One of the best things about the social media space is that there is always something new to learn. During my recent travels I picked up quite a bit of knowledge at a conference called BlogWorld and New Media Expo. It is held annually in Las Vegas, and as far a big conferences go, it’s a real value.
This year was no exception. I took a book worth of notes while I was there, and thought I would share some highlights from Scott Stratten’s keynote.
We’ve shared a presentation of Scott’s here on our blog, and I’d recommend checking it out if you are not familiar with his presentation style. He pretty much set the stage for the entire conference.
You are always marketing
- Marketing is not a task, if you have a potential engagement w/ a customer, consumer, anyone, then you are marketing.
- Everyone in your company is a marketer
- Stand up for what you believe in when you blog. Blog when you have something to say.
- Your blog is your marketing department.
- If you don’t get people or like people, don’t use social media.
Enable the sharing
- The reasons why people share things have not changed. How they spread it has.
- People don’t spread “meh”, they spread amazing and awesome. Be amazing and be awesome.
- Your job when blogging is to get people excited when you do post and want to share it. Make people stop what they are doing and read your post.
- It’s not your job to tell someone how to consume you content. Your job is to to get them to consume it, period.
What’s New in Social Media Scott?
- Forget about “what’s new in Social Media”. Let’s focus on now.
- Social Media doesn’t change the fact that 1) relationships take time and 2) we need to still focus on products and service.
- If you do not have your blog mobile enabled, you are stopping the spread. You are losing readers. Don’t make people jump through hoops to read your content, because they wont.
- Social Media success doesn’t exist. It amplifies what you have – good or bad. If your products or service suck, then social media makes your product suck more.
The Deal w/ SEO
- Rule #1 – write great freakin content.
- The more you engage, the better you will be with social media. But you have to put in the work. You can’t short cut relationships.
- If you are a business, then your social media channels are an extension of your customer service.
- If you are online, your customers will expect you to be immediately present.
ROI
- We hold ROI to social media much harder. What is the ROI of talking and networking? Doesn’t matter if you believe in social media.
- The time issue is the big one but the return of social media is not immediate.
- If your market is people and your niche are humans, then they are there. If you don’t want to be there, then don’t use social media.
Closing Statements
Scott ended his keynote with a request to ignore the haters.
The people who bait you. Let them hate you. Do what you love. Follow your passions. Don’t feed the haters.
He also stressed that one the best things in business is to have someone give you honest and substantial critical feedback.
—
Solid stuff.
I’ll share more from BlogWorld as I clean up my notes.
Scott recently published a new book, “UNMarketing”, and is currently on a book tour. Picture taken by Allison Boyer for BlogWorld Expo
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speaking
I had the pleasure of speaking at the very first WordCamp Detroit over the weekend.
My friends Todd J. List, Anthony Montalbano and their team put together a sold out program full of informative speakers, and a wealth of helpful information. Topics included picking an appropriate theme for your blog, SEO, PHP/CSS basics, video blogging, and more.
I was asked to present on a subject that we are very passionate about here at re:group – building helpful and effective content. This is something we absolutely strive for when working with our clients, and in my talk I stressed the importance of:
- Having a human voice through your content
- Becoming a trusted resource
- Leaning on your passion
- Building content people will want to share
- Being present if you are going to be online
- Listening
Click the bubble below to see our presentation. I also added additional helpful resources at the end:
I’d also recommend checking out the following presentations as well:
All presentations were recorded and will be released in the upcoming days. Thank you again to the WordCamp Detroit team for having us!
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Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t truly understand Social Media.
Social Media is communication, and though I’m not a history major, I’m pretty sure people have been communicating since the dawn of time. Cave paintings were the first blog. Hieroglyphics the first tweets. We’ve always strived to communicate and have our message heard.
Communication is social media.
By communication I am referring to the internal desire to share stories, our history, news, what excites us, and what frightens us. These are human connections that drive our offline relationships, and it is the same connections that make up the social web.
The internet is simply the tool we use to communicate, and now technology has allowed us to break the 3rd and 4th walls into a new realm of connecting. You can talk to you neighbor down the street, or someone on the opposite side of the globe. Social Media defies geographic limitations.
Technology has enabled this to happen. But again, technology is not social media. Twitter, Facebook and other tools are inventions of technology. But they are just the instruments we choose to share our voice. The goal is still connecting. When Twitter disappears, rest assured we will find another way to connect.
So again, the tools are new, but they are not Social Media. Social Media is communication, and this is not new.
I keep harking on this because I’m very passionate about communication and what the Social Web is capable of. I don’t like to see companies or organizations fall into the deep side of the pool because they didn’t take the time to discover the rules that govern the social web.
Just remember the rules of engagement and honest communication that govern our offline relationships, transfer online. If you can get away from thinking of the digital landscape as bulletin board, you will be in a better position to humanize your brand. Then you will be able to connect with a far bigger audience than you imagined thanks to the social web.
Now that is something new!
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We don’t really have a blog policy. We let our team weigh in on topics relevant to our business in their own words, with their own opinions. Sure, we check to make sure there isn’t anything slanderous or mean, licentious or libelous. But if one of us wants to say they like or don’t like something, that’s okay. If we didn’t have strong opinions individually, we’d be a lousy communications partner all together.
Unfortunately, some people take offense very, very easily. So if we do offend, we do apologize. But we do not tell our people they can’t have a viewpoint of their own.
Discomfort can be a catalyst for change, or it can be a reason to hide. What makes blogs valuable is that they are written by real people with real thoughts and opinions. How you make use of the insights they offer is up to you.
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