Tag Archives: SVIABC

Crowdfunding Secrets Indiegogo and Kickstarter May not Divulge

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By Michelle McIntyre

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I recently met an entrepreneur named Kitae Kwon who had raised $84,000 three years ago on Kickstarter for his unique docking station called Landing Zone.

This is pretty amazing considering the average amount raised is around $5,000.

There are some other exceptions.

Scanadu, maker of the super cool Scandadu Scout personal health monitoring device, raised more than $1.6 million using Indiegogo.

If you are not that familiar with the concept, here is the definition:
Crowd funding or crowdfunding (alternately crowd financing, equity crowdfunding, or hyper funding) describes the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their resources, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowd funding is used in support of a wide variety of activities, including disaster relief, citizen journalism, support of artists by fans, political campaigns, startup company funding, movie or free software development, and scientific research. (Source: Mashable.com)

From a technology perspective, usually people who sign up to use the crowdfunding services of say a Kickstarter or Indiegogo ask for monetary donations, not for equity in the company, and in return, send donors a gift. It’s usually their product.

It’s nice because it forces the founder to get his or her marketing act together. This could mean getting professional photos and videos made or simply writing sales messages.

It could also mean a slew of new customers, if the donor gift is in fact the product.

The third benefit is that it’s organized way for friends, families and of course, new contacts to donate to your company.

Crowdfunding typically works better for B2C products by the way. B2B’s should probably just tap angel investor friends directly for funds.
There are some downsides though. Kitae Kwon says watch out for people who make your product look bad by posting terrible reviews which can often be fake. For example, someone posts a negative review before actually receiving the product.

Kwon said they probably come from competitors or random people who just like to write bad reviews.

He added that you have to be strong and confident when crowdfunding. If it doesn’t go as planned, your company could still be successful. Sometimes the campaign was just not planned or executed well.

Additionally, said Kwon, you could have a successful crowdfunding campaign but the product fails.

The net is, says Kwon, don’t let the campaign define your startup’s future.

However, Kwon adds, there are many crowdfunding benefits. For example, when people donate to get your product as a gift, it shows a bigger prospective investor, like a venture capitalist it is in demand.

Since he raised $84,000 for his docking station for the Apple Macbook Air, which is 10 times the average amount raised, Kwon must have had a huge demand.

For more unique crowdfunding examples, check out this story on the website Hooked on Social Networking. For information about Kwon’s company Landing Zone, visit: http://landingzone.net/
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Michelle McIntyre is the president of MMC high tech PR, on the TEDxSanJoseCA executive team, and director of marketing communications for SVIABC. Follow her on Twitter at @FromMichelle  [Photo credit: iStockPhoto.com.]

 

What Prospective Employers Find Out about You on Social Media

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According to a story, “Should Companies Monitor Their Employees’ Social Media?” in the May 12, 2014 edition of The Wall Street Journal, job candidates need to beware that prospective employers are tracking their social media networks to get a glimpse of what they are like.

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The story covered results of a survey sponsored by Careerbuilder.com.

Although the article doesn’t refer to consultant candidates, there is no doubt they use similar research methods to check them out as well.

Here are the sites that employers are using to research candidates:
Facebook: 65%
LinkedIn: 63%
Twitter: 16%

Here’s what employers look for when they research a candidate using social media:
To see if the candidate presents himself/herself professionally: 65%
To see if the prospect is a good fit for company culture: 51%
To learn more about the candidate’s qualifications: 45%
To see if he or she is well-rounded: 35%
To look for reasons not to hire the candidate: 12%

Not surprisingly, here is what survey responders said hurt candidates:
Candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photos or info: 50%
Got a good feel for candidates personality: 50%
Candidates showed a wide array of interests: 50%
Background supported professional qualifications: 49%
Evidence of creativity: 46%
Excellent communication skills: 43%
Great references: 38%

Prospective employers need to be careful as well. The story says that these searches put the employers at liability. The story says that “An employer who learns than an applicant is gay, Moslem, disabled, or over 40 years old, and then hires someone else may face discrimination charges.”

To read the entire article, visit wsj.com.  The most interesting stats are on page R2 of the print edition.

If you haven’t bought a hard copy of The Wall Street Journal lately, pick up a copy at Starbucks or at a neighborhood store. It’s nice to read an actual “print edition” newspaper every once in a while.Of course you could also subscribe and get it at home or at the office.

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Michelle McIntyre is president of Michelle McIntyre Communications LLC, on the executive team of TEDxSanJoseCA, and director of communications for SVIABC. She’s @FromMichelle on Twitter.

Top 10 Take Aways from the 2013 Silicon Valley PRSA Future of PR Panel

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Last night I attended the Silicon Valley Public Relations Society of America’s “Future of PR” networking and panel event at the Four Seasons Hotel in East Palo Alto, California.

Panelists and audience members ended up speaking mostly about modern PR, as opposed to the future of the profession.

They highlighted the importance of creating content with entertainment value that is interesting to a more general audience than an organization’s specific industry.

Also, great PR people need to add business value and when driving a campaign, consider the gamut of tools from videos to events.

The panelists were Andy Getsey, Co-Founder & CEO Agency Atomic, Kelly McGinnis, Vice President, Communications at Dell, David Swain, Director of Technical Communications, Facebook and Burghadt Tenderich, Associate Professor of the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. The panel was moderated by Steve Barrett, Editor-in-chief, PRWeek.

New Silicon Valley PRSA President David McCulloch, a Director at Cisco, also added a few comments.

Here are my 10 top take-aways from the event:

1.  When measuring PR campaign results, showing strategic outcomes is better than showing number of hits, views or clicks. The strategic people are more successful. – Tenderich

2. To be respected and valued, a PR manager needs to have a seat in the board room and add business value.  -McGinnis

3.  Attendees and members were surveyed and understanding influencers is top of mind. –PRSA president

4. Facebook places a lot of emphasize on PR. We have a lot of PR agencies but only one ad agency. -Swain

5. Companies have turned into media companies. I like when someone links to Dell’s news material.  That shows success. Sometimes your news content has nothing to do with your company and that’s fine. -McGinnis

6. The only proper way to measure a PR campaign is pre and post surveys. This is expensive -Tenderich

7. PR people need to be bold and have a seat at the branding table. I like to work on the corporate side because I can stay close to the action. -McGinnis

8. Attitude is more important than skill. You have to have the mind set to stretch beyond in PR. -McGinnis

9. It is sad that we need to show analytics results to prove the worth of PR. -Getsey

10. Facebook’s plan is to hire communications people, empower them and then scale projects. –Swain.

For more information about Silicon Valley PRSA news and events, visit http://www.prsasiliconvalley.org/

Additionally, I’m a director with PRSA’s “sister” organization, the Silicon Valley International Association of Business Communicators and for information about our news and upcoming events, visit http://sv.iabc.com/

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