It’s nothing new to hear that social media was all the buzz at SXSW this year.  As the launching pad of social media giants, Twitter and Foursquare in previous years, it’s pretty much one of the top over-arching themes EVERY year at SXSW.  This year was business as usual with Social Media being talked about in tons of sessions.  One session I attended, “Voices Carry: Why Authentic Brand Voices Matter” shared an AP YouTube video that highlighted the impact of social media on today’s society and just how fast a story can travel.  You can watch the video here.

Knowing how impactful social media is for consumers, many sessions covered the importance that authenticity and quality plays in your brand’s story. They discussed engaging your consumers in a meaningful way because just being “in the space” is not enough to capture your audience’s attention.  You need to reach out to them, engage them and give them something meaningful to relate with. 

One session looked to television to see how media drives TV ratings.  Marketing Executives from Bravo Networks, Food Network and MTV discussed the multiscreen viewing experience that is so prevalent today and commented that while it’s not easy to measure ROI on yet, there certainly seems to be a correlation that increased social media activity during primetime television is trending with increased ratings.  By allowing audiences to follow their favorite celebrities and in some cases their favorite characters, they feel connected to the faces on their TV screens in a way that hadn’t been possible prior to social media. 

In a panel discussion with the Bravo team behind Top Chef 9 and this year’s first season of the online-only, extension show, Last Chance Kitchen, we learned that transmedia is the future of the entertainment industry.  Networks are creating different but related stories across many different platforms, allowing their consumers to essentially interact with their brands no matter where they are spending their time.  The stories all follow the same brand narrative so a consumer can easily pick up in a new platform without being lost or confused, but also without being bored with the exact same content.

Newcomer to the social media field was Ben Silbermann, creator of Pinterest, discussing how he came about creating this new social media phenomenon and his surprise at the success it has experienced in the past few months.  An avid collector himself, his original intent when creating this new platform was to give people an opportunity to show off their collections, the things they cared most about.  He talked about going to his friends’ homes and looking through their collections of books and albums and feeling like he somehow knew them better, or had a better understanding of who they were by seeing their collections.  He admitted that with time he’s witnessed pinboards being used in ways he never could have imagined.  For example, strangers sharing travel tips about shared, favorite destinations, and businesses sharing not just their products, but the things that inspire them to create those products, or the causes that they support, are just a couple of the surprises.          

But with all of the new platforms available, most speakers were very clear that if you’re going to engage in the platform you need to have a creative plan in mind for what you’re going to do there.  They cautioned against just joining for the sake of being there and reiterated over and over the importance of having something good to say, that your consumers will be interested in. 

Saturday Night we attended the Bravo TV Party where Jessica was in her own personal, Reality TV heaven.  The theme was a Bravo Picnic, and snacks included Mazel kettle chips, sliders, s’mores brownies, and refreshing Fresquila drinks, complete with Andy Cohen swizzle sticks. The night was made complete when Jessica got to meet Andy Cohen in the flesh, and managed to keep her cool long enough to snap a photo.  

After the Bravo Party we headed to Swan Dive for the launch party of the new Vivogig iPhone app.  Vivogig allows you to post photos of concerts, tagging the band and venue in each picture, providing a cool, one-stop site to check out photos of your favorite bands, and check out past concerts that have played at your favorite venues.  In true SXSW style there was a good mix of new music with new technology as we listened to Wild Child and other exciting bands while we watched our pictures being posted to the site in real time.

Before we headed home for the night, we made a quick stop at one of the MANY free food trailers to try the Today Show’s biscuits with bacon jam.  It was as delicious as it sounds!

Other great food included Artz Rib House, because Jessica felt that Jeremy needed to broaden his Austin BBQ horizons.  This meal came complete with a good old-fashioned bluegrass band and finger-licking good baby back ribs.

On Monday, Skype hosted their “Eat. Drink. Be Human with Skype.” party that offered not only a delicious lunch from La Condessa, but also included a concert featuring the Parlotones  and the Neon Trees. The weather was perfect that night and the Austin skyline was beautiful.

The Interactive session ended on Tuesday, and Jeremy headed back to Portland on Wednesday, but the SXSW fun didn’t end there. The Music session continued through the weekend, so it was a great opportunity to see some favorite bands!

Wednesday night – Plow Monday at Stompin’ Grounds

Thursday night – Texas Renegade at Rebel’s Honkey Tonk

And for the Saturday night finale, I attended the outdoor screening of Emmett Malloy’s documentary film “Big Easy Express,” that chronicled the journey of the Railroad Revival Tour, a concert series featuring Old Crow Medicine Show, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Mumford and Sons.  The Austin office attended this concert last April, and it was so great to relive those moments through the film.  The stage was set on the lawn of the LBJ Library on the University of Texas campus, and the night couldn’t have been more perfect.  After the film screened, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Mumford and Sons played a full set concert drawing an end to another fantastic SXSW experience!

I attended a session on Monday presented by Helen Klein Ross, the creative mind behind @bettydraper, a twitter account that maintains the voice of AMC’s mega-popular character Betty Draper, played by January Jones, in the hit show Mad Men. Everything about this twitter account is spoken in the voice of the character from the show. Not the actress, not the writer, but the character is perpetuated in this easily accessible and massive platform.

She provides a connection for several thousand fans of the Mad Men brand, and gives them an opportunity to interact with her in a way that helps them feel personally connected to the show.

