But how can product leaders develop and inspire high-performing teams to solve important problems and make an impact on the business? How do we get closer to our customers in order to envision, co-create and prioritize the right experiences at the right time? And what’s the best way for us to approach each sprint, plan each next quarter and scale year to year?

While product management is primarily about shipping product, product leadership also involves developing your team and partnering with others.

For anyone in a product leadership role, these questions are top of mind. And they’re what I (along with product leaders from Octane AI, Clio and Hootsuite) will discuss on a panel at SXSW Interactive this weekend. The conversation will focus on leading B2B product teams, including real-world examples about challenges, tradeoffs and controversial decisions.

You can learn more about the panel here. Ahead of the event, however, I wanted to share a bit of my own philosophy around the topic. Below are a few principles that I believe modern B2B product leaders should embrace.
 

It’s all about people

As a product leader, your job is to take yourself out of the trees and see the forest: Where is your company’s unique value in this world? What’s the vision for the business? And how do you guide and grow a team to passionately pursue that vision — without always having the formal authority to do so?

One thing is for sure: You won’t be able to do it alone. The best product leaders know that they only succeed when the entire team succeeds. Set your ego aside. Your ideas (and solutions) may often have to be set aside, as well. While product management is primarily about shipping product, product leadership also involves developing your team and partnering with others.

True leaders do two things: they start with “why,” and put people first. That means painting a picture of the future, while seeing and inspiring the best in others. It means being a mission-driven enabler that spends time in the trenches — not an authoritarian in a high tower. And it means giving credit publicly, owning and apologizing for mistakes, and delivering radical candor when needed. Soft skills like empathy and being like a team player are critical.As my friend John Cutler says, “Would the team hire you if they controlled the budget?”
 

Be strategically focused

Being strategic means thinking big while being able to adapt. Rather than creating a plan and setting it in stone, modern product leaders maintain a clear vision of where they want the product to go, but remain flexible in how they will get there. They anticipate change, help establish frameworks, and facilitate autonomy in their teams — ensuring that decisions made today still matter a year later. Like a good chef, sports team captain, film director or army general, product leaders position their teams for action.

It’s easy to get caught up in JIRA tickets, feature requests, meetings and executing, executing, executing all day long… but if you don’t know where those things fit into the overall strategy and roadmap, you’re constantly going to be prioritizing the wrong things. Give every issue its due attention, but don’t get caught up in distractions. If everything is important, then nothing is; strategy informs what to do next with limited information and resources and, ultimately, when to say no.

Make things happen

Leaders make things happen. They overcome problems. They see opportunity amid chaos and inspire others to do the same. They get quick wins. And most importantly, they don’t whine, roll their eyes or hide behind their computer screens. When you’re leading, you need to be incredibly self aware (especially about the things you’re not good at). Make sure you have a team that supplements what you lack. Hire the right people with the right attitude, support them and then trust that they’ll be able to get stuff done.

And this goes beyond the product itself. Product leadership not only includes setting the strategy, guiding the roadmap, and scaling the team, but also contributing to the go-to-market process (which takes immense collaboration with marketing, sales, success, support and anything that has to do with helping get the product out there). In the eyes of the people using your products, everything they experience related to your company is “the product.” Make sure you are supporting and partnering with those in customer-facing roles.

And when things don’t go as planned, remain cool. Grace under fire is a beautiful thing. Channel any pressure, stress or fear in productive ways. Difficult times will test and refine a team; see this as an opportunity to lead by example.
 

Perpetually optimizing

I’ve always liked the idea of Kaizen: change for the better. Product leadership means continuously optimizing; constantly getting better; never feeling like you’re done. And products are never done, so everything can always be improved — from how we do agile processes, how we run sprints, how we present, how we question our assumptions to how we think about customer pains and needs. As a product leader, I need to make sure our team keeps getting better. Sometimes that means working with them to figure out what’s getting in the way. And other times, that means I’m the one who needs to get out of the way.

Speed is a popular (and controversial) topic in product management. Some people believe you shouldn’t focus on it. Others think your team should always be getting faster. Without a sense of urgency (and some paranoia of the Andy Grove variety), startups do not survive and big companies start to decline.

I think it’s a case-by-case basis; there are some things you have to let brew and make sure you get them right. But at the end of the day, if you’re getting better at something, you should be able to gain velocity. It’s like exercise — the more your teams collaborate and measure progress, the better and faster they’ll be able to move. However, I think trying to be fast for the sake of being fast means losing sight of the customer. You should optimize for customer outcomes, not just software outputs. Velocity without impact is meaningless.

Take care of the customer

We’re not just here to deliver a product, but to provide value to each and every user — giving them the context and actionability they need to get the job done. And that requires good design, taste, creativity, and empathy for the customer. And those aren’t just empty words. Everyone talks about “empathy”; it’s become a buzzword, but there is real meaning and substance behind it.

True product leaders care first and foremost about the customer; they’re responsible for the customer’s success as it relates to the product. As Steve Blank says, it’s essential to “get out of the building” and in front of customers. After all, a customer’s success is the heart of any business. That’s why we need to unlearn rigid mental models from enterprise software’s past and raise the bar to the level of B2C companies: eliminating crappy user experiences, sneaky pricing and mediocre customer life cycles.

At HYP3R, we believe leadership isn’t a task; it’s a mindset. Anyone on the product team can embody this: From developers to product managers to designers — it’s everyone’s responsibility to take care of the customer.

Other teams will have their own issues, but if the product isn’t at its best, it affects everyone. Great product leaders elevate the entire organization, while bad ones bring everybody else down with them. That’s why, every day, we ask ourselves: What problem are we solving? Who are we solving it for? How do we measure success? And what have we learned?

If you’re heading to SXSW, I’d love to see you at our Modern B2B Product Leadership panel. Otherwise, I’ll leave you with a mantra we use on our product team:

Not everything we ideate is going to be built; not everything we build will be shipped; not everything we ship will succeed. But we will learn, and we will value each lesson we learn as we go from zero to 1 to 100.

From its customer care roots - to its ascent in importance within marketing and UX teams - the end-to-end customer experience is more important than ever before. 

But how does a company go beyond talking about customer experience and actually improving it?

The first step is in understanding what consumers care about. When we put ourselves in the shoes of our customers, we realize that we don't think of separate, silo'd departments and teams. Subconsciously, we think of the interactions we have with a company, and how those interactions make us feel. We create mental models and we think of how these interactions compare against alternatives - to decide which is the most ideal fit for us. 

Each vertical and product category is unique, but we all use our powerful minds to make decisions in similar ways - whether it is choosing which grocery store to visit or which software to use for a particular task. 

Whether an initial purchase is influenced by great marketing, positive word of mouth, or surprising first impressions - the customer experience is what ultimately keeps customers happy. And we all know how valuable it is to retain happy customers.

Without further ado, here are the twelve dimensions that I consider to be central to the customer experience:

1. Purpose
   
   A company's purpose has to with why it exists today; what its identity stand for, and what its unique role and mission is. As a company that has transformed multiple industries - Apple is a great example because it all started with the desire to make the world a better place by removing barriers to learn (initially about computers).
    
2. Product
   
   A company's products are what consumers are ultimately paying for. While consumers once focused on high quality, we now go beyond products' main utility and care about peripheral elements of surprise and delight - such as Netflix's personalization features and exclusive content.  
    
3. Vision
   
   A company's vision has to do with the specific, world-changing goals a company seeks to accomplish in the long-term. Elon Musk's vision for Tesla is clear: "To create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world's transition to electric vehicles." Despite the company missing a few deadlines in the past, pre-sales of the Model 3 are sufficient evidence that Tesla is here to stay and on track to transform the auto industry forever.
    
4. Brand
   
   A "brand" is ultimately about what people think when they hear a company or product's name. Since the 1980's, Nike has built a brand that commands incredibly loyalty. From its globally-recognizable logo to a long history of relevant and creative advertising, Nike has turned into an iconic company that inspires people and resonates with them at an emotional level. Instead of focusing on itself, the Nike brand has turned athletes into heroes - and, in turn, making its customers feel like heroes - fighting against whatever may be holding them back from greatness.
    
5. Distribution
   
   Distribution is all about how a product makes its way to the consumer. Convenience, availability and consistency are key. Amazon has built one of the most remarkable companies in history through incredible logistics. Amazon can get a book or treadmill to delivered to your home within a day, and it can have a digital book delivered to your Kindle device or app within seconds. It can also power your cloud services and database storage needs with great reliability. 
    
6. Community
   
   Services like AOL and ICQ introduced the world to the idea of online community. Community has been a human need throughout our history, and the internet has facilitated new ways of connecting us with others. Facebook in 2016 is a company that is venturing into virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and laser-beamed WiFi; but it all started and it all revolves around its 1.3+ billion global network of users. And Facebook has inspired a whole new generation of communities of all kinds - from AngelList to Houzz. 
    
7. Personality
   
   Consumers have been talked down to for tens if not hundreds of years. And we're done with it. These days, a company needs to have a unique personality; a recognizable voice and tone that we can appreciate and trust. MailChimp is a great example of a company with a clear and unique personality. In fact, they're proud to publicly share their approach for voice and tone, and content, with the world.
    
8. Price
   
   Of course, we can't talk about the customer experience without talking about price. A company's business model and strategy are essential to its price. For Swedish-born Ikea, price is a differentiator that goes hand in hand with its unique brand and product. It may take you a whole day to put together an Ikea product, but you know the quality you can expect for the price you pay for. 
    
9. Storytelling
   
   Human beings like stories. We don't like to be sold to and we don't like to be bombarded with irrelevant spam, but we are suckers for a good story. From its very beginning Airbnb has had quite a story to tell. The story of its inception gave way to the story of the sharing economy, to its huge growth to 600,000,000+ hosts and travellers in 191+ countries. Airbnb today makes us think of bungalows, castles and all kinds of unique stories of people who "belong anywhere."
    
10. Ecosystem
    
    As startups, small businesses and global corporations become increasingly digital, their partnerships and integrations with other companies emerge as priorities. Some companies align very well with certain ecosystems - such as operating systems - while others create ecosystems of their own. Alphabet, the company that recently emerged as Google's parent company, has an ever strong ecosystem. Google alone represents Android, YouTube and Drive - and we can expect big things to continue to emerge out of Nest, GoogleX, Google Ventures and Calico.
     
11. Onboarding
    
    Onboarding is a well known term in consumer internet and SaaS companies - but I like to use it as a broader term. Onboarding is about the first few times you use a product; how the company holds your hand through that process. If that experience is intuitive and pleasant, you are much more likely to return. Square is a great example of a company that created a product category that did not exist - and it executed brilliantly in terms of how the product could be used with ease from the moment you open up the box. 
     
12. Service
    
    When you have a product issue with Zappos - you know you can expect better than average customer service because the company encourages its employees to chat all they want with a customer. The idea of service goes far beyond customer care and customer support though. Service is about the responsiveness, attitude and willingness to help that a company has when you engage with them. Starbucks is a great example of a company that knows how to treat its customers both offline and online - even if they get your name wrong from time to time.  

Any company can excel at any one of these dimensions. Many great companies will thrive by being great at several of them.

However, to be great at all twelve of these dimensions is very difficult. Some companies claim to focus on their core while others simply do not know where to start when it comes to improving the customer experience. They say they are customer-driven but they are nowhere close to delivering on their promises.

We often hear about companies being engineering-driven, sales-driven or design-driven, but the world's best companies truly focus on the customer. The best of the best - think of Fortune or Interbrand's Top 20 - are all experience-driven companies. They are exceptional at each of the twelve dimensions outlines above and they are also far ahead of their competitors - in the minds of their customers, where it counts.

