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Marty Note
I wish I could sit every startup entrepreneur down and have them read this post about how blogging accelerates growth. Need funding? Spending tons of time pitching? Why?
If I could share a way for a startup not to have to have absurd conversations with people who will NEVER invest in their startup they would ask me what they need to pay for that kind of magic.
Guess what, the magic is FREE, all you have to do is write what is happening, create some videos and share your progress. I've been writing about The Social Startup and blogging is a KEY aspect of creating the kind of content people find and want to CALL YOU.
If that last sentence translated like this, "You get to keep more of your company," then you get the idea. Even if you never make a dime from the content you share blogging is worth doing. You will LEARN so much from sharing, getting feedback and reacting.
That kind of feedback is MAGIC and worth its weight in gold. When I worked in marketing at M&M/Mars we paid BIG BUCKS for the kind of information any entrepreneur can get FREE now. So SHARE and then ASK, SHARE and ASK again. Bet you make more money that way than bieng 100% widget focused.
Via Marie Ennis-O'Connor
Startup Tips From CEO Dognition - The Personality Test For Dogs
Lunch With Smart Dogs at Triangle Startup Factory
Kip Frey (www.linkedin.com/pub/kip-frey/36/b09/384 pictured in middle above) is a smart entrepreneur who one might say has "gone to the dogs". Kip spoke at Free Lunch Friday at +Triangle StartUp Factory today about Dognition (https://www.dognition.com/ ).
Dognition is a Myers/Briggs personality test for dogs. During an hour long fascinating conversation Kip made several points we've heard consistently from Chris and Dave at TSF such as:
* Ideas that "seem true" create their own momentum.
* Look for ideas that "create a new category".
* Ideas with great partnership hooks work best since partners help create scale with OPL (Other Poeple's Lists) and OPC (Other People's Content).
Dognition is a cool idea since we humans are always anthropomorphizing our animals. Now you can do a test AT HOME with your dog to figure out which one of 9 classifications your dog's personality falls within. You can compare your dog to dogs in your area, across the country or possibly the world (soon Kip mentioned they are already speaking to interested parties in China).
I found Kip and Dognition's #brandingstrategy fascinating. Kip and the team at Dognition spent a year working on the #DIY version of their test. They needed enough data shared by "citizen scientists" after taking their test that the hard work created in the lab held up even in the DIY home version.
"I think people are more interested in their dogs than in their DNA," Kip said at one point and I agree. There are 70M dog owning families in America (so one in three roughly) and each year brings 7M new dogs to market.
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Branding vs Scale
The tension between creating a brand with meaning and the scale necessary to support that meaning was interesting. Kip decided to do a deal with Purina One to gain scale. Sounds like he had to defend the sizable deal with his board because they were worried about "brand purity".
#branding is tricky. Too much scale too fast could marginalize the brand. The science at the core of the test is something that could be seen as goofy in the wrong context. By doing an exclusive with Purina One for 2014 Dognition gets millions in partner ad dollars - the test is a freebie if dog owners complete a 28 day "Purina One 28 Day Challenge" (http://www.purinaone.com/dogs/28-Day-Challenge/main-page ).
Cool promo and great legitimacy for Dognition and possibly just the right amount of scale. Partnerships bring interesting challenges. Dognition can get swallowed whole by Purina, and can anyone spot the BIG #socialmarketing error on the Purina One challenge page? http://www.purinaone.com/dogs/28-Day-Challenge/main-page
ERROR - Love that Purina is using Tweets, but seeing 46 day old Tweets HURTS the social legitimacy of their campaign. A 46 day old tweet from a customer is fine IN ROTATION, but what if the only representation I see has old content?
When curating old and new social content from Purina and users always have something in the roll that is current, only several hours hold max. Using customer Tweets is brave, but stale in its current implementation. Even if the Purina staff creates Tweets today that related to something that happened 46 days ago have something current on social.
Building a #story off of #UGC is what +CrowdFunde is all about. Conversations require different #contentcuration and #contentcreation than promotional push. Purina One's misuse of #SMM is a perfect validation for a tool like CrowdFunde that helps create, curate and converse with the most valuable content on earth - User Generated Content (UGC).
