Attn: Startup Founders, You Need a Hobby
Running a startup is hard. I say that even though my own startup, [Startup Digest], has been kicking ass growing from 22 to 42,000 subscribers in less than 28 weeks. It’s grown from a small side project to a serious media company & great community service to the startup ecosystem. I can’t even imagine the stresses of running a startup that’s not growing or stuck in the trough of sorrow.
Much of the difficulties actually doesn’t come from the business or product itself, but from the psychological stresses and relationship issues of co-founders. If you haven’t read this Paul Graham essay about the reality of startups, I would read it now. Eric Ries says it best: building a startup is a human institution creating a product/service under extreme uncertainty. It’s hard to describe this in words but when you are going through it your psyche knows it.
To cope with this extreme uncertainty and stress, you need a hobby outside of work. This can be anything you enjoy: swimming, reading, yoga, meditation, ultimate Frisbee, or any activity you enjoy for the activity itself. You need a hobby to get your mind off of startup life and for mental clarity.
.
But what if you don’t have a hobby? I was in this exact same position a week ago. I was having a beer with my friends Abraham, Krutal, and Brendan and I asked “what are your hobbies?” hoping to get some ideas of activities I could take up for myself. Instead everyone around the table sat with a puzzled stare, and the best we could come up with is partying. At this point I realized neither I, or most of my founder friends actually had a hobby they cared about.
That weekend after a talk I gave at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo I had dinner with some close friends outside of the startup world who were telling me about some of the activities and adventures they had been on. I started writing down some of the adventures they had been talking about on my notepad and getting more ideas as the time progressed, shortly I had a notepad of 25+ adventures I had always wanted go on but never had enough time to do.
This list quickly turned into my new hobby, I want to go on each of these adventures I had wrote down before a conclusion of [Startup Digest] has been reached. Below are my adventures I had wrote down, and I am proud to have already finished two in the last week 
Hopefully some of these ideas will inspire you to go out and find a hobby!
Update 1: Based on some of the comments I’ve received so far I agree that the list below aren’t open-ended hobbies I could do in a lifetime. Rather my “hobby” or what I enjoy doing is going on adventures & having experiences with close friends. Some of these I intend to do more than once while others I would be comfortable accomplishing them once.
Update 2: John Knox wrote an awesome blog post in response to this one detailing why it is important have multiple hobbies and bulding a diverse portfolio of non-occupational experience. He explains what I was trying to get across much better than I could, read the full post here.
- Indoor Skydiving at iFly – DONE
- Four Wheeling in the Sand Dunes – DONE
- Ice blocking
- Skydiving (1800funjump.com suggested by @Mirko)
- Snorkeling
- Air ballooning
- Ghost hunting
- Make fire
- River rafting
- Trampoline world
- City pillow fight in SF
- Full moon party in Thailand
- Track driving in a Ferrari
- Competing in a sheep contest at rodeo
- Hay bucking
- Sing I’m on a boat while on a boat
- Meditation weekend
- Art of living course
- Machu pichu – inca ruins
- Diving scuba with sharks
- See a coral reef
- Visit Galapagos island
- Visit Mount Fuji
- Spelunking in new Zealand
- Go on zipline across mountains
- Hang gliding
- Fly in a Wingsuit
- Snowmobiling
- Watching the Northern Lights (suggested by @yigit)
- Racing Ducati’s around the track (suggested by @chris)
- Learn ukulele well enough to play cover songs for tips one night in a bar (suggested by @Bill & 30by30)
- Sail for a week in the Bahamas, on a rented boat, without a guide. (suggested by @Bill & 30by30)
- Visit and active volcano (suggested by Reed)
- Crush grapes with my bare feet (suggested by Shane)
- Ride an elephant (suggested by Shane)
- Chase a tornado (suggested by Shane)
- Firewalk (suggested by Shane)
- Rock Climbing (suggested by metachris)
- Canoeing (suggested by @windaddict)
-
Archery (suggested by @windaddict)
If you have any additional adventures you would like to suggest or if you want to do any of these with my, leave me a comment below!
TEDx Berkeley – Live Post
I am at TEDx Berkeley right now, in desperate need of coffee, but I wanted to share with everyone how to stay updated with whats going on right now.
If you want to watch along with us the livestream is here:
Watch live video from TEDxBerkeley on Justin.tv
If you want to follow along on twitter the hastag is #TEDxB or http://www.eventvue.com/tedxb
Dacher Keltner – Psychologist and UC Berkeley Professor.
Rick Smolan – TEDster, Author, Photographer.
