Building a business information brand
in 2013 travel intelligence. global smartness. skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews
With a $6.5 trillion contribution to GDP & 260 million jobs, travel -- made up of tourism, hospitality, transport & leisure -- is the world's largest industry. While digital has disrupted distribution & information systems, no information and intelligence brand has emerged that matches the industry's size with its digital potential. Skift is that brand.

Skift is now among the
largest travel news and information sites in the travel industry, 9 months after launch. The brand is well on its way to becoming the lingo in the travel industry. skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

On the way to becoming
the most pervasive travel information brand We're creating a next-generation data & info-heavy crossover media company that's built to break out of the vertical media ghetto and scale to its true potential. skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

This is our story so
far, of scaling so quickly with a very small team of 5 people. And our vision for growing up. skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Business media and information: least
sexy sectors in the larger tech economy, and among the least innovative in digital. skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

But in the era where
business media & enterprise software have merged, where Salesforce & LinkedIn are becoming gold standards in business information: B2B media & information sector needs wholesale redefining. skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews
Source: CEO.com & Domo Survey 2013, Decade of media consumption pattern changes among CEOs. What a difference a decade makes

paidContent.org, exactly a decade ago.
April 25, 2003. ›› The template for all blog media companies to come after.

Skift, today. April 25, 2013
›› Visual ›› Social ›› Brand-led

What a difference a decade
makes: paidContent vs Skift ›› blogs vs platform agnostic ›› content-centric vs data-led ›› post-thinking vs product thinking ›› freshness vs immediacy ›› linking vs sharing ›› using content vs using design to punch above your weight skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

What hasn't changed ›› B2B
doesn't have to be boring ›› The nativeness ›› Connecting the dots across silos collapsing ›› Being smart, sharp, surgical & strategic with all content, the 4S's of content ›› User centric: Vendor vs the User skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Your expansive worldview defines how
big your vision is. skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Size matters ›› Travel, world's
largest industry Definition matters ›› Travel begins when you leave home Ambition matters ›› We're defining the future of travel skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Hybrid business-consumer, crossover information and
data brand is the way to: ›› scale on users+revenues ›› break out of vertical ghettos ›› scale to the full potential of the brand skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Are you aware of macro-trends
you're riding? ›› travel silos collapsing, like other industries ›› blurring of business & leisure travel ›› locus of travel is moving eastward ›› tech & design is eating the world skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Figure out the whitespace, or
create it B2B: Backwards. Boxed-In. Boring. Consumer: Cluttered. Confusing. Casual. skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

You don't need to own
the content, you need to own the voice ›› three legged stool of content: curation + licensed+original ›› expertise, not just exclusivity ›› licensed content from lot of sources globally that don't typically slot them in travel, but under our filter they are; helps build the brand ›› Skift Take: Our tweet-length take on every story has become our signature voice & brand skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Role of original content: Build
franchises that can be productized down the line ›› SkiftSeedlings ›› SkiftAds ›› SkiftDesign ›› SkiftStats skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Don't underestimate building the consumer
hooks ›› accessible writing ›› attractive design ›› wide syndication ›› ubiquity matters skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Building users in concentric circles
›› Lowest hanging fruit you'll quickly get ›› Early adopters in tech and enthusiast community ›› Be cognizant of which user-pockets will spend money skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews
Think prosumer, not consumer ›› One concentric circle outside the business users ›› From professionals in travel to professional travelers ›› From news to news-you-can-use ›› Curating and integrating best-of- breed tools & services for business travelers.

skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews
Think pervasive, not exclusive ›› Syndicate as widely as you can, be wherever your users could be, even outside of business environments. ›› Example: Our deals with CNN, NBC News, Flipboard, Quartz, AdAge, BusinessInsider and others to come

Creating a social business brand
›› B2B doesn't have to be boring ›› The daily blocking and tackling happens here ›› Worry about your Klout score ›› Analytics-driven social ›› Twitter vs Facebook vs LinkedIn ›› Become a media influencer through social skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Mobile means ubiquity ›› Are
you near industry-norms in userbase? ›› Ubiquitous sharing in mobile ›› Mobile web vs apps and why focus skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Data-based, data-led, data-focused ›› Focus
on competitive intelligence ›› Build and manage a suite of meta-services ›› Layers on top of existing publicly-available and open- web data ›› Delivered any way the users want it: online, apps, alerts skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

SkiftSocial dashboard: to discover the
latest patterns and trends, and gain insight into how companies work and compete in the new social- driven world.

Building data tools If you
had Visualization of Google Analytics + Real Time charting of Chartbeat + Activity feed addictiveness of Facebook What would you build? skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Can media and data coexist?
›› Data informs media strategy; Media is an insight layer on top of data. ›› Competitive intelligence as streams ›› News & media is just another stream skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews

Thanks, keep on Skifting. Rafat
Ali @rafat skift.com T: @skift F: /skiftnews