Steven Shattuck

A Social Media Marketing Primer for the Fashion Industry

Steven Shattuck — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:18:51 +0000

On February 20th, I joined Lindsay Manfredi, Douglas Karr, Megan Giannini, Jenni Edwards and Jacqueline Simard for a panel discussion at the Pattern Indy / Social Media Happy Hour meetup at the Speak Easy. We had a great discussion on the topic of social media for the fashion industry. You can listen to a recording of the full discussion here.

While I’m not a fashion expert by any means, there are a few tips I can share for those who work in the industry and are looking to become more active in social media.

Getting Started

Identify the social networks where your community hangs out. It can be very tempting to create a profile on every single social network in existence and then suddenly become overwhelmed by all there is to manage. Instead, focus on one or two networks where your community is active or where you feel there is the most to be gained by the investment of your time.
Identify active influencers who can help you out. If you’re just starting out, it’s likely that your following is smaller. Reach out to influential users and build relationships with them. They can help you get your content out to a broader audience. Building these relationships should be a slow process – you don’t want to suddenly ask a stranger to start retweeting your stuff. Take your time, and once you’ve built up a rapport you can consider asking them for help.
Create a plan and stick with it. It’s hard to say how much time someone should spend on social media per day. It is, however, important to create a plan and stick with it. Resign yourself to spend 30 minutes a day on social media to start. Are you seeing improvements after a month or so? Great. Stick with 30 minutes. Not seeing a big return? You might want to increase the amount of time you spend. Either way, consistency is important. You definitely won’t see returns if social media is something you visit whenever you have a few free moments.
Automation is your friend. A lot of social media activities can be automated. Tools like HootSuite and Buffer App allow you to schedule tweets in advance.
Be careful. Megan offered some sound advice on not getting yourself into trouble. Don’t publish anything on social media that you wouldn’t say to your grandmother. Even if you have a private account, people can still access what you say and what you post. The worst thing you can do is make enemies right out of the gate, but that’s not to say that you should be extremely passive. It’s okay to disagree, but be mature about it.

Creating Content

Social Media is useless without content. If you’re a blogger, social media is the perfect delivery system for your content. Early on you must decide the niche that you want to focus on. For those in the fashion industry, broad is bad. Target a specific brand, style or topic related to fashion that you can carve out a speciality in.
Be helpful. The best kind of content is helpful and educational. It may not be enough for you to blog or tweet about a particular brand or style. Try to step out into the periphery of that topic and answer questions that people are asking about a particular brand or style. If you can answer questions in an authoritative manner, people will see you as an expert! Rather than writing a review of your favorite new skirt or jacket, what if you wrote a guide to caring for that garment? It’s likely that there are plenty of reviews already, but few helpful guides.
Research the pain-points people are experiencing. If you’re having trouble finding inspiration on what kind content to create, research questions people are asking and problems they are trying to solve. Search hashtags on Twitter to see what people are talking about, and check sites like Quora often. Quora is an awesome resource for data mining content ideas.
Diversify your content. A good mix of content is important. No one wants to follow a self-promoter who only tweets their own stuff. On the other hand, people want to read what you have to say, so avoid sharing only other people’s content. Follow the rule of thirds: 1/3rd your content, 1/3rd industry content (other people’s content) and 1/3rd engagement (replying and retweeting other users).

