SXSW Interactive – March 7th and 8th

I thought I would share a brief outline of what I have done to date at SXSW Interactive and share some brief thoughts on what I have seen. I decided to combine Days 1 and 2 as Day 1 wasn’t really too eventful. I will likely be expanding on some of the thoughts/threads below in the coming days.

Bankrupt Your Startup in Five Easy Steps

This panel served as a good what not to do for people with start-ups by teaching attendees to “implode your company with style.” I found it to be a little thin in terms of content, but it was entertaining, especially after the unicorn hijacked/joined the panel.

Creating Findable Rich Media Content

I expected more from this panel, but not too much came out of it that you couldn’t have learned by digging through Google’s Webmaster Tools. I suspect this is largely due to the fact that Google is already fairly transparent about what factors impact site rank, so short of providing the algorithm’s used, there wasn’t much that could be brought to the conversation from Google’s end. There were however, a few interesting thoughts/threads that did emerge:

• Todd Nemet from Google pointed out that with the increasing adoption of technologies like RSS and widgets, the concept of search may need to redefined with the conversation shifting from how can users find your content to how your content can find your users. This is an interesting way to look at it, but I suspect the the majority of the tactics that would be used to make content findable will be the same ones used to enable your content to find the users.
• Richard Galvan from Adobe was asked about the metadata that Adobe’s products embeds in the files that they output. He responded that Adobe was working hard to allow program specific metadata to travel with files between the different programs within the entire suite to create better work flow, but wouldn’t elaborate much further than that. He also said that to his knowledge none of the search engines were using this information to index content, which surprised me as I was under the impression that wasn’t the case, but none of the other panelists disagreed.
• A question was asked about how Google would be using micro-formats to create richer, more contextually relevant and relational search results. Todd pointed to the experimental search stuff being done in Google Labs as examples of ways that Google was playing with the search experience. He said the key to taking the search experience to the next level would be the standardization and increased inclusion of metadata attached to non-text content.

The Contextual Web

Nick Finck from Blue Flavor discussed how we need to not only take into account the type of device a user would be using to access content, but also the context in which a user is using it. He identified the user’s environment, interface, display, task and skill level as the key components to consider. With the unprecedented diversity and constant evolution in user interfaces and contexts, I found myself thinking how unfortunate it is that the usability work on most websites is loaded onto the front end of the process when it should be an iterative process that continues throughout the lifespan of the site (something usability experts have been championing for years).

Rather than attempting to get it all figured out upfront through extensive research, we should be getting stuff in front of users and then reacting (shades of 37 Signals). With development languages, practices and frameworks getting increasingly agile and the analytics and metrics tools getting more sophisticated, I think we’ll see the cost of this iterative approach a point where it will become common practice rather than an infrequently used best practice.

Online Extremism – And the Muslims Who Fight It

I was hoping this panel would feature a broader range of perspectives (it seemed like everybody was on the same page), but I was impressed with the forward thinking displayed in some of the approaches presented. Frank Cilluffo, Director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute was talking about how the approach to deal with extremists online needs to shift from shutting down the channels of communication to using those channels of communication to engage the extremists. He spoke about enlisting prominent Islamic scholars to engage in these discussions.

This is exactly the approach I would advocate to any clients who are wondering how to deal with voices of dissent online. Shutting them down or censoring them should be avoided whenever possible as it will only force them to take their opinions to another platform where you may not be able to influence the conversation. You will also be missing the opportunity to hear their feedback moving forward. Take advantage of that captive audience to engage and respond to the dissent. Even if you don’t change the mind of the dissenter, you will likely be able to appease them and you may be able change the minds of those following the conversation. Sometimes all it takes to appease a disgruntled user/customer is for a company to say “Thank you for your feedback. We understand your frustration and are figuring out a plan to address the situation.”

Social Marketing Strategies Metrics, Where Are They?

This was an excellent panel that provided a lot of valuable insight into the difficulties in and some of the approaches to selling social media to all the major stakeholders in a company. However, the title was a little misleading in that none of the panelists provided what metrics or ROI models they are using on the campaigns they are running (beyond the usual suspects), which is largely a function of the fact that I think everybody is still trying to figure them out. Another interesting thread that emerged was how social media can be leveraged to increase to efficiency of the operations side of companies. The topics discussed here were both rich and deep and deserve a post of their own, once I have the time to unpack and organize my thoughts better. In the meantime, you can check out a partial transcription of the panel here.