During the last few weeks I went to the HubSpot Inbound marketing conference in Boston and then headed down to Savannah Georgia for the Michael Port Book Yourself Solid event. I also ran a Twitter chat for ProfNet. Here are a few cool things I learned or re-learned:
- Tips for Repurposing Content
Generating content consistently is one of the most common problems marketers face. Lee Odden of top rank blog gave a great talk at the Inbound conference about how you can make many pieces of content starting from one piece, such as an e-book. This post is essentially a summary of the talk about how to repurpose content and make your content marketing easier.
Lee also mentioned that his team does a quick Friday news post like the Friday fav’s John Jantsch does. Great way to keep active.
- Public speaking tips from Michael Port
Matthew Kimberley, who works with Michael, was preparing for giving a talk and so at the end of the day they let us watch the rehearsal. I was shocked how specific they were in organizing hand gestures, stage position, props, loudness and softness of voice, facial expressions and all kinds of fine details.
I wish I could share the coaching session but I don’t think they videotaped it, as it was spontaneous. The bottom line is, you don’t just want to think about your content and slides but you want to think about your entire presence and show, like an actor, comedian or a musician does.
More speaking tips from Michael Port on YouTube. And check out tips part 1 and part 2 from one of his clients.
- Combining sales and content marketing
Brian Halligan, one of the founders of HubSpot showed off their free CRM system and Sidekick sales tool, both of which I am now using. What really turned me on was when he said how important it is for salespeople to have a repository of blog posts and content that they can share with prospects. He emphasized the importance of showing off your thought leadership / authority.
He shared how the Sidekick for Business tool lets you keep folders of this type of content, which may have been created by the marketing team and that the salespeople can send to engage potential customers.
So don’t just create blog posts with the goal of getting them ranked in Google or sharing on social media, but use them very directly in your sales process.
- How to do a Twitter chat
Shannon Ramlochan from ProfNet asked me to host a live twitter chat with her. I hadn’t done one before, and the Buffer guide to Twitter chats was extremely helpful in getting up to speed.
During the chat, I used a few hashtags like #inbound2015 and it drew in a few people who follow HubSpot. I loved the interaction with people following the #ConnectChat hashtag. I am now a strong believer in hosting Twitter chats.
I was pleasantly surprised that ProfNet also featured me in Times Square!
- How to submit a journalist query using ProfNet
Shannon shared with me a link where you can post your queries in order to have experts share tips for your articles. Not only can you use a tool like ProfNet to get featured in media, but you can use it in reverse and become a journalist yourself.
- News tip: My next public speaking event:
I am honored to have been invited to speak by Michael Gass, with many top agency new business experts, at The NEW Drivers of NEW Business, October 8-9, Nashville, TN.
Check out my Fuel Lines speaker page for more details.
Conclusion
I love going to conferences. Being around so many marketers with such high energy and learning from the greats is so nice to do in person. You can certainly get plenty of information online but getting to know high-level experts by interacting with them live is priceless.
