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Is SXSW Buzz sustainable?

SXSW Buzz Report

• In the past, heavyhitters like Twitter launched at SXSW

• We asked ourselves: – What will be the most buzzed about startups during SXSW?

– Who will be this year’s darling?

– Is SXSW buzz sustainable? What does it actually do for the business?

• And so we set out looking at the data to see if we can see trends and formulate hypotheses…

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Prior To SXSW, We Asked Ourselves…

How We Came Up With Our Set Of Companies

We looked at companies that came up in articles referencing “Next Big Thing” and “Launching” in relation to “SXSW”

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How We Came Up With Our Set

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Twitter Ad Platform

GigaOmcovers Lokast

Gowalla

Lokast

Location-based services are the new “black

Spotify is rumored to lanch in the U.S.

Twitter Ad Platform

Note: tags listed are for illustrative purposes only; we looked at many more tag clouds

QR codes were the talk of the town but didn’t sustain buzz

WHICH STARTUP DROVE CONVERSATION BEFORE SXSW?

Let’s take a look at identified companies to uncover

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Share of Voice Prior To SXSW

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We identified the following companies as the ones to watch, based on our research,

and plotted them against each other

BizSpark Accelerator Companies

Foursquare, Gowalla and Twitter’s ad model announcement dominated the conversation

Our prediction: location based services will be the super-star

Note: we considered dates 3.1.10-3.10.10 for keywords “[company name]” AND “SXSW”

Let’s Take A Look At The Newer Startups

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Because Twitter, Foursquare and Gowalla dominated the conversation,

we decided to isolate the newer startups to take a closer look

Plancast is a hands-down winner.

Our prediction: Plancast will have the most sustainable buzz

Note: we considered dates 3.1.10-3.10.10 for keywords “[company name]” AND “SXSW”

And A Look At The Big Guys

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Now let’s take a look at just the top 3 to see if location based services will rule the day

over Twitter’s hyped ad model announcement

Foursquare and Gowalla combined command more mindshare than Twitter’s ad model chatter

Foursquare is much more popular than Gowalla.

Our prediction: Foursquare will have more sustainable buzz than Gowalla

Note: we considered dates 3.1.10-3.10.10 for keywords “[company name]” AND “SXSW”

WERE OUR PREDICTIONS CORRECT?

Looking at the same companies during SXSW to see what changed:

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How Did Things Change During SXSW?

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We considered the same companies during 3.11.10-3.17.10

Most notable growth: Bump, Spotify and Foursquare. Our prediction was right re: Foursquare

Twitter grew 50% due to Ev Williams’ keynote

Several companies lost mindshare

Gowalla lost approximately half of its buzz, Plancast lost 60% of its buzz

Note: we considered dates 3.11.10-3.17.10 for keywords “[company name]” AND “SXSW”

Let’s Focus In On Newer Startups During SXSW:

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Huge growth for Bump and Spotify; large loss for Plancast

All BizSpark Accelerator winners gained mindshare

Our prediction was wrong re: Plancast -> Spotify and Bump dwarfed everyone else

Plancast remained a strong #3 competitor

QR Codes did not catch on

BizSparkAccelerator Competition Winners

Note: we considered dates 3.11.10-3.17.10 for keywords “[company name]” AND “SXSW”

Big Guys During SXSW

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Foursquare and Gowalla lost some mindshare against Twitter’s ad model,

but Foursquare still ruled supreme in the land of Location Based Services

Note: we considered dates 3.11.10-3.17.10 for keywords “[company name]” AND “SXSW”

IS SXSW BUZZ SUSTAINABLE?

What does it all mean to the business?

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Which New Startup Grew SOV After SXSW?

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Spotify almost doubled its mindshare

Compared to during SXSW, Bump and Plancast experienced a huge dropSimpleGeo, Siri and Pitch engine started to climb

Of BizSpark Accelerator winners, Siri is the only one that continued to increase

Note: we considered dates 3.18.10-3.31.10 for keywords “[company name]”

Could Spotify Beat Out Location-Based Services?

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Spotify beat out Gowalla, but Foursquare is still top of mind

Note: we considered dates 3.11.10-3.17.10 for keywords “[company name]”

LOCATION BASED SERVICES ARE THE CLEAR WINNER

Just as predicted….

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Geo-Loco is Hot!

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Before During

After

Foursquare continues to dominate Gowalla

Note: we considered dates 3.01.10-3.31.10 for keywords “Gowalla” and “Foursquare”

WHAT EVENTS DROVE CHATTER

Let’s take a look at main companies’ social media chatter on a trendline to see:

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Chatter Patterns Before and During SXSW

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Twitter chatter driven primarily by Ev Williams’ keynote

•Foursquare spike driven by Mashable’s article about 374k checkins in one day: http://mashable.com/2010/03/14/sxsw-foursquare-checkins

•Pete Cashmore’s interview: http://mashable.com/2010/03/15/pete-cashmore-time-sxsw-2010/ and other coverage, such as

•Daily Finance: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/foursquare-and-rival-geo-location-games-find-lots-of-love-at-sxs/19399581/

…To mention just a few…

Top stories driving this Foursquare conversation spike:

•Foursquare back in the app store: http://mashable.com/2010/03/09/foursquare-back-app-store/

•New badges, new partners, new promotions: http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-13577_3-10466198-36.html

Note: we considered dates 3.01.10-3.17.10 for keywords “[company name]” AND “SXSW”

Which Companies Sustained Buzz Afterwards?