And this is not only the case for the world's top brands of today. This is also the case for many of the top emerging tech startups. From Pinterest and Snapchat to Xiaomi and Uber, today's most valuable unicorns are experience-driven companies. 

It pays to be experience-driven in a world where consumers are not very forgiving or patient. It pays to be experience-driven in an age where competition is rampant and switching from one product to another is frictionless. 

The time to become experience-driven is now.  

Learn more about experience-driven companies by watching the video from my SXSW 2016 keynote below, and let me know what you think on the comments or Twitter.

It seems that at some point over the past few years, the idea of an "influencer" became a generic one. 

Apparently there is some invisible threshold that allows marketers and PR people to say: "A-ha! X+ followers. Young. Camera-friendly. You know what that means!? INFLUENCER. Boom. Let's get us one, pronto."

Well, not so fast. 

If a 17-year-old kid has a million followers on Snapchat and he spends two hours a day snapping away all kinds of random funny things, is that kid an influencer? 

The kid's an influencer, OK? He influences others. It doesn't matter what his skills and experience look like on a resume. A higher-than average ability to influence others makes you an influencer.

Does that mean that every brand on Earth should work with this 17-year-old influencer to awkwardly pitch random products on Snapchat? 

No. Definitely not. 

Does that mean that some products may be naturally relevant to the kid, and therefore naturally relevant to his friends and audience? 

Well, yeah. Maybe.

And would it make sense for a brand that makes a relevant product to reach out and say, "Hey, maybe we should chat - we'd love to give you some Vans shoes and include you as one of the actors in an upcoming campaign."

Yeah, sure. 

The problem is that brands, especially those with big pockets for content, often just turn to an agency or an advisor or just whomever looks young at headquarters to ask: "Can we please get some influencers in here already?"

That. Makes. No. Sense.

I'm talking about the part of looking for an influencer instead of looking to solve a problem or leverage an opportunity.

Now, the idea of paying people of influence for their time, their name, and their endorsement is not a bad idea. It's not a new idea either. Celebrity spokespeople were all huge fans of cigarettes in the 50's, for example. At least that's what Google shows when you search for 1950's celebrity endorsements. If they had had Vine back then, teenagers would've watched endless loops of Ronald Reagan raving about Chesterfield's "mildness." Who knew?

Associations between brands and influencers have always been a bit of an art and science. Back in the day, it was much easier to spot influencers. You could just ask questions like, "Are they famous? Are they on TV? On the radio? Could they sell our products for us?" And then you'd talk to your Mad Men agency and come up with some dandy copy and art direction. And then you're run it on some newspapers and high-five your colleagues for a job well done.

These days, influence is much more complex to understand, measure and explain. People of all kinds of influence become popular almost overnight, and many die trying. Not literally, of course.

There are people influencing niches and sub-cultures all over the world. From makeup and fashion to sports and comedy, more people than ever before in history are leveraging their personalities and creating versions of themselves that resonate with large audiences. The Internet has truly empowered us to share photos and videos of ourselves, and some people turn that into full-time jobs and careers.

Brands should not focus on the popularity of influencers when considering to collaborate or pay for the endorsement. Instead, they should focus on which influencers may be an ideal fit. Is a collaboration relevant to their audience? Do they have similar audiences?

Instead of just looking at a list of a PR agency's influencer roster and picking based on affordability and availability, brands should ensure that an association actually makes sense. Does this person influence the brand's target market? Is this person known for the right topics? Does this person actually use the brand's products? How does this person work with other brands? Why would this person want to be associated with the brand? 

This is what all brands do with major celebrity endorsers. It's why Tiger Woods was a spokesperson for many top brands for many years. He was carefully selected for more reasons than one. His follower count had nothing to do with it, that's for sure. And this careful selection is also the reason why the world's favorite golfer fell from grace amidst a personal crisis, and advertisers swiftly backed out from their deals.  

Was Tiger Woods a waste of time and money? Given that Tiger Woods had such a great personal brand and likely did not just lend his image to anyone, probably not. During Tiger Wood's advertising prime, it is safe to assume that most of his deals were win-win; resulting in major ad campaigns and big-time event appearances. 

That's not the case with a 17-year-old Snapchatter who is happy to lend his image to pretty much anyone who pays up, especially not if said 17-year-old has figured out that there is a market for this stuff and his rates can rise faster than a Vancouver condo.

So why would a brand invest their marketing dollars on an unproven, not-so-well-known but mildly influential kid who is not planning to go to college because Snapchat is way more fun?

For one, experimentation. Brands often like to experiment. Another reason is a desire to accelerate relevance - of a campaign or a product launch - through association with people who are already top of mind for a particular audience. Some brands just want to get some attention so they'll throw money at the wall and see what sticks. One of the tactics is usually going to be related to influencer marketing. Brands have been doing this with social media influencers for several years now - probably since the rise of YouTube. 

When I was at Samsung a few years ago, the brand started working with YouTubers. In 2010 I started to meet some of these YouTubers. From what I could see, they were working around the clock making clever and well-produced videos. Those YouTubers who were just getting started were more than happy to participate in contests to showcase their talents. And they were very happy to create and collaborate on content. While they were not rocket scientists, they definitely had talent - ranging from singing and public speaking to video production and editing. They put themselves out there and they were diligent, perseverant - even if they weren't always patient.

Each year, I noticed their influence rise. From commanding hundreds of dollars to tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars - to being featured on magazines, movies, music videos and major awards shows - their influence was very real. A few faded back to normalcy before anyone noticed. Many are still incredibly influential within sub-cultures (like local eSports competitions) while a few have gone on to became stars. 

By the time I left Samsung, the company had worked and built relationships with lots of influencers. Some were a perfect fit - making the brand, products and themselves shine in an authentic, meaningful and creative way. Others, not so much. But the goal was never to work with influencers. 

The goal of working with influencers, at least from my perspective, is to better understand customer affinities - and produce relevant messages and stories. Whether that is an ad, social media content, an appearance, a song on a commercial, or something else, I believe any work with influencers should be properly vetted before an agreement. And once there is an agreement, it should be cultivated over time. The details will depend on many factors because, of course, not all influencers are equal. 

Sorry Gawker, this definition of "influencer" may be witty, but it isn't true.

"An influencer, for those readers who have never commuted to a funky converted-loft office space for work, is a person, usually a teen or early-twentysomething, who has a large following on some social media platform, and has used that large following to trick some decaying capitalist institution into believing that they are valuable in some way."

Gawker was piggy-backing on a Digiday "confessions" post by an alleged "social media exec." It's an interesting article with valuable insights for marketers - but it also shows that the same people who fueled "influencer marketing" are the ones who aren't sure what to do with the frenzy they helped create. The fact that someone paying influencers has "no idea what to pay (influencers)" shows that they had no idea what they were doing - or why. 

Does no one care about WHY anymore? 

You don't simply throw money at a wall full of people with a following. Whether they are reality stars or the latest Damn-Daniel-ish viral hit, you can't simply buy relevance through random associations with whatever and whomever is cool this week.

Working with anyone with some form of influence and celebrity status should be done carefully. It's not exactly like picking a spouse or a house or a co-founder, but there are some similarities because you are creating a relationship, an association, and a mutually-beneficial partnership. Working with influencers should not be done with the assumption that it will be a one-time mindless transaction to get a couple of extra retweets.  

You research. You think. You meet. You consider. You test. 

You try your best based on the interest of your customer, your brand and the influencer. And you become accountable for that spending. You don't just go all-in for a few years and then say that "Influencers are going to start disappearing." You don't blame the CEO's kid for recommending an influencer. 

You learn. You validate. You invest. You iterate. You research some more.

Influence is not a social media fad. Influence is not something found on a score or follower count. And influencers are by no means limited to millennials or Snapchatters or spreadsheets.

According to Merriam-Webster, influence is "the power to change or affect someone or something."

Influencer deals with no likelihood of being relevant to the brand and its customers are a waste of time. But influencer deals, when done correctly, can turn a good campaign/event/program/video into a great one. It's not easy, but it's worthwhile to try.

Influence, at the end of the day, is a spectrum.

And "influencers" fall somewhere on that spectrum. That's why influence will never cease to exist and - regardless of Digiday confessions - influencers will be around for the rest of our lives. For better, or worse.

When someone becomes a potential fit for a brand, they have made their way into that brand's influence spectrum. And at the top of that spectrum may be someone who is anything but generic. Someone like Ellen. Yep, believe it or not, Ellen is an influencer. And so are all these other people on this selfie:

What you should do instead of cramming your calendar with potential sessions is the following: Make a short list of your top sessions of each day. Make it a goal to attend at least one or two sessions that you simply cannot miss. Some of the best moments at South By happen in the hallways and you're bound to hear about a panel you weren't planning on - so you'll feel better if you're not running around from panel to panel, stressed out of your mind.

Make a short list, keep your eyes open, take some vitamin C, drink a lot of water, and don't be afraid to say hi to strangers. The panels are not even half of the South By experience anyway, so just have a lot of fun!
 

To help you out, here's five (featured) sessions I'm planning to attend this year:
 

FRIDAY, MARCH 11

Google Self-Driving Car Project
Chris Urmson, Google

SATURDAY, MARCH 12

Tech Diversity: Why We're Still Talking About It
Tracy Chou, Pinterest

SUNDAY, MARCH 13

Android and Future Life
Hiroshi Ishiguru, Osaka University

MONDAY, MARCH 14

Why GIFs?
Alex Chung, Giphy

TUESDAY, MARCH 15

Stewart Butterfield in Conversation with Farhad Manjoo
Stewart Butterfield, Slack | Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times

BONUS

I'm also speaking as a featured speaker this year. Pretty cool, right?

The title of my session is "Identity and the Chemistry of Experience" and it's happening on Sunday, March 13. Here's a Q&A with SXSW to get an idea of what to expect.

Hope to see you there!

 

Today is Canada Day. This is my third as a Canadian resident. To me, July 1st is a celebration of my immigration to the great country that is Canada - and the celebration of the many who have lived and died here since 1867.

I was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I will always be a Guatemalan. In a few years, I may become a Canadian citizen and I will be very proud to do so. You see, my wife is Canadian. My son, who is soon to be born, will be a Canadian. My in-laws and many of my best friends are Canadians. Mike Myers is not one of them but he's a Canadian too. 

Territorial identity has always been very important for human beings. We like borders and cities; anthems and flags. The human race is quite gifted at the art of both celebrating the places we call home, and poking fun at such places in self-deprecation (or desperation, at times) when we must. 

I have a strong love for the places I've called home. Not just Guatemala and Canada, but also the United States, where I lived for over a decade. This may sound weird, but I also have love for the countries of my grandparents and ancestors - from Costa Rica and Honduras, to Mexico and Spain. I apparently also have Jewish, Portuguese, Italian and German blood. And when it comes to world events like the World Cup and the Olympics, you'll be sure to find me cheering for Latin Americans (after all, most of us speak Spanish, and we do have quite a few similarities).

Over my 31 years of life I have been fortunate to travel to many places, spending months at a time in places like Maui, HI and Hastings, England. No matter where I go and despite some of my favorite cities being pretty awesome (Visca el Barça! Visca Catalunya!), my heart will always be in Guatemala City. And yet, my heart will always also be in New Westminster, BC (where I live today), Jersey City, NJ (only 5 minutes from NYC yo!), and Dallas, TX (where I first arrived in North America as an 18 year old student at SMU). 

During my travels, both for work and pleasure, I've learnt that many people do not travel. I've met plenty of Texans, New Yorkers and British Columbians who have no interest in ever leaving their home towns - and they would not dare ever moving to another country. 

For me, immigrating to two different countries (even though my move to the U.S. was only 10-year temporary), has helped shape who I am and what I care about. 

