Recently Benjamin Kuo invited our founder and CEO Tony Winders to share his insights on building community and marketing for startups with the socalTECH.com audience. Here are some highlights from the interview.
How do you build community?
Pulling from two decades as a community leader in LA's digital media and marketing industries, Winders offered these insights on building a community:
- Need - The most vibrant communities start with a common need for networking, education, information or business development around a common challenge or shared goal / vision.
- Personality - Behind every thriving community is a motivated individual with the drive, charisma and organization skills required to bring groups of people together.
- Continuity - A critical success factor for growing a community is the momentum and energy generated through a consistent flow of communication and regularly scheduled events.
What's your advice for how to market a startup?
- Build an Extraordinary Product - The best possible form of marketing for any startup is having a unique product that solves a problem, saves time or money, or otherwise helps make people's lives easier.
- Make Positioning a Priority - Make your message easy to understand by investing the time and energy required to properly position and differentiate your startup from the competition.
- Promote Wisely - Start with a core set of assets (e.g. logo, website, pitch deck, etc.) then set goals, roll up sleeves and growth hack your way to whatever promotion will generate measurable results within the time and resources you have available. Often this involves direct engagement with the community you serve and starts with search engines, email, social media and events.
- Forge Partnerships - No company has ever made it to the top going it alone. Identify non-competitive vendors, trade partners and individuals and organizations bigger than yours who are willing to help you along.
Click here or scroll below to view the full interview on socalTECH's YouTube channel:
