Forced to Twitter?

You may remember a recent escapade by two teenagers at a Domino's pizza. They were filmed doing gross things to pizza, the video was put on You Tube and immediately became a viral sensation. Teenagers have been doing crazy things with food for years, so nothing new, right? What makes this story so unique is the role of social media. Let me illustrate this in a timeline:

1. Teenagers act goofy, film it and post it on You Tube
2. Domino's (corporate) finds out about it via a blog
3. Domino's scrambles, trying to decide how to react
4. The video gets over 1,000,000 hits on You Tube
5. Bloggers and other pundants spread gossip like wildfire because Domino's is silent
6. Domino's starts responding to rumors via Twitter
7. Domino's CEO posts his own response on You Tube

Let me pause on this timeline to add the all important element - time. All of the above happens in less than 48 hours. This leads to my point about social media. One of the goals of social media is for companies to be transparent through instant communication. Within 48 hours, a corporation the size of Domino's pizza is expected to learn of the disaster, formulate a strategy for recovery, and then react.

Another very interesting point is the forced reaction it caused. This one silly act from teenagers forced a corporate giant to forgo a planned social media marketing strategy in order to immediately start reacting to the public outcries. Until this point, Domino's didn't have a Twitter account. Two days later, they had over 1,000 followers. What did the competition think? They were busy on Twitter having their own fun with the matter.

Testimony #2

Here's another recent video testimonial. It almost made me cry!


Bruce Parks, Parks Custom Cabinets from Nearsighted Productions on Vimeo.

NBIA

I just attended the International Conference on Business Incubation (whew that was tiring) conference. I networked a little and learned a little. I attended 3 breakout sessions each day. All in all, I learned about:

• SBIR/STTR Programs


• Identifying Challenges and Opportunities of Entrepreneurship


• Avoiding Mistakes when Counseling Incubator Clients


• Incubator Funding Strategies


• Effective Training for Tech Entrepreneurs


• Student Incubation for Universities and Communities

I had the opportunity to go because NBIA offered me a scholarship as a first time attendee. I'm very thankful for the opportunity and hope to put some of what I learned into practice.

Marketing 101

Imagine you own a gas station that has 800,000 cars, trucks and semi's drive by per day. What would be your #1 marketing technique.

• Brochures?


• Phone book?


• Word of mouth?

You're getting closer...

It would be SIGNAGE. On my way to a conference, I decided to exit off the highway and get gas. I saw the McDonald's arches so I took a chance that the exit would have gas station. I turned the corner and saw the gas pumps, and there were even cars at the gas pumps, but the place looked like it had been out of business for years. There wasn't a single sign in the window or even on the building. It wasn't run down necessarily; just void of any life (other than a few cars and an ice machine). I hesitantly pulled up, still eagerly searching the windows for a neon sign of some sort to indicate the place was open. I could see the shadow of neon inside the store and people were entering and exiting, so I decided it must be open. Why did it take me five minutes to figure that out?



Here's a picture of the gas station, which was very nice on the inside, but has completely missed the opportunity to take advantage of the #1 rule in business: location, location, location.

Governor's Cup 2009

I had the opportunity to go to the award's dinner on Tuesday night for the 2009 Governor's Cup Business Plan Competition. RSU had two teams enter this year, which is a first. Both teams had great products and amazing business plans - and both placed into the semi-finals!

One of the teams made it into the final round, which is the top six teams in the undergraduate level out of 32 teams total. They competed against OU, OSU, TU, OCU, UCO and many other universities. This team - Health Wise Systems - competed with the concept of using nanotechnology in sheets for the healthcare and hospitality industries.

Once again, RSU was the only regional university to place teams into the semi-finals and especially into the finals. Nearly 50 business plans (32 undergraduate) were submitted by about 150 students from across the state in the fifth annual event, competing for $200,000 in cash awards, $50,000 in free commercialization services, $40,000 in fellowships and $10,000 in scholarships.

I am so proud of all the students who competed. The time and effort that goes into this competition is impossible to describe and can only be appreciated by those who've done it before. The competition continues to be a great opportunity for RSU students and I look forward to next year.

Here's a picture of the Health Wise Systems team at the awards dinner in OKC. Pictured from left to right: (front row) senior Elisabeth Sanchez, senior Whitney Robison, senior Megan Pruitt, and junior Peter Woodson. (back row) Faculty advisor Chuck Atkins, sophomore Levi Milford and senior Kyle Beggs.

Testimonial

Here's a recent video testimonial for the Innovation Center.


RSU Innovation Center Testimonial 2 of 5 from Nearsighted Productions on Vimeo.