Social media allows you to stay connected to your consumers, but it’s not just about having a twitter account or Facebook page. Those are simply the platforms for building a connection with your brand. You have to give consumers a REASON to connect, because just being present in these spaces is typically not enough.

Whether it’s maintaining your brand recognition and story throughout the off-season when consumers may “forget about you,” or just perpetuating your brand in new arenas, it’s a way to broaden your market and at the same time strengthen your connection with your existing fan base. Creating content that engages your consumers creates an emotional connection and gives them a reason to want to share that experience.

As you begin to craft your story, consider your audience. Think about who you are trying to reach, and instead of considering how many people you are trying to connect with, think about WHICH people you are trying to connect with. Think about the stories you can tell that will resonate with your customers, and if you’re ever in doubt, use Betty Draper’s recipe for successful storytelling.

Create the content (the more the better), keep a consistent and continuous voice for your brand, keep it simple and always make it easy for others to share it with their friends.

Now you can surf the Branson Tracks site from your mobile phone! We know that Branson Tracks visitors are busy and on the go, so we created a mobile-friendly version of their website that can be viewed on any mobile device.

Branson Tracks fans can quickly and easily view attractions for each location, check seasonal hours, get directions and even buy tickets to The Track! To check it out, just visit www.bransontracks.com on your mobile device.

It comes as no surprise that as Facebook continues to evolve it is creating more ways to bring our friends and acquaintances together, even outside the confines of the network. For many users, this is a dream come true, allowing our sphere of influence to impact all aspects of our online experience, from hearing songs our friends like on Pandora to seeing our friends’ reviews on Yelp. 

The new Facebook plugins allow websites to incorporate familiar Facebook activities such as “Like” and “Recommend” into their sites. As of last week, over 100,000 websites have incorporated the new plugins resulting, for many, in increased site traffic.

While the plugins allow other sites to offer the same personalization that we love experiencing on Facebook, it is not achieved without some controversy and ardent debate. Facebook continues to mitigate significant privacy concerns, including a backlash of users coordinating mass “Quit Facebook” days.

We each have a different comfort level regarding our privacy and the Web. Be aware of your personal privacy settings and set them accordingly to match your comfort level. Click here for answers to questions surrounding the new social plugins.

1. If you do not let users add content to your site (photos, videos, links, reviews, etc.), then you need to make that your primary goal for 2010.

2. Scanning barcodes with your smart phone for more information, pictures and videos is a trend  we need to all pay attention to. (Check out QMCodes.com and StickyBits.com.) 

3. Content is king! Engage your customers with rich copy & images that are updated often to keep them coming back for more.  

4. Traditional outbound marketing (print ads and mailers) is going the way of the dinosaur. The future is inbound marketing and pulling consumers into your brand via search engines, social media and blogs.

5. Don’t fear new ideas, especially on the Web.  Your website is organic, so if something isn’t working you can easily change it. But you won’t be able to discover that one special tool that makes your site stand out if you don’t try new tactics.

It’s that time of year when the Wright Strategies team converges with other like-minded, technology leaders and enthusiasts to learn about the latest trends, emerging tactics and best practices in web design and development. We're gearing up for SXSW Interactive, a five day interactive conference held in Austin each spring. Stay tuned for upcoming articles recounting what we’ve learned, what we’re excited about, and how it can help your site reach its maximum potential. Want more info on SXSWi? Visit http://www.sxsw.com/interactive. 

The Austin office will be closed from Friday, March 12 through Tuesday, March 16 but our support line is always open.  If you need immediate assistance with your site during that time, please email support@wrightstrategies.com.

The new year has come and somehow already gone and some of us are still reeling over how quickly time is passing by.  But with each new year comes the inevitable lists recounting "The Top <insert anything you can imagine>" of the past year, decade, millennium, etc.  I personally enjoy these lists as they help me recall all the events that have happened in my life that seemed monumental as they were occurring yet had somehow slipped my memory before being immortalized in a year-end list.  Of course, some of my favorite lists from 2009 were related to everyone’s activity on the internet over the past year.  Lists from facebook recounting the top status update terms and from Bing showing us their top search terms for the year, seem like a pretty accurate gauge for determining what we cared most about and wanted to learn more about in 2009. 

Any predictions for top terms in 2010?

We just launched the new Rodeo Austin interactive website! Serving as Rodeo Austin's Official Website Design and Development Sponsor, we created a new online identity that gives visitors a taste of the rodeo experience online year around. The website features a new architecture for easy access to event information, guest-uploaded photos and event videos and recaps.  

Another great enhancement is a streamlined ecommerce tool that makes it easy to purchase everything from event tickets to memberships, and also to donate to the scholarship fund and youth auction. The new website reflects Rodeo Austin's lively, spirited nature and propels Rodeo Austin even further in its role as the technological leader in the Fair and Rodeo industry.

Click here to visit the site!

We’ve recently launched a new interactive map for the seaside village of Roche Harbor. Users can now explore all that the community has to offer with an easy click of the mouse. Enhanced zooming functionality, rich photography and brief descriptions make this map a useful tool for Roche Harbor visitors and residents alike. Designed to help users discover where to stay, what to see, and how to get there, the Roche Harbor map is an elegant display of style meets function.

Click here to explore Roche Harbor.