Bradley Voytek – Neuroscientist and UC Berkeley Student.
David Ewing Duncan – Director of Center for Life Science Policy at UC Berkeley and TEDster.
UC Men’s Octet – The premier a cappella group at UC Berkeley.
Eric Cheng – Ocean Conservationist, Photographer.
Eric Lewis – “Piano Iconoclast” and TEDster.
Ross Evans – Inventor, Founder of Xtracycle, and TEDster.
Fred Dust – Designer and Partner at IDEO.
Amit Deutsch – Student Activist and UC Berkeley Student.
Daniel Kraft – Scientist and TEDster.
Eric Rodriguez – Founder UC Berkeley Economic Philanthropy Course.
Asma Abbas – Author and Professor.
Drue Kataoka – Artist, Social Entrepreneur
Nanxi Liu – Pianist and Berkeley Student
Robert Strong – Magician
And here is a bit about the conference:
On April 3, 2010, TEDxBerkeley is gathering world-leading thinkers, makers, and doers at UC Berkeley to discuss doing the unprecedented. The audience is composed of a diverse yet curated mix of 700 students, professors, and thought leaders from Berkeley and beyond for a stimulating day of presentations, discussions, entertainment and art that will spark new ideas and opportunities for all.
And a big shoutout to JessicaMah and the TEDx Berkeley team for putting this on!
How to get FREE FOOD and FREE COFFEE in Silicon Valley
Since moving to Silicon Valley in June I’ve had at least 25% of my meals and coffee for free and I wanted to share some of the best kept secrets here in the valley. If you are a bootstrapped ramen entrepreneur read carefully!!
Free Food
Free meals are easiest to come by in three ways:
- Events
- Paying it forward with service providers
- Corporate friends
.
Events
There are a TON of events going on in Silicon Valley for the startup industry, and if you don’t know where to find them sign up now. Many of these events offer free meals and finger food (pizza and waffles are very common), and many of these events are free or very cheap. If you want to make this method ABSOLUTELY free and foolproof offer to help the event organizer on a volunteer basis in exhange for a free ticket or if you are a blogger offer to write an article or do a cross promotion in exchange for a ticket. By giving something of value to the organizer, reciprocity inevitably takes over
My favorite event in this category is Swagapalooza, put on by LaunchHear and Alex Krupp, which brings together the top digital influencers and gives them unlimited free alcohol, free food, and a big bag of free swag. It’s amazing! Watch out for the next one in SF soon.
Paying it forward with service providers
This is the hardest route to free food but the most rewarding. Service providers (lawyers, PR firms, CPA’s) are some of the least respected members of the startup ecosystem but many of them are really cool and trying to help out for all the right reasons. Take the time to meet these people and recommend your fellow founders to the best people you meet or the service providers you are using yourself (eat your own dog food!).
If you help the service provider you are using land a new client I promise you will be taken to many free lunches and dinners in the near future. By helping out your fellow founders pick the right service providers doing their job for the right reasons and helping them get more business everyone wins and you will get free meals!
Corporate friends
Founders tend to look down upon others “working for the man” but your friends in corporations enjoy many benefits you as a startup founder will never get. Be nice to them, learn what they do, understand how a large corporation works, and don’t forget to visit them for lunch and dinner! My two favorite places to hang out for a meal is Facebook and Google, check out some pics:
.
.
.
.
How many times can you get free Google lunch?
.
.
.
..
Free Coffee
There is a specific point in a startups life when glorious free coffee is guaranteed: when you are meeting with VC’s and raising capital. When you visit SandHill Road don’t forget to take advantage of all of the free coffee and drink opportunities around you. My favorite so far was the drip coffee + 2 shots of espresso + creme & sugar at the new Matrix Partners office. If you are visit sandhill road soon I suggest checking out this map.
And if you are one of those unlucky startups that actually makes money, has a business model, and doesn’t need to get 50% of their company taken by venture capitalists you can still partake in free coffee. Bring VC’s dealflow and they will love you and keep you caffeinated all year
PS – I am officially the mayor of Sequoia Capital on Foursquare, take that partners!
If you have any other secrets to getting free food and coffee in Silicon Valley share them below!
The Co-Founder Matching Problem
Without fail week after week events having to do with co-founder matching or co-founder dating are consistantly the most highest clicked events on [Startup Digest]. Also privately I get asked at least 5-10 weeks for personal introductions to co-founders. Clearly this is a very underserved problem in the Startup Ecosystem and events like FounderDating and Startup Weekend are playing big roles in alleviating this. I’ve been looking more intro the co-founder matching problem myself and wanted to share some good articles I’ve found on the topic.