By isolating old tweets without a clear understanding about why they are there, other than being self congratulatory, Purina destroys what they hope to build - active, alive conversations.
We think Dognition will have great conversations since learning your dog's personality feels like something MADE for social shares, but HOW you share social conversations is tricky as a big brand like Purina proves. Turning conversations into #engagemn and #loyalty is trickier still.
Cool talk today with many lessons for #startups and #Internetmarketers . Dognition is going to be on 60 Minutes in April and they will have a reality TV show on Nat Geo Wild so conversations will happen. Team at CrowdFunde wishes our fellow Durham #startup luck and a free CrowdFunde installation if they want to discover how to build community on a scale hard to knock down or duplicate...because building ongoing engagement after initial novelty is based on the quality, frequency and value of Dognition's (and any brand's) CONVERSATIONS!
Thanks to Kip for speaking with TSF startups today! Marty
PS. Kip asked for feedback on the Dognition site and since I know there are a lot of ecommerce conversion experts that follow me send me your thoughts and I will pull together 5 to 10 "would be better if" kinds of feedback for https://www.dognition.com/ .
Content Marketing For Startups
Content marketing authority is something everyone wants yet few realize the fastest way to achieve what they want is to share, share, share. The 4 Sharing Tips:
* Give Expertise Away, but not 100% (find a way to create ROI too). * Following Is Currency, So SPEND IT.
* Presence Makes you REAL.
* Trust in KARMA of the SHARE.
Post is trending on Curatti after going live on Tuesday. This "bean stalk" is an important content marketing one for startups to climb. Being a startup is solipsistic and self referential when it needs to be open kimono authentic and all about sharing. Share EVERYTHING.
Startups & Contests
Most #startups don't wake up thinking about #contentmarketing. Most startup entrepreneurs are builders. They want to build. Sometimes it is better to let others build FOR YOU.
Better because our new Google marketing world is based on three things:
* What You Say & Do.
* What others Think about what you said and did.
* Being LOVED by an increasing number of "brand advocates".
Some startups may get all of those things from an APP store, but why risk putting all eggs in a single basket when content marketing isn't hard nor does it need to take much time.
Contests are a favorite of mine. When STUCK and there's no time to cold call or no money to support "outbound sales" create content to bring who you need into your orbit. Contests are great for that. Give away something of value, such as a "better website", and review your entries.
If a contest feels too random you may be right, so don't put all eggs in that basket either. Continue to work your personal network to find great partners and be sure to update your contest. Closer something gets to FULL the more people want it (lol).
Netflix & Amazon play the online merchandising game differently than their bricks to clicks former print catalog or brick and mortar retailers. The WAY both these brilliant companies approach content creation and curation present opportunities for starts including:
* Create SaaS tools that spin and snip content in similar ways. * Learn to tag information with new dimensions. * Once data has new dimensions create merchandising tools. * Increase the ease and use of predictive modeling online. * Use cloud based computing to achieve more "server side" power. * Make decisions in near real time. * Create crowdfunding systems to relieve financial & operational pressure. * Create User Generated Content engines such as Netflix's reviews-based "SMART" system.
The content area is RICH with startup potential. Online merchants and their Software As A Service (SaaS) inbound content marketing cousins must find ways to spin and snip information into more and more powerfully intelligent "buyer assist" systems.
Startups who find ways to convert DATA into information and information into buying aids have a rich future ahead. The future always converts better and we are about to take an order of magnitude leap in online conversion, engagement and merchandising thanks to a new generation of Netflix-like "merchandising" tools.
Come The Revolution ELEPHANTS Beat HIPPOS
Are you an Elephant or a Hippo? Elephants react very different to what's next than hippos. Read trends below to…
Great Neil Ferree Post meant for Lawyers but equally applicable to startups and any online business (and what business isn't an online business now?). Lawyer capitulation is particularly interesting because lawyers worry about content creation's legal implications more than any other business.
For an "inside baseball" lawyer website like this one to explain the importance of content marketing supported by social shares means the costs of NOT participating are so much greater than the liabilities of creating great content marketing supported by social. If "not joining" the movement is so clear to lawyers the same implicaitons should be clear to all.
I work with many healthcare providers and they should read this post too. Anyone with QUALMS or worries about content marketing and social shares should read this post since it explains the prohibitive costs of NOT joining the content and social marketing party already in progress.
Yes the article is a tad technical, but your takeaway should be if LAWYERS are encouraging other LAWYERS to create and support content the last brick in the dam is in place. Any continued denial, obfuscation or non-acceptance of content and social marketing will be expensive (as in you won't be here much longer).
We can discuss the need to be GREAT later, right now let's simply agree Content Marketing and Social PRESENCE are DEMANDED.
Expanded on these thoughts on GPlus: https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/7NzQdWoH7hQ
Top 10 Startup Revolution Scoops Of All Time
The Social Startup explains how a competent content marketing program coupled with great social support helps startups increase valuations and lower costs.
Find out how brands these days are using user generated content to manifest business opportunities. ... It has been observed, that 64% of people are ‘highly likely’ to purchase something that included their input, combined with the 92% of people who rely upon other individuals they know while making a purchase decision. Over the last five years, there has been a 35% increase in user generated content, and 70% people feel most loyal to brands that listen to them.
Via Samu Tuomisto
SHARE First & Worry About Everything Else Second
This Business 2 Community post is written for "business" but certainly applicable to startups. Startups must realize that "process is product".
Process is product means everything you are doing right NOW is a product.
The soon a startup begins publishing, broadcasting and sharing the easier it gets, the richer the fast feedback loops become and the more chances for success they create.
Many startups think what they have is so amazing that it can't be shared. With few exceptions (biotech) it is NEVER the case that your thoughts are unique or so unknown that your share will quake the world.
Any business is created in the execution developed for the idea. To worry about someone stealing your idea is to worry about the tide. Focus your energy on getting as much information out and in as many hands as you can as fast as you can. SHARE.
Realize that the most important "product" you build is the team capable of building something, pivoting on a dime and responding to what they hear with meaningful and amazing results.
If you don't have a way to capture your journey find one (write, video, infographics, animation, stories). Your goal should be to create the means of production - the framework where you can easily harvest UGC (User Generated Content) anytime needed.
UGC is more important to a startup than oxygen. UGC helps gauge reaction, shape your product and determine a startup's future.
Related Reading
Process Is Product on ScentTrail Marketing
http://scenttrail.blogspot.fr/2009/11/process-is-product.html
Your favorite superhero has the power to save your business too. It's time for the business owners to take lessons from superheroes, and implement them in order to achieve success.
We've taken a look at how to add a YouTube subscribe button to your site, and how to customize it to suit your site's style.
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Imgur is home to the web's most popular image content, curated in real time by a dedicated community through commenting, voting and sharing.
Via Salah ALhaj Ahmed
CrowdFunde team is attending startup school. This Triangle Startup Factory Dairy shares our journey. Day 2 = creation of "unrealized networks", UGC & SEO.
Day 2: Tapping Unrealized Networks
Wow, what a day. Started with a Scrum-like standup and then worked the Business Model Canvas with TSF Founder Chris Heivly and Whitney. Discussing CrowdFunde's SEO benefit we realized that many businesses have "unrealized networks".
Unrealized networks are your customers. One undeniable New SEO truth is commons or platforms like HuffPost and Facebook out perform all other models. Problem is how does a small business easily add a "commons" that won't cost them a million bucks in cash or time?
CrowdFunde to the rescue.
CrowdFunde's goal is to help our partners TAP the gold they carry in their unrealized network. When I was a Director of Ecommerce our mailing list was around 50,000. We communicated with our customers regularly because email marketing was the most profitable Internet marketing channel (by far).
What we DID NOT do was for a community. We didn't realize benefits from our network. This Video Diary includes a 2 minute video that walks you through our first cut at tapping "unrealized networks". Please share any thoughts, reactions or ideas.