Measuring Success

Define success first. Before you can measure success, you must first define what success looks like. What are your goals? Is it website traffic? Conversions (visitors filling out forms to join a mailing list)? Sales? Engagement (in the form of “likes” “comments” or “retweets”)? Find out what matters to you and measure accordingly. Remember: your KPIs (key performance indicators) are not necessarily the KPIs that are important to someone else, and that’s okay.
Data can inform your decision making. Most of the social networks have built-in analytics tools, but some (like Twitter and Google+) do not. Check out third-party tools like Crowdbooster which can give you advanced analytics on your social media profiles. Crowdbooster can show you what time of day you create the most engagement, and which social media updates drew the most engagement. If you’re using Google Analytics to measure website traffic, pay attention to the Social Media reports. They’ll show you which social media channels are driving the most traffic to your website.
Don’t worry about “vanity metrics.” It’s easy to get discouraged when your follower count doesn’t grow very fast, or you don’t get a lot of “likes” and comments on a post. Those metrics may not actually matter. Doug said something during the panel discussion that I think is very important: 100 engaged followers are probably more valuable than 10,000 unengaged followers.
Experiment. Early adoptions of new tools are typically rewarded. Don’t be afraid to dip your toes into a new social network, a new tool or app. Jenni mentioned that running a Facebook Contest can be incredibly effective and not terribly expensive. The only way to find out what works and doesn’t work for your brand is to try a lot of different things. Stick with what works and discard what doesn’t.

Optimizing Your Blog

Make it easy for people to share your blog posts on social media. Be sure to add social sharing buttons to your blog so that folks can tweet out your posts. It’s also a good idea to include your author bio at the bottom of every blog posts that includes links to your personal social media accounts.
Set up Google Authorship. Right now, Google ranks the best content. Very soon they will take into account the author of content when they decide what content to rank. That’s called AuthorRank. It’s no longer enough to create anonymous content, even if it’s high-quality. You must establish Google Authorship so that Google knows that your content was written by an actual human. Check out my guide to setting up authorship to get started. If you write for a blog that you don’t own or administer, email your contact there and ask them if they establish Google Authorship for contributors. If they don’t, ask them to put a link to your Google+ profile in your bio. Then, simply add that blog to the “Contributor To” field in your Google+ profile.
Not a writer? Try video. Jacqueline touched on the benefits of YouTube, which can be incredibly powerful in terms of search and social engagement. If writing isn’t your thing, consider creating a video blog. YouTube makes it easy to create videos right off your computer’s webcam. A robust YouTube Channel can be a great alternative to a blog or website as the center of your social media world. Fashion certainly lends itself a more visual medium like video.

Though this list of tips may seem overwhelming, it’s important above all to have fun with social media. The connections you’ll make can last a lifetime!

Author information

Steven Shattuck

Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO

Steven Shattuck is Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO, responsible for the overall corporate online presence (website, blog, social media) with an emphasis on lead generation, digital PR and content creation.

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The Golden Circle – Flipping the Script on Your Marketing Message

Steven Shattuck — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:28:41 +0000

I first saw Simon Sinek’s TED Talk “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” a few months ago, and it fundamentally changed the way I think about marketing.

In the presentation, Sinek explains “The Golden Circle,” which is a visualization of how marketing messages (and most human communication) is structured. Sinek posits that the most effective marketers communicate from the inside out: Why, How, What, while most a majority of marketers communicate from the outside in: What, How, Why.

Understanding the “Why” enables effective content marketing. The best content educates and entertains. It does not sell. Basing your content marketing on your “How” and/or “What” will be ineffective. Focus instead on creating content around your “Why” – it will likely answer customer and prospect questions, help them in their day-to-day work, and increase your reputation as a thought leader in the industry.

Take time to experiment with flipping the script on your marketing message. It’s a worthwhile and fun exercise that will help you get to the core reason for why you exist. Most organizations already have a mission statement. Think of this as a vision statement. Start with the “Why” and work your way outwards.

People who believe what you believe will do business with you. This is the very essence of inbound marketing. Communicating your beliefs, rather than promoting your products and services, is what will attract a community around your brand. Leading with the “What” and the “How” may be effective in converting those who are ready to buy (the ones at the bottom of your sales funnel), but the “Why” is what will fill the top of your funnel in the first place.

Author information

Steven Shattuck

Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO

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3 Simple Ideas For Recurring Content On Your Church Website

Steven Shattuck — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 21:46:52 +0000

A majority of church websites are nothing more than static billboards that communicate little more than worship times and an address. Adding new content on a regular basis is key to keeping your website looking fresh and attractive to prospective first-time guests. It’s also a great way to highlight the staff, leadership and members of your congregation. Here are three simple ideas for regularly recurring content on your church website that will take little-to-no extra work to create and publish:

1) Sermons

The most obvious of low-hanging fruit is the weekly sermon. It’s likely your priest, pastor or minister already has his or her sermon typed out. This can easily be published as a blog post. Depending on the length and structure, it could represent several blog posts.