If you have any additional articles or resources to share leave a comment!
http://venturehacks.com/articles/pick-cofounder via Venture Hacks
“The ideal founding team is two individuals, with a history of working together, of similar age and financial standing, with mutual respect. One is good at building products and the other is good at selling them.”
“If it doesn’t feel right, keep looking. If you’re compromising, keep looking. A company’s DNA is set by the founders, and its culture is an extension of the founders’ personalities.”
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=159648 via Hacker News
“You don’t ‘find’ a cofounder, just like you don’t ‘find’ a wife. It’s a relationship with someone else that evolves over time and then someday, someone pops the question.”
http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfaq.html via Paul Graham
“Most successful startups have more than one founder, and usually the founders seem to have been friends for at least a year before starting the company. The best way to meet co-founders is to go to school with them, so recent grads have a big advantage there. You can also meet co-founders at work, but be careful not to violate whatever noncompete you signed. In the old days, co-founders often met through user groups, but this seems less common now.”
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/11/finding-your-co-founders/ via Seth Sternberg
“And therein lies the problem in finding co-founders for that startup you’re dying to launch. It’s most comfortable to hang out with people like ourselves, but those are exactly the folks you probably don’t want to co-found a startup with. Seems a bit unintuitive, right?”
http://www.quicksprout.com/2009/11/04/finding-the-right-business-partner/ via Neil Patel
“Not only does it take time to find the right business partner, but also you’ll pick a few bad ones along the way. Don’t get discouraged by this because it happens to the best of us.”
http://blog.apprabbit.com/whos-got-your-back-7 via AppRabbit
“It’s been said many times and by many people that startups should have multiple founders, and there are plenty of existing blog posts about why, but for some of us that isn’t the way things are working out. If you’re going at it alone like me, it’s important that you establish a solid support network, even if they aren’t there by your side coding.”
“Friends, parents, siblings, whatever you’ve got, try to tap into people who can get excited about what you’re doing and give you a platform to bounce ideas off of, or lift you up when you’re feeling down or things start to get rough.”
Traveling Lessons Learned: Palm Springs, DC, NYC, Dubai, Austin
I’ve been doing a ton of traveling lately, feels like I’ve been living in a suitcase and random airports around the world. I haven’t even had a second to stop and gather all of my thoughts so this is an attempt to start.
.
Palm Springs & TED – The human capability is amazing. If you think for a second that you can’t or you don’t have the knowledge/skills to do something just check out the bio’s of some TED speakers. I listened to people abolishing slavery, creating death lasers for mosquitoes, dancing skills that are un-human, to Ukulele virtuoso’s. All of them started with just the first step so when you are feeling down watch a TED talk and be inspired.
.
DC - Real entrepreneurs don’t go to Washington and get involved with politics. People like Dave McClure and Eric Ries are changing that with initiatives like Startup Visas’ but by and large entrepreneurs are not getting involved with politics. We need to get involved more and get our voices out their, governments really want to support us because we are the ones creating real economic value in this country.
.
New York City – If you want to see a newly emerged startup hub go visit NYC. They have all the ingredients: repeat entrepreneurs to mentor the next generation, early stage capital, University involvement, media attention, etc. Sure it is not perfect in NYC either but on the ground floor we felt excitement, especially in places like Dumbo. Also I learned attitude is everything. If NYC needs to change one thing it’s their attitude: learn to pay it forward, stop criticizing, give back, and stop trying to act so macho and overprotective.
.
Dubai - The number one lesson learned here was people from around the world have a very different definition of “startup” than we do at Silicon Valley. I went to Dubai for the global entrepreneurship world congress by the Kauffman Foundation and there were representatives from over 60 countries all at this one event. And when talking about startups at the conference some people thought a startup was a person who started a food cart, to a small family own business, to a high growth manufacturing company, or to a tech company. My new definition of a “startup” (at least from [Startup Digest]‘s perspective) is a high growth company built under extreme uncertainty with a bit of a high technology slant. Its important now for us to get real specific on what kind of events we will be featuring in the digests.
.
Austin – Startup founders need to have more fun! It was awesome to party with many of my friends in Austin and to finally get away from the non-stop business talk. Loosen up, have fun, and get out their every once in awhile. Letting loose is good for the soul and were going to start throwing more fun events here in Silicon Valley. It doesn’t only have to happen once a year.
.
