by Francis Bea
This recap is part one of two. Part two will be published on Friday.
In the hoopla of technology businesses and events throughout New York City, there have been few events like dd:IMPACT, which showcased the creativity of New York City, particularly the growing technology scene in DUMBO. Andrew Zarick, Digital Dumbo’s CEO and co-founder praised New York City for its ability to foster New York City, which has developed to become the nation’s second leading technology hub. Zarick explained that New York is the only city among the top seven leading tech cities to have seen an increase in capital, with 486 New York City’s high tech start-ups that having received VC funding since 2007. He attributed this growth to the bohemian culture that tends to attract unique talent, which New York City is not alien to. We’ve witnessed these creative individuals become the early adopters and trend setters. Zarick finished his keynote with the point, “In the end, it’s important to follow the artists. Even in real estate, follow the artists.”
Food Panel
As a music technology buff, I was pleasantly surprised at how sophisticated the world of food and technology had evolved into. The panel was kicked off by Greg Morabito, editor of Eater NY, with the panelists, Amy Cao, Head of Community at Foodspotting, Natasha Case, CEO of Coolhaus, Kasey Fleisher Hickey, Editor at Evernote, Alex Rein, Founder and CEO of Kelvin Natural Slush Co., Mike Lee, founder of Studiofeast, and Raquel Pelzel, Senior Food Editor at Tasting Table.
The panel dove right into the panel’s experience with social media and how they interacted with the dedicated foodies. Raquel made an overarching point that there is an importance to interacting with users and “constantly striving for a connection with readers.” To do so, using Twitter, in part, allows her to keep in check with what’s trending in real-time.
What had been particularly interesting was Evernote’s foray into the world of food and lifestyle. You’d never have expected a note-taking platform to carve out a presence in a niche industry. With Greg’s question about how Evernote built a community using technology, Kasey revealed that Evernote had recognized that its users liked to share their experiences with the platform and consequently developed ambassador programs. While Evernote is a personal product, it has allowed influential users to become the people’s voice for Evernote. For example, Evernote will encourage its ambassadors to chronicle their food experiences on Evernote and share the content on Facebook. In turn, by fostering this dedicated community, its users will even educate each other on how best to Evernote.
The complexity of the hybridization between food and technology took a turn into the technicalities of the technology powering the tech platforms when Amy revealed how Foodspotting was working on making their data “smarter,” by seeking to streamline and improve its search and recommendation engine.
To round up the panel, the panelists agreed on the importance of building relationships and paying attention to food bloggers as a way to remain relevant within the foodie community.
Fashion Panel
The fashion panel was lead by Mashable’s own Lauren Indvik. The panelists included Mollie Chen, Editorial Director of Birchbox, Drew Deters, Co-Founder of Rumbatime, Lexy Funk, CEO of Brooklyn Industries, Sian-Pierre Regis, Founder of Swagger New York, and finally Jen Rubio, Head of Community at Warby Parker.
Warby Parker had the most engaging and admittedly interesting social media strategy of the fashion panel. The glasses brand has implemented a real-time feedback system, knowing that users are inclined to take pictures of their look. The company offers a one week trial of five glasses, but more importantly, offers feedback on photos that users wearing the glasses have taken. As Jen revealed, Warby Parker is leveraging social media in a manner that best virtually replicates the experience of trying on glasses in a store.
Word of mouth is one strategy, but to expand upon its social strategy, Warby Parker is particular about engaging its users to the extent that it boasts a 100 percent engagement rating. The company will jump into the conversation if someone is talking about Warby Parker. The company practices what it preaches as in response to SoundCtrl’s tweet, “#ddimpact Something we can all learn from. @warbyparker jumps into any conversation about its brand & engages conversations 100% of the time” was responded to by a YouTube video by a Warby staffer.
Swagger on the other hand has grown into a prodigious digital publication with over 215,000 Facebook fans in a matter of only two years. Sian-Pierre added the fact that Swagger is only 40,000 away from tying GQ in the number of followers. The founder’s word of advice that allowed Swagger to grow was that while they leverage content across multiple platforms, they also know when to post a photo rather than a link, or when to bring an artist into the conversation. Swagger will reach out to influencers and ask them to help with the promotion to help its articles and increase virality.
According to Mollie at Birchbox, the company has discovered free or affordable online tools in lieu of an expensive marketing budget and uses its resources effectively. To name a couple of services, the company uses Mailchimp and Dropbox.
In particular for Birchbox, Pinterest has become the number three source of traffic and sales driver via social media, after Facebook and Twitter. Among the strategies that Birchbox uses, are boards that follow relevant cultural themes of the time.
At the end of the day, Jen makes a point that we should all remember: Social media should be used to drive sales.
Francis Bea is a New York City based writer, PR person, tech junkie, and the Marketing ‘Stache at Pop’stache. You can find him on Twitter @francisybea.
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