Last Friday, the curtain went down on another successful Social Brand Forum here in the heart of the heartland at the historic Englert Theatre in beautiful downtown Iowa City. Once again, the Midwest’s premier digital marketing event presented a bold intersection of expert content, engaging conversations, and a strong sense of community among attendees and speakers alike.
As you return to the office invigorated and ready to reinvent your organization’s digital marketing, we thought we would provide a quick event recap along with some resources to assist you.
#SocialBrand16: More Content, More Strategy & Focus
Several key themes emerged throughout Social Brand Forum 2016. I kicked things off with an opening keynote recapping the last five years of digital marketing in the life of the Social Brand Forum. It’s hard to believe that this was our fifth event! I also shared a call to Get Scrappy with your digital marketing.
Day 1 was all about content. Joe Pulizzi provided our morning keynote on being a content-driven organization. From there, Kristen Craft told us about the five types of video that generate ROI. After lunch we had a “Content Marketing Power Panel” featuring Joe Pulizzi and Andy Crestodina followed by a talk on the four elements of effective content from Melanie Deziel. Jay Baer closed the day with his Hug Your Haters keynote. Remember, haters aren’t your problem. Ignoring them is.
Day 2 began with Jed Record sharing his insights on Snapchat for business. Michael Smith told us that if “email marketing is dead, it’s because you killed it.” Andy Crestodina closed the event with a crowd-sourced keynote selection on applied analytics to help us measure what matters.
We’re working on getting as many slides and resources from our speakers assembled here. Below is a list of what we have so far.
- Nick Westergaard — Welcome to #SocialBrand16/Get Scrappy
- Joe Pulizzi — Content Inc.
- Kristen Craft — The 5 Videos that Drive the Best ROI
- Jed Record — Snapchat for Business
- Michael Smith — If Email Marketing Is Dead, It’s Beacause You Killed It
- Andy Crestodina — Applied Analytics
We’ll add others as we get them. Do you have a #SocialBrand16 resource you made that you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll post it here.
Photo Finish
Shuva Rahim took some great photos during the event that you can find on our Facebook page. Did you take photos at Social Brand 2016? Feel free to add them here or on Facebook as well.
Continuing Conversations
You can still follow the conference conversation on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #SocialBrand16. Here you’ll find some of the most powerful ideas from the event as well as important afterthoughts from both attendees and speakers.
A Big Thanks to Our Sponsors
Again, a big thanks to all of our sponsors who make this event possible including AWeber, Delivra, Screenscape Studios, Social Media Breakfast Madison, XO-LP, and Zephyr Printing and Design. I hope you’ll take the time to learn more about these businesses who have stepped forward in support of helping all of us building better brands online.
Thank YOU!
What was your favorite part of this year’s Social Brand Forum? We’d love to hear in the comments below or on social media using the hashtag #SocialBrand16. Also, please keep an eye on your email inbox as we’ll be sending out our post-conference survey very soon.
Thanks again for being a part of the Social Brand Forum community!
~ Nick and the Brand Driven Team