If you were in Dubai, TED, SXSW, or any of these places with me would love to hear some of things you learned!
My TED Story, What TEDactive is Like
TED aka the Technology Entertainment and Design conference. Some people call it Elistist and some call it “humbling, inspiring, and moving on many levels“. Here is my take:
My TED Story
The first TED talk I ever watched was Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke of insight which was emailed to me by my old college roommate. The video is of Jill, a brain researcher, who had a massive stroke and recounted her story from the inside out in great scientific detail. She went through emotions, showed a live brain on stage, and opened up on stage and let it all out in her talk. I had no idea what this TED thing was but I was hooked.
I spent the following weekend watching as many TED talks as humanly possible in the span of 48 hours and I was completely inspired. I still had no idea what TED was, besides being a conference, but I knew I needed to attend this and it was since my dream to speak at TED.
Fast forward a bit, once I graduated college and was running [Startup Digest] I got a very random email asking if I wanted to be a part of TEDx Silicon Valley. The story actually wasn’t that simple, what started off as one email led to a very odd and “skull and bones” esq situation that is too long for the post. Next time you see me in person though ask me about it, it’s a great story.
Photo by ValleyZen
Long story short I was part of the founding team of TEDx Silicon Valley which happened on Decmeber 12th 2009, and it ended up being the biggest TEDx in TED history. TEDx events are independently organized TED’s and to find out more check out here.
After the conference ended I was officially part of the “TED family” and was invited to attend TEDActive which is the simulcast of the big TED conference which is going on right now, the same time the main TED conference is. It is a more intimate and fun gathering of TEDsters around the globe bringing together a good group of TED translators, TEDx organizers, TED prize winners, and other entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, and people making a big difference.
What TEDactive is like
For all the fuss and negativity TED occasionally gets, I have to admit that the conference is nothing short of unbelievable. The speakers, presenters, and performers are some of the most unbelievable people doing things that completely humble me.
A good example of this was Dr. Kevin Bales talk today. Kevin has dedicated his life to the eradication of slavery which surprisingly enough is still very prevalent. Worldwide he quoted there are 27 million slaves and a human person is sold for $3,000-$10 depending on the country (I had no idea there was a market price for this?!). Kevin has set up an organizing which not only helps these people get out of slavery but teaches them the life skills to stay out of slavery forever. If you are interested check out Free The Slaves.
But the real value of TED is not only in the live talks themselves but the people who attend. I’m getting to spend 5 days with people from all over the world (Uganda, Korea, Germany, etc) who are all extremely passionate and active in their communities. Just this morning I met a guy from Kentucky who sold his software company to HP and spent a 1 hour breakfast session with us expalaing the ins and outs of the printing, printers, packaging, and labeling industry. Now I have absolutely no interest or involvement with the printing industry but it is so cool to hear a passionate entrepreneur talk about their industry. Where else can you get such a diverse group of passionate doers together?
From the dinners, afterparties, PJ sessions, flash mobs, music videos, and all of the other weird and wacky things were doing at TEDactive, the real value of TED is the chance to spend real quality time with the world’s leading doers all around an atmosphere of intellectual stimulation and inspiration.
I am so excited for the finals two days of TEDactive and if I haven’t met you here at Palm Springs yet come say Hi!
[Startup Digest] Summary: Twiistup 007 Los Angeles
[Startup Digest] Summary: Twiistup 007
I’ve been listening to everyone’s feedback from the [Startup Digest] and one of the most asked request from our users was more information about the actual events we feature. I’m going to try doing these “[Startup Digest] Summaries” and give a bit more insight to the events I attend, anything interesting I come across, and sharing more of the detailed about the events we cover.
I’m here live-blogging and tweeting in Los Angeles for Twiistup 007 which is LA’s largest startup showcase known for their wild parties. I was excited to attend this event because I have been hearing a lot of things about the LA startup and investment scene recently, here is a recent tweet I saw:
Kind of depressing when you hear that 60 tech companies are filing for IPO’s in the Bay Area and only 3 in Southern California via @jeffcohn
Personally I think the LA startup scene is a very undervalued place. Yes its fragmented, yes the VC/Angel industry is tough here, and there are a whole host of factors which make it hard to start a company here. But people like @jaynol1 who is the founder of Column Five Media who are excited and passionate about the scene here makes me feel positive
My feedback so far on the Showoff side of the event are there are were way too many “social aggregator apps” that were picked to present. Next time get some variety and mixup the presenters based on what they are presenting.