In addition to blog posts, you could record audio of the sermon and upload as a podcast, or capture the sermon on video via a Google+ Hangout On Air, which automatically publishes to YouTube.

Bonus Tip: If the sermon includes a slidedeck, consider uploading the slides to Slideshare and embed it in the blog post.

2) Communion Meditations

If you welcome members of your congregation to speak before communion time, why not repurpose their message into a blog post? This will allow you to get multiple authors on your blog while showing off your vibrant community of believers and their unique perspectives on life and faith.

Bonus Tip: Set up Google Authorship and include an author bio with every post.

3) Special Performances

Whenever your church occasionally welcomes a guest musician, puts on a performance or hosts an event, these are perfect opportunities to capture video that can be published on your website or through your social media channels. At the very least, these moments can be captured on an iPhone.

Bonus Tip: Have a dedicated member in charge of recording any special performances or events. This will prevent having to find someone to do it at the last minute.

What kind of content do you regularly add to your church website? Let me know in the comments.

Author information

Steven Shattuck

Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO

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Steven Shattuck Named Indiana’s Most Influential Up & Comer

Steven Shattuck — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 13:56:33 +0000

Steven Shattuck has been named Indiana’s Most Influential Up & Comer at the 2012 Indiana Social Media Summit.

Past winners include:

2011 - Muhammad Yasin
2010 - Paul Poteet
2009 – Chad Richards

Other 2012 winners include:

Most Influential Dame - Leanne Hoagland Smith
Most Influential Dude – Pete the Planner (Peter Dunn)
Nicest Social Media Peep – Erik Deckers
Most Ethical - Dr. Greg Magnusson
Grooviest - Leah Beatty
Best In Show - Orville Redenbacher Statue

A full list of 2012 nominees can be found here.

About The Indiana Social Media Summit:

The #Indiana Social Media Summit and SMackdown awards provide an opporturnity for #Indiana’s Most INfluential Social Media Elite — from the Banks of the Ohio to the Shores of Lake Michigan — to collaborate on a project that will:

foster healthy competition
generate a list of SM best practices
create feelings of goodwill and unity
showcase #Indiana’s grooviness to the world
encourage all involved to laugh at themselves

Origin:

The #Indiana Social Media Summit is the brainchild of social media ethnographer and strategist Amy Stark, M.A.. Ms. Stark launched the INaugural SMackdown event after publishing The Tweeter’s Almanac First Edition: The Great #Indiana Initiative of Aught Nine in order to:

Generate a list of social media best practices
Create feelings of goodwill and unity among social media professionals in Indiana
Showcase Indiana’s “grooviness” to the world
Encourage all involved to NOT take themselves too seriously

Author information

Steven Shattuck

Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO

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3 Reasons Why You Should Invest In Building Your Own AuthorRank

Steven Shattuck — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 02:44:59 +0000

Since as early as 2005, Google has expressed interest – through various patents and interview comments – to establish a ranking factor that takes authors, or “agents,” into account when returning content in the SERPs.

Today, Google Authorship ties a personal Google+ profile to published content in order to establish AuthorRank. The result is a world where content written by established experts carries the most authority and ranks higher than content with less-credible authorship or no authorship whatsoever.

There are many benefits to companies establishing authorship and building the AuthorRank of their employees. However, there are equally compelling reasons for employees to care about building their AuthorRank:

1. Ownership

For marketers who work in client services, so much of the content you produce for clients is either completely ethereal or never credited to you. For non-marketers, blogging may be the only opportunity to create something tangible.

Even if the content you produce gets published under your name, without establishing authorship, content that you spend your valuable time creating isn’t tied to you – only the platform it is published on (which is most likely your employer’s blog).

