Thanks for tuning in to our live chat on G+ Hangout last week with Ben Wilkoff and Dave Workman from Two Red Chairs. In case you missed it, you can catch a recorded version on Youtube. In the hangout, we touched on B2B marketing, challenges we’ve faced as a startup and beginning a new venture (Riparian Data), along with ways we’ve found to overcome those hurdles. For the full discussion, click on the picture above or visit the Youtube channel to see if any of our personal experiences and observations resonate with your company’s own personal challenges.
Admittedly, on-the-spot discussions always leave me thinking about what I wish I would have said or added to the discussion. Don’t you hate when you have that feeling of “Oh, that would have been great to bring up,” or “Oh, that would have made me sound much more intelligent.” Well, thanks to the power of blogging and technology I now have that chance. Here are 3 takeaways and soundbites from our Hangout.
1) Move from a B2B and B2C market to a B2D market: In the words of TechCrunch, the B2D market includes “software and hardware startups that cater specifically to developers.” Dave brought this up toward the end of the discussion as a trend to watch. I’ll admit this trend wasn’t at the forefront of my mind, but it’s definitely on my radar now. Basically the idea is that within startups there is a shift toward creating and marketing software and hardware for individual developers as opposed to direct-to-consumers or large corporations. With the increase in innovations/data/information, comes an increased need for software/hardware to automate processes and meet the demands of an instant-gratification generation with quick, efficient results. There is opportunity to break into this emerging market as more and more developers look to tools to help them operate more efficiently.
2) Going mobile: I didn’t give enough credit to the mobile sphere. There is a definite push toward mobile as more and more people are on-the-go and accessing information from their phones and tablets. I know I tabled mobile advertising for SoftArtisans for now; however, I don’t think that is the case for all B2B companies. The underlying factor is your audience and how they are researching, testing, using your product. B2B is trickier because you are targeting businesses as opposed to individual consumers. I think the main takeaway is that you need to understand your audience and the devices they are using to view your content. I was assuming that most of our businesses would be viewing and testing our product on desktops, which is why I would not spend as much time and resources on mobile. This is not to say this may shift later on. Basically, don’t just jump on trends just because everyone else is doing it. Go where your audience is to get the most bang for your buck, whether that is through mobile or desktops, trade shows or online forums, wherever there are conversations happening related to your product/service.
3) Embrace your company culture: We touched on the concept of transparency in the Hangout. With that comes the idea that you can’t be afraid of social media and letting people inside your company and its mindset. Our company culture is what opened the gate to conversations with Two Red Chairs (beginning with Twitter). We wanted to let the audience in on who we are and what we do. Applying that concept generally to other companies: find your company’s strengths and embrace them through social media.
Agree? Disagree? Further questions? Care to see more (or less) of these Hangouts? Give us a shout out in the comments section.
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