November 15, 2011
13 Important Lessons From Blog World Expo, Los Angeles
First published on Technorati.com by Tom Treanor.
I attended the recent Blog World LA conference and I came away with several valuable lessons for my business and how I think about and manage my online marketing activities. Presentations by Mari Smith, Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan and Peter Shankman provided me with the most food for thought. Below I highlight some of the important lessons that you can apply to your business, your social media activities and your blog.
Social Media:
Mari Smith, a renowned Facebook expert and social media guru discussed Relationship Marketing (which is also the title of her new book). Some nuggets I took away include:
1) Soft Skills: To be successful you need to work on both a) Technology Skills and b) Soft Skills. Don’t forget the soft skills because you need them in order to nurture and establish relationships with your audience.
2) Social CRM: Your entire Social Media presence should be thought of as a Social CRM system. Congratulate, nurture and build relationships. Also, make sure you emphasize “listening”! If you’re a bigger company, who’s your CLO, your Chief Listening Officer?
3) Headshot: Your brand and headshot are important. Consistency is key and you’re missing a lot if you have a poor headshot. Get a great, professional headshot and it will not only be more attractive for your audience, but it will also give you a lot more self-confidence.
4) Personal, Professional, Private: It’s okay to blend personal and professional, but keep private…private!
5) Emotional Intelligence: This is a skill the world needs now more than ever – emotionally intelligent leaders with empathy. People who can read between the lines – what isn’t being said.
6) Give First: Learn to give with no agenda!
Google Plus:
Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan shared their perspectives on businesses and Google Plus just a few days before Google Plus pages for business were announced. The advice is relevant and valuable, even with the update from Google. Some key lessons:
1) Google Plus is important for business: may be evolving but it’s an important place to be for businesses who want to get a leg up on the competition. Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan emphasized that now is the “land grab” period where things are wide open. They emphasized that it won’t stay like this if you look at past, similar examples like Twitter.
2) Google Plus is a game-changer: For Guy Kawasaki, there’s no “maybe” – he thinks it will change the game. “Google Plus is to Facebook like Macintosh is for Windows!”, he gleefully announced at Blog World. Chris and Guy think that Google has learned from its previous mis-steps and that it has too many levers to pull too grow usage (gmail, search invites to join) and resources to fall flat this time.
3) Google Plus is great for SEO: According to Chris and Guy, Google Plus content is indexed by Google (the leading search engine) quickly whilst Twitter or Facebook content are not indexed by Google Search.
Succeeding Online:
Peter Shankman, the founder of HARO (helpareporter.com) shared life lessons and advice during his keynote. Some highlights that are most relevant to social media included:
1) Be Transparent: Make sure you tell your audience what you do. Ask them for input. If you make mistakes, be transparent and fix the problem.
2) Practice Brevity: Learn to communicate well in short posts, sentences and blog posts. Attention spans are dwindling.
3) Don’t Whine: People don’t like whiners, so keep it to yourself!
4) Use Your Camera: Shoot a lot of pictures and use them in your content. You never know when you’ll capture something really big or important!
I took quite a few lesson away from Blog World LA and I hope these points give you some new ideas for your business, your social media activities and your blog. For more information, here is the official Blog World post linking to 70+ wrap-ups and you can find more Blog World coverage here.
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