Here’s a description of the panel, should be a fun one!
“The Small Business Web now has over 100 web app companies all serving the small business market. Together, we’re re-writing the rules for traditional business development and building the market for small business software through integrations.
So how has it not devolved into fisticuffs and mayhem? And why does integration help both the consumers and the vendors who are building the applications?
Members of the Small Business Web will discuss the power of the open API, why customers buy apps that integrate, how they are embracing their competition and why sometimes even they have to remember to “Hug It Out” as they work together to define the future of the Small Business Web.”
We need your help in making our dream of a Small Business Web panel a reality by giving us your vote*, your Tweets, your love etc. Vote for our panel and hopefully we’ll see you in Austin in March.
*You’ll need to sign in or create an account at the SXSW site to vote.
Today, live from the action at SXSWi in Austin, we launched the new version of The Small Business Web. This site has grown from a single page put together on the fly at last year’s SXSW, to a full-blown Directory that includes categories, screen shots, pricing info, links to integration information and more.
Helping small businesses navigate and use technology has always been part of BatchBlue’s mission. It’s why we write our “Blue Papers“, it’s why we started the Twitter chat for small business owners #SBBUZZ and it’s the reason we’re now so excited about the new Directory. We think it will be very useful for folks looking for ways to grow and manage their businesses using some of the best tools out there.
Here’s a short video our friends at MailChimp put together to help explain what the Small Business Web is all about:
We hope you will make many good connections through the new Small Business Web Directory. We look forward to helping you hook them all up.
We’ve been working with many of our Small Business Web friends in planning a Big Party for Small Business. If you’re going to be in Texas next week, we hope you’ll stop by from some food, drinks and conversation with the smashing hosts of the party (and the people who love them!)
Here are some of the small business SaaS companies who will be in attendance and eager to meet up:
…and of course, good old BatchBlue (hint: look for the blue cupcakes!)
You can RSVP (required by Austin law) and find out more about the party on the official party page. You can also follow the party-specific Twitter account, where we’ll be posting updates, plans, pictures and more.
Since we saw so many nice pictures of folks using the BatchBlue holiday tumblers, we thought we’d do a round-up of “spotted in the wild” pictures of folks wearing their fancy new BatchBook: the Social CRM t-shirts.
Our good friend TJ Sonderman (@sondernagle) had the inspiration for the t-shirts we gave out at SXSW this year. Since we’d recently launched a “social media” SuperTag that can pull feeds from Twitter, flickr, delicious, blogs etc. into your BatchBook account, he thought it would be cool to design a shirt that allowed people to write their Twitter handles on it. We took the concept to Adam (@adarowski), our Designer Extraordinaire and the rest is SXSW history!
Here’s a bunch of folks wearing their Twitter handles with pride. Pictured left to right are Alex de Carvalho (@alexdc), Davide DiCillo (@davidedicillo), Shashi Bellamkonda (@shashib), Betsy McDonald (@splashet), and Pamela O’Hara (@pmohara). Photo via Shashi’s flickrstream
We brought shirts to the SXSW Blogger’s Lounge, where we were mobbed by the folks wanting to get their hands on a t-shirt! Here I am (wearing a Social CRM t-shirt) and carefully writing out Twitter handles for the Twitterati. Photo by Alexdesigns
There was a reason why we helped with Twitter handles. Writing anything in a Sharpie is quite a commitment! Here, Jennifer Van Grove from Mashable shows her first attempt at her Twitter handle, which is actually @jbruin. Don’t worry, we gave her another one
And OMG it’s @scoutsprout! Everyone’s favorite canine contact manager! You know he uses BatchBook to keep track of who goes to which dog park, what store has the best doggie treats etc. How else does a busy urban dog keep his business straight?
Here’s one of my Top 5 fave Twitterers of all time Colleen Wainwright (@communicatrix) customizing her shirt using Pam O’Hara’s back, while Saul Colt (@saulcolt) Tweets about it. So meta it’s mighty!
UPDATE: The lovely Jane Porricelli has a new t-shirt for running and Tweeting.
