The Boomtasticness of the 2015 Social Boom Conference – Part 1 of 2

For those of you who didn’t know, I went to a social media conference this past weekend in Chicago, called Social Boom 15 with Kim Garst and her awesome team.  I have been in her “Inner Circle” for the last two years and have met (virtually) some amazing people, some have turned BFF material, have been blessed to have some as clients to help them Boom their business, met great contacts that will turn into awesome long term relationships and of course learned so much from Kim and her team but also from the other members in the group. So, if you want to follow a seriously amazing social media expert, other than me, of course, follow her. 

Anyways, I thought that anyone who wasn’t there would love to hear how Ah-Mazing it was whether you are in the “Inner Circle” and couldn’t make it or follow me like friends, clients and other small business owners, either way, you could learn from my takeaways as well. (Whispers – *might be a long one, so sit back, relax, get a pen and let’s get to Boomin*  Actually, I am going to have to break it up in two posts, so come back next week! J ) Also, I have added links to find these folks to click through and follow them somewhere.

Virtual Friends Meet

First, I have to say, the best part was meeting those who are in the Inner Circle whom I’ve built relationships with and have had the opportunity to work with, consult, share social media with and etc… but only knew virtually. I just enhanced the relationship we had, not to mention built new relationships that will also continue to grow. Sadly, there were many who couldn’t make it so that was a bummer, but next year I’ve have the pleasure of meeting them…. yes, I am already planning on going next year (you should too). 🙂

The Energizer Bunny – Nathan Latka – Using Webinars to Sell Products

First, let me say, that if you ever get a chance to watch him speak, jump on it. Then, if you think webinars aren’t for you and that is impeding you from seeing him speak – get over it because his points are valid for more than just webinars but sales in general.

Takeaway – Human interaction

I know, that sounds simple right, but we just always get it. We know that people do business with those who they know, like and trust but are you out there building relationships?  You have to have human interaction to get to the “Ask”. And, however you do your sales pitch, however you do it, via webinar, phone conversation, in person or whatever you have to be sure they are listening and/or watching. He mentioned some great tactics to keep them listening – change voice/tone, ask questions to get them to engage.

Then, as far as webinars, he knows that we tune out ish and minimize the screen and multitask so he brought up some great tricks to get them back to maximize the screen and engage by talking about where the mouse it, getting them to participate in polls, answer yes/no in the chat box. Lastly, a great reminder to walk them through their pains with a solution, but start with the easy peasy pains with the easy peasy solutions and rock it to the biggest pain and solution. Follow Nathan – @NathanLatka

Pin Whore – Peg Fitzpatrick – Selling on Pinterest

I meant that in the nicest way but seriously, she was amazing and I haven’t been nearly as active on Pinterest, but I should, and I will and there are a few reasons why.

Takeaway – Long term traffic

If you think about it, tweets come and go and Facebook posts might regenerate on your feed when there are new comments but for how long… but pins they cycle around forever so my biggest takeaway is, Kristen, get your blogs on Pinterest. “A picture is worth a thousand dollars” and if you want to think about it in bigger terms, Pinterest isn’t a social network, it’s a bookmarking site so bookmark your content!

Now, as we all know, it just isn’t all about us, so be sure we are creating the 80/20 in boards, take time to connect with others via boards, follow others, curate our own pins and work that blog traffic. We need to be sure we are creating longer pictures in our blogs so they will show up better in Pinterest – hello? Are you getting this? Now get out there, I am. Follow Peg – @PegFitzpatrick

Serial Entrepreneur – Emeric Ernoult – Growing a biz w/o venture capital

Emeric was lovely to listen to and as he indicated, he was a serial entrepreneur. But like Kim would say, fail sooner to get over with it, but then again, he learned a little slower and failed quite a few times. But, he learned a lot about social media and content.

Takeaway – Content idea process

He put out that reminder that in some cases, less is more so fine tune your offerings and maybe fire a client or two – you don’t need to market everything – just what you do well.

Be sure to get your keywords in your content, but make sure that content is what folks are wanting. He gave some really cool tips about the content idea process by checking in the Facebook or Twitter help sections. What? I so didn’t think of that, but if others are asking about it, maybe we could provide that information on marketing in social media. Lastly, that quality should be the preface of all of your content, put out your best folks! Follow Emeric – @eernoult

Your List is Gold – Syed Balkhi – Building your list to a butt ton

Okay, that really wasn’t the title of his speaking part but it got the point across, right? I have to say, this was one of the things that I didn’t jump onto in my business until a year later – can you say regrets? It takes time to build your list, regardless of whomever you are, so start now!

Takeaway – What’s in it for me?

Quite honestly, he had so much but all points lead back to your website so whether you have sidebar sign up forms, scroll trigger forms, floating bar, popups, welcome gates, contests or the like, be sure you are capturing your followers and giving them the opportunity to follow you and join your list wherever they are.

Reminder, their first question will be – “What’s in it for me” so be sure you are providing value to them to give up their email address. So, find your target market, create an irresistible offer, create a strong call to action, drive them to a targeted landing page and get them on your list and keep giving them more! We should always be testing, learning and improving! Follow Syed – @syedbalkhi

InstaQueen B – Sue B Zimmerman – Drive traffic with Instagram

I have to say, this social platform is likely my least favorite but I still make a point to learn what I can on each platform as we can’t be super-efficient on them all, right?

Takeaways – Cleeps

I know, that makes no sense, right but here’s what CLEEPS stands for – Category, Location, Emotions, Events, Products, Services. So, when you are posting on Instagram and likely any social media, you really need to be considering all of these points so you can complete your post appropriately.

She emphasized how important visuals on IG are, as you would assume so be sure your pictures are spot on, add hashtags in the notes/description and be sure to get back out there and actively engage. Follow Sue – @SueBZimmerman

Non counting Canadian, 5 is really 6 – Steve Dotto – Building your biz on YouTube

The 6 C’s of community, errrrr, 5 but hey, who’s counting? Definitely not Steve and I know, that was a Kodak moment, you had to be there, and that wasn’t fair, but it was funny.  Though, you know how it is when you create a slide and have a typo or thought you had a point that wasn’t there? Yep, we’ve all had those, just a reminder, yep, we are all human. Lol

Takeaways – Just do it, with 5

I know, that’s Nike’s slogan but hey, it works. The 6, I mean 5 C’s of Community are to Create, Connect, Communicate, Convert and of course Community…. I think we can add Cash – that’ll be our 6^th, right? 😉 It just makes sense, so what’s stopping you from being in/on video?

YouTube IS a social network, it’s a search engine, it’s a resource and it builds authority so why wouldn’t you be here?  Great point here, publish in YouTube, but direct folks back to your website, then if you haven’t already, do a blog about it and embed that video, so they are always coming back to your website.

Don’t forget to update the thumbnail image, not the part in the video where you have that exorcist face, add a title, description, tags and annotations which only show in desktop to get them to click to, ready for this, your website and lastly, don’t forget to cross post. Follow Steve – @dottotech

YouTube is a social network, search engine, resource & authority builder – hello!? Click To Tweet

Bottom line:  BOOM!

Wow… so far, what a conference, right? Well, just wait, there’s more, but you have to wait until next week. J  If you were able to go to the conference, be sure to share what your best takeaways were from each speaker. If you didn’t go, what do you think you can implement right now, yes, I’m talking to you.

Nobody is perfect, but I work my butt off to get better and better with awesome opportunities like this, there is always room to improve. If I can help YOU with your business whether it is social media, search engine optimization, website readability or just marketing in general, please contact me and we can go from there. See you next week

~Kristen