been the best years of my life and you guys made that happen. Thank you.
Very shortly I’ll be moving to San Francisco to join ExactTarget as the Head of Products for CoTweet. Wish me luck and please do stay in touch. I’ll be blogging at channelyush.com and you can always reach me on Twitter where my handle is @yush.
Also, this isn’t goodbye. It’s more of a be-right-back. However, it’s certainly a good excuse to party and why pass up on this opportunity to celebrate with my favorite people. Please join me for drinks and h’ordeuvres tomorrow (Fri, 7/30) at Fonte (1321 1st Ave). We’ll be kicking off the party at 4pm, and if you are in the mood for something less civil then come by Fonte at 9pm and let’s break it down. Please RSVP here.
iPad DJ: The Korg app is outstanding, and here’s another one. I don’t think this was developed at the iPadDevCamp, but it was a big hit Slot Machine is just pure cool. Based on what I could gather from the video they are using iPhone as the lever to trigger the slot machine, and each [...]
I just glanced through 11 pages of iPad apps on iTunes. For starters I wasn’t expecting eleven pages of apps. I did the math and calculated the total number of apps to be somewhere above or below 1265 — let’s just say 1200+ apps. That’s definitely more apps than what I was expecting. As I [...]
It’s your first time visiting LA. It’s 9pm. You have made plans to meet with your friends the next day and since you have some free time you decide to wander down the street and check out some bars. You walk in to Foo Bar and decide to check-in on Foursquare. It’s a crowded bar [...]
This weekend I’ll be taking part in my third Startup Weekend and boy am I thrilled! I was asked to kick off the event with some thoughts on how to make the most of Startup Weekend. Here are three tips: 1. Experiment: Startup Weekend is an outstanding laboratory. You get to pitch, you get to [...]
