I have spotted a lot of different entrepreneurial ideas and new ways of digital marketing online over the past months, some of which have been mentioned in Springwise while others remain tagged in my delicious account. Here is the latest spotting published on Springwise this week Whoisrichme. Click the previous link or picture to see the spotting in Springwise.
The social community managment course organised with Muxlim, that I have mentioned in this blog earlier is now open and students can sign up to it. Metropolia Blog did an article that provides all the required details. Click here to view it 
MarketingTalks presentations are now being added to the previous MarketingTalks Material page by my student Carlos Kynäslhahti. Below you can see Stephen Lee Muxlim COO first presentation. More of Steves presentation can be seen from the link above and Carlos will add the other presenters videos soon.
MarketingTalks
The first MarketingTalks Seminar was a great success. Over 200 students turned up at the A auditorium to listen to the highly interesting presentations on Digital Marketing and Startups. Some lessons also learned on how to improve for the next seminar.
Presentations from the presenters are being added to the MarketingTalks site under the page Prev Talk Material. Videos of presentations to be added later but already there is some good material for you to view.
Metropolia Business School & Nike Competition
My students did a great job assisting in putting together the first Metropolia Business School competition and with Nike no less. I am hoping to spread this competition out further to any students whether in Metropolia another school or high school. I am looking for more help from students, so if drop me an e-mail if you want to help. Competition Page & Competition Requirements in the blog
Social Community Marketing Course with Muxlim
The current plan for the course and possible contents are viewable from this wiki page.
I need to start putting the administration details together hoping that we can have a timetable that suits students in business and design as well as teachers and that we can agree on one location. Next up will be to advertise the course to students and gain the student quota to run the course.
Meetup Meeting
I was at the last Meetup meeting (19.11) which coincided with an Aalto Entrepreneurial Society meeting that was going in various locations and had some members at the Meetup event. Sometimes you would hope that organisers of various events would talk to each other and combine resources.
Slush was a worthwhile event to attend, at least for the day I attended. There were some organisational difficulties and some of the presentations were not top notch but overall it was a successful event and great to see it happening in Helsinki.
The morning opened for me with the warm up and open mic which were presented eagerly and got people chatting. I left this after a while as there was beginning to be repetition among some of the presenters.
Pitching (to attempt to sell or win approval for; promote; advertise)
I headed up to see the startups pitching (IBP Clinic) which was a good learning experience. A team of panelists reviewed the seven minute pitches and gave the startups feedback from presentation technique to questioning business model and revenue generation. In fairness the presentations techniques actually better than I expected but time and time again both the audience and panelists were left wondering what was the concept or product that was being pitched. Pitching is not something I am so familiar with but some essentials that were noted time and time again as being missing were:
Short introduction but not a long introduction to team members etc (this left at the end and mentioned briefly)
Highlighting the problem that the product or service was going to solve
Detailing exactly what the product or service is (particularly using graphics)
Detailing the target market and providing real quantitative analysis
Competition and how you are differentiated from them e.g. USP
Detailing success to date
Staying within the 7 minutes
Presentation techniques
Presenting to the audience (some interaction good but don’t over do it as it takes time away from the pitch)
Using a remote
Clear precise analysis (avoid speeding)
Graphics to help the presentation but also key data
Not going on the offensive when feedback is offered
Overall it was highlighted that the presenters should follow pitching guidelines as linked on venture capital companies’ sites.
Some pitching Links
Slush Helsinki starts tomorrow and provides the opportunity to get up close and personal to some of the newest Finnish Startups.
Slush is free for students, so if you have no classes and are interested in entrepreneurship and in particular digital startups, you should join up. I will be there on Tuesday 3rd.
At Slush Helsinki we will provide you with a perfectly safe, guided tour to this amazing, cold and dark habitat of cool new startups. All our guides are natives of the area and have gone through extensive, annual slush experiences. And in our “the slush made me do it” sessions you will hear from the founders of some the biggest businesses to come out of the slush. And let’s not forget about the slush fund…
Cold. Dark. Slush on the ground. Cool new startups at Kaapeli.