I've realized that my identity is closely aligned with the place I call home. However, when I think about it, I realize that 'home' is where those whom I love are. Canada is where my wife, our puppies (and soon our son) are creating a life together. Guatemala is where my parents, grandparents and most family members live. And the U.S. is where my only brother lives. These places have given me much more than I could ever give them: Friendships, memories, opportunities, and experiences. And yet, I'm not sure any of these places value me in the way I value them. Eighteen years in Guatemala did not result in any kind of tenure medal. Years of paying taxes and waking up for Black Friday sales in the U.S. did not result in any 'thank you' notes. Canada gives me great healthcare (thanks Canada!) but nobody welcomed me when I landed on a plane to say 'Thanks for giving up everything and joining us up here, so far from the equator!'

Nope, nations are not there for us.

Nations are there for us to give back to them. Great nations are created from people who work diligently, creatively and selflessly to make them better than when they found them. Great nations are places that inspire and help  other nations. Great nations are places where you can not only find jobs, but create them. Great nations are places for people who want to build instead of destroy. Great nations are for innovators, not lovers of the status quo. Great nations are for people who ask 'What can I do to make this land better for my self, my family and anyone else who may ever want to call it home.'

I've called many places home. I'm fortunate to be a Guatemalan and I always will be. I'm fortunate to live in Canada and I cannot wait to officially become a Canadian citizen so I can give back to the place my children will call 'our home.' 

And I will always have a soft spot for immigrants - especially those who have struggled. All of us immigrants have felt scared, alone, confused. We've all had our regrets and we've all had our victories. Immigration is a key element of a globalized society where we are all closer to each other than ever before in history - both literally and figuratively. 

As I celebrate Canada Day today, I celebrate the human race being more welcoming to each other than ever before in history, and I celebrate everyone who has played even a small role in the story I call my life. 

On digital identity

The web changed everything. It may not be as obvious now, but 100 years from now our descendants will talk about how a convergence of technologies and a bunch of startups transformed human behavior forever. 

I was 11 years old when my dad first got Internet at home. I remember spending a Summer helping my parents set up their retail company's first computer system during the day - and learning HTML each night. I didn't know how to 'copy / paste' text and we did not have a printer so I would manually write down HTML code on a notebook, and then enter it into a digital notepad. It was an expensive few months of Internet access fees before my parents found out. I eventually learned how to 'copy / paste.'

I grew up with the idea that my personal identity extended onto the Internet. Sometimes I 'surfed the web' anonymously; other times I represented myself as a cooler, older, much more interesting version of Esteban Contreras. It wasn't until I was a senior at SMU that I first realized that my offline identity was going to be interconnected with my online identity permanently.

Enter: Facebook.

My first thought about Facebook was "That's silly, MySpace is way better - what's with the awful white background?" But I very soon realized that Facebook was going to change everything. I made up my mind that I was either going to build my own Facebook or work at Facebook some day (neither of those ever happened but I've been working with/on and studying Facebook ever since). 

Facebook was by no means the first social network, but it was the first social network to have a whole lot of personal information that people wanted to share, that a lot of people wanted to share - initially with our university friends, then our High School girlfriends (at least for me - and yes, I eventually married mine), and then everyone else - even our parents / grandparents (some of whom may be reading this - Hi mom!).

Facebook and other social networks and digital marketplaces have been key to a drastic transformational shift in how we live our lives, personally and professionally, all over the world. From a business, societal and technological perspective, Facebook is a force unlike anything we've seen before - and it has played a role in how other companies, from Snapchat to Airbnb, are enabling us to do things we couldn't do in the past, all while creating micro-changes in how we see ourselves and the world around us - in other words, adding new dimensions to the concept of identity. 

The Internet has always been about identity. From email to search engines, there is no point to the Internet if we cannot privately or publicly make our lives better through it. For me, the Internet was a way to connect with a big world beyond Guatemalan borders and it eventually became a way for me to differentiate myself and develop skills that would become essential to making a living in far away places. I did not grow up rubbing shoulders with Texan executives so the only way for me to stand out during and after college was to use the Internet to my online identity's advantage.

Now that we are all comfortable managing our public online identities, the web is enabling new kinds of opportunities, and blurring the lines between our nationalistic and digital selves. For example, Estonia is proactively working to build a 'digital society.' Forget shipping products to Estonia, Estonia wants to give you and your company an "e-residency." The government of Estonia offers citizens of other countries a government-issued digital identity so your business can conduct itself as a native Estonian one would. And yes, you can pay your Estonian taxes digitally as well.

On personal identity

It is clear that our sense of identity is changing. The world is getting smaller and technology is bringing us closer. Now, our modern identities are also being threatened.

In my opinion, it is important to differentiate our true selves from our false selves. It is harder to think of this in the context of national identity but it becomes apparent when we realize that human beings are struggling with our newly found digital selves. From self-centeredness and self-pity to self-justification and self-righteousness, us humans can be quite ridiculous and even harmful on the Internet. Kids bullying each other, adult men and women taking absurd gym selfies, and impressionable teenagers thinking that maybe, just maybe, everybody's lives are perfect - everybody's lives except their own. But we all know everyone's life is not as awesome as it seems online. In fact, our digital selves can erode our true selves by turning us into happy joyful jolly photographs - followed by ice cream binging and tears in the real world.

As the concept of identity changes, our core values are more important as ever. For my wife and I, our core values are faith, family, love, hope and freedom. And there are many other values we hold dear: Creativity, integrity, adventure, community, and perseverance, for example. 

The last few weeks I've wrestled when wanting to share my views about topics that are creating great division among my own social networks. I've struggled because I don't want to leverage these global, ethical and legal discussions for my own benefit - to look good in front of those who can relate with me, or to bring down those whom I disagree with. I have the urge to do so but the idea of thinking more deeply about my true identity - both online and offline - has kept me from doing so. 

It's quite easy to think about the concept of identity but it's hard to figure out who we really are, and to acknowledge the fact that sometimes we change over time and sometimes we're not exactly who we thought we were. Despite the shifts at a global and technological level - not to mention our own internal turmoils - I'm pretty clear on the values I hold dear, and I'm pretty clear about the fact that I want to live my days on this Earth being who I am - with a single identity (as best as I can) both online and offline. We all get one life and every moment is an opportunity to choose the role we will play.

"Unfortunately, Secret does not represent the vision I had when starting the company, so I believe it’s the right decision for myself, our investors and our team."

Secret first raised $1.4 million in a December 2013 seed round that included KPC&B and Google Ventures. This was followed by two rounds of funding that added new investors including celebrities like Joe Montana and Ashton Kutcher.

In the past year and a half, Secret and similar apps like Whisper and Yik Yak have created a lot of attention around the renewed idea of anonymity online - especially in tech and journalism circles. Secret's $35 million in funding is significant, even if lower than that of Whisper ($61M) and Yik Yak ($70M). All three apps benefitted from clear traction in terms of user engagement, but none presented a clear path to monetization.

Other social apps that created similar levels of tech media attention in the past - SXSW darlings, if you will - have successfully exited via acquisition (think Gowalla and Glancee acquihired Facebook). Secret did not have an exit of this sort. Instead, the app boasting over 15 million users at some point has decided to call it quits. Rather than attempting a pivot, the money that's left is going back to investors. David has offered to continue writing "postmortems" about the 16 month journey of Secret and it will be interesting to see what former employees and investors also have to say on the matter.

So what does this mean for anonymous apps?

The popularity of anonymous and "dark" apps in the past couple of years has raised important questions about the future of the web, and the role of privacy and identity in a world in which everyone has a Facebook and/or a Google account. Many have made the case for the importance of online spaces where people can be themselves, anonymously. Secret's tagline "Speak freely" clearly pursued positioning itself as a place to speak your mind. 

Unfortunately, free speech coupled with anonymity does not create a great business model. From bullying to "leaked" information, Secret and its competitors stirred much debate. While debate and controversy has been fantastic for social apps like Snapchat, this is not the case for anonymous apps without potential for revenue generation. While some marketers - mostly in the entertainment industry - have attempted to leverage anonymous apps for marketing, such attempts have not been more than tests and PR stunts.

Anonymity has always created challenges for startups. 4chan, a website that thrives on anonymity and free expression was recently abandoned by its founder - and is now run by passionate volunteers. 4chan is a simple site, created by a 15 year old who went on to "administer" it for over a decade. On the other hand, Secret was created by someone with real world experience at companies like Google and Square - and with a lot of pressure from investors. Secret's popularity rose nearly as quickly as it faded away. Needless to say, and sadly for the people who built and used it, it will not be run by volunteers.

There will always be a place for anonymity on the Internet. An important place, I hope. That being said, the challenges are gargantuan for apps who raised a lot of money without a clear monetization plan. Anonymity is not going anywhere, but the recent wave of anonymous apps is at a crossroads. Over the next year or so, we'll see whether apps like Yik Yak, After School and Whisper will pivot, persevere or disappear. 

Esteban Contreras: What is Near Me and what is your mission?

Michelle Regner: Near Me is a platform that powers peer to peer marketplaces and private communities. Our mission is to empower people and increase choices ― all by facilitating connections.

EC: There is a debate about whether the 'sharing economy' is an urban fad brought about by an economic downturn or whether it is the disruptive result of a permanent change in consumer expectations. What is your take on the current and future state of the sharing economy? 

MR: LOL ― If you follow the dollars flowing into space by investors, the trillions of transactions processed, and the millions of lives touched by it... you understand that it is here to stay.

EC: Skeptics of collaborative consumption and peer-to-peer rental offerings often point to the uncertainty around regulation. Can you explain some of these concerns and how Near Me seeks to mitigate risk for its customers and end-users?

MR: Near Me does not provide risk assurance or regulatory services; that is the responsibility of the marketplace owners. There are resources, like peers.org, to help with these issues.  We have a very robust ratings and reviews feature that our marketplaces manage to mitigate risk in the marketplace.  We also have insurance partners like MetLife who can offer insurance for the MPO (Marketplace Owner) to offer its users.

EC: Near Me offers an opportunity to "get in the business of sharing." What are some examples of businesses / products that will be powered by your service? 

MR: Electronic hardware, dog services, sporting equipment, beauty supplies, campers, etc.  We have launched over 50 marketplaces and have spoken with over 3,500 ideas.  This movement is so broad and ranges from buy/sell, rental of services or goods, to swapping and many more.  Our flexible platform handles them all. 

EC: Some big brands from diverse industries are starting to embrace the sharing economy. How will Near Me balance between serving individuals, and big brands with complex needs? 

MR: At the end of the day, our customers' customer is our customer, so we always start there and work backwards.  We have two teams that work with entrepreneurs as well as enterprise clients so we can service both markets. As a startup it has been critical for us to learn from both. 

EC: Before Near Me, you built DesksNear.Me to connect professionals with unused desk space. Some would consider that a zoom-out pivot (since Near Me is a platform to power services like DesksNearMe), but you are successfully running both businesses. What have you learned in the process, and how did it help you validate Near Me? 

MR: In order to build the best software in the space, we decided to create our own marketplace as the first 'client' to our platform.  We were always developing the platform in stealth mode while launching DesksNear.Me.  This has allowed us to see through the eyes of the marketplace customer, marketplace vendor, and marketplace owner. Most software companies create demos or dummy sites; we decided to create one that actually works, runs and has transactions.

EC: With 9 million guests since 2008, Airbnb is one of the best examples of the sharing economy. If Airbnb didn't yet exist and its founders were considering a platform instead of building from the ground up, why would Near Me be a good option for them? 

MR: Yes!  It is most certainly a better option for building a company.  We could have saved them or any entrepreneur millions of dollars. Nearly all the funding that these marketplaces receive goes into the development rather than the marketing to focus on acquiring customers.  We've had funded entrepreneurs come to us with tears in their eyes saying "where were you when..." A platform expedites your ability to get to market and test, learn and validate your business model. 

