If ever there was a conference that will blow your mind about every hour on the regular, then Social Media Marketing World is it.
Over 3,000 people come together from over 50 countries to learn social strategy from over 150 experts in the field. SMMW is a fast paced, super intense conference that offers five blocks of 10 sessions each and a keynote speaker at the beginning and end of each day. This year, it’s being held in San Diego. And I’m a part of it!
Live Video
Day one for me was overwhelmingly centered on live video. It was the focus of the opening keynote and the topic of two of the five sessions I attended. Marketers are moving to this exciting form of communication to build relationships with customers and reach beyond traditional advertising.
Currently there are four platforms that have the attention of experts:
- Periscope: It’s for global live streaming to anyone. There is no targeting.
- Facebook Live Streaming offers targeted video to nurture existing fans and friends. With the recent announcement that Facebook will prioritize live video and pin it to the top of the news feed, this platform is even more enticing for marketers.
- Blab is a collaborative live streaming tool that presents more of a panel discussion set up. It’s easier to use than Google Hangouts but offers the same Q and A features. (Update: Blab is dead.)
- Snapchat. For all the eye-rolling that might be happening now, many experts see Snapchat as a rising star. Even though the audience is primarily millennials, the usage of older generations is starting to rise. Snapchat is social video. It is real, raw engagement not tainted by paid advertising or algorithms that control the feed. Only 5% of marketers use it. And with the increasing “pay to play” formats of other social channels (think of the growing cost of Facebook advertising), Snapchat offers great opportunities for marketers looking to stand out. One example? Chocolate Johnny.
Live streaming offers the ability to build community and show authenticity. It gives people the unique opportunity to see behind the curtain of business and builds trust.
But what to share? Adam Rucker of Southwest Airlines uses streaming to go show the day-to-day operations, recruit for new positions, and feature new reveals. Brian Fanzo says to “think like a fan” and bring unique access to people and places. Ursula Ringham of SAP thinks of snackable content for her audience. Mike Delgado of Experion offers a successful weekly show on credit and investment.
Many questioned the longevity of these platforms. After all, at last year’s conference, everyone was focused on the now dwindling Meerkat. Twitter released Periscope just a few months later after the Meerkat launch. Now with Facebook Live Stream, which to choose? In the closing keynote session, Guy Vaynerchuk said the longevity is irrelevant. If he can push his message out on a platform successfully for however long that platform exists, then he’ll do it. He reminded the audience that the landscape is always changing. We have to be flexible and focus on long-term goals.
Evergreen Facebook Ads Campaigns
Another exciting session was by Jon Loomer on creating “Evergreen” Facebook Ads Campaigns. Think of them like uber-effective, low maintenance ads. They pull in a fresh audience regularly, incorporate a nurture sequence (like an email drip campaign), eventually remove the non-converters, and limit or eliminate the need to refresh or update ads.
In essence, you create a trigger on your website (email signup, pdf guide, free webinar, or any event resulting in a one-time click). From that trigger, you setup the Facebook ad campaign to target the audience and then subsequent ads to nurture, sell, and remove. Although we didn’t have time get into the mechanics of it all, Jon has several posts on his website about how this is done.
Segmented Audiences
Pat Flynn also presented on segmentation. He has some pretty fancy (aka mind-boggling) strategies on not only using segmented audiences for email communications but also on customized website content. He uses feedback from surveys to customize useful and relevant content for this clients.
Blogging Tools
More from Day 1? Blogging tools for growth! Syed Balkhi has them all listed here but a few of the highlights include:
- AnswerthePublic.com will show you the questions that people are asking. Use this tool to find topics.
- In Google Analytics, look at your top keywords and their position. Use these keywords in your blog to get higher rankings.
- Yoast SEO (WP Plugin) will analyze the keywords of your blog post to make them more effective
- Optin Monster offers the ability to create relevant popups on your blog or website to grow your file.
- Buzzsumo has a Facebook Analyzer that can be used to connect with your top influencers.
- EMV Headline Analyzer or CoSchedule will give you the emotional score of a subject line and show you the “power words” of your post.
- After the Deadline is a Chrome Browser plugin will spell-check and look for grammer errors of your blog post.
- Image editing tools include Unsplash.com for unique photos, Fiverr for cheap infographics, Shutterstock for vectors and illustrations, Visage, Canva, and Picktochart for image creation.
Book Recommendations
Book Recommendations from Day 1:
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- Ask by Ryan Levesque
- Will it Fly by Pat Flynn
- Crush It and #AskGaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk
Exciting things from Day 1 and more to come!