Claim ownership of this content by establishing authorship, and gain credibility and AuthorRank through frequent publishing.

2. Personal Branding

As your AuthorRank grows, so too will traffic to your blog posts and your Google+ profile. Not only will your follower counts across all active social networks grow, but so will your reputation as a subject-matter expert – which can open the door to speaking events and earned media mentions.

3. Job Security

As your personal brand reputation and AuthorRank grows, you will become an invaluable asset to your employer. Your heavily trafficked content will generate leads and increase the brand standing of your company. Every business should have a handful of public-facing thought leaders – why shouldn’t it be you?

The best way to get started is to blog prolifically and make sure authorship is set up on the website you’re publishing on.

For more information about AuthorRank and setting up authorship, check out this excellent and comprehensive guide to Google Authorship Resources from Jeremy Rivera over at Raven Tools.

Author information

Steven Shattuck

Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO

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More Innovation From Startup Weekend Indianapolis

Steven Shattuck — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 19:00:55 +0000

Startup Weekend Indianapolis wrapped up on Sunday, November 18th after a 54-hour marathon session where budding entrepreneurs pitched their startup ideas, formed teams and created a product from start to finish before presenting to a panel of judges.

Five teams sprung from this weekend, each bringing a unique idea to life:

Social Crunch – a social media visualizer.
Recoverator – an app to help you record big purchases in the event of a robbery.
EventCred – Earn credit for attending conferences and participating in professional development events.
Travleague – a website to connect and network with fellow business travelers.
MaxRecovery – an app to track and record stressful and stress-relieving activities.

In the end, Recoverator was voted the winner, making it eligible to compete in the Global Startup Battle, which pits every winning city against one another for the ultimate startup prize package.

Please support the Indianapolis startup community by voting for Recoverator in the Global Battle. You can vote once per day here. In 2010, Indianapolis place second in the Global Startup Battle.

About Startup Weekend:

Startup Weekend was founded by Andrew Hyde in July of 2007 in Boulder, Colorado. The first weekend had 78 people attend and launched a random idea into a worldwide movement. In the first two years, over 80 Startup Weekends took place from San Francisco to Athens, Greece. In June 2009, Marc Nager and Clint Nelsen purchased Startup Weekend from Andrew and restructured it as a 501(c)3 Non-Profit. Shortly after, Franck Nouyrigat joined as the third Director.

Startup Weekend quickly became a nexus for early stage startup activity in communities across the globe. By the end of 2010, Startup Weekend had built a network of over 25,000 alumni, 150 volunteer organizers and 60 trained facilitators spread across more than 100 cities in 30 countries. In September of 2010, Startup Weekend received a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, allowing Startup Weekend to come closer to reaching its potential in attempting to understand the unpredictable science of successful entrepreneurship. Growing quickly, Startup Weekend has since hired the rockstars from its community to form an amazing team of nine – Shane Reiser, Jennifer Cabala, Joey Pomerenke, Adam Stelle, Maris McEdward, and Anca Foster.

Looking into 2011 and beyond, Startup Weekend has become much more than just an event. We will be focusing on building a community-empowerment model to help train and foster community leaders, ignite more entrepreneurial activity and map and connect the world’s startup ecosystems.

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Steven Shattuck

Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO

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How An Indie Rock Band Engaged Their Community Through Instagram

Steven Shattuck — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 09:00:47 +0000

Indie folk-rockers Freelance Whales created an innovative Instagram contest to promote their sophomore album – Diluvia – and engage their community. What lessons can a traditional business learn from this tight-knit group of hipsters?

Integrate Offline With Online

Fans who pre-ordered the album prior to its release date were promised a package of goodies along with the album itself: a signed poster, access to digital versions of live performances, and a large decal.

When the package arrived in the mail, fans received an additional surprise: a cardstock flyer with a suggested use of the free decal. In summary, the instructions read:

All you have to do is take a photo of yourself placing the sticker somewhere very important to you. Then, post that photo to Instagram with the hashtag #diluviagram. On October 22nd, we’ll announce our favorite submission, and that winner will get Freelance Whales tickets in their hometown for life!

