ThinkUp Montreal

Find a Need, Fill a Need

Recently I re-watched Robots with my son, what a great movie!

For those who have not seen it-

Even in a world populated entirely by mechanical beings Rodney Copperbottom is considered a genius inventor. Rodney dreams of two things, making the world a better place and meeting his idol, the master inventor Bigweld. On his journey he encounters Cappy, a beautiful executive ‘bot with whom Rodney is instantly smitten, the nefarious corporate tyrant Ratchet who locks horns with Rodney, and a group of misfit ‘bots known as the Rusties, led by Fender and Piper Pinwheeler.

Bigweld, the master inventor, is like the start-up guy who succeeded and that everyone wants to be, his tagline in the movie is “Find a need, fill a need”. This is marketing 101, but does it hold true?

I’ve been thinking about how so many start-ups fail from a common mistake, trying to create a need. They develop their ideas on an internal view of what they need. It’s a simple trap and a deadly mistake.

Many modern marketeers (I think you can call them that) believe that this is just a bunch of BS and just because marketing advice is repeated often … doesn’t make it true.

However, I think its alright to find a need and fill it. You can learn a lot from the process of trying to find a need. Filling a need is not just filling the gaps but to provide a solution, a lasting one.

That being said, there is a camp that believes the WANT of a consumer is much greater than the need. The need can invite commodity pricing and eventually lower the overall value of your business.

People will pay a premium price for what they want, just look at the Apple Store.

Should we be looking to find a want? Develop a market and lead a movement?

Let’s discuss this further at ThinkUpMtl :)

Facebook & Instagram - the Future of Social Media Sharing Apps

By now everyone knows about Facebook acquiring Instagram, and honestly it comes as no surprise, now that Facebook is a publicly traded company the powers above must be pressuring Zuckerberg’s team to make some big moves - this is only the start.

I’m a  huge fan of sharing media on the go, especially pics, in fact I’m somewhat of a media hound and recently posted about one of my new favorite apps for this, Pixable.

I’ve been a fan and dedicated user of Instagram for a while now, I even designed a WordPress theme around it called InstaPress.

I wonder, like most Instagram users, what the future holds for this app. I don’t believe the situation is dire at the moment, so many people talking about deleting their accounts, but Facebook owning and controlling all that data  I have entered in Instagram does concern me somewhat.

My biggest fear is that Facebook will essentially swallow Instagram into its core and kill the app, or add it as tab or something on their, in my opinion, already bloated and buggy iPhone app.

I’m also not keen on the fact that Facebook will have acquired all of that location-tagged photo data from myself and other users and use it to target ads at us.

I’m hoping that Facebook will come up with a clever way to incorporate Instagram by adding deeper integration of photo sharing on my timeline, group, or page via the app. This way the app still remains significant and intact.

A bigger question may be which app is next? If Facebook kills Instagram where will Instagram users turn to share their photos? What is the future of social media sharing apps?

This could be a great topic for our first ThinkUp. What are your thoughts?

On a side note if you are planning to delete your Instagram account or just preparing for the end you should check out Instaport, a very cool web app that exports you Instagram library to you local machine.

The Mythology of Social Influence

Great post by Rohn Jay Miller on ContentAndSocial.com “The Mythology of Social Influence” I see lots of possibilities for topics here.

What is ThinkUP?

First, let me introduce myself -

My name is Brendan Sera-Shriar a.k.a. digibomb.