EC: Any advice for aspiring tech startup entrepreneurs? 

MR: Lead from your heart, not your head. If the passion for what you are about to build is absent, so will the success be to ride the waves of building a company.  Hire for values, not for resumes. 

If you search for ZIRX online you will find messages like 'Parking Sucks' and 'Never Park Again.' Shmulik Fishman is the co-founder of ZIRX, a startup that is trying to solve the problem of parking by rethinking the whole experience. In this podcast we discuss scalability, marketing, entrepreneurship, and more.

Despite being in a completely different side of the transportation equation, some have already compared ZIRX to Uber. If you search for ZIRX online you will find messages like 'Parking Sucks' and 'Never Park Again.' Word is starting to get out about ZIRX as 'on-demand valet.' 

"We don't really think of it as valet parking. We're a new way to park your car and retrieve your car when you need it. And it all happens through a phone. We very much think of the app as a way to surface only the information that a user actually cares about."

Parking can be time-consuming, unpleasant, expensive and annoying. The ZIRX team wants to rethink the whole experience.

"When you're parking, you do all the work. You drive to the lot. You take the ticket. You have to fumble through your wallet. You then have to go back there. Walk seven blocks and wait in line...

All these things should happen in the background. Our app allows you to say where and when you want to park; we manage all the logistics around that. Storing it, securing it, and making it available when you need it again, whether that is the same day or the next week. We'll be there, at your command."

We also talked about ZIRX's marketing approach, the company becoming a multi-city operation, and how the team is addressing challenges like limited supply of parking inventory and emerging competitors in order to scale.

You can listen to the entire conversation and follow the Social Nerdia Podcast on Soundcloud. 

“That’s unfortunate,” you think to yourself, and you tap the ‘Unfollow’ button without a second thought.

It is unfortunate indeed because sometimes brands can sabotage themselves on Instagram. Unlike other social networks and photo/video apps, Instagram is where we go to look at beautiful things. Inspiring things. Awesome things. 

For all the industry talk about content marketing and building direct relationships with consumers, we often fail the customer experience. I don’t mean to be harsh, but I’m too often disappointed by what I see from well-known brands on Instagram. Sometimes they make the mistake of repurposing existing content, or they don’t take advantage of the network’s unique make-up.

So, if your brand is on Instagram, or you are considering getting involved, this is how to do it well.

Don’t treat Instagram like other social channels

Different brands and industries use mainstream social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube) in very unique ways. Brands can customize their use of each network to solve their unique objectives, and the creative manifestation of this can change depending on the situation or season.

The same cannot be said about Instagram, because its purpose is singular: Show the world your world. Instagram is not about customer care. It is not about posting information. It is definitely not a destination for links to discounts (Instagram doesn’t even allow for links to be clickable anyways).

Instagram is the best place on the Internet for a brand to showcase its essence — entertaining or inspiring people with creative and unique visual content.

Be ever aspirational and creative

On Instagram, brands must be interesting or fun at all times. There is no excuse for turning a web banner or a Facebook post into an Instagram photo. You may say that such cross-posting is efficient and in line with an “omni-channel, real-time” approach, but followers on Instagram won’t hesitate for a second to ‘unfollow’ you if they feel unimpressed.

Instagram creates the opportunity for followers to see the world through the eyes of your brand, see the culture that your brand creates — so be iconic, or die trying.

Post exclusive content that isn’t available anywhere else, sought after behind-the-scenes photos, or first-person glimpses of candid moments.

Bring your followers into the moment.
 

Immerse your followers in exclusive content

Sometimes this may be a raw, unedited photograph of an executive getting ready to announce a widely anticipated product. Sometimes it may be a series of highly produced teaser videos. Sometimes it may be curated advocate or influencer shots in awesome places. Other times it may be photos showing employees solving problems and enjoying life in unexpected ways.
 

The source of the content — whether it is an agency, professional photographer, employees or even your executives — is not important. What matters is that the essence of the brand shines through and leaves people wanting more. For some brands, it may be better to use diverse content sources, but the story should remain consistent, holistic, and memorable.

Less is more

Instagram is not the place for brands to push out whatever is available simply because a content calendar demands it. Without the kind of content that interests their followers, brands are better off without a presence on Instagram at all. On Instagram, less is more — it’s better to have a single, loved Instagram account than to have multiple accounts full of randomness.

Promote quality content

If a brand wants likes and followers on Instagram, it can certainly get them. Any metric can be manipulated or inflated on the Internet. But, without content that genuinely engages an audience, these results will only be short-term. Instagram ads are essential to a successful social media strategy, but only if you’re promoting content that people want to see. Otherwise, you may just be pushing paper over the cracks and creating an unsustainable illusion.

Instead of using promoted Instagram posts to elevate mediocre content, it’s better to think about the quality, context, purpose and uniqueness of each individual post. Increase visibility on things that people will actually want to spend a moment appreciating, and get into the habit of understanding what works best at driving earned media. Instagram may be a great visual destination to do a lot of “storytelling,” but only if you have a story worth telling.

Only amplify content worth amplifying.

Practice and iterate

Put yourself in the shoes of the average Instagram user for a second, and ask yourself, “Why would anyone care about what we’re posting when there are countless other content producers?”

People need to care about something to let it be part of their lives. Social media may be at a hand’s reach of everyone thanks to smartphones, but that doesn’t mean that we should interrupt someone’s lunch break with a photo that makes them roll their eyes. It’s not good for the viewer, and it’s not good for the brand.

But do not worry: Practice makes perfect. Every brand that is winning at Instagram has gotten better over time. Every photo is a chance to get closer to showcasing the company you represent, the lifestyle you support, and the brand your audience can love.

Create, curate and cultivate

By all means, set objectives and targets and use calendars, but creativity, passion, and taste should be a top priority on Instagram. Seek to apply the best practices of the world’s top editorial teams by consistently raising the bar and setting an impeccable standard of quality, not quantity. Instagram can become your brand’s photo-essay periodical instead of just another channel that needs to generate likes for the sake of it.

On Instagram, it’s not about publishing – it’s about creating, curating, cultivating and amplifying your organization’s soul. The answer to “how to win Instagram?” is to simply be awesome.

In the spirit of Masters' note-taking efforts and Thiel's openness to such notes, I have compiled a few notes of my own from Zero to One: Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"The act of creation is singular."

"Today's 'best pratices' lead to dead ends; the best paths are new and untried."

"Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius."

"In a world of scarce resources, globalization without new technology is unsustainable."

"If you can identify a delusional popular belief, you can find what lies hidden behind it: the contrarian truth."

"So we (PayPal) decided to pay people to sign up."

"Under perfect competition, in the long run no company makes an economic profit." 

"Monopolists lie to protect themselves."

"Monopoly is the condition of every successful business."

"Rivalry causes us to overemphasize old opportunities and slavishly copy what has worked in the past."

"If you're less sensitive to social cues, you're less likely to do the same things as everyone else around you."

"For a company to be valuable it must grow and endure, but many entrepreneurs focus only on short-term growth."

"This is why successful network businesses rarely get started by MBA-types: the initial markets are so small they often don't even appear to be business opportunities at all."

"Beginning with brand rather than substance is dangerous."

"...disruption has recently transmogrified into a self-congratulatory buzzword for anything trendy and new."

"As you craft a plan to expand to adjacent markets, don't disrupt: Avoid competition as much as possible."

"Moving first is a tactic, not a goal."

"It's much better to be a last mover."

"Dominate a small niche and scale up from there, toward your ambitious long-term vision."

"Statistics doesn't work when the sample size is one."

"Instead of pursuing many-sided mediocrity and calling it 'well-roundedness,' a definite person determines the one best thing to do and then does it."

"Every other country is afraid that China is going to take over the world; China is the only country afraid that it won't."

"The strange history of the Baby Boom produced a generation of indefinite optimists so used to effortless progress that they feel entitled to it."

"Arguing over process has become a way to endlessly defer making concrete plans for a better future."

"Darwinism may be a fine theory in other contexts, but in startups, intelligent design works best."

"You are not a lottery ticket."

"The biggest secret in venture capital is that the best investment in a successful fund equals or outperforms the entire rest of the fund combined."

"Venture-backed companies create 11% of all private sector jobs."

"An entrepreneur cannot 'diversify' herself."

"You should focus relentlessly on something you're good at doing but before that you must think hard about whether it will be valuable in the future."

"If anything, too many people are starting their own companies today."

"Contrarian thinking doesn't make any sense unless the world has secrets left to give up."

"If everything worth doing has already been done, you may as well become a barista and feign an allergy to achievement."

"All fundamentalists think this way, not just terrorists and hipsters."

"Parents don't expect their kids to become explorers any more than they expect them to become pirates or sultans."

"The best place to look for secrets is straightforward: where no one else is looking."

"A great company is a conspiracy to change the world; when you share your secret, the recipient becomes a fellow conspirator."

"Now, when I consider investing in a startup, I study the founding team."

"It's very hard to go from 0 to 1 without a team."

"A board of three is ideal."

"A company does better the less it pays the CEO."

"Anyone who prefers owning part of your company to being paid in cash reveals a preference for the long term and a commitment to increasing your company's value in the future."

"No company has a culture; every company is a culture."

"Recruiting is a core competency for any company. It should never be outsourced."

"We needed every new hire to be equally obsessed."

"But advertising matters because it works."

"Good enterprise sales strategy starts small."

"Selling your company to the media is a necessary part of selling it to everyone else."

"Look around. If you don't see any salespeople, you're the salesperson."

"Strong AI is like a cosmic lottery ticket: if we win, we get utopia; if we lose, Skynet substitutes us out of existence."

"Never invest in a tech CEO that wears a suit."

"Instead of a healthier planet, we got a massive cleantech bubble."

"Doing something different is what's truly good for society... The best projects are likely to be overlooked, not trumpeted by a crowd."

"Almost all successful entrepreneurs are simultaneously insiders and outsiders."

"But no matter how many trends can be traced, the future won't happen on its own."

"The essential first step is to think for yourself."

Since 2007, Facebook has acquired nearly fifty companies. While many of the early acquisitions were deemed "acquihires," some of Facebook's more recent purchases point towards a new strategy focused on both immediate value and long-term bets on the future. 

I've speculated about Facebook's moves since I started "watching" the company back in 2006. Their acquisition strategy has evolved over the years and it is hard to accurately predict the company's future acquisitions, but history provides a few patterns worth noting. Facebook is becoming a metaplatform - a conglomerate with multiple interconnected platforms - and its acquisitions are a hint of what we can expect the Facebook of the future to look like.

So I did a little research using Wikipedia and CrunchBase data and the results were interesting enough to want to share them. The infographic below, and the notes that follow it, contain some of the highlights from my analysis.  

A few things that caught my attention:

• Most acquired companies are U.S. companies, with the vast majority of them being located in California
• The only other country with more than one company being acquired by Facebook is Israel
• The amount paid for most acquisitions is undisclosed
• Only three companies have sold for $1 Billion or more: Instagram in 2012; WhatsApp and Oculus VR in 2014
• The number of words in acquired companies is likely irrelevant, but the 4/5 companies acquired have a 1-word company name (note that this includes compound names like "WhatsApp")
• Few companies, like Instagram, have products that remain to fully operate independently
• Even fewer companies, like FriendFeed, have services that are accessible but are not actively being managed or enhanced since acquisition
• Most acquisitions so far have been described as talent acquisitions or acquihires, but 2014 acquisitions seem to show a reversal in that trend
• Many of Facebook's most buzzworthy acquired talent (i.e. former startup executives) are still at Facebook, leading major product initiatives
• At least two acquisitions came after a lawsuit
• February to August seems to be the busy acquisition season for Facebook, with March being the month of highest activity and September appearing to be an off month
• Facebook has acquired more companies in the first 4 months of 2014 than it did from inception to 2009
• Facebook acquired more companies in 2011 than in any other year, but 2014 could match or exceed in number of acquisitions
• Facebook's 2007-2010 acquisitions were mostly in categories that enhanced the core product (i.e. social, utility, email, photos)
• Facebook's 2011 acquisitions focused on mobile and the trend continues to this day
• 2014 has been Facebook's most diversified year, with acquisitions ranging from messaging and analytics, to virtual reality and fitness

What do you think? Any surprises?

