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Las Vegas is generally known as the city of entertainment and as such, the majority of local businesses service the hospitality industry.  However, there are a few dynamics underfoot that are aspiring to augment the business landscape with tech innovation.

From June 24-26th, the first ever Startup Weekend was hosted in downtown Las Vegas.  Startup Weekends take place around the world and aim to build communities and start companies. The super-packed 54 hour event focuses on building web or mobile applications that could be viable businesses.

While this was my first Startup Weekend, seasoned attendees and sponsors were overheard as saying that it was one of the best they’ve attended. Contributing to the success was the sponsorship of local mega-success Zappos, other Vegas business support and collaborative team dynamics. Oh, and did I mention the panel of judges? Lending heavyweight credibility to the event were: Tony Hseih (CEO of Zappos), Kevin Rose (founder of Digg.com and CEO/Founder of Milk, among others and former Las Vegan), Tom Anderson (Co-Founder of MySpace), Ryan Carson (Founder of ThinkVitamin and Carsonified Events) and Josh Reich (CEO of Bank Simple).

Fourteen teams labored for two days in pursuit of startup-dom: brainstorming, planning, coding, branding, market researching and PowerPointing their five-minute final presentations for judges. I was reticent about how much could really be accomplished in a weekend but as enthused teams shared their brainchilds with the audience, I became a Startup Weekend believer.   Sure, teams were competing but what really became apparent was the power of passion, collaboration and a supportive community. Not every team was comprised of Vegas locals but it was the local community itself that produced and supported the event, giving every attendee and sponsor the platform to collaborate on something with long-term viability.

A few highlights from the presentations include second place finisher IOTW (I Am On the Way), a mobile app for volunteer firefighters, claiming to reduce response times by minutes and ultimately, save lives. ClippPR, the first place team, produced a PR clippings organizer that is already in beta. Rumgr is a virtual garage sale app built by Zappos employees (including event organizer Dylan Bathurst) and heralded with the crowd favorite and “most likely to continue” designation. Sojo, an online journal, lets you gather your life experiences into stories with the help of others with whom you’ve shared experiences.

During the weekend and in the spirit of startups, our company alpha released a software project to a very receptive welcome. With the majority of attendees signing up, we’re getting productive feedback from the crowd and keeping in touch with this freshly invigorated group.

All this innovation reminds me of the energy I witnessed in Vegas over a decade ago when the dot-com boom had infiltrated the Valley. Myriad startups were enjoying the cash conveyor from Silicon Valley into Vegas, a.k.a. Silicon Oasis at the time. Our company, Vortaloptics, was a startup in 2000, but we were here for the connectivity. Our vertical search solutions needed reliability, speed and cost-effective data hosting and fledgling Switch Communications fit the bill. Switch (SuperNAP) is now one of the premier tier-4 data center facilities in the world.

While the vast majority of the dot-com boom startups went bust, companies Switch and 2004 transplant Zappos, are thriving. There is a viable foundation in Vegas for new ventures. The city needs more economic diversification apart from entertainment and tech provides real promise. We recently learned of a couple of business incubators that are in the works for the near-term. This and other developments could provide a platform for local entrepreneurs to build upon existing infrastructure, established corporate support and an eager talent base to become a true Tech Oasis.

So while Vegas was built on the competitive notion of gaming, Startup Weekend demonstrated that collaboration and community can produce a diffusely productive result that can diversify the Valley’s economy. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come for a #winning Vegas tech community.  Like anything worth pursuing, we’ll have to work diligently and as we learned from Startup Weekend, we’ll need to work as a team.

Thanks to the event organizers for making this inaugural event a launching pad for #VegasTech!

I remember taking a word processing class in high school. It was nearly useless but it was a step up from the typing class that had us practicing our keystrokes on typewriters. The computer lab didn’t get much love outside of the handful of students geeky enough to take “computers.” At home though, my dad was an early adopter of the PC. That inelegant tower and clunky monitor saw lots of action, particularly by my middle school age brothers who assimilated the world of computer gaming like I took to typing onscreen. They were on the cusp of two generations: one that had to adapt to changes in technology (Gen X) and one were technology has always existed (Gen Y/Millenials).