UPDATE: So far the keynotes have rocked (especially Eric Ries’ talk) and the networking sessions is where its at. Already closed an advertiser deal and met a couple companies in the process of raising series-A. Good stuff and looking forward to this highly talked about after-party.
Pictures
http://www.laweekly.com/slideshow/view/29219824
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wmsproductions/sets/72157623184051477/
Here are what some others thought (via twitter)
“#twiistup is interesting, a lot of innovative startups, I just wish one of them was about aggregating my social networks. 
” – @JasonCampbell
Favorite startups at #Twiistup – @lunch_com, @nsyght, @ranker_com and @yourversion – check them out! – @EmilyJS3
RT @danmartell: I LOVE @ericries talk – he lays it down w/ great stories and solid tactics to avoid failing. #leanstartuptwiistup #
just want to say the blogger setup has been awesome at Twiistup – power, internet, round tables near the front = happy Danielle #twiistup – @DanielleMorrill
Congrats to @TheMan @jerpoop on another #Twiistup. Smart evolution from social media strokefest to focus on entrepreneurs. – @clintschaff
Theme of #twiistup : social aggregation & information overload. – @fritcher
whew hoo! #Twiistup was a hoot. some sweet tunes & very cool peeps. gonna pack it up now. ‘night – @biskeeee
–
Here is the detailed event info:
Format:
Two day event: 1st day is wildcard demo night and a reception party at night
2nd day had a mix of keynotes, panels, and demos, with a huge party at the end
Speakers:
Richard Rosenblatt and Om Malik – The Evolution and ROI of content
Eric Ries – The Lean Startup
Lisa Stone and Bambi Francisco – Opprotunities and colleges facing women tech entrepreneurs
Dave McClure – Startup Metrics for Pirates
Paul Graham and Om Malik – Starting up fast and cheap
Peter Guber and Brian Solis – Online and offline, it’s still about telling and selling your story
Company Presentations:
Collecta, Geodelic, Lunch, Mingly, Nsyght, NutshellMail, Qlipso, Ranker, Rippol, YourVersion, and wildcard pick
Sponsors
Epic Advertising, Microsoft, HUGE, Text Link Ads, PeopleBrowsr, CentralDesktop, Corporate Counsel Group LLP, ClickBooth, Rubicon Project, TweetFind, TechZulu, Frosty Web Design, and Eventbrite
Entering a Startup Community
Photo by wallyg
You moved to Silicon Valley, NYC, Vancouver, Seattle, or another worldwide startup hub to follow your dream of starting your own company, you’re new to the scene or new to the area. How do you get started?
If you’re like most entrepreneurs you spend a lot of time alone or with your small team, working long days and nights on your product for 14 hours every day. You don’t have the time or luxury to spend a lot of time away from your company and even less for meeting others.
The truth is, no matter how old you are, how smart you are, how good your product is, or how big your target market is you need help and support from others. Events are one of the easiest ways to get plugged into the startup eco-system.
Startup events can range from industry specific events, which are great for customer feedback, to general entrepreneurial gatherings which can inspire the continued drive within you. Each event has its own unique flavor, focusing on founders, hackers, college students, getting funding, or embracing failure and depending on your situation certain events may be more fitting to your tastes.
Here are 5 reasons why I think the best way to enter a startup community is through startup events:
- Startup life can be a lonely endeavor
Just the simple act of surrounding yourself with other entrepreneurs going through similar situations can help tremendously with your persistence and sanity. Plus the added benefits of surrounding yourself around other passionate driven individuals and groups can create an infinite realm of possibilities. - Startup events are one of the few places the eco-system converges
I can’t think of any other instance besides startup events where the whole entrepreneurial eco-system consistently comes together and is easily visible. All good startups events though should aim to bring the whole startup eco-system under one roof including: potential employees, potential co-founders, investors, potential customers service providers, and mentors. - Startups need continuous feedback and to find those early adopters
There are only a few customers and companies crazy enough to buy products and give initial feedback on alpha/beta versions. Events are a very easy and efficient place to pitch your initial product or concept to a wide group of individuals with startup experience and develop some initial assumptions of who their customers are - Startup events can lead to unexpected randomness
I can’t even begin to describe the unexpected randomness I experience at events which leads to a whole new path in my life. In fact I can point my whole entrepreneurial journey to one event at my University where I was inspired and empowered to develop my own unique life path.
I love startup events so much that my own company the “[Startup Digest]” is dedicated to delivering you the best startup events in your city once a week. The goal is to save you the time and hassle of finding these events yourself, and to be the empowering force that brings startup communities together worldwide.