Let me know your thoughts by commenting below or send me a tweet.

I've been placing ads on Facebook - with all kinds of budgets and diverse objectives - since 2006.

Over the years, I've seen Facebook's UI, sales organization and ad units evolve. Some changes have been good; others, not so much. The only thing consistent about Facebook is that it is always changing.

With approximately 1.2 billion monthly active users and a plethora of activity happening on News Feeds all over the world, Facebook is a powerful marketing channel that has become a key strategic element for most mass brands.

Unlike other popular social media sites offering advertising, Facebook has both the scale and the technology necessary to properly serve its two symbiotic customers: advertisers and end users.

Facebook may have two "masters," but one thing is for sure: If end users aren't happy, Facebook cannot offer much to advertisers. Facebook has been able to strike a balance that keeps both parties relatively happy by creating an algorithm that prevents customers from being overwhelmed, while offering unique ad units that feel less like traditional digital ads (i.e. native in-feed ads).

In order for the primary experience to be a fantastic one, we (all end users) cannot be forced to experience more advertising than we can handle.
 

FACEBOOK DOESN'T HAVE A CHOICE

Facebook is not a charity; it never was and it never will be. 

Beyond the fact that Facebook makes money from advertising (at least until it finds another business model through crazy bet like the Metaverse), Facebook does not want us all to see Facebook Page posts (or ads) 24/7 on our feeds. 

If Facebook just unpersonalized the News Feed and abandon the whole idea of EdgeRank, we would stop seeing posts by our friends and we'd be bombarded by a plethora of posts by Marc Cuban, Eat24 (which ironically uses Facebook comments on the blog post in whichthey allegedly break up with Facebook), and five thousand other Facebook pages we somehow "Liked" at some point. If that happened, well, we'd probably all hate Facebook. We'd hate its guts and we'd take our clicks and "likes" elsewhere.

And if we all fled, then what advertiser in their right mind would want to spend a nickel in there? Just ask MySpace. 

So what is a mass brand to do as 1.2 billion people further connect to more people on Facebook, and more and more companies and organizations compete for attention on News Feeds?

Assuming a brand has the right strategy and the right infrastructure (i.e. team, processes, technology), a brand must also have an evergreen approach to social spending.
 

OWNED + PAID + EARNED

Big brands have established themselves on Facebook for several years now, and many of them are now committed to their presence on Facebook. These brands are now well accustomed to investing time and resources into Facebook - from technology and strategy, to in-house teams and agency support.

Everyone in the marketing and advertising industries now acknowledges the importance of leveraging owned, paid and earned media.

However, there is still some discomfort with the fact that Facebook is a walled gardened platform in which brands are increasingly required to invest ad dollars not only to target potential customers, but also to reach those existing "fans" that brands have been amassing over time. The discomfort, based on gut feelings instead of actual historical data, is misguided. While a brand may strategically opt to avoid the "paid" aspect of Facebook (and there is a case for that), it makes little sense to have an issue with Facebook's business model and approach to serving both end users and advertisers.

It is not hard to find mass brand posts with a few dozen / hundred / thousand "likes" and "comments" - despite having millions of fans on their pages. It is much harder to find truly viral content on Facebook - and that is a good thing, for the user, for the brand (what doesn't kill you makes you stronger), and the ecosystem. Marketers will complain, but the fact is that most content going viral on Facebook at any given time probably didn't even originate on a Facebook post. Most brand content is not very good, and that means the really good content suffers for it - the algorithm simply tries to ensure end users don't realize just how bad some of the bad content can be.

If it were up to brands, all media would be "earned," all value would be "owned," and absolutely nothing would be "paid."

But that's just crazy talk. You can't reach 1.2 billion people on Earth without paying for it. Instead of fighting the complexity, marketers at mass brands should be focused on leveraging Facebook better than competitors - not only in terms of the customer experience, the message and the creative, but also in terms of on-going optimization, and on-going evergreen spending.
 

TO GET SCALE, YOU NEED TO PAY TO PLAY

On a marketing channel with huge scale (like Facebook), brands should be OK to pay to play, regardless of where they fall in the content value spectrum:

1) If your message / content is poor (aka, "crappy"), then you should certainly pay to reach an audience. Nobody wants to see or engage with crappy content, and therefore Facebook doesn't want to show it to anyone. Yes, it would be nice for everyone in California to organically learn about that promotion you have available there over the weekend, but if nobody cares then nobody will share and that means almost nobody will end up seeing it.

2) If your message / content is fantastic, then you should also pay to reach an audience because your competitors (including direct competitors, indirect competitors, publishers like BuzzFeed and UpWorthy, and the next Justin Bieber) will surely be paying as well. Remember radio, magazines, and television? You pay to reach an audience. Amplifying the best content means it will go further than it would've otherwise, and in some cases, that may be difference between achieving an objective (whether that is creating awareness, increasing preference or driving a specific conversion like app installs).

Brands don't have a choice either and if there is no choice, then brands might as well be wise about how they spend on Facebook. At a high level, an evergreen approach is a more complicated approach, but it is also a wiser one as it requires understanding about the past, the present and the potential future.

Now, having an evergreen approach doesn't necessarily mean you are blindly consistent (i.e. advertising $10,000 a week for 6 months). It also doesn't mean that you have an on-this-week, off-next-week flighting schedule that is planned months in advance as it it were a set-in-stone upfront. You're on the Internet, and that means the limitations of old media no longer apply.

An evergreen approach means that you consider Facebook an on-going, always-on, pulsing advertising medium in which there is spending throughout the year, with some periods of notably higher spending - based not only on milestones like product launches, but also on historical data and a real-time context.

It means those spending decisions are optimized based on the performance of "owned" and "earned" within a moment's notice. An evergreen approach means being ready to take advantage of opportunities while also ensuring that the brand is consistently top of mind.
 

NOW WHAT?

Relevant content and meaningful engagement are more powerful with wise spending. Large brands who have been spending widely on Facebook from its early days have benefitted greatly, not only in building audiences but also in keeping them. 

Sometimes you will pay a premium to get traction, and other times you will pay less than others by creating unique, memorable, shareable experiences. Over time, optimizations should balance the effects of changes in the algorithm and pricing structures. Knowing what works and when on Facebook is up to each brand to determine. Being able to leverage available spending during important periods or ad-hoc opportunities, while also consistently spending even low amounts throughout the year, can prove to be fruitful. 

Instead of blindly buying social ads because everyone's doing it, test your beliefs. Instead of being biased against all things Facebook, validate your hypothesis.

Facebook is one of the most powerful marketing channels on Earth now, and its algorithm will continue to evolve to try to keep everyone happy; a task that is easier said than done.

Being such an important marketing platform means that Facebook is most definitely a Pay-To-Play marketing channel. There is no doubt about that.

The question is... How well will you play the game?

ps. For a few more thoughts on this and other similar topics, check out this week's "The BeanCast" podcast, "Episode #297: Gone Catfishing."

Alex Bell:  Exactly, Sonic Notify wants to connect people to locations, and over the last 3 years, we have created all the pieces that are required to really connect a person to a location.

First, there is the transmission, telling the smartphone “You are Here;” our transmission methods include our patented inaudible audio as well as our dual mode bluetooth low energy, both of which are found within our beacons. Our audio signal is unique because it means the user can have bluetooth turned off, which is the 'achilles heel' for virtually all other BLE-only solutions.

Secondly, there is the CMS / Server which is responsible for the serving, turning “You are Here” into “You are in front of the popcorn concessions stand at the Oracle Arena.”

And lastly, the middle man, which is our Software Development Kit (SDK) - this handles security decryption in the beacons, caches content for offline displaying, shows content and tracks analytics.
 

EC: Sonic Notify has being compared to different companies ranging from Shopkick and Shazam, to Euclid and Estimote. How have you evolved over the past two years and what sets you apart from others in the space?

AB:  Sonic Notify definitely occupies a similar space with each of the companies mentioned, yet we all provide something different. Two of these companies, Shopkick and Shazam, are consumer facing brands, and Euclid focuses more on analytics. The reason we have 'Notify' in our name is because we believe in giving enterprises the ability to build apps and locations which Notify their consumers in a targeted and non-intrusive way. We truly believe that when done right, leveraging both our experience and technology, proximity marketing can provide a net positive for the consumer, the enterprise, the retailer, and the brand.

Sonic Notify is a partner providing smart solutions to companies looking to improve their consumer engagement at various location. We see ourselves apart from the crowd in that we view analytics as supporting the overall mission of notification driven engagements.
 

EC: Now that Apple has created a bit of a groundswell with the launch of iBeacon, how has the market changed and how are brands rethinking the bridge between online and offline?

AB:  When iBeacon was released, I received massive amounts of emails from friends asking if Sonic Notify had been sherlocked. We had been shipping beacons for over a year at that point, and suddenly it seemed as if we were going up against Apple! Thankfully, as we dug deeper, we found iBeacon to be just a series of API calls to facilitate bluetooth calls as they relate to app states. So for us, it was instant credit and affirmation from Apple that we were definitely on the right track; kind of humbling!

As for the market, it is undeniably taking flight, and we have an increasing number of large corporations in our pipeline, now more than ever before. In terms of press coverage, we’re really excited about the coming months, as our clients, mostly large industry brands, are experimenting with the best possible ways of using the technology. We firmly believe the initial results will reaffirm and solidify the belief that proximity-based messaging through apps, and within context, is a great value-add for both consumers and companies.
 

EC: The "beacon" seems to get a lot of buzz these days, but ultimately these are just sensors that facilitate context. Do you think the beacon itself has become a distraction or is it good that sensors of all kinds are getting more attention?

AB:  It's all about marketing. iBeacon isn’t even a physical device, it’s only an API call, but when Apple puts its spin on things, suddenly they take on a whole new meaning. So overall, I think it’s incredibly positive. Granted, our first call with new prospects usually starts with basic facts, and providing pragmatic insights about the differences between iBeacon marketing reality and fantasy, but the excitement is there! Sonic Notify can ride the wave, and really focus on client roadmaps and development schedules to meet their success criteria. Good job Apple!
 

EC: To be a winning enterprise-grade solution, you need a scalable platform that covers both breadth and depth. You also need to be robust enough for the biggest retailers and consumers across all mobile platforms. Tell me about how you're doing this today and what keeps you up at night.

AB:  Infrastructure wise, as soon as you start real deployments, like we did with Rouse Malls - hundreds of beacons - and Golden State Warriors, with 20 thousand fans at each game, you have to build scalable infrastructure. For our engineering team, this is nothing new. We all come from different backgrounds like Adobe, Double Click, etc., so our team really understands enterprise scaling and support. Our infrastructure is also uncommonly mature, built with J2EE on purely AWS products.

What really keeps me up at night is the product roadmap: we’re constantly having to walk a fine line between competing use cases and requirements. There are so many varied use cases for this technology that we have to be mindful about our development queues matching market realities, and at the same time stay broad enough to provide our solutions to the clients we’re targeting.
 

EC: Brands in retail, TV and live events are the core players you seem to target. What have you learned from your clients and partners?

