The Emerging Tech Conference that occurred on July 20-21 in Addison, TX presented great tips from experienced professionals from various fields of online media, social media and content marketing. I like to thank them for taking the time to offer their knowledge to us and a big thank you for the event producer, Tony Cecala, for making this yearly event happen. Below are some of the tips I managed to curate from tweets during the course of the event presentations. Enjoy!

75% of small biz owners will increase content marketing.

display ads are losing popularity and content marketing is gaining popularity.

What content marketing ISN’T, its not about selling or annoying people.

Content marketing gives you information and makes it easy to make a buying decision.

Content marketing vs. SEO. You can’t have one without the other.

Content marketing is useful, relevant, interesting, memorable, & doesn’t just ‘get in the way’ like traditional advertising.

Culture is the number 1 metric (Apple is the master of this)!

Folks who used to deliver entertainment and news are now converting to doing content marketing.

Content marketing is changing the definition of what is and what isn’t propaganda.

The next frontier in content marketing is figuring out promotions: tying it to a sale.

Content marketing is Contextually relevant and does not divert your attention elsewhere.

Engagement is a huge part of nurturing your audience and is an indicator on how successful you are using your content marketing.

QR codes are not popular because in the eyes of the consumer there is no pay off. It always leads to an ad / website / video.

All niche media gets to be mass media at some point.

Feed the beast! …The Google beast, make sure you upload your videos to YouTube.

The goal isn’t just to create videos it’s to create sales and use video for higher ROI.

Video is all about storytelling to build an emotional connection. But you must LISTEN first!

What are people searching for. Who’s providing the relevant content –build this bridge and you’ll get high exposure on Google.

Interviews in content marketing: Listen well – let the content reveal itself. Get the story behind the story.

Storytelling is about listening. Listening and following up.

If your information is great, people will share it.

Produce content for the customer, not the business.

Don’t focus on the tech always focus on the storytelling.

Immediacy and quickness of an individual compared to a large company is crucial for the video advantage.

The technology will change, (vine, instagram, etc.) Don’t focus on the technology.

Don’t focus on the channels , focus on your story and unique and memorable way to deliver your message.

Sponsor events, maximize your opportunity to connect w your audience, don’t just focus on your offer, where are they?

The most important part of video is audio, without it you are toast!

Make sure that you use Google Hangouts. Google indexes it. It’s live. Goes straight to YouTube. No video editing.

Build your brand by using social media channels to build a powerful platform to draw your audience.

Take a community college video class! Good tip & cheaper than a weekend seminar!

Videolicious is a great app to use if you want to shoot video with your smart phone.

Google only cares about what people are searching for and who is providing the content / answers. Consistently!

Understand your audience’s motivations and behaviors and listen for insights of their personality types.

People have a primary and secondary personality type , usually for work and home.

Speed is crucial in Social Media so quick mobile videos work better sometimes.

Develop meaningful partnerships and relationships, it will make you much more effective.

Our digital profile is a metaphor of where we’re going.

There is no separation between real life and online feelings. Think about the content that you put out there. It matters!

There is no separation anymore between our digital and offline lives. Transparency is critical.

What we create online part of our digital DNA which in turn becomes part of our human DNA.

Digital profiles will impact your career and employment, business development, and bank loans, personal life and more.

Before you post online ask Yourself: Does this matter? Do I want this buried on my digital iceberg?

Your resume isn’t a piece of paper now. It’s who you are online what you know and what you have done and what you can create.

It is our responsibility in this digital age to be mindful of what you create & post. Be a participant to.

The Internet continues to break barriers in education, employment, and much more. Choose yourself, don’t wait to be chosen!

The wide access to technology is changing the way people learn and as such It will also change the way employees evaluate you.

We have an enormous amount of freedom in the internet. Protect, & participate in it. Be active thinkers & users!

Get into the psychology of your site. How people think, see and understand.

Pay attention to the ‘crazy ideas’ of designers. They often envision things that may not *YET* exist.

Clients do want to see that you have personality in your SM engagement.

DaVinci’s sketches were essentially today’s wireframes. He was a prolific sketcher. How often are you premeditating your design?

Lesson 2: Sketch alone. Lesson 3: Review with others. Lesson 4: Annotate, Arrow, Labels (wireframe).

Words + pictures = clarity.

When generating ideas strive for quantity, defer judgement , seek combination , use creativity.

Use positive judgment first. Explore for value/benefit first. Avoid initially thinking negative first.

Familiar w/ the unproductive gap created by perfectionism & procrastination? Take a break, then execute!

It takes discipline to be a great thinker.

Your content strategy= your brand + customers’ concerns/interests + relevant topics

You don’t have to be a video pro to do video right. Use your phone or GoPro camera

People will forgive poor video, but will not forgive bad sound. Invest in sound. The brain processes sound faster than vision.

Tip : get a good condenser microphone it is really good at picking up the human voice. Audio is Important!

Know who your competitors are and what they are doing.

Don’t record audio in a place that has a hard surface or echo. You want to prevent getting audio feedback .

GoPro cameras are light weight, easy to use, inexpensive, and you can fit it anywhere while delivering HD video.

Don’t brand yourself around the technology, brand yourself around the deliverable.

Always make sure the light source is behind you, the videographer, and not the subject of your video.

It’s important to be careful with your light, use natural light. Don’t record video with a light source behind the subject.

You want depth when doing an interview, so don’t have the subject standing against the wall.

DSLR cameras are high quality and are lean production tools. They record at 25 frames per second / HD.

91% of businesses now use content marketing.

The smaller your company’s marketing budget, the more important content marketing is!

Drawback of video recording with DSLR is that you need to record audio separately. Takes longer to edit / publish.

Canon 5D mark 2 for recording high quality HD Videos.

Focus on your strengths and partner with others who can fill your weaknesses. Its’ tough to try to be master of all.

Creating/sharing valuable free content to attract & convert prospects -> customers -> repeat buyers.

What can you do to make your customers’ lives better? *THAT’S* your content strategy.

Share content that helps your customers sleep better at night, do their jobs better.

Your content marketing calendar should be 13 months – because things happen, and things go wrong.

It doesn’t matter what the “young kids” are doing – it only matters where your customers are!

You don’t have to be on all platforms, just the ones where your audience is.

Claim your name in the digital world. There 575 social networks in all!

Drive all your content marketing from your blog on your web site. You cannot control other platforms!

When doing content marketing your main goal is to create an ecosystem to stand and grow on its own.

Having a Facebook business page is important, always lead people back to your website.

Look at what’s popular and going on right now to help you come up with clever and shareable content.

Anatomy of content marketing: website = skeleton social media = skin content = muscles/organs brand = heart.

Augment a long-term content calendar with timely content. Be careful w/ current events, politics & religion.

Curated content is a way to give your point of view to the world…just like a visit to a museum.

It’s important to have a writing team with a clear and strong voice and a good editor.

On SEO in content marketing: The #1 thing you need to remember is write for humans & not machines.

There is a limited amount of time, resources, and money, so have a strategy and FOCUS!

Each social media network has different levels of what is and isn’t appropriate. Know your audience.

Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn *combined*

Pinterest is a visual bookmarking site 3rd largest site for traffic behind Facebook and Twitter.

Most pins are links and 80% of pins are repins. Pins can spread quickly among users.

Pinterest is a search engine. Keywords play a vital role.

Users are starting to use Pinterest as their primary search engine “it’s like Google with pictures.”

More content, the more content the more possible readers. Collaborate with others and build your audience.

Building your audience, nurturing them and riding the traffic waves reaches you about blogging.

Pinterest Tip: Pin descriptions can be up to 500 character.

Business.pinterest.com  – to covert a personal account to business account or start a new business.

Use your business name as your Pinterest URL/ID if you can.

When posting on Pinterest ask yourself if the image communicates your message well.

1 in 5 Pinterest users bought something in a store after pinning or liking it on Pinterest.

Google Plus Authorship allows you to claim your content everywhere you blog.

Use portrait images. All images on Pinterest get the same width but height is not restricted.

Pin YouTube and Vimeo videos, SlideShare presentations and SoundCloud files. They play directly in Pinterest.

Keep social search in mind, you can rank #1 for people who circle you even if you usually rank on page 20!

Love it. Local content will help you beat up your competitors.

One of the biggest SEO mistakes: watch what your competitors are doing…but don’t copy them.

Get it right. Google authorship is for a person. Publishership is for a company.

Use text , pictures, videos, memes, social and every type of content to mix it up!

You are losing link juice if you embed YouTube videos because of iframes. Not Vimeo.

Animoto , flixtime, slide.ly , videoliciois, and use local brands and local talent for good songs.

4 out of 5 customers will decide NOT to buy from you if a business has bad review.

71% of consumers are more likely to purchase from you if referred by social media.

UX & design culture would always improve customer satisfaction & loyalty.

Your site speed is at least as important as your keywords, your site links, your SEO, and your inbound links.

Every blogger should be active on GooglePlus. For Google Authorship and for search.

Related articles

• Content Marketing is Just Like SEO… Only Better! (business2community.com)
• Content marketing: how to measure your ROI [infographic] (holykaw.alltop.com)
• Why Your Content Marketing Department Needs Journalists and PR People (shoretelsky.com)
• Why You Need Content Marketing For Personal Branding (business2community.com)
• 4 Creative Content Marketing Ideas to Boost University Admissions (slideshare.net)
• How to Kick Your Content Marketing Strategy Up a Notch (mydigitalbrand.wordpress.com)
• Why Social Media Without Content Marketing Makes No Sense (business2community.com)
• Why social media without content marketing makes no sense (news.trafcom.com)
• 5 Content Marketing Statistics That Your Boss Can’t Ignore (contentboost.com)
• Permission Marketing, Inbound Marketing & Content Marketing: What’s the Difference? (fliptop.com)