UPDATE: We got one more from our good friend Steve Malloy (@sophware). This is the first photo that includes the entire family!
You’re looking good out there, folks. If anyone else has got a picture they’d like to share, send it in to info@batchblue.com and we’ll add you to the gallery of gorgeousness!
We’re back and finally somewhat recovered from the madness that is SXSW. This year, Michelle, Pam and Matt attended (Michelle’s usual partner in social media crime, Adam, was out having a baby – congrads, Adam!)
Like last year, the event was blur of meet-ups, panels, interviews, intense hallway conversations and non-stop activity. Sadly, the BatchBlue team didn’t get to attend too many panels, but as a networking event, it was great. And a lot of cool stuff came out of it.
In the days (okay, more like hours) leading up to SXSW, we put the finishing touches on the beta of BatchBook sync, which was hugely exciting for us as it brings us one step closer to the idea of true data portability. Our plan was to soft launch BatchBook sync at SXSW, then return home to do some tweaking and de-bugging before really getting the word out. But like many well-intentioned plans (especially as they pertain to SXSW), this got tossed out the window and instead we found ourselves buckling our virtual seatbelts for a wild web app ride. Lots of new traffic and an ill-fated server move resulted in some growing pains for BatchBook, but thanks largely to the superhuman, nocturnal efforts of Sean and Matt, we’ve made it through and are better than ever. We also give a huge thanks to our customers both old and new for bearing with us through that rocky week.
T-Shirts and a Texas-sized small business brunch Since we knew how much people depend on Twitter in Austin to help them plan, we brought a bunch of “BatchBook Social CRM” t-shirts with us that had a space for people’s Twitter handles on the front. The t-shirts were a big hit: we literally had people chasing us down to get one! Thanks to our friend and unofficial BatchBlue mascot TJ Sondermann for the concept.
On Sunday, we planned on hosting a Small Business Brunch with our friend Shashi Bellamkonda of Network Solutions. We expected maybe twenty or so folks to come by the delicious Moonshine Cafe to meet up, network and talk small business. We were pleasantly surprised when more than double that number showed up, thanks in large part ot Shashi’s mad Twitter skills. The restaurant was extremely accommodating and graciously set up extra tables so everyone could enjoy their delicious Sunday brunch. We hung out with social media man Jeff Pulver, Lisa Rodwell from Moo cards, Saul Colt from Freshbooks, Becky McCray from Small Biz Survival, and many many others. Perhaps the most important connection made that morning was when Matt learned chicken-fried steak is best eaten with gravy.
The Small Business Web
We were also happy about how much excitement the concept of the Small Business Web generated, both with our new sync partners and the press we spoke with. Grant Robertson from the Download Squad shot a really fun video (see above) of us and some of the folks from Freshbooks, Outright and Shoeboxed talking about the Small Business Web. It was definitely our most rock star moment, as people crowded up to us after the interview wanting to know more about our products and how they worked with each other. Cool! We’re still sorting out the details of what the Small Business Web will look like as we partner with other folks, but we did put together a sort of mission statement:
The Small Business Web is a movement to bring together like-minded, customer-obsessed software companies to integrate our respective products and make life easier for small businesses. While there are many products available for small business owners on the Web, the approach we’re taking is to use each others APIs to provide a high-level of integration between these applications and create a more seamless experience for our customers.
Our goal is to refine and better define the Small Business Web over the upcoming months. We’ll be updating here as we do.
We also got some other great press coverage coming out of SXSW, which you can read on our Press page. One of the coolest things was that Chris Brogan called us his “favorite web app” (well, after Twitter), which is a huge compliment coming from the King of All Social Media (though he would tell you he was but its humble servant).
In all, it was once again a worthwhile conference filled with interesting people doing exciting things and we were very glad to be a part of it. Thanks to everyone we met and we hope to see you again in Texas next year (you too, Adam!)
Our panel “Friends with Business Benefits: How Integrations Sell Apps” made it through the first round for SXSW11! We’ll be speaking with some of our favorite Small Business Web folks and other integration fans about why integrated apps are the way to go for companies and for customers.