AB:  Each vertical is focusing on different aspects of what the technology can deliver. For live events, most of the activations are experiential, like showing light shows or focusing on improving the fan experience.

In retail, the two important things are better shopping experience for consumers, and increasing basket size. Our activations tend to focus on items like Endless Aisle, in which a user who is in front of a shelf for X seconds, is presented with some of the other colors and/or flavors of items which are in the stockroom, but not currently on the shelf for instance. The use cases are extremely varied for retailers, yet they all revolve around the consumer and the different, unique ways of improving their experience.

TV is a different animal and one without consistent needs. When Sonic Notify cracks all three, which we are on our way to doing, we will be able to provide that single channel to reach consumers in all three verticals.
 

EC: The promise of SoLoMo has sometimes disappointed brands and marketers, but these technologies are maturing and creating personalization opportunities we've been talking about for over a decade. What are the key factors that need to be in place in order to create an ecosystem that lets brands do more, while keeping consumer privacy concerns in check?

AB:  This is exactly where we see the future of proximity marketing: our CMS offers the ability to have one beacon broadcast a different message to multiple consumers, all based on unique user-loyalty data. This decisioning ability gives our clients the ability to tailor their digital content to match each use case, and that is the future of proximity marketing. This does require connections with retailers’ loyalty data, and with third party sources; we’re currently working on a few of these integrations now, and are constantly learning, and improving as we progress.

Privacy will always be a concern in the industry, and for us it starts and ends with opt-in. Each OS, Apple and Android have some layer of opt-in for the technology, but we require our clients go further and we have a policy that recommends a layer of opt-in for install and constant op-out for session and message. So that the user always has the ability to choose.
 

EC: What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to launch companies with emerging technologies?

AB:  Success is about perseverance! Three years may seem like a lot for a startup, but it’s nothing really. If you are an entrepreneur, you have to be ready for a string of setbacks and difficulties, and it never becomes easy. When I founded the company, I was finishing an Electrical Engineering degree at Columbia University, and was interested in using passive apps to track New York City subways. The idea was that you would use mobile devices to passively ping back to the server when it lost or found internet connectivity, basically attaching to cell towers. From this data, the server would be able to process and determine the location of subways. The company came from this little project to help New Yorkers. When we started the company, we decided that we would instead focus on delivering proximity-based messaging within a location, and that hasn’t changed. As long as you are willing to remain focused on your vision and believe in it, you will always find the success.

Learn more about Sonic Notify at www.sonicnotify.com.

As I read the news about Kickstarter-funded Oculus VR being acquired for $2 billion, I could not help but think about how this South Park episode was a simple and perhaps visionary illustration of what Facebook may be looking to build. I say this partly joking, and partly dead serious. Beyond something like Second Life or a popular massively multiplayer online game, Facebook may be getting humanity closer to the 'Metaverse,' a term coined in the 1992 science fiction book Snow Crash, than anything ever before.

According to Wikipedia, the Metaverse is a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the internet. When I think of a virtual world we can connect to with a device like the Oculus Rift - five, ten, or fifteen years from now - I imagine an ever expansive virtual universe where one can access all kinds of lifelike and immersive experiences (much like we can install apps on our phones today). With Facebook now being a frontrunner in VR, it is clear such a digital environment will be one that is also seamlessly social.

Today, Oculus VR may be more like Nintendo's Virtual Boy than a 'Metaverse' that blurs the lines between IRL reality and virtual reality, but we are certainly moving in the direction of the latter. Whether we realize it or not, our society will be impacted by this. There are important implications that I find particularly interesting to the tech industry, consumers, and the marketing industry, and I explore some of these below.

IMPLICATIONS OF VIRTUAL REALITY GOING MAINSTREAM

1) We've become a geeky society and we are already fascinated by VR

People have been fascinated by all things VR for a few decades now and the subject has increasingly become a hot topic in pop culture - i.e. TV shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, and movies like Total Recall, Back to the Future, Demolition Man, The Matrix, Surrogates, and Ender's Game. VR is now widely understood at a surface level, even though most people have never actually experienced something like it.

2) Facebook is making a bet on the future of virtual reality

Facebook is no longer just a social network. It is now becoming a new kind of holding company. Much like Google with Google Glass and self-driving cars, Facebook sees virtual reality, and Oculus VR in particular, as a way to ensure its empire grows stronger by venturing into areas of technology where few have gone before. A Facebook-powered platform leveraging the technology and talent acquired from Oculus VR will provide Facebook with a path to be a Metaplatform.

3) Facebook isn't alone in the race to VR

Sony has already announced "Project Morpheus" and Microsoft is rumored to be working on a device that will be tightly integrated with (or an extension of) the XBox. Other companies like Samsung may see VR as an opportunity to further expand their offerings beyond leading categories (i.e. 3D Smart TVs) and emerging devices (i.e. The Galaxy Gear). While Facebook has proven that it can be a serious gaming platform, it needs to go beyond laptop screens to be able to compete with the big players in the space like Sony (PlayStation), Microsoft (XBox), Apple (iOS) and Google (Android). Just as these tech companies displaced Atari, Sega, and even Nintendo, Facebook is looking to be part of the next cycle of entertainment innovation. VR will become serious business and the founders of Oculus VR are but the very first to see the monetary benefit from it.

4) Virtual reality could be a path to significant new revenue for future platforms

VR is exciting for companies like Facebook, Sony and Microsoft because it provides them with an opportunity to create experiences where users are 100% immersed - there is but one single screen when you are using a device like the Oculus Rift. Such immersion could translate to increases in monthly active users, time spent online, and potential revenue on their platforms, and this is not at all limited to videogames. As Mark Zuckerberg put it, "After games, we’re going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face — just by putting on goggles in your home.” More experiential use cases means more possibilities for revenue, not only from advertising but also from new business models, valued-added services and add-ons.

5) Society will be impacted whether we like it or not

Our society continues to become more and more fascinated by technological advancements. We may not be driving flying cars, but we are certainly becoming attached to the Internet and a plethora of Internet-connected devices. As consumers, we must realize the power we have to vote for the future with our digital clicks and our big ticket item purchases. Given how immersive and realistic VR experiences could become in the next years, it is important to consider potential implications in our health / sanity, our real life relationships, and our bank accounts. We have no idea what the long-term effects of children being glued to a VR headset could be.

I personally think it's good to be both excited about the cool possibilities of VR while also remaining aware of possible negative effects of being plugged into a machine for many minutes, hours, and in extreme situations - days.

MARKETING IMPLICATIONS OF LEGITIMATE VR PLATFORMS

1) Marketers love social, immersive and contextually relevant experiences

Over the past few years, Facebook has attracted marketers of all sizes - from the smallest of small businesses to the largest conglomerates across verticals and locations. Facebook has allowed advertising on its platform since 2006, but it wasn't until recent years that marketers understood the power of Facebook virality. These days, Facebook is seen as a "pay-to-play" platform. While many marketers dislike the algorithmical changes screwing up their plans to do "free" marketing, they are still paying up as they understand the necessity of being there. However, marketers want more than boosted posts on Facebook - they want immersive experiences that guarantee their ad dollars turning converting into something meaningful.

2) Consumers will be hesitant, skeptical and critical of marketers

Many Oculus Rift fans, including Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson, have already revolted against the company being acquired by Facebook. Just as such former fans are skeptical of Facebook's intent, mainstream audiences that buy into early versions of a Facebook VR environment will likely be skeptical of any marketers intruding on their personal virtual spaces. Just as Instagram users raised their fists when sponsored posts started to appear on their feeds, VR users will raise their fists at marketers some day not too far away.

3) Marketers will move fast 

Marketing laggards are everywhere, but early adopters are as easily identified. As soon as a virtual reality platform (powered by Facebook or other companies) opens up, marketers will seize their opportunity to develop applications and create creative experiences that benefit their businesses. Because of the multiple potential use cases of VR, it is likely that we will see everything from product placements and stickers / badges / emojis to fully branded experiences. 

4) Marketers will break things

As with all media and advertising real estate, some marketers will turn people away with annoying, irrelevant, untargeted and lame executions. The pop-up is thankfully behind us, but we will likely see something like a VR pop-up created simply because marketers (including those with spammy and scammy inclinations) will sometimes do anything to reach a wanted audience.

5) Marketers, and developers, will have to figure out what works

The companies that own the platforms always have the final say. Traditional media companies have controlled air waves for decades and these days we see media opportunities controlled by the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Apple. Within such closed environments, marketers will have to tackle the limitations and get analytical + creative in order to figure out what works. Some marketers will figure out how to force results by manipulating and misleading audiences, but the good ones will bring us valuable, utilitarian and entertaining experiences. Perhaps one day we will experience virtual performance art theater, front-row seat concerts, behind-the-scenes moments for Oscar-winning films, and breathtaking documentaries sponsored and/or created by great brands like Nike, Red Bull, lululemon and Chipotle. Or at least we can hope this will be the case.

I personally think that marketers should be very aware of VR trends and they should be careful in how quickly and how deeply they invest into such platform until they understand how they add can add actual value as opposed to just generating impressions. HBO's Game of Thrones Oculus Rift experience (developed in part by Relevent) may be the best example of marketing done well on the platform so far, and I certainly hope we will see more like that.

At any rate, virtual reality is becoming a reality and we can be sure that while the geeks will be there first (me included), marketers will be right there with them - for better or worse.

While SXSW has a trade show and a plethora of panels to attend, it’s not an industry event where brands show up to reveal new products. SXSW was never intended to be an industry event like CES or MWC.  It has always been a celebration: first for music, then for film and multimedia in 1994. Since then, the festival has allowed us to celebrate, debate, observe, and explore innovative digital expressions, from web startups and digital technologies to the rise of social media, apps, and a plethora of memes.

In the context of SXSWi’s present and past, there are four main reasons why it’s a must-experience for those looking to innovate in tech and marketing:

1. It's a Cultural Convergence Unlike Any Other

With 50,000 people flocking to Austin, TX, SXSW has become a destination unlike any other, where people are expecting to find something unique each and every day. Austin, which is known for its "Keep Austin Weird" unofficial slogan, is the perfect place for entertaining the soul and educating the mind. 

At SXSW, it's OK to be an experiential nerd. It's nearly expected to eat 3D printed food, stay at AirBnB houses, complain about (illegal) Ubers and their surge pricing, and carry around a ridiculous amount of devices, batteries and chargers. It's OK to do business over Tex Mex, open up about your innermost “worldchanging” ideas, discuss the shortcomings of wearable devices, and debate about the future of the "Internet of Things." There’s something interesting happening at all times, and often you find yourself torn, as there are more options than time in the day.

2. It's a Destination Full of Branded Utility 

Startups and big brands are always encouraged to make something people want. Sometimes they launch products as Nike did with the FuelBand in 2012, and sometimes they surprise everyone as Apple did with a pop-up store in 2011. While many companies have shown up at SXSW over the years to clutter it with unwanted promotional materials, the most savvy aware of an important fact: If you don't enhance someone's life in a creative and valuable way at SXSW, no one will care. The most loved brands are the ones that add value to the overall festival experience. 

From the Samsung Blogger Lounge to GM’s “Catch a Chevy” program, marketing has become both memorable and utilitarian at South By. Branded utility has become an essential way for companies to make themselves known and understood, and SXSW is a place unlike any other to see innovative ways in which brands are getting closer to consumers through meaningful experiences.

3. It's a Gathering Place for Non-Stop Learning

When I first attended SXSW in 2010, I spent most of my time planning and attending panels. However, in recent years, I have not attended more than a handful of panels in total. I've found that I learn a lot spending time with friends, colleagues, peers, and strangers. Whether in a branded lounge, a convention center hallway, a dinner, or a pedicab, every SXSW moment is an interesting one.

