Days of jammed meeting rooms, long lines at bars/nightclubs and hopelessly congested wireless networks are now history – the Interactive part of the annual South by Southwest music/film/tech conference has ended. Hopefully, conference lessons regarding how small/medium-sized businesses can use social media to strengthen their ties to existing customers and connect to new ones will soon be put into practice.
The Splash Media team attending SXSWi has already weighed in for this blog on some of its key takeaways for the week. But Smart Brief On Social Media contributing writer Daley Epstein has a nice roundup of talking points for companies about building customer communities with social media, and how business leaders should get over any initial fears about joining the online conversation.
Other social media news this week:
- Online shoe store Zappos, owned by Amazon, is famous for pulling up its own bootstraps and dedicating resources to customer service. The Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Nassauer writes how the company is now using marketing videos starring its own employees talking up their favorite brands of shoes. A key point: when Zappos adds videos to product pages, sales jump.
- Delta Airlines strengthens its industry-first connection with Facebook by now allowing customers to check-in and follow flight status via the social media network.
- New media marketing dictates new ways of measuring return on investment (ROI). That’s the gist of marketing consultant/author David Meerman Scott’s latest post on his WebInkNow blog.
Were you at SXSWi this week? Tell us about your favorite sessions/workshops there, and what you learned regarding social media marketing for businesses. And by all means, have a great weekend!
Source: Splash Media
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For 360 days out of the year, Austin, Texas is the live music capital of the world. For the five days of South by Southwest Interactive, it takes on an additional title: temporary global capital for technology and digital innovation.





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