In case you did not get a chance to watch 60 minutes this evening, you can watch the interview of CEO Andrew Mason (31 same age as myself) below. It was quite a good broadcast, and thought I’d share some takeaways from tonight.

1. High tech start-up CEO’s are becoming younger, more transparent, authentic, and open compared to traditional CEO’s.

2. The explosive growth of Groupon is great- the question will be can they sustain and become profitable long-term.

3. For high tech start-ups in today’s low barrier to entry climate, competition and knock-offs such as Living Social and others make it easy for competition to enter the market. The real question is how will your start-up and Groupon create more complex barrier to entries and long term sustainable competitive advantage?

4. The key to marketing for Groupon and other high-tech start-ups will always be proper communication and relevant communication to the appropriate audience.

5. Whether your Groupon or any other high-tech start-up, you need to always be able to identify the cost per acquisition per customer.

6. BONUS- Be careful of accounting tricks that look good on paper but can cause back-lash especially when you have investors or IPO.

I have a great deal of respect for Andrew Mason among all the constant criticism to continue moving forward and expanding the company to further heights.  Hope you enjoyed my synoposis.  Until we meet again..

Justin Results French

p.s. sharing is caring

Related articles

• 60 Minutes To Profile Groupon CEO Andrew Mason (forbes.com)

Intersted in social media servcies for your law firm? Contact us here to see if you qualify

Since I began advising businesses on social media marketing in 2009, things have continued to change much more quickly than I can keep up with. But I do my best to continue to learn strategies, techniques, and tools all for measuring continued success for businesses using this new extremely cost effective communication medium.

Before advising business on social media, hundreds of companies in Southern California trusted myself and my team with keeping them up and running with various Information Technology needs.

It was much easier to sell solving computer problems than trying to sell social media services, but we deal with much larger marketing budgets now which has it’s rewards. Besides- our efforts have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue on some projects.

When people’s computers are down, they can be fanatic! I had one customer that was loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars per day when they were down. So we worked the weekend to get them up by Monday morning. Weekend emergency rate applied of course

When selling social media services, we sell an improved business, cost savings, long term sustainability, competitive advantage, and many other benefits. In fact, we do a lot less selling and more educating. This is now the 21st century sales approach in case you haven’t noticed.

Social media consultants have a tough job. They must prove ROI, demonstrate results in a short amount of time, and show an increase in revenue otherwise they may be going back to the drawing board; or worse out of a client or a job.

From inside the social media trenches and business school, here are some things I learned that apply everyday to life in a social business setting. I have the privilege to lead companies into these murky waters where sometimes the outcomes can be serendipitous among saving companies thousands of dollars while acquiring new customers and driving bottom line revenue.

Here are those applied theories in action for social business:

1. Red ocean vs. Blue ocean strategy using social media

2. Swot analysis (google it)
3. Quantitative vs. Qualitative data (link to mashable article)
4. Self awareness ENTJ and how to listen more (especially with Social Media)
5. Work on projects with great people. In business school, When you do projects you either choose your own team or the professor assigns them. Just like in the real world, when you work on a project be sure you are aligning with the right people. (this is a critical success factor)

Hope the above principles are helpful for you. Feel free to connect with me on twitter or Google+ plus.justinrfrench.com
I’m continuing to decrease my Facebook usage

Do you have anything to add? I would love to hear about some of your experiences in the social business trenches.

Justin Results French - Chief Social Business Technologist

P.s. If you found this post valuable feel free to share it with other business owners, entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses, business professionals, or other social media consultants. Sharing is caring

Any questions about optimizing your businesses social strategy? Feel free to comment below or connect with me on Google+ http://plus.justinrfrench.com

Cheers,

Justin Results French