Any brand can initiate a contest remotely and announce it online, but Freelance Whales had a plan from the start – integrate offline media (print decal) with a (then) up-and-coming digital social network (Instagram) to create content. Not only did the inclusion of a hashtag allow the band to track content, but the savvy realization of Instagram’s frequent integration with Twitter allowed them to ensure that content would be seen and shared.

Crowdsource Content

With the contest initiated, the band could sit back and watch the photos and tweets come in. It would have been an impractical and monumental feat for to capture as many photographs themselves as their community did through the contest. The band even syndicated the photo feed on their website, creating a beautiful and mesmerizing collage of fan photos:

In the end, two co-winners were awarded concert tickets (one from Indiana!):

Control The Conversation

Whether initiated by the band or not, fans of Freelance Whales were already going to take to social media to discuss the album, live shows and merchandise. By giving fans a fun task – with relatively low cost to the band- they were able to control and monitor the conversation on their terms while generating goodwill and excitement.

While it’s unclear exactly what impact the contest had on album, ticket or merchandise sales – or an increase in social media followers – it’s safe to say that their most engaged fans now feel an even closer bond to the band and camaraderie with each other, which represents a strong return on investment.

Author information

Steven Shattuck

Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO

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Don’t Be A Victim of Facebook EdgeRank

Steven Shattuck — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:00:22 +0000

Lately I’ve noticed a lot of small businesses and organizations on Facebook posting essentially the same update, admonishing Facebook for recent changes that have resulted in fewer fans seeing their updates, and imploring those alleged 10% who do receive their updates to add their page to their interest lists.

While it’s somewhat ironic that businesses would reach out to fans who are already receiving their regular updates, this sort of desperation underlies a deeper flaw in their social media marketing efforts.

Understand Your EdgeRank

The appearance of your posts in users’ news feeds is controlled by your page’s EdgeRank, a proprietary Facebook algorithm. It is controlled by three factors:

Affinity Score
Edge Weight
Time Decay

Your EdgeRank rises and falls based on who interacts with your posts, what those interactions are (likes vs. comments vs. shares) and the age of the post. To learn more about EdgeRank, visit http://edgerank.net. To check your page’s EdgeRank, visit https://www.edgerankchecker.com.

Reward the Fans Who Do See Your Updates

Regardless of what your EdgeRank is, you should first focus on the “10%” of users who do see yours posts regularly. These are your most engaged fans. Reward them. Offer them special discounts and insider information, rather than trying to artificially increase your news feed penetration.

Despite the fact that the “90%” won’t even see the update imploring them to change their settings, you risk alienating your most engaged 10%. Those 90% aren’t the ones that frequently engage with you any way. While it’s true that there may be some who truly want to see your updates, but don’t because of the algorithm, it’s not worth throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

As your initial, engaged fan-base interacts with your posts more often, your EdgeRank will rise naturally and you may begin to reach some of those in the “90%.”

Post Often

Don’t be afraid to post more than once a day. Your fans can only interact with as many posts as you send out, so give them that opportunity. Use tools like https://crowdbooster.com to identify prime posting times based on previous engagement. Increased frequency may result in some hides or dislikes. This, however, will bring your most loyal fans into the foreground.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in Facebook’s Basket

For those who aren’t engaging with you on Facebook: ask yourself if they are more active on other networks. Could you interact with them on Twitter, or Instagram? Research other network usage among your target demographic and personas, and then custom-tailor content for them on those networks. Don’t just replicate the same messaging across three or four networks.

The bottom line is that engagement will be as good as your content. Don’t let an algorithm victimize you. Concentrate on quality content for your most engaged users and Facebook won’t have any choice but to place you in the news feed.

Author information

Steven Shattuck

Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO

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Building A Digital Community – Irvington Halloween Festival

Steven Shattuck — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 13:23:02 +0000

The Historic Irvington Halloween Festival just wrapped up its 66th annual celebration since being founded in 1947. I’m pleased to report that 2012 was our most successful year ever, shattering the 2011 attendance and sponsorship intake records.

