I just got back from the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston. This was my second year to attend. Except for the part where I got food poisoning on Day 2, I learned an awful lot and had fun doing it. There were 21 sessions crammed into two days and while some sessions were naturally better than others, there was something to take away from all of them. Here are a few things I learned:
What Hash Jacking Is
Like any tech conference these days, the event had a hashtage - #IMS09 - so that we could all tweet about the event and see our comments all in one place on Twitter. As the event started trending high for tweets, a porn site found us and began using our hash tag to post their images and 140-character messages too. This, I learned is called "hash jacking" and made for some interesting tweets!
Case Studies Still Make A Subject Real
The most interesting presentations for me where real world examples of how folks are integrating new social media tools into their traditional marketing programs. We had some great presentations from Gary Vaynerchuck, author of Crush It!, on how to turn your ideas into business using the Internet the way he did for his wine business. Greg Matthewsof Humana Consumer Innovation gave a presentation on who Humana is using social media to execute their strategy of changing health care from a focus on sickness to a focus on wellness. It is an example of a social business from the inside out. Most fun of the case studies was Paula Berg of Southwest Airlines who is "nuts about online communication." From the video of the rapping flight attendant to stories of the highs and lows Southwest has had with social media, Paula showed how Southwest Airlines has learned to leverage social media to support company initiatives.
Why Online Marketers Publish Dead Tree Books
After listening to purposely controversial presentations by online marketers stating that PR is dead; advertising is dead; within 10 years face-to-face meetings will be dead, I tweeted " Why is it that everyone making a name for themselves in online social media comes out with a dead tree book? #ims09" Shortly, there after, I heard from my friend W. Curtis Preston (known in the computer storage world as "Mr. Backup") who tweeted back "@cgunst bcs deadtree books are still where the money is (I have both & the $ from paper exceeds online by at least ordr of mag.)". PR, advertising, and conferences are not dead, they are evolving. Curtis is right in that the money is with the printed word not the blog although Twitter, blogs, online videos, etc. are a great way to build relationships with your base and spread the word.
Will I Go Again Next Year?
Inbound marketing has come a long way even in the last year as it becomes more mainstream and is more widely integrated into the marketing mix. I left the conference with enough dead tree reading materials in the form of: 101 Content Marketing Tips, Putting the Public Back Into Public Relations, Inbound Marketing, and Trust Agents that I'll still be reading by next year's conference. Seriously, we'll see were marketing is at this time next year. With luck, my marketing consulting business, Gunst & Associates will take off and I'll get called in as a speaker! Now, that would be fun!
Great to see you at the Inbound Marketing Summit. And, I agree, things are evolving and the old stuff "ain't quite dead yet".
Cheers.
Posted by: Dharmesh Shah | October 11, 2009 at 03:05 PM