Social Media Marketing World Recap

I attended Social Media Marketing World last week, perhaps my favorite show of the year. I had a great time, (check out the video I placed below) and came back ready to put lots of great ideas to work. Here’s the main reason I keep coming back:

Conferences give you access to industry leaders

SMMW in particular is a huge name-drop festival. Starting with Michael Stelzner, the founder of both SMMW and the umbrella organization, Social Media Examiner, this show is a must if you want to figure out how to make your content work to acheive your business goals.

Here’s a list of folks I’ve been able to chat with at the show over the years:

Gideon Shalwick

A huge YouTube presence, Gideon founded Splasheo, Veeroll, and is just a great resource for getting started with YouTube. I put Gideon first on the list because he’s one of the first presenters I was able to connect with and he was quite generous with his time.

Pat Flynn

Smart Passive Income (smartpassiveincome.com). Check it out, and be ready to be inspired. Pat’s a truly nice guy, and has managed to create a massive following (and income) by selling virtually nothing!

Mari Smith

The Facebook reference extraordinaire! Mari is such a pleasure to speak with, and I’ve been fortunate to speak with her at a few different events. This time around she suggested we get together to create my Facebook advertising strategy. When you start seeing Tech Comm Tools show up in your Facebook advertising feed, you’ll know it’s Mari’s handiwork!

Joe Pulizzi

Joe (along with Robert Rose) is the force behind Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and Content Marketing World. He’s also the owner of the Intelligent Content Conference (ICC), which is happening this week in Las Vegas.

John Lee Dumas

JLD is the focal point of Entrepreneur on Fire (EOF), and one of two folks (Pat Flynn being the other) that actually posts what he earns on his website. (HINT: You should check out the success these two guys have, and look at the meteoric rise they’ve had in the past 3 years)

Lewis Howes

Lewis’ brand, The School of Greatness, is one that I enjoy following. He’s a bit more metaphysical than I am, but his intuition and audience awareness are spot-on.

Amy Porterfield

Amy is another Facebook luminary, who (like Mari Smith) is always worth paying attention to. Amy leverages her FB knowledge to create courses around the topic of social advertising and social content strategies.

Sunny Lenarduzzi

Sunny has had phenomenal success with YouTube in the past few years, and her objectivity in creating content is incredible. If you need inspiration for YouTube marketing content and tactics, her outlook and step-by-step strategies are amazing. My favorite thing about Sunny: She was out front of her room before the start to help draw folks in…as if otherwise the room wasn’t going to fill to capacity!

The keynotes

Gary Vee, Jay Baer, Michael Hyatt, Guy Kawasaki, Michael Stelzner, and many others are on stage in front of the thousands of folks that come to this show every year. Their insight is always worth the early mornings and late afternoon coffee I need to make it all the way through.

And pretty much every other speaker I’ve seen and spoken to!

I’ll be honest, there have been a couple of sessions (especially the more basic topics) that didn’t resonate with me, but I’m sure that others in the audience were thrilled to see the information for the first time. Plus, the speakers spend a lot of time attending sessions. Just about every session I’ve been in has a handful of presenters milling about. Talk about social proof!

All in all, this show never disappoints. I attend this event every year, and plan on being up on stage for next year’s event. Contact me if you’d like to join me there…I’m an affiliate, and generally have giveaways for Tech Comm Tools folks that want to attend and meet up with me.