TEDx Silicon Valley – Lessons from a Social Media Campaign for an Event + 6 tips
I recently gave a talk at Edith Yeung’s meetup group: “The San Francisco Entrerpenuer Meetup Group” during the middle our social media campaign for TEDx Silicon Valley, but now that the event has ended I wanted to reflect back and expand the points and share the lessons I learned.
For TEDx Silicon Valley I strategized and executed our whole social media campaign for our first inaugural event on December 12th, 2009. The result of the campaign was our event was attended physically by 200 people at Stanford’s campus, the event was watched virtually on UStream by over 100,000 people in over 45 countries worldwide, and we generated 11.8 million social media impressions worldwide. I define a “social media impression” by the number the times a piece of content was seen by others on the social graph, for example each tweet by Hiten Shah with ____ followers would generate _____social media impressions.
First a short story about my experience and then I’ll lay out 6 tips to help you with your social media campaign for your event. If you want a short and abridged version of what I learned skip down to the 6 tips and start from there.
Photo by Shirley X. Lin
My story began 2.5 weeks before December 12th, 2009 when we had around 30 fans on our TEDxSV facebook page and less than 100 followers on twitter. When we started the campaign at first we were only releasing speaker announcements, new initiatives, and updates about what the team was doing. We did this continuously for a week and half with some success, fans/followers increased but our overall engagement and conversions did not increase.
The real turning point of our campaign happened a week before our event. Ron and Andrej, two of the creators and team members for TEDxSV, really pushed me to become a leader of the campaign instead of just executing it.
We assembled a team of 20+ TEDxSV members and volunteers (from our waitlist) who wanted to help spread our social media message, and my role shifted from releasing everything myself to informing and inspiring our new team of people. I did this by creating a small email list of our small team, and on a daily basis I would write out a list of all our releases for the day, interesting new stories, ideas on how the team could participate, and inspiring the team to share this info with their friends and own social graphs.
The tipping point of this effort came the day before the actual event. The team created so much buzz around the event that it eventually spread to the key influencers in our market (Chris Anderson, Robert Scoble, Dave McClure, etc) who picked up the event and spread it to their large networks. The result of this was extreme leverage which literally took our event global in a few hours before the event.
Literally thousands of people began talking about the event, watching the event, and spreading the message during the event and I didn’t even have to participate to keep up the conversation anymore. During the event my role shifted again from pushing out the message to serving the community that was built around TEDxSV. People began asking questions about the schedule, how to view the event on their mobile phones, what the speakers background were, etc and my job was to answer all of these questions and to repost interesting things our community was talking about.
Before I share the 6 tips on leading a social media campaign, I first want to thank Rachel Masters, Jen McCabe, Jen Barr, and everyone on the team who helped out with the social media effort. All of this would have never been possible without all of your help and individual contributions.
Here are now 6 tips on leading a social media campaign
- First have an end goal in mind and know what you are trying to accomplish with your social media campaign. For us at TEDxSV it was getting as many people as possible to watch the UStream channel and to start conversations around the talks.
- Have some basic metrics set up to know where your baseline is, know if you are moving closer to your goal, and using metrics to motivate your team (or yourself).
- The purpose of your social media campaign should be to empower others to take your message and spread it to their individual networks. If you do so correctly you gain the benefits of leverage and multiply your efforts
- Building upon #3 make it as easy as possible for others to participate. This includes creating pre-made example tweets and status updates people can use and doing the work in finding relevant contact (relevant news, blogs, etc) and giving it to your team.
- Solidify a few social channels and do them well. For TEDxSV our main channels were twitter, facebook, and UStream
- Ramp up your social media campaign during the final days before your event. The amount of content being created by your audience should expand exponentially right before your event to build up buzz around what you are doing and eventually reaching that tipping point as I talked about in my story.
Take this list and be inspired to tap into the social graph to its full potential right before your next event. If you have any other points to share, add, or improve upon please share them in the comments section. Much of what I learned was from our team and our community and I encourage you to improve this and share it with others.
[Startup Digest] November 2, 2009 – Top Startup Events in the Bay Area
|
WANTED: Rock Star SalespeopleWildfire Interactive, Inc. is a rapidly-growing social media company whose award-winning technology, Wildfire Promotion Builder (www.wildfireapp.com), is being used by thousands of companies including top brands like Pepsi, Facebook, Unilever, Sony, Ogilvy and CNN. We’re a 2x winner of the fbFund and our backers include Facebook, Accel Partners and The Founders Fund.
// //
25 comments