SXSW – Day 4

Last day in Austin and it was surprisingly cloudy and cold when I woke up this morning but it was still nicer then the weather in East Lansing so I couldn’t be to upset about it.  I wasn’t real sure how today was going to go, I looked at the schedule and none of the titles of the sessions were exciting me so I was afraid that today was going to be super boring and I would have a wasted day.  I couldn’t have been more wrong, today was by far my favorite day of SXSW,  Great speakers and I walked away feeling very inspired.

Stopping to play with some legos

First session was called The art and science of seductive interactions with Stephen Anderson.  This dealt with the way companies like dopplr and linkedIn use different tools and leverage basic human psychology  to motivate the user experience.  I learned a ton about how these websites are using tools like delighters, curiosity, gifting, and social proof to provide a user experience that draws you back to their businesses and websites.  A great example of this is the California Pizza Kitchen uses the “Don’t open it CPK Thank you card.”  This is a coupon but it has a twist, you can’t use it until you return to CPK, you’ve already won something from a free appetizer to $50 gift card.  But you don’t know what   you win until you bring the coupon back with you, it drives people to come back to the restaurant.  All in all it took a lot of great ideas aways from that speech and you can also get all of these great ideas at www.getmentalnotes.com or follow Stephen Anderson on twitter.

The next session was with Wayne Sutton and it discussed video blogging and some tips for improving a video blog.  Took away some good tips and look forward to implementing some for our MSUAA office.  You have to remember to not be afraid to be in front of the camera.  Good blogging tends to happen because of opportunity, passion, and luck.  Check Wayne out at www.socialwayne.com or twitter.com/waynesutton.

After the video blogging session I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for the rest of the day.  Like I said earlier none of the session seemed to be

The Block S made the trip with me

very exciting to me and I figure I would just take some time to go grab a good lunch and regroup for the afternoon.   That’s when I noticed that a guy named Gary Vaynerchuk would be holding a keynote speech during the lunch hour.  Now I really had no idea who this guys but I kept overhearing people talk about him and how he was awesome at whatever he did so I thought I would go and check him to see what all the buzz was about.

Gary Vaynerchuk turned out to be one of the most dynamic speakers I have ever seen in my life.  I’m not sure if it was the combination of energy and profanity or arrogance and knowledge but he had the entire room hanging on every word he said and I left that room with more energy and excitement to get back to work and start grinding it out.  Gary had some unbelievable points customer service, saying that business seem to underestimate the power of a thank you and you’re welcome and that content is cheap and to really give good customer service you have you have to provide an experience.

Gary Vaynerchuck and I

If you ever have the opportunity to go and see Gary Vaynerchuk speak somewhere I advise you to take full advantage, you will leave that talk feeling more inspired and ready to take on the world.  You can learn more about Gary and his various projects at www.garyvaynerchuk.com or follow him at twitter.com/garyvee.

I ended the night make one last trip down to 6th St. to grab a little food and stop by a party being put on by Microsoft.  I had a great time on my first trip to Austin for SXSW.  I’m taking away a whole new prospective on how I can use social media in our office and my life and just like the shirt Gary Vaynerchuk had on this afternoon, it’s time for hustlemania.

I want to the head servant at the MSU Alumni Association Scott Westerman for sending me down here for this event.  I really appreciate his mentoring and the leadership he is providing everyone in our office.  The future looks bright!