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Foursquare is alive and kicking long after SXSW draws to a close

Spike driven by its addition to Bing Maps

http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/8301-13577_3-20001145-36.html?part=ecoustics-cnet

Spotify did consistently well

Gowalla dropped but rebounding towards the end of month

Bump and Plancast are no longer top of mind SimpleGeo is spiking – driven by launch of SimpleGeo marketplace

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/30/simplegeo-launch/

Note: we considered dates 3.18.10-3.31.10 for keywords “[company name]”

What Drove Spotify’s Increased SOV?

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Driven by rumors that Daniel Ek will announce Spotify’s entrance into the U.S.

Published by CNET, RWW, PC Mag, Current, Mashable, TechCrunch (see below)

Sources:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/spotify_founder_leaves_us_looking_to_mog_napster_o.php

http://current.com/technology/92324385_spotify-when-will-you-come-to-us-sxsw.htm

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20000574-36.html

http://mashable.com/2010/03/16/spotify-sxsw/

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361451,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/16/spotify-bigger-than-sweden/

Note: we considered dates 3.01.10-3.31.10 for keyword “Spotify”

BizSpark Accelerator Grew Bump’s Mentions

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BizSpark Accelerator Competition drove mentions…

…But mentions declined afterwards

Note: we considered dates 3.01.10-3.17.10 for keywords “Bump” OR “Bu.mp” OR “Bump Technologies”

Plancast’s Mentions On A Trendline

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Plancast iPhone App prior to SXSW- http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/11/plancast-iphone-app/

Mark Hendrickson Next Web interview got nice pickup:

http://thenextweb.com/location/2010/03/19/interview-plancast-ceo-mark-hendrickson-part-1/ /

After SXSW, Plancast conversations declined, save a spike on 3.20.10

Note: we considered dates 3.01.10-3.31.10 for keyword “Plancast”

WHERE PEOPLE ARE TALKING

Let’s take a look at main companies’ source distribution to see:

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Where Is Foursqare Discussed?

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During

after

During SXSW, Foursquare traded in some of its Twitter chatter for blog coverage

Before

After

Note: we considered dates 3.01.10-3.31.10 for keyword “Foursquare”

Gowalla Also Moves To Blogs

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after

Similar to Foursquare, some Gowalla discussion moved from Twitter to blogs and back to Twitter

DuringBefore

After

Note: we considered dates 3.01.10-3.31.10 for keyword “Gowalla”

While Plancast Remained Mostly on Twitter

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More of the Plancast conversation moved over to Twitter

DuringBefore

After

Note: we considered dates 3.01.10-3.31.10 for keyword “Plancast”

So Did Bump

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Conversations about Bump mostly happen on Twitter, and that share is growing

DuringBefore

After

Note: we considered dates 3.01.10-3.31.10 for keyword “Bump” OR “Bu.mp” OR “Bump Technologies”

Spotify Moves To Blogs and Discussion Boards

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During and after SXSW, Spotify discussion shifted from Twitter to blogs and discussion forums

DuringBefore

After

Note: we considered dates 3.01.10-3.31.10 for keyword “Spotify”

CONCLUSIONS

What does it all mean?

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Conclusions

• Coverage in Mashable, TechCrunch, CNET and RWW can go a long way in raising awareness

– Each article in these publications causes reblogs and a flurry of tweets and retweets

– SXSW is so fragmented that without major coverage, your product announcements, sponsorships and other news will get drowned

• Winning BizSpark Accelerator boosts awareness during SXSW but it doesn’t sustain

– Unless you get major publication coverage

– Siri experienced growth afterwards, because it got a new VP Product and was written up in TechCrunch http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/19/siri-gummi-hafsteinsson/

• You need to be in a sector that people care about to retain the buzz

– GeoLoco remained buzzing afterwards because location based services are hot

• Doing a keynote during the event also helps

– Especially when it’s driven by rumors of a new business model or a product announcement

• Bottom line: to get and sustain SXSW buzz, you need to announce major events on major publications. Feature and app releases need to be timed to SXSW

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Business Implications

• If you are planning a major event, product launch, conference presence or announcement, you need to measure your social media efforts

– Know what you want to get out of the event – is it awareness? New signups? Traffic to site?

– Benchmark your performance to the before and after state of affairs

– Benchmark yourself to your competitors

• You never know when you are gaining or losing share of voice to your competitors until you track it

• Losing your social media edge is much easier than gaining it back

• Being able to understand what drives spikes and troughs in conversation is key to understanding what works for you and your competitors

• Tracking social media is a tremendous source of competitive intelligence

• You need to know which medium your brand is discussed in, so you can be more present in outposts that matter

• Social media research helps discover micro and macro trends in the industry

• Buzz is not manufactured; it’s driven by buzz-worthy events

– Make sure your product, content and events are buzzworthy!

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Or visit http://ci.biz360.comTo find out how you can measure and effectively

monitor your way to social media success

Bi-weekly demos are available at http://bit.ly/smdemo

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