While Baby Boomers and Gen Xer’s tend to be somewhat confined by brand loyalty, Gen Yers have grown up in a marketing-saturated, information-overloaded, technology-ubiquitous world. Since Millenials are now said to be the dominant generation, surpassing Boomers, understanding the world-as-they-know-it will help you reach them in a relevant way.

1. Mobile phones have always existed. Texting is king with teens. Thus, choosing the right phone is more about enabling a better texting experience rather than selecting one with the most bells and whistles.

2. Unified brand experiences across devices matter. Music and computers have always been portable for Millenials. Rather than the cumbersome PC towers I started out with, the first computer for teens was probably a laptop. Portable music has always been accessible through MP3 devices like the iPod. As such, teens have no reference point for why there should be different brand experiences for various devices – they want and expect seamless interaction no matter what device they’re using.

3. It’s the benefits, not the brand. Teens expect your brand to be online and to be everywhere they are. Maybe it’s novel to you that your brand has just launched a Facebook fan page but don’t tout the medium, proclaim the benefits. That’s what teens are looking for – and count the rest of us in for benefit-driven marketing too.

4. Empowered consumerism is the norm. Millenials are savvy researchers, prolific sharers and have high standards in customer service. Millenials research their tech purchases; 86% look in multiple online stores before selecting a product or service (“8095” survey, October 2010, Edelman).  But 8 in 10 will also take action on behalf of brands they trust, such as joining communities, posting reviews and sharing brand experiences with others.

5. Connecting online with social good causes is a form of self-expression. Millenials have witnessed 9/11, the Great Recession and a general decline in corporate moral standards. They want change and they want to know that the brands they patronize care about social initiatives. How you do what you do may be as important as what you produce.  To stay relevant, think about the value that your brand offers the world and express your contribution to the greater good within your online social communities.

6. Technology is ever-evolving but it still needs to serve them not their egos. While they’ll adapt to new technology faster than any other generation, they’re not as brand or feature-hungry as other age groups. They’ll upgrade if the experience is significantly improved, but won’t shell out just because everyone’s tweet-bragging about their new tech acquisition.

Love it or hate it, use it or ignore it, profit from it or have your customer service gaffes illuminated by it, social media is buzzing because it has become foundational to digital marketing. User generated content allows people around the world to share ideas with each other. Social media’s reach now outperforms traditional media outlets like TV, radio and print. And while it’s now undeniably part of our culture and marketing disciplines, the growth has really just begun.

Random Social Media Stats

• In 2010, Gen Y outnumbered Baby Boomers and 96% of them belong to a social network.
• 78% of people trusting peer recommendations on websites; only 14% trust ads.
• 25% of search results for the world’s top 20 brands are linked to user-generated content.
• 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. in 2009 met via social media.
• Facebook has over 500 million active users. 50% of them log in every day. Collectively, 700 billion minutes per month are spent at the site. 70% of users are outside of the U.S. Facebook has over 200 million active mobile users and are 2X as active as non-mobile users.
• Twitter has 175 million users, generating over 65 million tweets and more than 800,000 searches per day.
• The second largest search engine in the world is YouTube. The site has over 2 billion viewers daily.
• 73% of Wikipedia users edit the site’s content because they want to share knowledge.
• LinkedIn has over 60 million users with 12 million unique visitors per day.
• People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services  than how Google ranks them.

What Do Strangers Recommend?

Word of mouth is the most popular option for deciding on your next product of service, with 78% of people trusting peer recommendations on websites. The profound influence that strangers have on our decisions is relatively new and remarkable territory. Plain old advertising only impresses 14% of people.

Brand Rankings Succumb to the User Generated Content

As mentioned above, 25% of search results for the world’s top 20 brands are linked to user-generated content. The platform provided by social media combined with sheer numbers of customer contributors outpaces the content that even the world’s largest brands can generate.

