77 ah-ha moments from Blogworld NYC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the first in a week-long series of posts recapping the Blogworld NYC experience. What I learned, who I met, how I’m planning to apply it all to my day job.

A good brainstorm, strategy, blog post always starts with data. Research is what informs the decisions we make, advice we give and campaigns we create for our clients…it’s what results in the “ah-ha” moments. At least it should be. If it’s not, then you might as well tell the people you work with that your approach is to come up with some ideas, put them on a wall, throw darts at them, choose the ones you hit and then pray a lot.

The reason I went to BlogWorld was for the people and the ideas. Hands down. Last year in Vegas, I met some amazing people and I also came back to the office with some incredible data and POVs I could actually use to advance the work we do at FHKC. My favorite by far was a line from Scott Stratten in the opening keynote (best keynote I’ve ever seen, btw) — “People don’t share key messages, they share awesome. And people work with people they like, know and trust.”

I have used that sound byte in several client and new business presentations over the past six months. Many of the clients we work with are attempting to transition from old-school communications to an integrated approach designed around their consumer. And this simple takeaway seems to help them see where they need to be. Especially in a world where your customers and employees are your most trusted marketers.

So that said, here are some of the best tidbits I heard from BlogWorld speakers and attendees this week, all from Social Media Business Summit track sessions (Kudos, @arikhanson and @chuckhemann). Hope you find them as helpful and insightful as I did:

1. Social media doesn’t work very well unless it’s integrated with other communications functions (@davefleet)
2. Social media success more about being social than doing social (@jaybaer)
3. Social media intern…barf (@davefleet)
4. Reactive Support is table stakes. Go proactive to stand out and help with scalability (@davefleet)
5. Executive sponsorship is key for long-term budget, not just one-off campaigns or projects (@chuckhemann)
6. 93% of word of mouth happens offline (@TheTimHayden)
7. Content is king-but listening is queen (@davemurr)
8. You don’t hire some1 straight from school and let them talk 2 @nytimes. Why would u let them do so via social media? (@davefleet)
9. If you don’t trust employees w/social media, you don’t have social prob, you have hiring prob (@jaybaer)
10. Most effective social tactics were hardest to do — blogger outreach and search. (@LeeOdden)
11. ComScore: Only 1 percent make brand decision just from social. But 48% do so from search and social combined. 51% from search (@LeeOdden)
12. Use search personas so u know what keywords to use in content, search approach (@LeeOdden)
13. 55% of mobile searches happen at home v. out and about (@PaulCushman)
14. Do a keyword audit of your brand and competitors, create a glossary and use to guide content plan (@LeeOdden)
15. Customers are consuming content simultaneously across screens (@paulcushman)
16. One of best ways to own a niche is to create a blog post on it and pitch the content u created (@LeeOdden)
17. Part of search optimization is getting out there, meeting ppl and sharing. Leads to others sharing (@LeeOdden)
18. If you’re going to create strong content, have a strong promotion plan (@regroupinc)
19. Spend 60 to 70 percent of time promoting. Engaging, sharing can be best SEO (@LeeOdden)
20. Any time you can create a blog post, it’s an SEO asset. And don’t forget about repurposing content (@LeeOdden)
21. If you’re not failing, you’re not trying (@Griner)
22. Your success with social in regulated industry relies on bringing back to biz (not comms) metrics (@jpunishill and @zenaweist)
23. One way you can get some leeway in regulated industries is positioning social as “pilot initiatives” (@michelsavoie)
24. Spend a lot of time with social media show and tell. “They” don’t get social media like you do (@jpunishill and @zenaweist)
25. Response protocol is key for helping SM skeptics feel like they have a plan for the “what ifs” (@zenaweist)
26. I have a rule when explaining value of social media to leadership: Don’t use term “social media.” Also, most common phrase: “We’ve done this before” and then compare it to some initaitive the company has had success doing (via @MichelSavoie)
27. The cost of not doing SM will be greater than doing it (even if we can’t prove ROI) (@bsimi)
28. Use techrigy for freemium monitoring (@dbreakenridge)
29. Cost avoidance and early warning system got us to big-kids table (@zenaweist)
30. Communication has been disrupted like Napster disrupted music (@Garyvee)
31. We hope you give! 4 Joplin Tornado Relief http://bit.ly/lmjYDl is new #bwecares page. DONATE!
32. Blogger relations idea: Instead of offering pay-for-play, consider offering exposure to your audience (@HallmarkPR)
33. Every now and then we pay bloggers for their time because even though bloggers are journalists, it’s  also a biz; but we don’t dictate content (@dannep)
34. Check into a blogger’s tone before working with them because not all are a good fit for your brand (@dannep)
35. FB ad targeting: .05% CTR of ads to non-fans. .35% CTR of ads to fans (@JessBerlin)
36. The quantitative and qualitative must co-exist. Words put things into context. What does the number really mean? (@Shonali and @GoJohnaB and @MargotSavell)
37. No one department owns social media…your entire company has to collaborate to make it work (@GabbyDNelson)
38. 54 percent of US companies block access to social media. The other 46 percent are laughing at them (@LisaBarone)
39. Really aren’t any rules right now with blogs and blogger/brand relations, so you have to create them (@JasonFalls)
40. There isn’t a right way for blogs and PR to operate. Only right way for you (@JasonFalls)
41. Call me sadist, but I love negative comments. Great way 2 change someone’s mind, show what you are made of (@paulaberg)
42. Blog may not have 500K visitors a month, but it may have people reading it who you want to reach (@jasonFalls)
43. A good PR person is more focused on the relationship, not the release (@JasonFalls)
44. Bloggers have often built a trusted community PR hasn’t built, but needs access to it (@DannyBrown)
45. Best rule of crisis management: Develop network of advocates b4 crisis. Call on them when matters (@cbarger)
46. Pitch is the relationship starter. Get that wrong and you may not get a second chance (@dannybrown)
47. Be careful not to treat bloggers like second class media (@GiniDietrich)
48. Spam, mass e-mails and spin all suck (@ginidietrich)
49. Your page competing w/ on average 90 other pages + 130 friends for #FB news feed attention (@BryanPerson)
50. 96% of people who like a pg on Facebook never return to the page (@corineingrassia)
51. Desire for social behavior has always existed. People have always bartered. But new tech tools allow social commerce to flourish (@BoFishback)
52. Buyer and seller empowered in ways not available before because a market of one is worth going after (@BoFishback)
53. When using a 3rd-party client to post to Facebook, a decrease in News Feed placement has been seen (@ChadWittman)
54. Cutting employees off from social media cuts them off from the experts in their field (@shelholtz)
55. 25% of all page views in US are on Facebook (@prTini and @aaronstrout)
56. Goals are great, but you’ve got to get down to specific measurable objectives (@Shonali)
57. If you ever see a report of a bunch of numbers without context, you have to ask “What does that number really mean?” (@GoJohnaB)
58. @Rowfeeder is an intermediate measurement tool you can use if client has small measurement budget (@Shonali)
59. Update your influencer list monthly. Because social media is changing all the time (@MargotSavell)
60. For any organization doing anything serious w/ social media, including measuring it, it is a very expensive proposition (@GoJohnaB)
61. Please start paying for URL shorteners like enterprise bit.ly (@GoJohnaB and @ChuckHemann)
62. An analytics book you (and I) need to go and get — http://t.co/COdiuzK Web analytics by Avinash Kaushik (@Shonali)
63. A video can go viral. You can’t create a viral video (@MargotSavell and @lulugrimm)
64. Every organization has to have a specific profile. If everything or everyone is important, no 1 or nothing is important (@GoJohnaB)
65. I’ve yet to  meet a business that can send their “likes” to the bank and get back checks (@GoJohnaB)
66. Google Analytics will also track your mobile analytics (@newpr)
67. “Don’t forget secondary and primary research.” Incredibly important to measurement process (@Shonali and @GoJohnaB)
68. Sometimes the information that tells you something ISN’T good is as beneficial is finding out what works best (@GoJohnaB)
69. 80% of people who fan a brand are already customers (@justinkistner)
70. Touching, emotional stories drive 2-3x more clicks on Facebook (@justinkistner)
71. @mallofamerica used Survey Monkey to show results and value of #BSPP program (@lulugrimm)
72. 80% of people look up health information online-from Pew Internet Study (via @ShannonPaul)
73. Companies really should be going after, owning customer need rather than marketing at people (@ShannonPaul and @ArikHanson)
74. Working with 3rd party advocates is key, but make sure ppl know who bought the drinks to the party (@ShannonPaul)
75. Create how-to videos on YouTube channel related to social media, not brand. Creating content people find useful is good 4 search (@Century21)
76. Interaction with mobile game app produce much higher engagement rates than banner ads (@Century21)
77. Employee social media education is one of the most important, under-resourced initiatives in corporate America (@lulugrimm and @shannonpaul)

Which of these takeaways provided the biggest “ah-ha” moment for you? What was your biggest BlogWorld takeaway?

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