20A - Growing Your Social Capital

While I was thinking about doing this assignment, I realized that my new endeavor had a lot in common with the movie portion of GatorNights that UF holds on Friday nights. Both are catered to students, have to obtain the movies that they show, and have to find unique ways to advertise to reach the young audience. This being said, I used contacts from the GatorNights for each of the experts. 

Domain Expert: When I called UF to speak to someone about who puts on the movies during GatorNights, they put me on the phone with one of the people on the Reitz Union Audio Visual Team. I believe he would be the domain expert because he is trying to put on movies for college age students that will keep them engaged as I will be trying to find an array of movies and tv shows to add to my platform that will make students want to pay for it. I found this person by going to the GatorNights website and contacting them at the number provided. I asked if they thought my idea would be beneficial to the students and he said it would be with the right advertising and the right content, he thought it would be a big hit around campus. He did not expect anything in return from me. Hearing the opinion of someone else in a similar field to the one I hoped to be in, helped to validate my thought process about turning this idea into a reality. 

Market Expert: I talked to someone from the GatorNights Planning Committee, because they plan events and advertise these events to the students. I believe she would be the Market Expert because she has advertised many other events around campus and knows a lot about the college community and how to market to the student audience. I also found this person by going to the GatorNights website and using the number that was on the page and calling to speak to someone who advertises the event. I asked how successful she thought that the advertising was in bringing people to the event versus word of mouth from students who went to previous events and told their friends about it, and she stands by her advertising. She also said that the fun and colorful signs they use stick in the student's head and when Friday comes around with no plans, the students remember seeing the sign. She did not expect anything in return from me. After speaking with her, I now know more about how I should be advertising to my target audience.

Supplier Expert: Since my entrepreneurship venture is an app/streaming service, I could not complete this part because there is no supply.

Reflection: Talking to these people was a little out of my comfort zone, but overall very helpful in the process of fleshing out my idea and seeing what I needed to work on if I was going to make it a reality. I have never networked like this before, so I have nothing to compare it to.