SXSWi: the not so 'social' Soocial
Being at SXSW was not only educative but also inspiring. It thought it would be good to jot down a few key points which we brought back from our time in the ‘weird’ city of Austin. Apart from my observation that there were too few europeans present at SXSWi, this is a short summary of reactions from some of the many SXSWi attendees we spoke to.
”...it must be a very hard problem”
First of all the feedback about Soocial was very encouraging. Most Europeans to whom I explain what Soocial is, the feedback is something like: “Oh, that doesn’t exist yet? ...do people really need it then?” – which is a good question to ask. An answer often heard at SXSWi in Austin was: “Oh, that doesn’t exist yet? ... it must be a really hard problem”. To me it was an eye opener that people automatically jump to this assumption – one that to us has proven te be very true.
”...yeah I’m sick of my Facebook vampire friends too”
Without wanting or trying to diss Facebook (or other social networking sites), but how often have you rejected vampire bites or poker invitations on Facebook? Founder Zuckerberg agrees (see this video near the end, before the crowd mob starts) that this is a problem: there is too much information for current methods of content filters in Facebook. I think this is a trend to something more, that people are starting to get social-network fatigued. The cool thing is as soon as we explained that Soocial is not a social network site or even trying to connect these, the reactions were very positive.
”...so your service is about my actual friends?”
When we explained that we are a service that connects your devices and web apps to one single address book the response was without exception enthusiastic. The concept of finally having a solution that will provide hassle-free contacts is something people are longing for. The core idea is that Soocial is about your first life contacts, about who would you call for a real beer, a real poker game, not a virtual beer or virtual poker match on Facebook. First life contacts are more important than second life contacts. And there is no good solution yet to tie these contacts together in one place.
This feedback and these reactions have strengthened our belief that Soocial is on the right track. We still have a number of invites to send out. So send us an email at invites@soocial.com to get an invite so you can test it out for yourself.
