mesh conference, Author at mesh

Sep 23

$199 = Awesome ROI

By mesh conference meshmarketing

$199.

That’s the cost of buying a ticket for meshmarketing until October 30.

Any way you want to slice and dice it, that’s a sweet deal for a day of digital marketing insight, information and inspiration.

So, why $199? (and a handful of $49 student tickets)

For one, we wanted to make meshmarketing accessible to anyone interested in jump-starting their digital marketing game.

Two, we want to have a full house on November 7 at the Toronto Reference Library to create an event with energy, excitement and, as important, lots of opportunities to network, meet new people and establish new connections.

Three, we have embraced a new model for meshmarketing that makes the numbers work, particularly if we can get some help from sponsors.

Four, there is a need for a digital marketing conference with great content/speakers that focuses on delivering tactical and actionable insight.

Let’s be honest, the days of talking about content marketing, digital optimization, social media and inbound marketing at a high level are over because they’re a fact of life.

What’s more important is giving people counsel, advice and ideas about how to make their digital marketing efforts more productive, efficient, successful and profitable.

In other words, meshmarketing involves less talk, and more walk.

Here’s another way to look at $199:

If you attend one session that really makes an impact or gives you a great idea, it’s instant ROI.

If you meet a new connection or establish a new business relationships, that’s instant ROI.

The reality is there are lots of digital conferences battling for your dollars but given our speakers, the content and focus on encouraging networking (and mesh-ing), you’re going to get great bang for buck.

Looking to buy a ticket now? Here’s where to do it. By the way, the $199 pre-registration price lasts until Oct. 30.

Sep 16

Love0

A 360° View of meshmarketing

By mesh conference meshmarketing

We’re really excited about meshmarketing, which is happening on Nov. 7 at the Toronto Reference Library.

We’ve got great speakers such as Jay Baer, Peep Laja, Danny Brown and Amrita Chandra. We have a fascinating case study involving Oreos (and likely a lot of Oreos as snacks).

And we’ve programming focused on delivering actionable insight so you change change or improve your digital marketing efforts when you go back to the office.

There’s so much we want to share about meshmarketing so we created a cool “magazine” powered by LookBook. To use it, click on the image below, and then select the content that you find interesting.

Sep 11

Love0

meshmarketing Q&A: Sam Fiorella

By mesh conference meshmarketing

Sam Fiorella and Danny Brown, who co-wrote Influence Marketing will be doing a session at meshmarketing about influencer marketing, a topic that many brands are seriously exploring to drive their digital marketing efforts.

Here’s a mini-Q&A with Sam about his thoughts on the social media landscape:

When it comes to social media, what strikes you as the most interesting or exciting trends or developments?

Funny enough, it’s the anti-social movement. I’ve noticed more people are taking “digital vacations” and culling their friend lists because social media has created a conflicting world. We’re connected to more people, yet don’t have more meaningful relationships. We’re encouraged (and rewarded) to connect with more and more people, yet we don’t have the time to manage the expectations that come along with that. There’s so much noise created in our digital world today that we have to work too hard to find real value in the cacophony of content that is being created. Similarly, businesses are struggling with Big Data – they’re collecting more and more consumer data, brand “Likes,” and earned media but they can’t clearly connect that engagement to customer life time value.

The pendulum is swinging back and it seems that individuals and businesses alike are seeking more meaning from smaller niche communities or by compartmentalizing their audience. This will have a big effect on technology from a GUI perspective as well as a programming and analytics one.

What’s your take on how social media, content marketing and inbound marketing are converging or intersecting?

They’ve always been one, yet we’re just starting to understand how they work together. Social media is not a different from of marketing, it’s just another channel. Content marketing is not another form of marketing, it’s just another technique. In fact, I could argue there’s no such thing as “content marketing;” before social media (social networks, blogs, etc.), content marketing was just marketing. I’ve heard this claim from early adopters for a while but it seems the mainstream is now becoming aware. My clients are more comfortable with marketing solutions when these tactics are presented as just that: tactics within an integrated marketing plan.

Brands are fascinated with influencers. How do they get started in the right way? (A loaded, softball question!)

This requires an entire book to spell out properly. Oh, wait, there is such a book! If I had to provide an elevator pitch, I would say brand managers must better interface with sales and customer service teams (and software) to identify how customer make purchase decision, what factors affect how they make decisions, and who are they speaking with at the point a decision is made. In short, start with the customer and link their decision making to your business’s product or service. Understand the purchase life cycle of your customers and orient your influence marketing strategies around that. A recommendation or product offer is received and interpreted differently by a prospect who has never heard about your business than it is by someone who is already considering a purchase. Similarly, someone who is in the market for a specific product will react differently to a recommendation than someone who has no need.

I’d warn brands away from quick-start/short-cut solutions like using social influence scoring platforms to identify who is deemed influential. Instead, I’d recommend focusing on the factors that affect how their customers make purchase decisions and build communication paths between those customers, at each stage of the life cycle, to those who can sway those decisions in your favour.

What are the new and favourite digital services in your toolbox?

I have a long list of new products that I want to try out but currently I’m playing with new influence marketing platforms like Little Bird, Traackr, Appinions, and InNetwork that are applying new methodologies to the industry. Little Bird does not factor social conversations into their determination of who is – and isn’t – influential on specific topics. Appinions uses natural language processing against a database of online and offline content to understand who creates the opinions that drive action in specific industries. InNetwork is a fantastic tool that uses both software and “elbow grease” of its analysts to understand the makeup of a blogger’s audience. Each is pushing the industry forward and I’m fascinated by each.