Last week I finally made my first trip to the Geekfest that is South By Southwest. And if SXSW really is a sign of what's to come, there were some interesting trends that marketers should be following.
1 - Twitter was everywhere. Often I would be talking to several people at once, and someone would pull out their phone then announce to the group what someone had just said on Twitter. Last Tuesday, I went to attend a panel on new media in entertainment. When I arrived in the room, there were maybe a dozen people in the audience. But apparently, Robert Scoble had been added as a panelist at the last minute and wasn't listed in the program. I immediately told everyone on Twitter that he was there, and within minutes the room was almost full. Not saying they all say my tweet, but I'm sure many of them did.
Kami Huyse even tweeted to her followers DURING our panel asking them if there were any topics we should be covering.
2 - As much as we geeks love communicating online, we seem to love offline meetups even more. There were several companies and groups that were smart enough to realize this, and hosted meetups/parties for us. A great way for sponsors to create a fun time for everyone, and leave us with a positive impression of them. Chris Brogan has a great writeup of a party he attended on the last night of the interactive portion of SXSW. He adds:
"I want to encourage companies thinking of creative ways to get involved with conferences to think about throwing a Rock Band party. For the dollars spent, I promise you that it was one of the most memorable nights ever. I think that bringing an experience to an event far trumps a simple branding effort these days. Agree?"
But perhaps the biggest takeaway for me was...
3 - Bloggers are incredibly social and incredibly good people. Well at least the ones at SXSW were ;) It was like one big happy family, and it really did feel like a community. Marketers need to realize this and understand that we care about each other, and aren't going to accept you into our family unless you enter on terms that serve the greater community, and are willing to listen first, and market later. I will have to praise Dell here, as Richard Binhammer, John Pope, Amie Paxton, Laura Thomas and Lionel Menchaca were all active at SXSW, and were quite popular with SXSW attendees.
If SXSW is a glimpse into the future, it seems that we are in for faster communication tools and more willingness by companies to involve customers and communities in their marketing. I'm ok with that.