Elevator Pitch No. 3

Most of the pitch I needed to improve on was based around peer feedback. I was told to speak with more confidence and to solidify what the actual idea was, so I tried to emphasized these in the beginning and throughout the elevator pitch.
I tried to speak clearly and relatively slowly while explaining the two primary themes behind my idea.

Reading Reflection No. 2

The book I chose was “Cognitive Surplus” by Clay Shirky.

The general theme of the book was how technology affects the distribution of knowledge throughout the world. It made sense as it allowed a general perspective of how technology helps facilitate knowledge through various applications, websites, and social media. This was especially true through our class at technology and lectures available online through ENT3003 allows a database of knowledge that was previously unavailable to older generations.

If I were to design an exercise for the class based around the book, it would be involving a poll based around different social media outlets. I’d use these outlets to see which platform gathers more responses and to see if they are consistent across platforms. Different platforms may gather different answers depending on the usage of the application and the age groups/demographics the questions are based around.

The biggest “aha” moment I had while reading was that social media affects people in different ways. When discussing that it has a more “revealing” effect rather than a “consumption effect, it made sense as everyone uses social media to discuss different topics. Even though one topic may seem useless to one person, it does not mean that it is useless to another person.

Growing Your Social Capital

           Recently, I took the time to appeal to three people in connection with the fitness industry to discuss the potential for my application idea, FitIn. The three people I got in contact with were:

1.     Domain Expert: Cathy via an *unnamed* social media marketing company

a.     Female, Age: 21, Social Media manager

b.     Friend – have already discussed interest with the use of social media in marketing and advertising services.

c.     I asked this person to give me a rundown of how it is to operate and manage social media platforms and accounts; included questions about advertising costs and marketing strategies.

d.     This person allows me to gain insight of social media management which would be important tips to pass onto future management for moderators of the future application.

2.     Expert in the Market: Bethany via LinkedIn customer support

a.     Female, 34, Marketing and Communications Assistant Director

b.     Referred by customer service – called and was told they could leave a message for the participant. Participant then called back to schedule a phone call.

c.     Asked the participant to assess ways to target specific brands and people to join in communities along with retention strategies.

d.     This participant allowed me to understand ways to target specific brands and influencers without being too pushy. She would be great as a mentor for marketing strategies.

3.     Supplier: Mark via Bodybuilding.com

a.     Male, 40, Supply Chain Manager

b.     Sent an email through online support and was given the email of the participant. These emails led to a phone call.

c.     Asked the participant about costs of shipping and wholesale distribution along with usage of this information via an online market.

d.     Participant gave hard numbers of volumes and purchase numbers of certain products to let me evaluate how big of a load the application is attempting to handle.

This experience definitely allowed me to be more comfortable with almost “cold-calling” representatives of a field. I had to do my research and even then, eight of my emails to “professionals” within interested fields were ignored. This approach taught me to keep on trying as eventually, with a good enough idea, you can catch the interest of anyone.

Idea Napkin No. 2

         I am student with a love for fitness. I love the concept of intersecting aspects of fitness with social media, marketing, and ease-to-use accessibility. I have the ability to speak, influence, and interact with others along with a forward presence to teach and lead. I am familiar with exercise science and physiology and am able to maintain knowledge of videography, marketing, and social media trends. I have experience with organization, planning, design, and scheduling; skills I have acquired through personal interest and work positions. I see this business as a creative part of my life where I can express a passion through a career path.

         I am offering a free-to-use platform, FitIn. This application has optional paid features that allows people from all walks of life to express their fitness goals, stories, and plans within a focused community. This community would be an online experience available through a provided website and mobile application. Additionally, an online marketplace with available services and goods would be provided through the application. This marketplace would feature prominent brands and goods well-known to amateur and professional fitness enthusiasts alike. For the social media platform, the ability to post statements, pictures, videos, and other relative media would be encouraged. The ability to add friends and join groups would be additional promoted features.

         I am offering this application to men and women, typically aged 16-50, who share an enthusiasm for fitness. These people would be fluent in social media use and would hopefully be open and vulnerable enough to share personal thoughts and ideas. The application would also be aimed towards professional athletes and brands to encourage adoption and innovation for these markets.

         People would care about this application due to information and questions relating to fitness being scarce and secularized. This application would aim to bring in all aspects of training, whether it be football or CrossFit, and have a holistic fitness platform. Ads would be catered towards search keywords and interests that can be tailored by the user and allows creative freedom for people to express their thoughts in a controlled environment not offered by other current applications.

         My idea is set apart by its innovation and creativity along with my passion. No other large-scale social media application exists on the market with a fitness basis, as many of these fitness-related discussions occur on forum boards on related websites. This allows the application its freedom to see what ideas work and what do not.

         I think the idea for the application has solid interest and would encourage many people to join and participate in. I think that the weaker parts of my idea include retaining interest, maintaining monetary value and flow for the company, and coding as concrete ideas have not been made for these concepts yet.

         Regarding feedback for this assignment, much of it was encouraging me to mix my passion with the idea, allowing me to think of new concepts, and to encourage diverse options with my platform which emphasized my idea of a marketplace and social media platform to coexist. I appreciated my classmates’ encouragements to stay confident with my idea and mix it with my creativity.