How @Waveborn Won #WEDC #SXSW2016
Sometimes, the numbers don’t tell the full story. This is what I learned leading up to, (and during) my four days SXSW If you don’t try, you’ll never know!
As the deadline for applications to represent #DCTech at the Washington D.C. Economic Partnership’s #WeDC house approached, I took a calculated risk that product development for EDGE Mobile Analytics would catch up to marketing and customer acquisition.
After receiving the news that our application to WeDc was successful, we immediately transitioned into a series of rapid sprints to showcase media mentions about DCTech companies attending the WeDC house and get our beta release of EDGE into the app stores: Google Play / iTunes (new build available 3/28).
IMHO, we’ve built a mobile app that is powered by the best digital analytics software, Brandwatch (trust me, I’ve tried all of them). However! Capturing 100% of mentions, even at 100% sentiment accuracy sometimes misses the point. SXSW is an interactive festival. This is true. However, it is the personal interactions that matter. Interestingly, this year most major brand shifted towards more experience orientated marketing.
As I explained during my interview with at the Newseum’s #SpeakFreelyDC, if you’re following an agile approach to developing your business plan / product / services; Success is most strongly correlated to surrounding yourself with people who challenge you to operate at a higher level, both personally and professionally.
In this respect, Waveborn founder and fellow GU alumni Mike Malloy wins WeDC / SXSW. I was fortunate to catch up and hit the town with Mike who not only executed extremely well on the metrics, but also had a great time and inspired me to take it up a notch.
Nowhere else did I see another founder carrying his product portfolio everywhere, while comfortably approaching and engaging with everyone he met. His generous giveaways of stylish and socially responsible sunglasses were appreciated by all and equally useful day & night!
Using EDGE / Brandwatch we tracked and analyzed over 4,500 mentions relating to “#WeDC” from Washington D.C. based companies participating in the Startup Showcase- Check out the “WeDC SXSW Data” tab.
Top News Local News Stories featuring WeDC Startups
Top Tweets by Influence + Impressions
Reading beyond the numbers, even with the most precise Boolean search queries scouring public and private (pay-walled) data- Monitoring and analyzing mentions does not always give the complete picture! Numbers can be comforting, but without conversions, it’s only vanity metrics.
Of course! Several DCTech companies did phenomenally well on the real metrics, such as our friends at Quorum who won the #DellPolicyHack contest, and got one of the most impactful, farthest reaching victory Tweets.
We’re hearing a lot of good things about how EDGE Mobile Analytics can help SmBs manage information overload and formulate strategies on-the-go.
However!
Also see this video released 3/25 and stay tuned for Mike Malloy dancing debut, among other things!