4. Above All, There's a Sense of Community

What makes SXSW so attractive is that people of different walks of life - including brilliant minds across industries - gather in one place to celebrate the things and subcultures they are passionate about, and everyone has some form of bond that connects them. You see successful startup founders, multinational executives, VCs, artists, students, and young professionals who barely made it to Austin. Regardless of the objective, there is a genuine desire to connect with like-minded people and break down barriers that exist outside SXSW. SXSW is exclusive to those who experience it, but it is also inclusive to anyone who wants to join in. 

For me, SXSW is an essential part of my annual creative process, as it allows me to see what matters right now, helps me uncover what is missing in the worlds of technology and marketing, and allows me to do so with a group of people I respect and admire. SXSW will always need more innovative minds enhancing and augmenting the experience. The days of focusing on breakout apps like Dodgeball, Twitter, Foursquare, GroupMe and Highlight are long gone, but that doesn’t mean innovation at SXSW is gone with them. Innovation doesn’t necessarily need to launch at SXSW for sparks of innovative thinking to happen and become valuable for the rest of the year.

SXSW is a haven for innovators. If your mind isn't racing with innovative ideas while you're at SXSW, you're likely doing it wrong. 

And, if you've never been there, there's always next year. 

Note: This article was originally posted on The Coca-Cola Journey.  

Is Facebook in deep trouble? Should we all flee the network before we're all alone in there?

Nope.

Not so fast.

While Facebook is seeing competition from every angle and its relevance could be threatened in years to come, Facebook is doing much better than those headlines imply. In fact, Facebook's growth is so amazing that the drop in teens in certain countries is, well, statistically irrelevant. 

As Facebook ensures its global relevance amongst users and future users of all ages, there is one key metric that the company continues to focus on and continues to remind us about, and for good reason. 

With over 1.2+ billion Monthly Active Users, the social network continues to grow each and every quarter. 

Is Facebook's engine of growth eternally sustainable? No. That would be impossible. But 1.2+ billion people actively using Facebook every month is a sign of the company's place on the web and in our hearts + minds.

This chart shows Facebook's MAU growth from the second quarter of 2010 to the end of 2013:

Happy 10th Birthday Facebook. It will be interesting to see "you" become a "teen" in the next few years.

Attention is one thing; being sensational is another.
 

Om Malik wrote a great rebuttal to the Qz article, and did a fantastic job of explaining the nature of innovation and disruption:
 

“Innovation happens in different places, in different sectors and follows a different time scale that only a handful really comprehend.”
 

John Gruber also wrote his thoughts, including the fact that smartphones becoming a commodity is a sign of “remarkable progress.”
 

Plenty of other smart and knowledgeable people weighed in by echoing rebuttals, distinguishing valid points from exaggerations, and more. 
 

There Are No Dud Years in Technology
 

2013 may not have been “exciting” from the perspective of a journalist (even if his bio states he “believes that the most interesting things about the universe have yet to be discovered, and that technology is the primary driver of cultural change”), but calling any year a “lost year for tech” is nonsense.
 

Big Brand Tech’s press-worthy contributions during the year may deserve a debate, one which I’m glad Quartz stirred up, but we are talking about the tech industry here, Christopher Mims; the tech industry.
 

Today’s successful tech giants — from Google and Facebook to Apple and Samsung — all started their empires by building infrastructures that led to widely accepted consumer products that turned into massive platforms.
 

Mims seems to have gotten it all wrong…
 

• Connected wearable devices are in their beta / Gen 1 phase (think of the Rio MP3 players), but they are indeed launching as consumer products.
• Software companies are acquiring hardware companies, not just the other way around.
• Snowden showed the world how much (and how little) we value privacy, and that awareness is better than being in the dark.
• Companies like Uber, Lyft and AirBnb are disrupting entire industries, despite the many barriers they face. And these startups are not alone (scroll to the bottom of this post for a few examples you may or may not recognize).
• Google Glass is not yet what it promises to be, but self-driving cars aren’t either. You can’t just launch something like this overnight Mr. Mims. Also, scroll to the bottom to learn about META, a company that is going beyong notification glasses like Google Glass.
• Social media has become nearly ubiquitous (something that was laughable seven years ago), and messaging companies have captured (or re-captured) the world’s interest faster than social networks did. 
• The world’s largest tech giants—the same I mentioned earlier—now face threats from small startups from every corner of the Earth (and that’s exactly why they are turning them into an opportunity by acquiring them while they can).
• Silicon Valley may not have had its finest moments, but technological innovation is now happening in pockets in dozens of cities—from Ra’anana, Berlin and Santiago to Montreal, Austin and New York City. 
• Yes, drones are getting hyped up thanks to clever marketing campaigns—but guess what, such campaigns worked.
• Oh, and yes, one in every five people on Earth own a smartphone. 
   

Is this boring and embarrassing?
 

Perhaps if you are a tech writer.
 

Perhaps if you are an early adopter who can’t get his consumer tech updates quickly enough.
 

Perhaps if you are uninterested in the tech infrastructure that is being built all around us.
 

Every single day, those of us with connected devices walk around nearly oblivious to the fact that we are nodes in a transparent network that is connecting us to each other and to the things around us. The technological advancements of 2013 may not have fancied a few tech writers (who somehow make their living writing about tech), but such advancements are building the future that our children and our children’s children will live in. Again, this is the tech industry. I am almost certain that the writers at Horse & Rider are more passionate about 2013's contributions than Mr. Mims, but alas, this is not about passion—this is about reality.
 

2013: Not a dud, I say.
 

Tech is becoming so seamless that we are forgetting it’s actually there!
 

That gets me excited. Is also scares the crap out of me, and it should scare the crap out of you too.
 

It’s up to us — consumers / users / breathing, feeling, thinking human beings — to vote for our future with our daily clicks, swipes and online purchases. Whether we realize it or not — entire layers of data are being mapped all around us, and brilliant minds creating the software and hardware that will power us into a brave new world—for better, or worse.
 

That brave new world is being shaped day in and day out, whether we know it or not. So much for a “lost year in tech.” Pfff.
 

If anything, perhaps tech journalists are becoming too dependent on “headline storytelling,” a term I’d like to coin (is that allowed?) for the idea of the media writing exactly what the “hot” startups want them to write about.
 

Not sure what I mean with “headline storytelling?” Just take a look at TechCrunch’s posts about Snapchat. They run like clockwork.
 

But I digress.
 

I believe there are two megatrends that progressed greatly in 2013, and these are only two very obvious ones amidst a sea of small and big wins for tech throughout the year. These are the result of the collision of great advancements in software and hardware, as well as collective work of large R&D budgets, brilliantly committed startups and a tech ecosystem that is one again looking forward to solving problems worth solving.
 

2013 did not bring about a new Internet, but it certainly contributed key building blocks for the next phase of the Internet era. We should pay attention to these trends and some of the startups tackling them — whether for intellectual, philosophical, sociological or plain business curiosity. 
 

1. All Things Context
 

The Internet of Things has been talked about for years. It is the subject of plenty of books, commercials and startup pitches. Sci-Fi movies have been talking about this for decades and “Her” is only one of the latest attempts to imagine a world where humans and robots coexist. (Again, I find this exciting, and scary).
 

We find early signs of contextually connected devices everywhere, from the mall to the jogging lane. Sensors are now everywhere and the reality of human beings interacting with a world around them—that is as physical as it is digital—is becoming a reality.
 

Here are a few context-related startups that mattered in 2013:
 

Estimote:

“Real world context for your apps.”
http://estimote.com/

Nest:

“We take the unloved products in your home and make simple, beautiful, thoughtful things.”
https://nest.com/

Pebble

“Your custom, on-wrist HQ.”
https://getpebble.com/

Oculus VR

“A next-generation virtual reality headset designed for immersive gaming.”
http://www.oculusvr.com/

Meta

“See the future, first.”
https://www.spaceglasses.com/

2. All Things Crowd

The convergence of all things crowd (from crowdfunding and crowdsourcing, to the “sharing economy” and the “collaborative economy”), had quite a 2013. Marketplace Communities like AirBnb, Kickstarter, Maker’s Row, Tradesy, Quirky, Artsicle, KitchenSurfing, Fiverr, DogVacay, TaskRabbit, Udacity, SkillShare and Square are but a few examples of how consumer behavior is changing. Larger brands—including TOMS, Ikea and GE—have started initiatives, products and services to tackle this shift in consumer expectations. 
 

Some will say this trend is only gaining momentum in large urban settings, and that may be true to an extent. Regardless of their individual impact, we are seeing a collective shift in the kinds of startups that are getting created, funded and launched. 
 

In fact, the progress enabled by platforms like AngelList and GitHub are sufficient enough to say that 2013 was a source of more transparent and distributed innovation. 

Here are a few crowd-related startups to watch in 2014:
 

Quirky

“Shop for the world’s best products, invented by real people just like you.”
http://www.quirky.com/

GetAround

“Peer-to-peer car sharing and local car rental.”
http://www.getaround.com/

CoinBase

“An international digital wallet that allows you to securely buy, use, and accept bitcoin currency.”
https://coinbase.com/

NearMe

“Get in the Business of Sharing.”
http://near-me.com/

Shapeways

“Make, buy, and sell products with 3D Printing.”
http://www.shapeways.com/

ps. If you’re interested in joining a private community about “All Things Crowd,” please add a comment with your email or write me at socialnerdia(at)gmail(dot)com.


NOTE: This post also appeared on Medium.

Amir Elaguizy:  During Y Combinator we were really shocked with how well some of the better subscription commerce companies (LE TOTE was in our batch) were doing and spent some pretty significant time looking into the market. We were really shocked to find that there is very little out there for people who want to run physical product subscription companies. Most people were taking normal eCommerce platforms and hacking them into SaaS subscription management platforms (Shopify + Chargify being the most common).

We spoke to over a hundred different subscription commerce founders, and we spoke to directors at Shopify, SquareSpace and other eCommerce platforms. The more we dug, the more clear it became that existing players weren’t looking at subscription commerce - causing subscription commerce founders to practically pull out their hair due to unmet technology needs. We realized that we could really revolutionize this market with our veteran engineering team.

EC: The company pivoted from another startup called Toutpost, which was a community of experts. Why did you decide to pivot?

AE: Toutpost was a project of passion - we felt very strongly that there needed to be a solution for product reviews that did not involve anyone who was financially incentivized to have an opinion being in the loop. We built a Facebook integrated review site that used social validation to encourage sharing of product opinions. We loved what we built and to this day feel like someone should find a way to move product reviews off of the Merchant’s site and onto a community powered site.

However - our style as founders has always been to build things and see how the world responds, then ruthlessly discard the ideas that aren’t winners. Having had success in the past and having built platforms that had millions of users on them (at Zynga) it is very clear to us when a product has potential, and when it’s not there. Toutpost missed the mark, and what’s worse is we didn’t have a clear understanding of what was wrong. All we knew was that people did not love it. They liked it, but they didn’t love it. Paul Graham wrote “It’s better to make a few users love you than a lot ambivalent.” Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened to Toutpost.

We still haven’t had the heart to turn it off, though.

EC: Tell me about Cratejoy's MVP and what you've learned in terms of editing the feature set to turn it into what it is today.

AE: We have a very studied approach to product development. We built an outline of minimum required features to launch a subscription commerce business after speaking to literally more than a hundred different subscription commerce companies. I remain in constant contact with dozens of the founders of these subscription box companies. They have been unbelievably helpful, largely because their hair really is on fire. They’ve been very receptive to someone building a product for their needs.

Even after defining the MVP feature set, every time we are going to build a new chunk of functionality we will research it, mock it up, and then I’ll send it off to some of the sub com founders to get their feedback. That’s how we’ve been able to build such a strong product offering from day one; with this never ending focus on product quality and feedback. It comes from our time in the gaming industry where user experience was literally everything.

