I was invited to attend Social Media Marketing World, hosted by Social Media Examiner, and I was the Content Marketing Manager of Bop Design. The conference was attended by professionals in the arena of digital marketing, content production and also in the social media. I summarized all of the information that was shared during the conference into 10 suggestions to take away, trends, and lessons.
1. The Buzz Is Live-Streaming Video
Live-streaming of video was the biggest buzz of the conference, and several of the key speakers discussed it (or went deep into it). According to Social Media Examiner, 73 percent of the marketers intend to increase the use of video in 2016. Not only should there be videos, but it must also stream live. It began with Meerkat and then Periscope and then Blab and currently, Facebook Live All streaming video services. Facebook has also indicated that facebook live video would be given first consideration whenever they are uploaded to facebook. YouTube is not left behind in the game of live streaming and has introduced YouTube live.
2. Facebook Still Most Significant
Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner in his key note address in 2016 stated that in 2016 Facebook is the biggest social network. The latest is that Facebook is being utilized as an advertising medium by the Facebook marketers rather than organic traffic and impressive referrals. Facebook is currently a pay-to-play arena of companies and brands.
3. Brands: It’s Time To Stop Thinking About Content As Advertising
Joe Pulizzo, the founder of Content Marketing Institute, one of the pioneers of the field of content marketing gave a seminar regarding the way to reach a huge number of people. The biggest blunder, which he observed that companies and brands were committing with their content marketing, was that instead of utilizing it as an opportunity to offer valuable information to a broader audience they were using it to market their products. As Joe, Joe, successful content marketers do two things: they provide value to their audiences and become the most recognized expert in their field.
4. There Is Content Marketing Future
Recent TechCrunch online marketing article and the present condition of the marketing business gave a curious discourse to the question of whether there is a chance that content marketing can still persist in the future. Three marketing gurus Mitch Joel, Michal Stelzner and Mark Schaefer discussed the state of marketing and what is and is not working in the marketing arena. Their discussion had a number of lessons to it.
Adjust to, Adapt, and Adopt. The marketers must remain flexible to meet the evolving needs of the industry and consumer preference, be accommodating to new platforms and technological change and be able to incorporate new ways of communication in their existing branding strategies.
It does not necessarily have to do with the numbers and the traffic statistics. you must appeal to the right audience of potential customers. The price of creating traffic and being competitive on both the offline and online arena is escalating.
It is necessary that the marketers take keen interest in scrutinizing the authenticity of their content and then stay off the unnecessary articles, which are worthless to everyone. The fluff articles are a common occurrence because the marketers do not know what they should do with their written materials. Businesses definitely require content marketing plan and brand plan.
5. Interesting Content Is The Most Critical Issue With Marketers
The Content Office of Marketing Profs was headed by Ann Handley who has clarified how a marketing team can create more interesting content in both B2C and B2B marketing. She explained that the problem of generating interesting content among marketers is due to the fact that they are being too safe. The proposal by Ann was made on the basis of instances, which she had done and she proposed to create the Bigger Context, Bolder Marketing and the Braver perspectives. The overall lesson, in addition to the Bigger/Bolder/Braver, was ensuring that you take 3 adjectives defining your company and that you make that your brand voice.
6. Know Your Attribution
Ian Lurie, an agency for the digital marketing of Portent, discussed in a workshop on Practical Social Analytics how you can use Google Analytics to receive reports and analyze social media activities. The greatest lesson out of the incident was that companies should know what their sources of attribution are. What is the source of good leads? What is the most appropriate source of traffic? In what areas should you focus your efforts?
7. You Should Change Your LinkedIn Profile
Your LinkedIn profile, especially on B2B market is a great way of connecting with the existing customers and the prospective customers. The talk given by Stephanie Sammons was about the techniques of enhancing the visibility and exposure of the content in your LinkedIn profile. The following are some of the strategies that she presented when speaking in LinkedIn to make the company more visible and reachable. Add a LinkedIn profile photo to make your profile more believable. Use a professional photo where you are smiling and also where you are looking down at your camera. Also, the picture should only feature you.
Write a striking headline to explicate who you are, a bit about yourself, those you help and why you help them. Ensure that you make your LinkedIn interesting and overcome the digital divide. Be a friendly, eager and have an exclusive opinion, and solve problems. how you will help and how you will do it and how you will reward your customers in the end. Send personal note to the individuals whom you would like to connect with. Assure them of what you want to connect.
8. Buying Process Is Almost 70 Percent Finished Before Sales Is Approached
Marcus Sheridan of Sales Lion is one of the key proponents of content marketing. He has the features of successful companies that apply content marketing. He has begun his session with the above statistics to prove the case of content marketing. The following are some of the features of the companies that have managed to use the content marketing to generate leads and traffic:
- The content marketing is invested in by everyone in the company.
- They do not give it much thought on the strategy. They present their customers with content they desire.
- They are in it long term and they do not give up.
- They check and assess their progress.
9. Human to Human (Not B2B or B2C)
Bryan Kramer, CEO of PureMatter, in a marvelous debate on the field of psychology and how it could be used to enhance the marketing process, gave an account of his own philosophy on human-to-human (H2H) communication. Kramer assumes that individuals post the internet when the companies invade their human barriers. Which are the most significant things that these enterprises do in order to make a mark? The companies hear, engage individuals and understand individuals and their requirements.
10. Trust Not Traffic
The closing speech by Mark Schaefer included limos Paris tacos and limos and road maps and also live video. I could use many posts in my blog to expound on the presentation but I will simply use my highlight of what I learnt in the process. driving traffic is wonderful when you are establishing trust with your target group. The central gist of Mark presentation is the interrelatedness of branding and marketing is and should adopt a mindful customer-centric, customer-focused methodology of understanding the target audience and creating strategies that will solve the problems that.
The main aim of whatever we are doing as salespeople, marketers and business owners should be building trust by the marketing we should do.In the most basic terms, that is my experience with SMMW. The more time we spend on marketing, reviewing the strategies, reviewing the data on analyses, reviewing the goals and creating content the more time we are listening to interested customers of our services. It is true that a good brand is always listening and responding to their audience, it could be the how-to-blog or video chat, which is much needed.