5 Things We’ve Learned at SXSW 2015 (So Far)

For one week every year, industry experts converge to discuss trends, challenges and best practices at SXSW Interactive. The city of Austin, Texas becomes a hub of diverse personalities, perspectives and innovation. We spent our first day speaking with industry thought leaders, soaking in expertise at panels and learning so much! At Ignite Social Media, one of our core values is #AlwaysLearning and SXSW is the epitome of that. We combed through our notes to share the most valuable tidbits of information we’ve gained so far. Postage stamp Germany 1978 Scene from fairy tale "Rapunzel" Emerging from a schedule full of sessions, exploratory walks around the city and so much free swag, here are the five things we learned during our first few days at SXSW 2015.

1. Use Your Community for Ideation

Comment moderation isn’t a simple process. Especially for brands with sensitive material.  Bassey Etim, Community Manager for The New York Times and David Williams, Community Manager for CNN, explored the strategy behind their individual processes. Content moderation requires time, strategy and skill. What is the ROI on time and resources spent hiding troll comments and answering questions? Content ideation. Giving consumers the avenue to voice their opinions and then acknowledging this engagement allows your brand to learn what kind of content your audience wants, what resonates with them (allowing brands to constantly optimize), discover brand advocates and gain user-generated content.

2. 90-9-1 Nielsen Distribution Model

During the Community Managers Unite! Meet-up with Bill Johnston and Laura Feeney, the idea of community participation levels was brought up. Bill Johnston discussed the Nielsen 90-9-1 Distribution Model which states 90 percent of users are passive content consumers, 9 percent contribute on occasion, but are mainly curators, and one percent are heavy contributors. Acknowledging the 10 percent who contribute and rewarding the one percent of highly-engaged users can help create loyal brand advocates. At the end of the day, word of mouth is still a driving force to purchase and social fosters this.

3. “User participation increases around 15 percent when moderators participate in the conversation.” – Patrick O’Keefe

Answering questions, thanking a fan for providing insight and generally acknowledging participation matters! This not only encourages commentators to keep engaging, but gives confidence to those who haven’t in the past. Part of the job of a community manager is to foster an open and welcoming community where people feel comfortable participating. Community management matters and having a #cmgr that understands your community and is aligned with your brand strategy will help drive engagement.

4. Pre- vs. Post-Comment Moderation

Brands have two main options when it comes to their approach to comment moderation. A more proactive approach, moderating comments before they go live or a reactive approach, letting everything happen and monitoring after the fact. Pre-moderation allows a higher level of control of what ends up on a brand’s channels. The downside is that it creates a lack of instant gratification on behalf of the user who has to wait for his/her opinion to be posted. This process is most suited for communities with a high level of legal risk or sensitive content. Post-moderation provides a better user experience and puts control in the user. However, this doesn’t mean that every post will display. Post-moderation still can include filters to hide spam, links or profanity. This method can help increase engagement, but may also increase the risk of a conversation taking a negative turn. Regardless of which method works best for your brand, treat moderation like content. As Bussey Etim put it, “A process without strategy will almost always fail.”

5. If you are paying for food or drink, you’re not looking hard enough.

This is the line every SX-veteran told us before heading to Austin. I tucked this away in my back pocket, acknowledging it but not giving too much thought to it. However, this piece of advice couldn’t be more true. Free food and drinks are everywhere. Not only does this keep hunger at bay, but it will liberate you from the dreaded expense report.   Make sure to follow Ignite Social Media on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat for more SX-snippets. We’re updating live from Austin all weekend! What have you learned so far at SXSW? Let us know in the comments.

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