On Wednesday, May 30, I attended the Social Media Business Life (aka #SoMeBizLife) Conference in Doylestown, PA. This was my second time attending this conference because (a) it’s a relatively small conference on a college campus, (b) I didn’t have to drive into Philadelphia, (c) I really enjoy the speakers and (d) I get to do in-person networking with the folks who attend it. Chuck Hall, organizer and owner of Your Marketing Exec, gathers the best local Social minds to create a meaty conference for all who attend.
This year’s “Discover your Social Super Powers” schedule was organized by track. So I found the sessions in the Social Media Professionals track the most relevant to me and my business. Even though I do more consulting in the media production realm, it’s no secret that I need to keep my social media chops honed as well. Here are several of the nuggets presented that day, that I found thoughtful and useful:
Mike Maney shared these practical words about Social Media during the opening session:
“Selling is not communicating.”
“It’s about being real.”
“Remember that Sales needs to sell, but you need to be a human.”
The first breakout session I attended was called ‘Making a Living as a Social Media Professional’ – a panel moderated by Jessica Cohen, that included Jen Phillips April, Eric Lepping and Kristin Kane. The biggest take away from this session was the following:
Take your Social Media management seriously! Do not allow your savvy nephew, or intern, or kid, to manage your social media for you. They don’t know your business voice, they don’t know your plan and they can’t ask the right questions. You wouldn’t allow your 8-year old who knows how to use a calculator to manage your QuickBooks, so don’t allow a non-professional to manage your Social Media.
There were some other nuggets as well like: ”Businesses need to look at Social Media as social and not as a selling platform.”
And a suggestion: Add a short video of your services to your LinkedIn business page.
And a warning: “There are things that you will do in Social Media that will have no return.”
The most informative session I attended at SoMeBizLife was a lunchtime presentation by +Lynette Young about Google+. Lynette had prepared a slide deck for the conference, made some edits the night before, and then got an email at 11am (1 hour before her scheduled speaking time) and she edited her presentation again. It was her example of how quickly social media changes.
It was timely that I attended Lynette’s presentation because just the week before, two of the local Google field marketing reps spoke at one of my local networking events to introduce us to Google+.
Lynette’s presentation was a powerful one for me because she explained the WHYs of using Google+ especially for businesses. I thought G+ was just another platform that I had to find time to manage. But what Lynette pointed out was the following: Google+ is the social layer that connects all of Google’s products – including Search. Read that again: Search. So you put in your knowledge and expertise into G+ and it comes out in Search. Is the stuff that you put in Facebook searchable? No, it’s not. I literally think everyone in the auditorium went home to set up or polish their G+ profiles.
Thank you again to the organizers, speakers and attendees at SoMeBizLife. It was a great day to learn and share!
About Carla Wilson
