Waggener Edstrom Worldwide

There is an old saying that states it is not WHAT you know, but WHOM you know that matters. I prefer a twist on that saying because I have found that the “what” is often just as important as the “who.” Speaking of “it’s whom you know,” my flight from Seattle to Austin for SXSWi was full of familiar faces.

Of course, in today’s rapidly evolving social media landscape, culling through all the noise to figure out what is important and who are the influencers can be a nearly impossible feat. And if you plan on attending a big industry event — like I am this week in Austin at SXSWi — well, good luck sifting through the tweets from attendees tossing back a few beers at bars and clubs to find the smart posts from experts and panelists.

With this in mind, we recently joined forces with two brilliant up-and-coming Portland companies, Little Bird and Tater Tot Designs, to create a new Web application called Hey Big Fish. Hey Big Fish launched earlier this week at SXSWi and will help those attending and/or tracking the event measure the people and topics that carry the most influence in the SXSWi pond.

I’m excited about the partnership for two reasons:

• First, we are building an extended family around our agency by partnering with two companies that have complementary strengths to our own. Little Bird contributes the influencer discovery platform that the app is based on, and Tater Tot Designs delivers the digital solutions that make the app responsive and easy to use.
• Second, the result is something NEEDED by our industry and our clients — global brands that want to reach their key audiences in the most effective way possible. Hey Big Fish generates data that help these brands identify where their audiences are and which topics interest them most, enabling our clients to break through the noise.

With Hey Big Fish you can track your own influence and networking success with personalized event scorecards to see where you rank in the SXSWi pond.

Personally, I plan to use Hey Big Fish to follow the conversations around reducing waste in the vaccine supply and the efforts to reduce global poverty — personal passions and topics of interest for me. This tool allows me track the conversations at SXSWi and discover new influencers who share my interests, enabling me to connect, share and, ultimately, make an impact.

I strongly believe we have some of the smartest people on the planet at Waggener Edstrom. Part of my respect and esteem for these colleagues is their recognition that our industry is always changing, and as it changes we need to be at the forefront, developing new ideas and new solutions that will continue to deliver impact for our clients. Sometimes this push for impact means looking beyond our own agency.

Check out what the future looks like.