Business Model Canvas

As I analyzed the situation regarding the Westercon67 convention, I noticed that developing a business canvas will help in organizing and making sure results are achieved. The recent posts from Westerncon67 are not effective, not frequent, and not engaging for their fans and followers.

It is very important that Westerncon67 creates and follows a business model canvas in order to recognize their target audience and to bring them to this years convention.

Customer Segments:

-Young Adults

-Aspired writers

-New writers

-Potential writers

-Writers from local universities

-English Majors

Identifying your audience is challenging but certainly important. This is a big challenge for Westercon because they currently lack an audience.

Key Partners:

-Brandon Sanderson

-Cory Doctorow

-Chris Garcia

-Mary Kowal

-Howard Tayler

-Dan Wells

-Kerry Jackson (radio)

-Larry Correia

-Desert Book

Centrality- Reaching out to the suggested partners and celebrities that relate to Westercon will not only grow the network and but place in the heart of the network.

Key Activities:

-Focus on quality and consistency of all types of post.

-Use all social media channels resources.

-Follow more people on different platforms, especially influential people and partners.

-They need to interact and engage with fans and followers.

-Regular Q&A.

Transitivity-Although some fans are already connected, the challenge will be bring in the new customers segments and have them become quickly involved in the convention.

Value Propositions:

-Make sure all content is clear and specific.

-Keep fans and followers updated on what is going to happen at the convention and when things are    going to happen.

-Share information from fans and followers. Keep them engaged as you interact and respond to their post.

Connectivity- This will be accomplished by posting more valuable content and doing it consistently.

Customer Relationships:

-As mentioned before there must be an interaction with the fans and followers. Have them share and  

express their opinions and try give them recognition as they earn it.

-Reward certain fans for the loyalty and or engagement with what you are distributing.

Channels:

-Facebook

-Twitter

-Instagram

-Pinterest

-Linkedin

-Google+

-Podcast

-Vine

                                                    Business Model Canvas Explained                             

 

The Challenge

One of the key challenges for any brand’s social media strategy is to create a sense of community and loyalty among its fans. Sometimes, that community already exists and the job of the social media leaders is to start engaging those people in new channels of communication. Comic Con Salt Lake City is an enormously successful convention that recently launched last year bringing in thousands and thousands of people to its events.

While researching what they did that gave them so much success I came across an article from adnewsonline.com that explains their strategy. In order to accomplish this success they first created a specific list of goals. This list included:

In order to achieve a successful first time event, they created a list of specific targets:

• Gathering 50,000+ Facebook fans in the target demographic.

• Gathering 1,000+ Twitter followers including leading influencers to the target demographic.

• Create Viral Content that would generate significant Social Media Reach.

• Sell 35,000 Tickets.

• Sellout Booth Space, Artist Alley and Sponsorships to relevant high quality/content oriented companies.

• Meet celebrity guest guaranteed minimums.

Ubiquitous coverage of Intermountain region via Facebook.

• Create an event that would generate significant and positive post-event buzz, ensuring the long-term success of the brand.

These were clear and specific goals for the company. However, not only did they develop clear goals but they also planned out how they were going to accomplish them. Using a variety of methods, skills and tactics, they sought to create a general awareness around the Salt Lake Comic Con brand using multiple approaches:

• Create an interactive Facebook Fan Page in order to drive engagement and sales, using strong call to action memes, encouraging likes and shares.

• Focus on the prime demographic and create content that fans want to share (turning fans into evangelists for viral and word-of-mouth marketing).

• Engage and entertain rather than sell, especially on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.

• Leverage the power of association, relating Salt Lake Comic Con to the brands represented by celebrities that starred in the blockbuster movies and televisions shows such as Star Wars, Star Trek and others.

• Make decisions that benefit everyone involved, from customers to fans, employees to partners, vendors and sponsors.

• Create a market niche offering the only product or solution to the target market.

Continually identify and qualify the desired prospect.

• Show celebrity agents a professional web presence, with social media engagement higher than virtually all other Comic Con fan pages, and above average ticket pre-sales.

• Heavily market autograph sessions and photo ops to ensure a strong demand in order to meet celebrity guarantees.

Salt Lake Comic Con sought to strategically build, connect, engage and influence their unique target market surrounding Salt Lake City. They were able to achieve this through much research. This then gave them a better understanding of the wants, needs, and desires of their target market. In the end, they were right on strategy and created a huge buzz across multiple social media platforms.

http://adnewsonline.com/case-study-comic-con-salt-lake/

The Impact of New Technology

Many key events have been the cause of a “media meltdown”. One of the biggest events that have been part of the cause is the development of the Internet. The growth of the Internet has simply been the reason for so much disruption in the media.

In the Laws of Media, written by Marshall McLuhan, he argues that tetrads are “a means of focusing awareness on hidden or unobserved qualities in our culture and technology”. McLuhan argues that the effects of every media can be viewed in four ways. McLuhan summarized his ideas about media in a concise tetrad of media effects. The tetrad is a means of examining the effects on society of any technology/medium by dividing its effects into four categories and displaying them simultaneously.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrad_of_media_effects


What does the medium enhance?
What does the medium make obsolete?
What does the medium retrieve that had been obsolesced earlier?
What does the medium flip into when pushed to extremes?

These rules apply to a medium such as the Internet. The Internet enhances thought both in retrieving information that nurtures thought and expressing thoughts to help others. It obsolesced books or publications that inform thought. This is done at a much slower rate. The Internet retrieves forms and ways from the past where people came to share thoughts and dialogue. When pushed to the extreme, the Internet goes beyond because it recalls what has been voiced.

To give another example, I recently used Skype and I have noticed that it can also be applied to the tetrad.

It enhances communication at a distance for business, commercial uses, and all types of relationships. I was able to communicate with my sister who is across the United States. It renders obsolete written orders, memos, and any other similar requests. It retrieves personal contact and direct verbal communications as the means of making decisions. It reverses in to bullying. THE PERSON WITH THE LOUDEST VOICE CAN EASILY WIN.  http://www.skype.com/en/

The development of the Internet has certainly made a big impact and will continue to do so. The growth of the Internet has been one of the main reasons for so much disruption in the media. Its effects on society along with any type of technology/medium can be identified in McLuhan's tetrad.

Support from the Net

"Even when online groups are not designed to be supportive, they often are."

I recently discovered a good example of this through a band called the Lumineers. The Lumineers are a wildly successful folk band from Colorado that has achieved worldwide fame. Their Facebook page has over 1.4 million likes. This example explains how effectively the Lumineers raised support for a charitable cause in October of 2013 over the Internet.

http://thelumineers.com/colorado-flood-relief-online-sale-is-on-now/

Their home state of Colorado was pummeled with record rainfall during September, and nearly 18,000 homes were damaged, over 2000 completely destroyed. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the Lumineers posted on their Facebook to get fans involved in the relief effort organized by the United Way. For 24 hours, all the proceeds from selling band merchandise on their website would be donated to the United Way Flood Recovery Fund, and they also shared a link where people could donate directly (liveunitedcolorado.org).

The 24-hour window of time forced followers to recognize a closing window of opportunity for getting involved. Fans who previously wanted t-shirts felt a push to buy right away. The exclusive opportunity to be a part of the cause and to be able to proudly wear the t-shirt also illustrates how important a token gift is in fundraising goals.

Within 20 minutes of the announcement the Facebook post had been shared 120 times. People acted quickly about getting involved instead of casually browsing past the post. Over four thousand likes and hundreds of comments show an outpouring of approval from the bands followers. This charitable cause by the Lumineers is great example that shows us that “even when online groups are not designed to be supportive, they often are."

In addition to providing support, the net also allows weak ties to become useful. The article explained that weak ties are more apt than strong ties to link people with different social characteristics. “This suggest that the kind of people you know is more important for obtaining information than the number of people you know.”

When I think of this I think of the networking service Linkedin. It is a business social networking site and its main purpose is to help people network professionally. The site lets you find other business associates, clients, and colleagues whom you already know. You connect with them through the site, and they then become part of your network. By using this service you can a

llow your weak ties to become useful.
https://www.linkedin.com/

Social Media and Social Behaviors

Today’s society is experiencing the growth of social media. In the U.S., the social media landscape is comprised mostly of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A recent article I discovered in Digiday examined the differences in social behaviors among working moms and stay at home moms. The article and research found that working moms dominate across most social networks based on the number of followers, variety of topics they post on and the types of content they share. However, despite having fewer online profiles to manage, stay at home moms are engaging just as often in social media.

It may not be surprising that working moms have a larger network gathered from past and current jobs. Working moms maintain a wider variety of social platforms than stay at home moms. According to the article, they have more than twice the Twitter followers, four times the Instagram followers and nearly 15 times the Google Plus contacts. Pinterest, however, is equally popular among both groups of moms.

What stood out to me is that stay at home moms have the potential to drill down deeper into their network.

“For me, Facebook is about trying to connect with another person, whether it’s someone I went to elementary school with or someone who is five blocks away [and] looking for a plumber,” says Nancy Gonzalez, a stay at home mom in Oak Park, Ill. “Last week, I posted from the dentist’s office that my son might have an abscess, and all these people — my soccer-mom friends and my sister — sent notes back, saying ‘I hope he’s better.’ [Social media is] definitely a very personal thing for me.”

Of course both working moms and stay at home moms will have an influence on social media and the society. While working moms cover a broader range of platforms and topics, I agree with the article in that stay at home moms are able to have a stronger influence in what it is that they are engaging with on social media.

The Power in Networks

Manuel Castells claims that we are passing from the industrial age into the information age. This change is brought about by the development of new information of microelectronics and software based communication technologies. According to Castells, power now rests in networks. He states, “Power does not reside in institutions, not even the state or large corporations. It is located in the networks that structure society.”

There are numerous networks that can be found in our society. Some networks, such as that of financial capital, are global in scale. Networks also exist within and between businesses where resources include employees, consultants, and other businesses. They are brought together to work on a particular project, then dispersed and reallocated when the task is complete. The ability of an actor in the network, whether it be a company, individual, government, or other organization is determined by the degree to which it can contribute to the goals of the network. These factors help determine the power of the network. This new environment requires skilled flexible workers. However, this leads to a process of inclusion and exclusion from the network. The people at the bottom are those who, with nothing to offer the network, are excluded.

 

I believe there is power in networks that structure our society. The more people you know, the more people you can influence, either positively or negatively. People who work at developing strong clusters of networks across a broad section of interests, age groups, demographics and cultures can often exert enormous positive or negative influence. These people in the networks that structure our society, whether it is a company, individual, government, or other organization will contribute to the power of the network.