We took a closer look at elevator pitches in preparation for next week. We also discussed a range of cloud-based tools to help collaboration, task and file management.

1. COMP 113
Social Media & Online Communities, Summer School 2012
10: The Pitch / Cool tools

2. Assessing your performance
Assessment Weighting Total
Blog assignments 3 x 5% 15%
Group project: 40%
• Report 15%
• Prototype 15%
• Presentation 10%
Final Examination 45%
Total 100%
 3 components: report, Facebook page,
presentation
 Presentations to expert panel (cf. Dragon’s Den)
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3. The Facebook page (15%)
1. Purpose should be clear and aimed at a target
audience.
2. Should be apparent how you wish the
community to act.
3. Representative content present.
4. Clear, consistent design reflecting strong
identity.
5. Facebook page augmented by external apps.
6. Have social media content integration and
automation.
7. Evidence of active community engagement.
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4. The report (15%)
 Executive summary: Report summary (300 words)
 Market research: Need, competition, niche, user
benefits
 Promotion strategy: User recruitment, retention &
motivation
 Content strategy: Proposed content types and use
 Action Plan: Sequence of future actions to grow site
 Design plan: Design choices behind branding
 Issues: Possible ethical and/or legal issues
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5. The presentation (10%)
 Held during final Wednesday class
 Modified elevator pitch
 The presentation process:
– One team member has 55 seconds to articulate
the ideas behind the Facebook page (no slides)
– The remaining team members will then have 2
minutes to demonstrate the different features of
the Facebook page (no slides)
– The whole team will be available to answer
questions from the judging panel
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6. PART 1: Your pitch
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7. What is an elevator pitch?
 55 second presentation of your idea
 Approx. 150-225 words
 Answer questions:
– Who are you?
– What are you offering?
– Who is your user base?
– Who is the competition?
– What is your competitive advantage?
– How will you grow your community?
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8. What is an elevator pitch?
Do this Don’t do this
 Deliver a “hook” to excite  Avoid autobiography
judges  Avoid technical jargon
 Script it, time it, then  Don’t giggle, swear, etc.
practice it (repeatedly)
 Stay on message
 Stay on time
 Be passionate
 Be believable & sincere
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9. The demo
 Demos are notorious for things not working on
the day!
 Test your features repeatedly
 Make sure that content & users are in the right
state
 Show features, content or activity that link to
pitch
 Show novel uses of apps, tabs, etc.
 Explain how design has been implemented
 Be open about missing features
 No slides!
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10. Question time
 Answer succinctly and stay on point
 Do not get defensive
 Talk with the judges courteously even if you
disagree
 You can go back to the demo to illustrate
something
 Try to avoid the “we were going to do that ...”
cycle of despair
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11. Play pitch 
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12. END OF PART 1
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13. PART 2: Cool tools
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14. Living Working in the cloud

15. What is a CMS?
 Actually a “WCMS”
 Enables online content submission with no
technical knowledge
 Makes website administration far simpler:
– Offers access control options, journalling, etc.
– Social media options bundled in by default
– Includes design templates
 Typically a scripting language (e.g., PHP) & a
database (e.g., MySQL)
 Examples: Joomla, Drupal, Silverstripe, ...
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16. [Weebly.com]
 Simple content management system (CMS)
 Remotely hosted (US)
 Drag ‘n’ drop interface (elements, themes)
 It is Free
 Access to HTML & CSS
 Commerce options
 Competitors: Wix.com, Yola.com
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18. Domain registrars [IWantMyName.com]
 NZ-based domain registrar
 Set “A” DNS record to point to service (e.g.,
Weebly, Tumblr, ...)
 Simple, elegant (cf. GoDaddy.com )
 Friendly & responsive support (e.g., Twitter)
 Setup to connect with social media
 Domain prices compare favourably
 ... & iPhone app
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22. Collaborative data storage [Dropbox.com]
 Cloud-based data storage:
– 2GB (free)
– Up to 100GB ($9.99/$19.99 per month)
 Automatic change detection & backups
 Allows for collaboration & sharing
 Sync files of any size or type (Win/Mac/Linux)
 Range of mobile apps
 Competitors: box.net, mozy.com
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24. Task management [Wunderlist.com]
 Web-based life organiser:
– To do list
– Projects
– Shopping lists
– Blog ideas
 Create and manage tasks (priority, due date)
 Group tasks with lists
 Share individual lists with co-workers
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27. Content redistribution [Twitterfeed.com]
 Automatically generate tweets from RSS feeds
 Free or donation
 Advanced editing features:
– Prefix/suffix
– Filtering
– Limiting
 Set & forget <- problem any here?
 Example feeds: Google news, news media,
topical sites, Yahoo pipes, ...
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31. Media editing [pixlr.com, screenr.com]
 Cloud-based image editor & screen caster
 What’s the advantage?
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32. Some others
 Pocketsmith.com
– Calendar based financial planning app
 Mailchimp.com
– Publish and manage email newsletters
 Rule.fm
– Collaborative project management
 Xero.com
– Complete accounting service (NZ based!)
 Invoicemachine.com
– Create and manage invoices for freelancers
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33. Any recommendations?
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34. The End
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