We are in "startup school" at the Triangle Startup Factory in Durham, NC for 12 weeks and everything is up for grabs. Together we create a cool tool, a "get more with less" tool to help conquer the "New SEO".
Thanks, CrowdFunde team and Marty
"Startups face tremendous pressure while competing with their bigger counterparts. They neither have large manpower nor big infrastructure. Social media can become an effective solution in helping them grow. This infographic shows how startups should utilize the power of social media."
CrowdFunde's mission is support investors, donors and shoppers by merchandising crowdfunding based on cool algorithms YOU set. Based on our incubator investor meeting today may remain a DREAM, but something will work out since the content is too cool and valuable to remain "haystacked" for much longer.
One cool trick is the algorithms that control what gets shown where have two modes DEFAULT and FRIENDS. When Facebook is linked to a profile algorithms go into "friends mode" showing what your friends and friends of friends like with the ability to toggle back to defaults.
That little trick is cool enough I might have to fund development. Heck I might have to regardless (lol). Marty
SEO for content marketers shares 5 "Quick Tips" to avoid SEO bear traps like: dupe content, keywords as friends, little things, & it's a SoLoMo world.
Perhaps the most interesting MAJOR conclusion after watching 6 startup presentations and doing a days worth of research into them is The Social Startup needs to be a book!
This summary of yesterday's Triangle Startup Factory Fall 2013 Showcase exposes some major content and social marketing flaws.
It also summarizes at least two ideas, Christian online gaming from 4Soils.com and client management wth Brevado.com I wish I could invest in. Other solid ideas well trimmed against their inteded targets too.
Social Startup needs to be a BOOK! or an ebook!
Google's New SEO Revolution wants improving heuristics the kind created by storytelling, cause and video marketing, the new Critical Success Factors.
Some types of content can make your company look really lame. Don't fall into these 10 categories!
Via James Allen
The Lost Steve Jobs Interview
Found two minutes of the best product development vs. process discussion in this amazing Steve Jobs interview. The "lost" interview takes place when Jobs is out of Apple and running Next and it is chock a block full of incredible thoughts and masterful insight (as one would expect).
I copied 2 minutes out of the middle because it was the best two minutes I've ever heard about how creating greatness is always under attack and what you have to do about it (to create magical products).
Startups Listen To This
Startups live in a bubble. We believe our ideas will change the world. We are passionate and devoted. Problem is most people have LIVES (lol). To capture attention startups must understand "inbound marketing". Inbound marketing is creating great content and THEN talking to customers who come to you.
The nature of the conversation you can have with "customers who come to you" is very different than cold calling a VC. Reminds me of a Channel Advisor story. In the early days of the compnay Scott Wingo, its founder, couldn't figure out how to get Sand Hill Road VC to call him.
He went out to San Francisco and observed where major VC worked, drove and parked. Then he populated their route with signs with his logo. Sure enough THEY called HIM. When THEY call YOU the deal flow is better by a factor of 10. You give up LESS of your company to get the money you need to change the world.
Hubspot is a powerful "marketing automation" tool. Here Brian Halligan takes you through 4 wise inbound marketing tips (with some easier to execute than others):
* Create amazing content (this would be the hard one). * Put your content into context (read this carefully). * Go beyond marketing automation (agree). * Use Social to create "leverage" and support for your content (AGREE).
I'm working on a post about why startups must have robust social media presence that will discuss inbound marketing's many advantages too. This post is a great primer.
PS. If you watch the video skip the first two minutes. Great riff about the "science of marketing" around 14minutes into the video.
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OsakaSaul
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I'm going to side-by-side it for you: with versus without one reaching hashtag.
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad
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![Social Business Trends 2014 [INFOGRAPHIC] | Startup Revolution | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/B0MExnf-_maxtnAYVhENvTl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
![Steve Jobs On How Content Is Truly King [video] ScentTrail Marketing | Startup Revolution | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/sVikY1fVCFDPgpIHcEIevjl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