It was interesting to learn just how different their use cases actually are. For instance in physical product subscriptions there is the notion of a “cut-off.” If you order your products on or before the 10th of the month you will receive it this month, otherwise you’ll receive it next month. The 10th is the cut-off. The reason for the cut-off is because the physical products must be ordered from vendors, packed in boxes and shipped out of a warehouse. For inventory management they ask questions like “how many of product X should I order based on who has already received this product in a previous box?” These sorts of things are simply not possible on current eCommerce platforms.

EC: Cratejoy is a great name. What's the story behind it?

AE: I picked it and the team went along with it. I’m glad it has worked out so well because we have traditionally been very bad at naming :) I take the name clicking into place so well as one of the many signs that Cratejoy is something very special. It hasn’t always been so easy; it took us months to settle on some pretty bad names in the past.

EC: What are some examples of the first stores launching on Cratejoy?

AE: Helene Jewelry, which is a Bracelet of the Month club,  is our first store. Sumo Snacks is launching in early January and it is a monthly snack club targeted specifically at offices. El Hombre Salsa is lined up to launch soon after that, a salsa of the month - that is delicious I might add.

We’ve got several migrations launching as well, including a Tie of the month club and a B2B subscription for hair salons.

After these launches we will open it up to public beta and allow anyone to start their own subscription, likely in early February.

EC: You recently announced three responsive themes and a theme editor. Tell me about recent design trends and how they've influenced your thinking.

AE: Broadly speaking we focus on having a clear visual hierarchy, clean calls to action and a having a strong experience on all devices. We are slightly partial to large product images and bold colors, but we’ve built themes that are more neutral as well. You can tell the way our personal tastes lean by checking out our homepage, it is very bold and colorful.

In terms of choosing our themes, we take feedback from our private beta testers and try to build themes based on patterns we see in their needs. For instance, one of our new themes is built around the idea of a feminine fashion subscription. I can’t take credit for most of the design though, we work with a fantastic design studio in Austin called Frank and Victor.

EC: Is it possible to integrate an existing website on another service (i.e. Squarespace or Shopify) with Cratejoy?

AE: Not yet, but it’s definitely on our radar. I’d expect to see third-party platform plugins in mid 2014. We will have a robust API which could be used to achieve this desired effect before then though, but only by more advanced users.

EC: Do you aim for Cratejoy to go beyond being a platform to also becoming a marketplace for subscriptions?

AE: We definitely intend on helping subscription companies market their products and a marketplace would be one piece of that. Our goal would be to drive shoppers to the best subscription box experiences while also giving new subscription boxes a launching pad to get some initial attention. We’re also looking at facilitating cross marketing between subscription box owners so two non-competitive subscription box companies could help each other out.

EC: Any advice for aspiring tech startup entrepreneurs?

AE: If I had to boil it down to a single piece of advice I’d say never ever ever give up, but adapt constantly. Many people interpret never giving up to mean that you never stop pursuing your vision - that’s not what I mean. I mean never stop pursuing the *right* vision. For me that has meant recognizing the shortcomings of my vision and adapting them to new data constantly. I’m not sure to what I owe my success in the past, but I think it’s a combination of surrounding myself with amazing people and being ridiculously stubborn. I’ve written some about this (i.e. "58 Things I learned at YC".

Learn more about Cratejoy at www.cratejoy.com and connect with Amir Elaguizy on Twitter @amirpc.

Note: This article, co-authored with Sprinklr SVP of Strategy and Services Scott Doniger, originally appeared on Pivot Conference's blog. 

SoLoMo, the term KPCB's John Doerr coined a few years ago, has been used to define the convergence of social, local, and mobile technologies. The promise of SoLoMo for brick-and-mortar retailers was often described as a silver bullet with which always-on, ultra-connected consumers could be targeted, reached, engaged, sold to, and activated as advocates. This promise, often rallied by consumer web apps, has not been fully fulfilled. Experimentation with apps like Foursquare, Gowalla (RIP), Shopkick, and QR code readers has resulted in interesting executions… but few have driven business metrics like awareness, preference, traffic, and sales.

Despite marketer skepticism around the SoLoMo buzzword, these technologies are at the center of innovation in the consumer web. Google is perhaps the best example of the convergence of SoLoMo. From Android, Google+, and Google Now to acquisitions like Zagat, Milk, and most recently, Waze, Google wants to be everywhere we are (including our future self-driving cars). Facebook, the world’s leading social network, has proved over the past year that mobile is a top priority. Twitter, which has always been a “mobile first” social service, will likely enhance its local ad targeting capabilities as it prepares itself to be a public company. Newer startups like Highlight, Path, NextDoor, and Tinder are but a few examples of what’s happening in the SoLoMo consumer web.

RE-FOCUSING SOLOMO EFFORTS

SoLoMo is not a formula or a particular set of tactical executions, and it was a mistake to see it as such. The focus should be on how these technologies are changing consumer behavior, and on instituting a holistic multichannel strategy that puts the customer at the center of the experience. Most Internet users are now using SoLoMo on a daily basis, whether they realize it or not.

Retailer strategies need to be crafted around this new reality.

The context in which people are experiencing brands and products is very different from what it was just half a decade ago. The basic elements of the infrastructure “backbone” required to deliver seamless SoLoMo experiences today are basically everywhere. For example: the number of public spaces where Wi-Fi isn’t enabled continues to shrink. With so much interconnectedness, and data transfer and transmission now easily available, the consumer journey is becoming increasingly complex.

Yesterday’s Foursquare and Gowalla users may be using Tinder, Path, NextDoor, and Highlight in the near future. Does that mean retailers should partner with these newer startups? Perhaps, but that is not the point.
The key is in understanding what the new consumer path to purchase means for your business, and what role the mashup of location-aware, socially connected, mobile experiences play in this new regime.

SoLoMo is more than a means to reach customers — it’s a way to better understand and satisfy them.

To JCPenney’s Director of Social Media, Sean Ryan, SoLoMo offers a powerful opportunity to fulfill the marketer’s dream of (finally) knowing the customer. In Sprinklr’s eBook, he posed the fundamental questions that every retailer should ask:

"A lot of people — including myself — get excited when an agency says that a marketing campaign should start with social. But what does that really mean? Starting with social means understanding how your customer engages with your store at a microscopic level. What do they like? What do they find annoying? How do they respond to your content and how do they talk to their friends about it?" (34).

Vision Critical’s Alexandra Samuel and David Sevitt recently conducted compelling research around
how social engagement can drive retail sales. Their study surfaced that four in ten social media users have purchased an item online or in-store after sharing or “favoriting” it on Facebook, Twitter,
or Pinterest. In a recent interview with Alexandra, she shared the following thoughts:

"Our analysis shows the importance of actually talking to your customers to find out how they use social and mobile, not only in general, but in terms of their specific path to purchase for your store, product or product category (in-store, as well as out-of-store). There are huge variations across different product categories — for example, people who share and then buy electronics items are much more likely to be thinking about that purchase even before sharing, while people who are making food and drink purchases are much more likely to be sharing and then buying items they had not previously contemplated.

Understanding those kinds of differences allows a retailer to develop a strategy focused on triggering new sales, and ensuring that consumers move from sharing to purchasing in the timeline during which most socially-shared purchases are made —about half within one week of sharing, and 80% within three weeks. For example, retailers of products with a high transaction value per purchase may want to reach out to people who have shared their products to encourage purchase.

That kind of strategy also applies to how brands present their products online. Retailers need to think about how to embed more information into their shareable images and product listings, since information is one of the key ways consumer\s report that finding or sharing an item on social helped move them to purchase. " (A. Samuel, via personal communication, September 15, 2013)

WHERE DO RETAILERS GO FROM HERE

There is much we don’t know and can’t predict. For now, the lesson for brick-and-mortar retailers is that SoLoMo is real, but it’s also a work in progress. We know SoLoMo is about technology, but many of the technological questions have been answered — we know people everywhere will be digitally connected by great numbers and more innovative, capable devices; we know bandwidth will become more pervasive; we know connectivity will extend more robustly in urban centers and expand to rural and remote regions. But the change retailers must plan for goes beyond technology. SoLoMo has become native to human experience.

As such, it must become a business mindset. It must become required thinking for every retailer.

Peeking into the future, we see all sorts of signals that SoLoMo will continue to evolve at an accelerated pace in unforeseen directions:

• Vision Critical’s research uncovered new insight into how Pinterest is driving retail activity, concluding that “showrooming,” the bane of brick-and-mortar retailers, is as prevalent as “reverse showrooming,” where consumers are actually using Pinterest to shop offline and purchase in-store. Both of these phenomena are threats AND opportunities for retailers.

• Automated (offline) shopping is becoming a reality in more ways than one. NFC, Apple’s new iBeacon and other sensor technologies (e.g. Estimote) will facilitate new kinds of contextual interactions with customers in the near future — from proximity marketing and contactless payments, to personalization systems that learn over time. Seattle-based company Hointer already has a retail showroom where the entire experience — from checking inventory levels to getting a fitting room and self-checkout — is carried out via mobile app. TeamLabHanger creates virtual mannequins powered by hangers — grab a hanger with a shirt you like, and the digital signage around you is personalized so you can learn more about the item. Virtual stores, an idea popularized by Tesco’s Homeplus Subway Virtual Store in South Korea, are now popping up in major cities. eBay’s Retail Innovation team created four pop-up 24/7 “shoppable windows” for Kate Spade, allowing visitors to purchase on a touch screen and get items shipped home within an hour. If that’s not enough, imagine the effect that robotics would have in retail settings. This may sound far-fetched today, but consider that overall confidence in VC investing in the robotics sector is higher than that of energy/clean technologies, according to Deloitte’s 2013 Global Venture Capital Confidence Survey Results.
  

• Wearable devices like the Samsung Galaxy Gear, the “mainstreamization” of biometrics — thanks to Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5S — and other “human-technology” innovation are going to have an impact in how we all shop. Fjord’s Managing Director Andy Goodman recently wrote a piece on The Guardian titled The Future of the Human Machine Interface where he wrote that “the monolithic device with a screen may be on the verge of disappearing. It is being enhanced with numerous smaller devices, which may soon replace it as the way to access information. We will arrive at a more ambient experience where sensors capture information about us and feed that information into systems quietly working away in the background. Wearables will give way to 'embeddables', nano-scale machinery inside our bodies, which can monitor us and modify us.”

Retailers bold enough to explore, experiment, and invent new mobile apps, interactive POS systems that are integrated with social CRM systems or location-agnostic and device-agnostic payment systems, for example, will likely remain as leaders and the first to win. While the basic, fundamental objective for retailers will never change — it’s ultimately about satisfying consumer needs and wants. For new generations of digitally savvy, socially connected and empowered natives, however, SoLoMo we know today are the “table stakes” of future engagement relationships. Offline and online strategies must be integrated and consistently optimized. Loyalty programs must become synchronous with in-store recognition technologies. Customer-staff interactions must become personalized in a valuable and frictionless manner.

One bad experience can end a lifelong customer relationship, while a great one could be the source of exponentially greater lifetime value.

The term “SoLoMo” may be short-lived —  just another buzzword we will toss out the window —  but the fundamental shift in how we use technology matters to retailers because it creates new opportunities (and threats) for customer relationships. A multichannel marketing strategy that doesn’t add value to the consumer is utterly useless outside of boardrooms and office conference rooms. Focusing on the consumer is the first step to earning sustainable attention, trust and loyalty.

In a follow-up article, we’ll share four aspects of consumer expectations in a SoLoMo world, as well as immediate and mid-term implications that can help retailers take action.

Stay tuned.