Not only did the festival grow from 10k attendees in 2009 to 23k attendees in 2012, we did so without spending a dime on traditional advertising.

How did we do it?

First, a little background:

About Irvington

Founded in 1870 by Sylvester Johnson and Jacob Julian, Irvington was originally created as a suburban town of Indianapolis. Johnson and Julia believed the area to be reminiscent of Sleepy Hallow, and so named Irvington after 19th century writer Washington Irving. Butler University (then named Western Christian University) relocated to Irvington in 1873 and stayed there until 1928. Through the early 1900s, a commuter rail/trolley system ran from Irvington to downtown Indianapolis along US 40. Irvington was annexed by the city of Indianapolis in 1902.

About the Irvington Halloween Festival

The festival was founded in 1947 and is now organized by the Historic Irvington Community Council. Spanning over a week of events – including a 5 mile run, a scholarship pageant, Halloween-themed movies, storytelling, ghost tours, live theater, roller derby, a haunted puppet show – the festival culminates in a day-long street fair that includes over 150 vendors, food trucks, live music and children’s activities.

From Outbound to Inbound

Transitioning an entire marketing strategy from outbound (paid print/tv/radio) to inbound (web/SEO, social media and content) was admittedly a risk, especially for a non-profit festival that relies on consistently high attendance to attract sponsorship dollars and vendor participation.

However, in order to reach those young families who consume information digitally and secure their patronage of the festival for the next 66 years, we decided to center our communications plan entirely around inbound marketing strategies.

Social Media

Through initial research, and due to the nature of our event, we identified Facebook as our primary network.

The biggest challenge that an event like the Irvington Halloween Festival presents is one of seasonal engagement. Because the festival is centered around an annually occurring holiday, interacting with the digital community throughout the entire year is challenging.

It should be no surprise that we see our highest engagement numbers during the month of October, and especially during the week of the festival. Observe the growth curve on our Facebook page over the last three years. You’ll see a spike around September which levels off in November:

Not only was it critical for us to stay active during the month of October, but we needed to keep the festival top of mind throughout the year.

Facebook posting cadence:

December-August: at least one post a week
- Topics: Irvington events, Irvington business news
September: at least two posts a week
- Topics: Festival previews, sponsor/vendor/volunteer info
October: at least one post a day
- Topics: Festival previews, festival events, sponsor/vendor/volunteer info
  - Week of the festival: at least three posts per day
November: at least two posts a week
- Topics: Attendee feedback, festival event summaries

The increased posting frequency in October paid off:

Twitter was most-utilized during the week of the festival, particularly on the day of the street fair. Dozens of requests for information about parking, event times and locations and other general questions were fielded and responded to quickly.

One benefit of inviting more food trucks to the 2012 festival was the multiplier effect of their Twitter followings. Social media followings/web presence were also taken into consideration during overall vendor selection.

In the 2013, we’d like to explore crowd-sourcing content via Twitter and Instagram (attendee street teams, live-tweeters, etc.).

Video

In 2010, a considerable (volunteer) investment was made in video production. Every event was captured in video, and since virtually every event repeats year-to-year, we’re able to re-use that content in order to give potential first-time visitors an idea of what each event looks and sounds like.

More on http://www.youtube.com/irvhalloween

Earned Media

An interesting by-product of an increased digital community was an increase in media requests. In 2012, we sent out zero press releases while increasing earned media coverage by 33% – all of which were unsolicited. WIBC, Fox59 and the Indianapolis Star all reached out to us, resulting in a recurring radio interview, coverage in the IndyStar community guide (print and online) and a live report on the day of the street fair.

Strategic partnerships with entities like DoItIndy (web video series) and Yelp (newsletter, WTHR segment) bring additional promotional firepower.

Web

In 2009, the festival corporate web presence was limited to a Blogger blog. In 2010, we migrated to WordPress and built a dynamic site that included a blog. Festival-goers could access event information and view embedded videos. Through integrated MailChimp forms, we were capturing prospective vendor and volunteer information. Increased traffic year-over-year became a true value-ad to sponsors.