Click the logo to get to know more
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It has been a busy couple of weeks, but something new on the horizon is the possibility of a social community marketing course. The course idea comes about from the need for more highly trained staff/interns in the area of social community marketing for web 2.0 companies and startups, an acquired source of funding from the EU, benefit to students (particularly immigrant students – part of the funding initiative) and the fact that this type of course is in line with my plans for advanced digital marketing course. Jussi Linkola on the design side of the school has been laying the ground work for the funding, the cooperation between businesses and asked me to join up.
We visited Muxlim’s offices on Friday and met Mohamed El-Fatatry Founder & CEO and Stephen Lee COO to discuss their needs when it comes to employees and how they envisage a course meeting those needs. An excellent open discussion was had and we move on from the idea phase to the planning phase. Muxlim also agreed to sign up to the marketing seminar on Thursday the 19th of November.
About Muxlim
Muxlim is the worlds largest Muslim lifestyle media company. Muxlim’s vision is to connect the world’s Muslim communities to each other, and to the wider world, through shared online experiences. Tens of million of users visit the Muxlim Network every year to enhance their Muslim lifestyle and enjoy content including music, entertainment, fashion, food, sport, science, news, culture and more.
Muxlim.com is the company’s flagship social media service combining interactive video, audio, blogs, polls and images. Muxlim is focused on the Muslim lifestyle as part of a diverse, all-inclusive world which recognizes and welcomes people of all faiths and backgrounds who want to share, learn and have fun.
Other News
Metropolia 2.0 continues and I have some of my students from my Digital Marketing Course working toward developing ideas and plans for this.
MarketingTalks domain name is now a more professional one www.marketingtalks.fi and as above Muxlim sign up to present.
As part of the Metropolia marketing lecturers team I am working with a colleague to organise a Digital Marketing seminar. As the marketing team will be running further seminars I thought it a good idea to promote the digital marketing seminar digitally and use the site to promote further seminars.
Developed using the simple and efficient pages of www.edicy.com the site is now up an running. The really efficient thing about edicy pages is the quick ability to link to Google Analytics and view site statistics. Remember that measuring your statistics lets you know how successful you are at receiving traffic, but without a goal for your site then you are falling into the numbers trap.
And the site is: www.marketingtalks.edicypages.com
If you are interested in entrepreneurship whether it be digital or not why not meet up with entrepreneurs at Open Coffee Helsinki.
The web page gives a powerful intro “OpenCoffee Club is an initiative started in London by Saul Klein of Index Ventures, and has now landed in Helsinki.
OpenCoffee Club is a simple but powerful idea – have a fixed time and place where entrepreneurs, investors, developers and visionaries interested in startups can get together in a truly informal setting to meet, chat and make connections.
Come enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and meet other entrepreneurs and investors, swap business cards and watch your personal business directory grow!”
The next meeting is on Thursday 24th of September @18:30, Bistro Nolla, Pohjoinen Rautatienkatu 21 Helsinki
See you there 
The plans have been in place for some time to bring Metropolia International School’s web pages into and beyond web 2.0. Marko Korkeakoski, the Director of International Degree Programmes did a great job setting up the web pages and making them really straightforward and clear, now the plan is to try to keep the simple logical format but add more interactive content.
A team of students will be selected to assist in the further development of the site and ongoing initiatives.
Metropolia International Business School Website (click image)
Some areas we want to include:
A community element to the pages (Facebook fans page link, Twitter, marketing team site developing blog, students’ blogs, events information etc)
Competitions
Newsletter
More information for foreign exchange students
More information for prospective students
As per any webpage, budget constraints and technological know how may limit us somewhat but we shall endevour to do our best. At the moment I am contacting some of our students from previous years for their opinions. If you have a good ideas on how we can improve the site please do let me know.
