Because I want to share what I learned with those who couldn’t
attend, and because the going theory is that all headlines should include a
number, here are the 100 things I learned in Cleveland this year:
1.
Joe Pulizzi continues to attract the best and
brightest to the North Coast.
2.
Even though Joe’s name doesn’t contain a single
letter T, it’s still pronounced Pu-LITT-zee. Go figure.
3.
The Orange-clad CMI crew does a great job. Every
year.
4.
Every speaker is writing or has just written a
book.
5.
One sponsor took to giving away money (in the
form of $2 bills) this year. Subtle.
6.
If you wanted to get into Robert Rose’s session
on Tuesday, you needed to show up about 30 minutes earlier than I did. Bummer.
7.
Kristina Halvorson speaks the truth.
8.
The ‘brown bus’ is actually white (it’s the
brown route, which they could have mentioned).
9.
By the time midday arrives, it turns out people will walk
right in front of you for a sandwich and some pretzels in a colorful box. Hmmm.
10. Apparently,
some folks were using one badge (it was two sided) to sneak two people into the
event. Really?
11. That’s
only ten things? Crap, I’d better pick this up.
12. Drew
Davis didn’t disappoint as the keynote this year. Inspiring as usual.
13. Attendance
at the show was more than 2,600 and has quadrupled in just four years.
14. That’s
400% growth for you ROI people.
15. The
WiFi was mostly good. Charging stations were nice, too.
16. More
orange, of course. Orange cupcakes, orange Jell-O, orange Rice Krispies Treats.
You get the idea.
17. Ann
Handley suggested having a writing plan that’s like a GPS. Smart.
18. She
also has a new book.
19. If
you write, you should probably get it.
20. And,
as she contends, we all do, so…
21. Kirk
Cheyfitz from Story Worldwide correctly noted that we can gather a bigger
audience on Facebook than with the Super Bowl today. As he says, “Digital is
everything.”
22. Can
I say Super Bowl?
23. Those
SEO guys are smart.
24. There
are people actually called the linkerati.
25. If
you get a bunch of publishers together for a chat about Native Advertising they
will be disappointingly nice to each other.
26. Put
a creative guy in there like Doug Kessler and he’ll tell you what he thinks.
27. “Publishers
aren’t nearly concerned enough about this (native advertising). The line is
blurring and it’s blurring intentionally,” Says Doug.
28. And
this: On native advertising: "If the content is good and
people love it, tell them what it is."
29. Right
on, Doug.
30. Jason
Miller may be the only person that talks (and thinks) as fast as Drew Davis. We
should have a contest.
31. The
‘big rock’ concept Jason Miller talks about worked for him at Marketo. It’s
clearly working at LinkedIn. It may not be as much about rock (and more about Jason).
32. He
also talks about using content like Thanksgiving turkey. Also works.
33. Turns
out, Mark Schaeffer knows a thing or two about Twitter.
34. He
also knows about tools like Twellow that can show you what people are searching
for on all the major search engines. Simultaneously. That means at the same
time!
35. I
think he also speaks Latin or something.
36. “Even
great lead nurturing can’t fix crappy marketing,” according to Matthew Sweezey.
He’s right, of course.
37. Turns
out those little donuts are great right from the food truck.
38. And
they’ll keep giving them to you as long as you have tickets.
39. You
can have nothing but donuts for dinner.
40. Okay,
sorry, back to work.
41. Twitter
also has yellow pages, where businesses can search for customers by geography,
category…it’s like the opposite of real yellow pages.
42. NewsCred
says they made $5 million in the first 8 months of the year just from Content Marketing.
43. Also
said that LinkedIn converts at a 40% rate for them. (forty percent!)
44. Sure,
this is number 44, but did you see that last stat…4-0 percent.
45. That
cute Friskies video was shown in more than one session. It has more than 16
million shares. It’s one cat talking to another cat. About cat food.
46. Beech-Nut
remade their product after listening to their customers (moms), who said they
don’t trust what’s in baby food.