2011 vs 2012 http://irvingtonhalloween.com

Visits: +32.27%
Unique Visitors: +31.84%
Pageviews: +80.53%
Pages / Visit: +36.48%
Avg. Visit Duration: +15.29%
Bounce Rate: -15.62%

Festival Growth

By focusing on inbound marketing strategies, we were able to grow festival sponsorship intake by 33% in 1 year and attendance (Street Fair alone) by 130% in 3 years:

2009: 10k
2010: 12k
2011: 15k
2012: 23k

Can’t wait to see what 2013 has in store!

Author information

Steven Shattuck

Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO

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MBO Decision 2012 – My Picks – #MBO12

Steven Shattuck — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 09:00:58 +0000

The 6th Annual Masters of Business Online (MBO) conference is fast approaching. As is the case with any conference of quality, attendees have to make a difficult choice: which speakers and tracks do I choose to attend?

The eighteen MBO 2012 speakers are divided into six tracks of three sessions each. There’s something for everyone: content marketing, social media, branding, video, SEO and mobile – all from thought-leaders in Indianapolis and beyond.

Here are my top picks for MBO 2012:

Session 1:

The 5 P’s of Content Marketing: Plan, Produce, Publish, Promote, Prove
Building Your Brand Through Social Media Storytelling
7 Habits of Highly Effective YouTubers

Jenny Messmer, Digital Marketing Manager at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis has artfully executed several social media campaigns, integrated with online video, to promote museum events and exhibitions – in a fun and engaging way.

Session 2:

SEO in a Post-Panda/Penguin World
Engaging Customers Through Multiple Digital Channels ***
Finding and Marketing to Niche Audiences Online

If you want to learn from a heavy-hitter in the digital marketing realm, attend Jessica Bradford’s session. She’s the Manager for Customer Engagement and Interactive Campaigns at FedEx. This is a big opportunity to get an inside look at how an enterprise brand engages their customers. In fact, she’s my MBO Decision 2012 pick!

Session 3:

Marketing in the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)
The WHY Workshop: Creating Emotional Connections that Keep Prospects and Clients Close
Email is Dead, Long Live Email

If you’ve never heard of ZMOT, you lack understanding of an absolutely critical component of the sales funnel. Daren Tomey, Enterprise Business Development at Zmags will fill you in.

Session 4:

How Data-Driven Content Marketing Changes The Game
Using Social Media Influencers to Drive Brand Awareness
The End of Customer Focus: Creating Meaning in the Age of Anxious Noise

Muhammad Yasin, Marketing Director at HCC Medical Insurance Services, is one of the brightest social media practitioners in the insurance industry and beyond. If he can successfully engage (and convert) hundreds of thousands of followers across multiple networks with an unsexy product like travel medical insurance, surely you can do the same with your products or services.

Session 5:

Flipping the Funnel: Connecting with Non-traditional Demographics through Inbound Marketing
Lead Scoring and Nurturing for Lifecycle Marketing
Navigating the Affiliate Marketing Roadmap

Customer Lifecycle Marketing is all about identifying and applying a persona to each and every one of your prospects, which is critical to successful lead nurturing. Kathy Brown, Vice President of Client Success at RightOn Interactive will walk you through the process. B2B and B2C marketers will benefit from understanding how a prospect’s relationship with your brand unfolds and develops.

Sessions 6:

Don’t Waste Your Second Impression: Enhance Your SEM Efforts with Remarketing
In Mobile, One Size Does NOT Fit All
Online Communications: Not Your Grandmother’s News Release

Ryan Mull, Managing Partner at Imavex, brings the only mobile-centric session to MBO. As critical as mobile is to the success of any online marketing campaign, this session shouldn’t be missed.

If you haven’t already registered for MBO, you can do so here. What are you waiting for?

Author information

Steven Shattuck

Senior Marketing Associate / Community Manager at Slingshot SEO

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