I’ve just touched down from another SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, TX.
Over the next few days, I’m going to post some reflections on the event in 5 different segments, but before I do that, I feel like I still need to describe the conference to others.
SXSW is a incredibly difficult to describe, so I’ve come across an appropriate metaphor for SXSW. Austin is home to some terrific BBQ so, well SXSW is the ultimate BBQ pit- let me explain…
You/Your company Piece of Brisket/Meat
Austin Dry Rub
SXSW: The Smoker and grill
Your Clients/Friends/Agency The Sides (Mac and Cheese, Rice and Beans, Mashed Potatoes)
Ok so you’ve made your plans for SXSW. You’re just a simple piece of meat, but what happens to you over the course of a week in Austin every March is a true culinary experience.
Austin Texas, the Dry Rub
Austin, a.k.a. the Dry Rub. Your plane touches down in Austin. Austin is the place that spices it up. Each year has a different flavor. Maybe a bit more brown sugar, a little less cayenne, you get the drift. You (the brisket) arrive and start to get the Dry Rub treatment. You’re feelin the SXSW love. You hear the music, the sun is out. Who doesn’t love the dry rub?
The SXSW Conference- the Smoker/Grill
SXSW- a.k.a. The Smoker. You’re sloooow cooked over 5 days on a nice, even heat. You’re in this hot smoker for a while with constant heat. Heat=stimulation. Heat=meeting LOTS of people. Heat=learning. Heat= late-night parties. Heat=spontaneous discussions. Heat= serendipitous moments at the Driskill at 1:00am
The Sides: Your friends, clients, partners
Clients/Agency/Friends – The sides. BBQ doesn’t work without coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, beans and rice, right? You’re not at SXSW alone, and these relationships are crucial to the SXSW experience. You, the brisket, works really well with these sides.
Sometimes you’ll meet a new “side” or friend along the way, it’s a piece of cornbead, pickles, mashed potatoes, you name it.
So, are you starting to get the picture here? Upon your return, the table has been set (pun intended) for you to share this BBQ experience with everyone else. You’ve been seasoned, smoked and cooked and are ready to serve to the world. And, of course, you can’t do it alone. No matter how big a company you are, you’ll always need the sides. Sides equal technology, creative, staffing, partnerships, you name it.
Over the course of the year, you may need to go back for “seconds” at another conference. But there’s nothing quite like that first plate of BBQ, right?
And the following March in Austin, the cycle continues, but it might be a bit different, right? It may even be a different BBQ Pit. It’s Stubbs and not The Salt Lick. Maybe the dry rub is a bit sweeter, and maybe the wood in the smoker is oak, and not cherry. And you just have to meet this new side at SXSW..
So, are you getting hungry for the next BBQ at SXSW? I am…
It looks like LinkedIn is taking another good step in the world of social.
Yesterday, on their blog they announced a new feature for their Company pages, allowing companies to showcase their products and recommendations. To quote Ryan Roslanksy from LinkedIn, “Company Pages will enable companies to build their brand through network-aware recommendations, giving members rich, credible insights into how any given product (or service) is perceived by their fellow professionals.”
It’s still early going now, but here are some thoughts…
What I like about it:
Advantage Small Business: What a great opportunity for a small, growing business! If you’re an entrepreneur with a fairly large network on Linkedin. You have an ability to showcase your products and services, not just you. A person can get all the recommendations in the world, but if you have multiple products or services, that’s what you can showcase on your page. Need to quickly sell your old inventory of X product or service by the end of the year? Then highlight this in the “Featured” Section.
Partner Recommendations: If you are a professional service firm with various outside partners, you should be able to recommend other business partners (or products or services) here. If I’m an ad agency that works with a printing company, I’ll be able to highlight them here, and vice versa- a nice way of passing business back and forth.
Paving the Way: I think this gets another foot in the door for LinkedIn to get allow of your company’s content to live on Linkedin. A perfect chance for your company’s blog to live alongside this content, right?
What worries me:
Ok, there has to be some bad with the good here, so here goes.
Just recommendations? Here’s a look at Samsung’s company page, featuring several of their new products. But what if I had a bad experience with one of their products? Isn’t there room for a negative comment? How about a rating system here? Perhaps LinkedIn turned off this functionality on purpose? (I’ll check with their guy, Mario Sundar on this one)
Overkill? If I’m a big company like Samsung, do I really need this? Shouldn’t my reputation speak for itself? And, if they really want to push recommendations, these results better show up on a the first page of a Google search….
Another Layer: Yep, it’s one more added layer of work for the marketing team. But, in the changing world of inbound marketing and social media, it may just be worth it in the long run.
What’s Next?
LinkedIn is smart enough to know that all business still operates on a personal level. You or your company is still more likely to make a purchasing decision based on a recommendation from a peer, right? So, Linkedin is bringing that to the company level- let’s see what happens.
What do you think? Good move by LinkedIn, or waste of time?
It’s still a great time to talk about healthcare and social media.
Just like every other industry, healthcare has changed dramatically in the last 15 years with the abundance of information available to patients beyond their physician. Docs might not like it, but patients are going to continue to come in with questions about something they read online. More importantly, they might be reluctant to ask doctors at all, instead relying on “experts” on the Web.
Doctors need to accept the fact that patients are going to the Web first for information on their health just like information on big purchases, entertainment, and so much else. They’ll start with Google and their network of friends and families. Then they’ll sift through the most effectively search-engine optimized sites for those they trust the most. The best way to combat misinformation from these resource is first to have an online presence and second to embrace in two-way conversation with patients.
The conversation is going to take place with or without you. A physician should adopt social media to communicate with patients more effectively and publish reliable information their patients can use in their independent online research. Right now in healthcare, the most widely used tool is email -A doctor or nurse can answer questions and dispense advice by replying to emails to give patients immediate, actionable information. But the future can be so much more efficient. Hospitals could have a team online, acting like customer service representatives and chatting with patients to determine when a child’s fever warrants more concern than a cool wash cloth and Tylenol. Imagine if 10 hours spent online with patients can avoid 20 hours in the doctor’s office?
There are lots of tips and tricks out there, but Dr. Bryan Vartadedian from the Better Health blog network has it right when he says “90% of social media is just showing up”:
“I took a lot of heat when I posted this quote on Twitter a few months back,” he said in a post last week. “But I think there’s something to it. Everyone wants to believe that social success comes from deep, ‘meaningful’ relationships. These descriptors are relative in the virtual world. Social media isn’t rocket science and simple visibility has real value when you’re starting out. Find socially active doctors. Be present. Be real. See how things evolve.”