47. Today’s
ingredients in Beech-Nut carrot baby food: Carrots.
48. Not
even water or anything. Just carrots.
49. Apparently,
Content Marketing can help companies know what products to offer or how they
need to change them. Writing that idea down.
50. “With
Content Marketing, people don’t feel like they are in a sales process, but they
are. They are being educated along the way,” said Brian Clark.
51. He
also made about 80 references to CopyBlogger, but it’s awesome, so we’ll allow
it.
52. Kristina
Halvorson challenged us to be “More than marketers shouting at customers.”
53. Amen
to that.
54. She
also noticed that, while this Coke Journey website thing is awesome and all, if
we wanted to find out how to apply for a job at Coke, it’s almost impossible to
do.
55. Same
for Ameriprise Financial. The University of Notre Dame. United.
56. Oh,
airlines. Don’t get Scott Stratten started on Delta.
57. Or
is it Detla?
58. Either
way, he’s funny. And right.
59. Oh,
and there was this from the Unmarketer: “Don’t’ try to be first, be right
first.”
60. I
wanted to support my fellow #CMWorld tweeter Erica Heald and attend her talk
about curation, but I couldn’t get in.
61. Sold
out. Awesome.
62. The
BuzzFeed guy: “We are a platform-agnostic platform."
63. Huh?
64. When
a big unexplained noise happened backstage during the panel discussion he was
moderating, Mitch Joel didn’t skip a beat: "It's just my
mom cleaning up."
65. Some
phone company also had a big announcement during the show.
66. I
must have missed it.
67. Think
they’re into watches now.
68. Cathy
McPhillips was nice enough to organize a meet-up for those of us who join the #CMWorld
chat each week. The chat is Tuesdays at Noon ET.
69. The
meet-up was at 7:15.
70. In
the morning :)
71. Scott
(the Content Wrangler) Abel rocked a lunch & learn about Content
Engineering.
72. People
stopped eating, it was that good.
73. Twitter
advanced search can show you the conversations that are happening right now.
74. Mark
Schaeffer called Twitter a “real-time global brainstorming session.”
75. Also
called it the “Movie trailer to your movie.”
76. And
“The most powerful networking tool ever created.”
77. So,
he likes Twitter.
78. Proof:
“Nothing says ‘I love you’ like a retweet now and then.”
79. Okaay.
80. Email
tip: if you use shorter emails, limit the use of links. Spam filters will measure
the proportion of links to copy and, as emails get shorter, you’ll have to use
fewer links.
81. And,
as Matthew Sweezey said, “No one clicks on the link in your email sig anyway.” Good point.
82. Shafqat
Islam from NewsCred reminded us: “Behind every tweet, every share, every
purchase is a person.”
83. Jason
Miller appreciates his B2B brothers and sisters…
84. “B2B
marketers like to have fun, they’ve just been locked up for a while.”
85. According
to David Kirk, Google searches for Content Marketing
were up 181% this past week.
86. Kevin
Spacey also bent the ‘If a tree falls’ metaphor toward his audience: "Does
it matter what's behind a link if no one clicks on it?"
87. No.
It does not.
88. At
one point, I was concerned for the Content Marketing space-time continuum when
I saw Ann Handley and Kristina Halverson chatting between sessions.
89. Thankfully,
security was called and they were moved to separate locations.
90. Can’t
risk it.
91. Turns
out that Kevin Spacey is familiar with the F-bomb
92. Very
familiar.
93. He
demonstrated his knowledge of Content Marketing terms throughout his talk.
94. When
the audience seemed surprised/impressed, he quipped: “Yeah that’s right, I know
your f---ing terms!”
95. Halverson
on the infamous Oreo tweet:
96. Just
0.008% of active tweeters engaged with Oreo.
97. She
did the math.
98. “That
was advertising, not engagement.”
99. Content
Marketing World is back in Cleveland September 8-11, 2015.
100. Registration opens December 1st
See you all there?