This can be a very good thing if your priorities are right. If the preponderance of your customers are saying good things, they will do the marketing for you. If not, or if your company has a bad rap for lack of engagement or courtesy, customer reviews can do more damage than any failed ad campaign. Large brands typically have it more uphill battle to humanize their messages and deal with customers at a one-to-one level. On the other hand, small companies have the most success at finding new customers through social sites.

2011 – Dubbed “The Year of Facebook” for PPC Marketers
2011 will have search marketers delving even deeper as it is anticipated to be the “year of Facebook” according to Covario, a search marketing firm to Fortune 500 companies.

72 percent of active users have two social network accounts on average, with Facebook being the platform of choice with 51 percent of users having an account – the most popular by a landslide.  Integration between search and social media is priority number one for respondents to Covario’s recent search and social media survey. The allure of user-generated inbound links to product sites is a major draw for advertisers.

Paid search advertisements on social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn should also see major upticks – as much as 10% to 20% of PPC budgets – as marketers aim to engage their target audience in the middle of their networking sprees.

Make Social Media a Priority

The takeaway is that consumers now have the largest impact on a brand’s messaging and it is doubtful that we’re going to cede that voice anytime soon. Social media here to stay. So, whatever your feelings are toward connecting with consumers, engaging in social media and integrating it with your digital and offline campaigns needs to a top priority for your business in 2011 and beyond.

A new global survey from TNS called “Digital Life” reveals that the Internet is the top medium for people around the world with internet access. 61% of internet users use the internet every day, while TV is used by 54%, radio by 35% and 32% read newspapers daily.

Nearly 30% of the world’s population has access to the Internet and mobile subscribers equate into about 2/3 of the world’s inhabitants and an increasing number are mobile data subscribers. Internet penetration is rapidly increasing in the developing world and its users are actually more inclined to use the internet than nations with high internet and mobile penetration rates.

Social networks are popular worldwide and mobile promises to attract more users who will log more hours than ever before. One-third of U.S. online consumers plan to use social networking sites more this year via their mobile phones.
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Internet, was recently quoted as saying that his hope is that everyone in the world should be a given a low-bandwidth connection “by default.” Others think that it should be a universal human right.

Time will tell but worldwide connectivity will likely be achieved by mobile. Analysts posit that new internet connections will likely be produced by the 4 billion mobile users worldwide compared to the 1 billion PC users. The Mobile web is dubbed the “next major computing cycle” with developing nations leapfrogging desktop Internet usage and heading straight for the mobile web.

In spite of global recessions and a rapidly growing middle class in China, our consumer nation is still the world’s largest advertising market for U.S. and international companies. Yet as advanced as we are, the U.S. is not the most connected.

In Ciarán Norris’ article, “A Letter to Facebook From the Rest of the World,” he notes that while the U.S. is often the test market for new technologies such as Facebook’s geolocation service, Places, there are other countries whose connectedness would make them ideal beta testing grounds.

For instance, Facebook is now the most popular media brand in the U.K. and Sweden has a 92% internet penetration rate compared with the U.S. at 77%. Indonesia is the fourth largest market for Facebook, yet only 12% of its population is online.

As stated in Morgan Stanley’s “Mobile Internet Report,” 96% 0f Japan’s residents will have 3G mobile access this year. It is estimated that there will be more users connected to the internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within the next five years. China and India lead the world in terms of users, with over 600 million mobile subscribers in China over 300 million in India with major growth rates expected by 2014.

So while U.S. consumers purchase more than other nations and marketers will continue to test and launch products and services, it is not the only market that should be considered for product feedback. Other nations have higher mobile and internet penetrate rates and house highly active users with unique perspectives on the social media services rooted here in the U.S.

Any worker living through this recession knows that job security doesn’t exist anymore. We are in the era of “The Disposable Worker” as dubbed by BusinessWeek in its January 2010 cover story. The recession has hastened some negative employment trends including: offshoring, declining influence of labor unions, new management techniques, regulatory changes and automation. 5% of US jobs have been lost and many of those jobs may be perpetually gone even after the recession due to the competitive drive to stay offshore and automate. Worker grievances like little pay increases, degraded working conditions and minimal job security may last for 5-10 years.  Young people are particularly affected by these trends since many can’t land their first job or their first job out of college.

So how distinguish yourself in an increasingly hostile job economy and a burgeoning global workplace? Your  personal brand – an expression of your “best self”- needs to become visible in social media.

According to a recent survey by Harris Interactive, 45% of HR professionals utilize social networking sites to research prospective employment candidates and 11% plan to implement social media screening very soon. With 35% of companies finding social media content that has caused them to not hire candidates, what you post and where you post must be given careful consideration.  On the positive side, 18% of employers have uncovered positive content at social sites that have caused them to hire someone.

Thus, social media has an increasing impact on the world’s perception of your personal brand. We’ll define four steps that will help you distinguish yourself from the pack.

First, you need to define your best attributes. You need to find your niche. This can be a challenging first step for some who pride themselves on being a jack-of-all-trades. While this can be a positive attribute, it’s subjective and should not have your sole feature.  Being great at something is more apt to make you stand out than being mediocre at dozens of things.

During the define exercise, try to quiet the inner voices that compare your attributes to others or assert aspirations that never quite come to fruition. Think of this exercise like a “features and benefits” chart that many products and services use.  Examine what you really can do, the principles that you stand for and how these attributes can benefit the world via your workplace, personal relationships and outreach.

Next, you need to network: social media is where you’ll need to build the foundation of your brand. Think of your social network as an investment in your future. You will have to be creative to stand out – this is where expressing your best self and your niche comes into play. Besides your friends, family and coworkers network, branch out and engage with people you aspire to be like, work for, or receive mentorship from. Social media is free and easy to join but its benefits can be lost on those who don’t delve into the finer details.

For instance, if you’re on Twitter, aspire up with regard to who you follow. Follow your industry’s big shots as well as the lesser-known people that post valuable insights into career and life. Look at the “following” list of people you respect and follow those same people.

Then, engage: retweet, direct message and ask questions. The big shots won’t likely message you back, but you never know when they might notice your tweet in their stream because you’re commenting on a topic that happens to be on their radar. If nothing else, learn from those who have more experience than you, a more distinct niche or habits that you’d like to emulate.

Once you’ve established a social foundation, you need to maintain your personal brand. That means you’ll need to have a good attitude, no matter who’s pulling your strings or what personal issues are troubling you. Inter-company relationships are important. Make sure your employer understands who you are and what value you provide to the company. Just because the job environment is increasingly competitive doesn’t mean you should start alienating your fellow workers. Don’t be conniving but do let the boss occasionally see that your actions towards others demonstrate concern and teamwork.

Integrity and meaningful progress have always been desirable attributes for workers, families and friends. But more than ever with an ever-changing job economy, it’s important to be transparent and evolve.

If you stumble and cause a notable offense, miss a deadline or squander an opportunity, you can use your social media profile to note your mistake and enumerate your commitment to improvement. Like we’ve seen with many companies whose product or service misses the mark, you can either ignore the rants and let the social media firestorm ignite unabated (think Ryannair or Dell) or you can face the issue head-on, express plans for reparation and direct the outcome (think Domino’s Pizza Turnaround campaign).

And as your knowledge, experience and skills progress, make sure that your social media profile expresses the positive evolution of your brand. You don’t have to always be displaying some newfangled device or talent but do keep up with advancements in your industry and cultivate efficiencies in your personal life.

Once you’ve built your personal brand on social media, persevere. This isn’t a one-off campaign; this is a evolving expression of who you are throughout the course of your life.

Increasingly, we all use the internet, search and social media to check in with and check up on the people we encounter. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to define, network, maintain and evolve your personal brand – your “best self” – via social networking.

For more a more detailed look at personal branding, download or buy Dan Schawbel’s popular book on the subject: Me 2.0.