Social Media Marketing World 2016: Tips and Reflections #SMMW16

Social Media Marketing World is one of my favorite conferences of the year and a must-attend for social media marketers.

We had some fun on our #SocialTalkLIVE show talking with Mike Stelzner and some of the attendees as well as Ali McGee, Social Media Examiner Society Manager.

This was the 4th year for Social Media Marketing World and it has grown from 1100 attendees to 3000. This was the first year it was held in the San Diego Convention Center which is 1/6 of a mile long. So there was a lot of walking.

Statistics from Mike Stelzner:

~3000 attendees
84,500 tweets
1 Billion Reach Twitter
5,400 Instagram Pictures
Over 100 sessions during the 2-1/2 day event
100+ volunteers to help run the event

New this year:

Geofilters on Snap Chat
Deep dive 90-minute workshops on Sunday and throughout the event
At the San Diego Convention Center (and it will be there through 2019 at least)

Another technique that they use to be able to start conversations with people was the different color lanyards and flags. The orange lanyards were for people who had attended 3-4 years. People got an Alumni flag if they had attended 1 other year. White lanyard new attendees. Pins were for Society members. So now the volunteers or the staff could easily start a conversation with someone saying “Oh I see this is your first year” and make sure they felt welcome or know that they had come before.

Watch the SocialTalkLIVE session to hear feedback from the attendees – and in case you’ve never attended our Friday afternoon live stream before, we like to have a little fun with hats and wigs on a Friday afternoon.

Highlights mentioned

Michael Port Workshop – Heroic Public Speaking

Joe Pulizzi – Content Marketing in 3s – Do 3 amazing pieces of content to reach out to your audience (a great e-mail, a helpful pdf, or something else) – you don’t have to do everything

Focus on Live Video in 2016 and beyond – especially Mari Smith’s tip that Facebook gives more preference to live video in the News Feed while you are live

Darren Rowse tip – Giving answers with steps in your blog posts because Google is presenting his steps in search results

Holly Homer – Organic engagement on Facebook and how Quirky Momma does it

But a common theme with all the attendees is how wonderful the connections were. Everyone was so friendly and if you had attended before, it felt like a reunion.

People come to the conference the first time for the content and they come back for the relationships #SMMW16

I am a big believer in attending conferences to take your online relationships into the real world. So many partnerships, clients, and good friends develop from those conversations over dinner or in the hallways.