Why I had to Ignore My Creative Writing Teacher's Advice: recap of session day 2 at #CMWorld

My high school creative writing teacher told me emotional events (good or bad) fueled amazing stories but never try and capture them when you're in the midst of the emotion or immediately afterwards. The emotion becomes convoluted, the details smeared and the writing awful. Give it some time to sink in. Digest it. Then commence recapturing your experiences. However well-intentioned this advice may be, it was given before social media. It is with that, that I respectfully cast Mr. Bernard's advice to the side.

Content Marketing World was a fabulous event and though it may not shape my personally, professionally it sparked more good ideas than I can begin to capture. Here's my recap of the trio of sessions from today that made me wish these folks needed scribes because I would gladly follow them around on a regular basis just to glean some brilliance and inspiration. (Disclaimer: all of the speakers were amazing at #CMWorld but these three inspired me and equipped me with tools and information that directly apply to my inbound marketing role. There's that key take-away from CMW - provide useful content!)

As I tweeted earlier, sometimes you attend a session for the content, sometimes for the speaker - which was the case with Nate Riggs. Although I considered myself a Twitter maven of sorts, his helpful advice and list of tools made his presentation one of the most practical that I attended. If you're not already checking these out give them a look over -- SocialBro, Simply Measured, hashtracking.com, clicktotweet, Social Flow, and Social Triggers. If you're looking for someone who gives out a lot of great information with a sense of humor, check him out on Twitter @nateriggs.

10 Email Secrets that Will Help Drive Your Content Strategy presented by Jeff Rohrs was a standing crowd only. So much for email being dead! Jeff likened email to an iceberg. You only see part of it. Social media shares are public, emails are not. But his colorful descriptions (granted not as colorful as Mitch Joel's "sex with data" from the day before), didn't end there. He reminded us that email powers every social media site. Email is social media's secret weapon. How does LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, etc. provide you with announcements, reminders, weekly status -- via email. Ah-hah!

Finally...."a Rose by any other name..." would be Robert (wonder how many times he's heard that joke? My maiden name is Green, I get it.). If he didn't intrigue me during the pre-session joking (and he did -- who doesn't like to poke fun of marketers and our reputation of not doing anything??), Robert Rose definitely had me at Ali. He began his presentation on Getting the Choir to Sing: Selling & Developing the Process for Content Marketing INSIDE the Organization with the inspirational story of Muhammad Ali's comeback against George Foreman. The way that Ali reinvented himself repeatedly was fascinating and inspirational and the way Robert told it -- his cadence and tone -- I was hooked. He repeatedly told the audience that what he had to say was not new but there was something about his style a mix of story and art that lit a fire in me where I wanted to fly back to my office and start implementing his ideas right away. He told us how to get support from the higher-ups, those most involved, and the savvy person who had a way of killing or promoting everything in the office. (Hadn't considered that one.)

Content Marketing World was such an amazing experience, my words can't do it justice. To capture that kind of excitement, inspiration, energy amidst a group who "gets it" is impossible. Maybe Mr. Bernard was right.

Here's looking forward to 370ish days from now -- Content Marketing World 2013!

It's the Middle of The Night. What Do Your Customers Want?

I saw a brilliant tweet last night. It spoke to the audience and addressed a need that was undoubtedly timed perfectly. It was in the wee, blurry-eyed hours that a promoted tweet by Wendy's welcomed night owls and "suggested" they stop in for a burger because many locations were open late. Who doesn't want a burger at 3 a.m.? The only thing they could've done to entice me further (since Willy Wonka is still working on Smellivision) was change their branded, red-headed icon into a double-stack of deliciousness.

Wendy's gave some thought about their late night customers. What are they doing before they come in? How could they reach them? Social media and specifically Twitter gave them the perfect entry into their customers' lives/minds (in the middle of the night). Wendy's reminded their audience about their late night cravings and how easy it was to satisfy them. Strong, targeted, content marketing.

What do you think? Is this an effective use of social media?

The Fine Line of Authenticity

I didn't watch the Super Bowl (thus my tweet stream and Facebook page have no mention of what I'm eating, wearing or thinking about this topic) because I have little interest in professional sports and even littler interest in the teams involved. Basically, I don't have an opinion and commercials that I can view on YouTube later tonight were not a big enough draw.

But I appreciate there were a lot of people interested and thus left the commentary to them. There is a fine line between exhibiting your interest in something via social media and jumping on the proverbial bandwagon in the hopes that you'll win the social media lottery and you'll become famous. Reaching your audience is important; talking about relevant topics is also important and being genuine about both is the foundation for success in either.

Last week, a coworker told me that people who "do" social media are always doing social media. She said they sit on their couch and comment about everything. That's what makes them successful. I disagree. Those of us who "practice" social media for a living are always trying to figure out what makes sense for our audience. We are not running for president; we don't need to tell you our stance on everything. Some opinions can be kept to ourselves or shared with only our closest friends and family. And, when we don't have an opinion on a subject - like me on the Superbowl - why tweet just to be heard?

Tweeting about every trending topic is not necessary or valuable. Yes, trending topics are relevant but your audience/followers want to know more about the authentic you. Ringing in on every topic just adds to the chatter. Followers don't expect you to tweet about everything (unless you are a celebrity. Then the fact you just ate carrots for lunch may actually inspire t-shirt sales).

Your silence amplifies your heart-felt commentary.

If you have an opinion on this post, leave it below. Otherwise, that's fine too.