This week, two members of our marketing team traveled to San Diego to attend the world’s largest social media marketing conference.
Social Media Marketing World brings 3,000 marketers of all backgrounds together for three days of insight and networking. While we couldn’t take in all of the events, we certainly had fun at the ones we attended!
Here are our favourite pieces of wisdom from #SMMW16 (along with some photos of the scenery because, well, why not?)
At #SMMW16? Keep an eye out for our Community Manager @hkovs and our Director of Marketing @DanielGHebert ! 👋🏼 pic.twitter.com/KGFsJYnKJg
— PostBeyond (@postbeyond) April 19, 2016
Upon Arrival
Hey – look who we found! One of our amazing customers, Ryan Pena of MentorMate.
We kicked off our time at the conference with a fireside chat with Christopher Penn, founder of ShiftComm. Christopher was kind enough to chat with Hannah, our Community Manager, about the future of marketing. You can read the full interview here (spoilers: robot takeover of content marketing.)
Day 1
First up: Brand Storytelling with Kathy Klotz-Guest, Park Howell, Tim Washer and Ron Ploof. The main takeaway from this awesome panel was simple: keep your story human.
.@timwasher laying down some brand storytelling wisdom at #SMMW16. pic.twitter.com/NKZlzUM2DD
— PostBeyond (@postbeyond) April 18, 2016
And much to Hannah’s delight, we continued on to a panel discussion on building influencer relationships with Jay Baer, Karianne Stinson, Matthew See, and Martin Jones.
What is an influencer? We look for people who can get you to take action. Action not eyeballs @MatthewSee @jaybaer #SMMW16
— Leah Pope (@Leah_Pope) April 18, 2016
Next, we heard from the experts on social tools. Ian Cleary, who was a speaker on this panel, was kind enough to chat with us prior to the conference about marketing technologies. You can read that full interview here!
Ann Handley’s keynote was not one to miss. The PostBeyond marketing crew are big fans of Ann, and we were blown away by her talk. The biggest mistake in content marketing, she says, is playing it too safe.
Love this advice from @annhandley of @MarketingProfs. #SMMW16 pic.twitter.com/J6qVRpukpe
— PostBeyond (@postbeyond) April 18, 2016
We added our two cents to Ann’s advice for crafting content and brand stories, which you can check out here.
Speaking of crafting strong content, our Community Manager had the chance to take in an insightful workshop from Heidi Cohen, author of the Actionable Marketing Guide. Heidi shared her insights with us as well, and gave us 5 tips for great content marketing.
And what better way to end the day than with a networking cruise?
Day 2
Day #2 of Social Media Marketing World started off with a bang. Brian Solis, Principal Analyst at Altimeter Group, delivered an awesome keynote on how to create experiences that inspire people to share.
Brian inspired US to share, that’s for sure. Our thumbs were tired after live tweeting all of that wisdom!
There aren’t enough of us challenging the system or thinking, “what if we tried…?” via @hkovs @postbeyond #smmw16 pic.twitter.com/wfopocmXjP
— Brian Solis (@briansolis) April 19, 2016
We’re huge admirers of Brian and Altimeter Group here at PostBeyond headquarters, and we took it upon ourselves to dissect Brian’s latest framework for enterprises pursuing digital transformation. Read more about the framework here.
Next up – a panel discussion very near and dear to our hearts. You guessed it: employee advocacy.
Andrew Cutler of BMW knows that #employeeadvocacy is the key to reaching digitally savvy employees. 💥 #SMMW16 pic.twitter.com/kViI8UAMLL
— PostBeyond (@postbeyond) April 19, 2016
"We forget that our own people are the most trusted." We agree 💯 percent, @ShaneMcLaughlin
— PostBeyond (@postbeyond) April 19, 2016
After some data and analytics discussions, we called it a day. Err…night.
We made some super cool new friends in San Diego, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year’s Social Media Marketing World!
