Curated Takeaways from Smash Summit

I’ve curated the biggest takeaways from Smash Summit, a marketing conference in New York City organized by Dave McClure and 500 Startups. The summit focused on marketing strategies for various platforms to acquire customers and retain them.

Here’s a full summary of the notable individuals and content presented.

Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures (@fredwilson)

• Prioritize attention in this order: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr
• “Not much inherently different between +1, Like and Retweet.”
• Tumblr is underrated at the moment and should be in the conversation with Facebook and Twitter
• “Create great content that people care about.”
• “Every feature you add is another feature you should take out.”
• “Most powerful platforms focused on getting users at the beginning, not money.”

Dave McClure, 500 Startups (@davemcclure)

• Twitter is important platform for connecting and dialogue with consumers
• Twitter is a broadcast experience

Robert Scoble, Rackspace (@Scobleizer)

• Google+ wins

Shiva Rajaraman, YouTube (@shivar)

• YouTube plays 3 billion+ videos daily, of which more than 500 million are offsite
• The second most searched site. Google now owns #1 and #2
• Best marketing tips: pick a title always including company name; first 15 seconds are most important; make it unique; entertain or educate; play on existing trends; encourage feedback and reward your audience

Billy Chasen, turntable.fm (@billychasen)

• turntable.fm gained 600,000 active users in first 3 months from word of mouth. Actually told media to fuck off
• TechCrunch story doesn’t matter if it’s not the right community for your product
• “Spam, misuse and scaling aren’t issues until they become issues.”
• Friends of friends greatly helps virality; create a better incentive
• Influencers are helpful, but not necessary
• Make incentives for both referrer and recipient

Laura Fitton, HubSpot (@pistachio)

• Be useful—influence is about providing attention and value to others
• 42% of companies acquire a consumer through Twitter
• All businesses should register: http://business.twitter.com/

Jon Steinback, Foursquare (@itsmejon)

• Foursquare presents huge opportunity for startups to create incentives and dialogue with consumers
• Badging drives foot traffic
• Helps via distribution channel 

Ankur Pansari, Facebook

• Leaked: Facebook has a quarter billion mobile users.
• Facebook doesn’t see itself owning brand pages. Brands own relationship with consumers
• Facebook timelines will curate a deeper identity through visuals 

Amanda Steinberg, DailyWorth.com (@amandasteinberg)

• Press is good but doesn’t grow email subscriber list
• Must have kickass content with personality
• Pay someone to write subject email lines
• Email at 2pm local — best time
• Make email newsletters easy to forward

Roshanna Sabaratnam, Gilt Groupe

• Paid memberships are the death of any company
• Find a way to operate company through free membership, even if exclusive
• Partnerships are critical to success