Influential Weekly Roundup: March Madness

March rolls in like a lion this year, with plenty of activity to keep the tech and politically savvy up late. South by Southwest goes into full swing this weekend in Austin, TX. Meanwhile protests continue in Wisconsin as Governor Scott Walker and the GOP lead state senate finally passed legislation eliminating collective bargaining by public employee unions in an effort to close a massive budget deficit. This is sure to frame the debate in the 2012 elections, and in months ahead as the opposition weighs recall efforts. By the way, some of the creative folks at Influential produced great spots for Mr. Walker’s campaign while at the RGA (check out “Barrett’s Brew“)

Facebook’s new web-wide, real identity-driven comment system is taking hold on popular sites, already driving traffic and cutting down on spam and trolls. Keep reading to see why Facebook & Twitter aren’t necessarily the last word for your business’ social marketing strategy, plus more on new features from Google to keep users plugged in to its services. On a serious note: in the wake of the devastating 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in Japan early Friday, Google rolled out a person finder which allows survivors and family to post updates to determine the whereabouts of those in harm’s way. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan.

Front and center in the tech world this week is South by Southwest (SXSW), the 24th annual film, interactive media and music festival in Austin. With over 12,000 attendees from creative artists to entrepreneurs, it is a hotbed for what’s next in the tech world. Kicking off Thursday is a “Startup Crawl” in which 15 Austin startup businesses open up their doors for a night of beer and networking. Australian businessman Elias Bizannes is sending entrepreneurs from six cities on overnight buses with “buspreneurs” hoping to launch the next Google over the course of the two-day journey (I hope nobody gets carsick).

Just in time for SXSW, location based powerhouse app Foursquare launches version 3.0 of its popular check-in mobile app. The big news from the revamped app is the new ‘Explore’ tab which combines your checkin data with friends’ to recommend places you might like. This enhanced functionality should help Foursquare to become more useful (for something other than stalking and “mayor” competitions), and will be a great feature for discovering local hotspots when traveling to other cities. Other enhancements add incentives for businesses’ to reward customer checkins.

I already discovered a new food truck in DC using Foursquare’s Explore feature; “Eat Wonky,” which serves a veggie friendly version of Poutine, a dish popular in Montreal consisting of fries topped with gravy, cheese curd and meat (if you’re being authentic). You can literally smell the ‘health.’ I hope to track down Eat Wonky for a late-night visit on U Street soon!

QR Codes, those funky square bar codes which link to websites via a smart-phone’s Google or Bing app, are starting to catch on. Mashable Business has an op-ed on why they’re more than just a gimmicky way to display web links. For businesses they are a great way to collect analytics IRL (in real life), and QR Codes have potential to drive traffic to mobile services and commerce (read: impulse buying). Local DC theater company Woolley Mammoth is even running a cool viral marketing campaign tying in the hype for the iPad 2 launch with an upcoming monologue about Steve Jobs. They’re using street teams with QR coded shirts linking to a promotion utilizing interactions on Foursquare, Facebook, YouTube, AND a Twitter hashtag (#ShowUsYouriCrazy). And you thought you thought updating your Facebook Page was doing a lot, wow!

In related SXSW news, Apple is launching a pop-up store on Friday in the heart of Austin’s downtown business district for two weeks. The location will likely see a lot of traffic as the hotly anticipated iPad 2 launches on Friday. Each Apple Store averages annual sales of $25-$30 Million, so the Downtown Austin Alliance is pleased as well.

Socialmedia.biz looks at why social media marketing using Facebook and Twitter alone aren’t enough; with dozens of other services popping up every week, many are host to active communities of trendsetters and market shapers. This includes top sites like Yelp, YouTube, StumbleUpon and Linkedin which is adding about 1 million users a day. Not to be ignored: up-and-comers like Foursquare, which now boasts over 7 Million users, adding about 1 Million users a month. At a minimum in 2011 you need to be listening and responding to your customers on social networks.

Google is aiming to ease search and email overload with two new features. First “Smart Labels” in gmail labs helps to automatically identify bulk mail and notifications, the type that might be useful but not urgent. In the search arena, users can now customize results by blocking any domain from results. Also in mobile, Google results on smart phones get mobile optimized ‘instant previews‘ in an effort guide users to the most relevant pages first.

And finally, a fun Friday video: Classic 2005 Gap commercial directed by Spike Jonze “Pardon Our Dust,” after a recent visit to the Gap, I would love to take part in the sequel.

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Find the author on Twitter: @David_Fabian
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