IMS New York By the Numbers

March 8, 2012 by

If we learned anything from last week’s Inbound Marketing Summit New York, it’s that we are fascinated by numbers.  As marketers and content creators, numbers are always on our mind, from the actionable data that drive our strategies to the social media scores that define our online presences. At this year’s IMS, even an armchair numerologist could attach a lot of numerical significance to the event, from the curious timing of the event (February 29) to the venue name (404), to the data-driven marketing ideas that permeated every session and conversation.  There is no doubt: In the year 2012, data is on every marketer’s mind.

From the event’s onset, The Pulse Network set to create a rich body of data from the tweets and social conversations surrounding the event. One week later, I’ve taken a look back at the numbers that define the Inbound Marketing Summit experience and have put together something that I like to call the…

IMS Social Chatter Index

•       Total number of tweets using  the hash tag #ims12 during the two-day event: 1339

•       Average Tweets per hour: 28

•       Hour with the most #ims12 tweets: 9:00am – 10:00am, Wednesday, February 29 (142 tweets)

•       Total number of tweets using the hash tag #ims12 during the entire week: 1614

•       Average Twitter followers per #ims12 hash tag user: 3231

•       Average Klout Score of #ims12 hash tag user: 37.5

Most talked about presentations:

•      Tim Hayden, 121 tweets (featuring hash tag #ims12) during his 40 minute presentation

•       Chris Brogan, 106 tweets during his 30 minute presentation

•       Trip Kucera, 77 Tweets during his 30 minute presentation

You can learn a lot of interesting things by looking at the numbers and this is only the tip of the ice berg.  And yet, by any measurement, The Pulse Network’s debut Inbound Marketing Summit in New York was a smash.

 

Filed Under: The Pulse on Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

IMS Boston – highlights and roundup of blog coverage

September 16, 2011 by

Here’s a quick roundup of some of the coverage, commentary and blog posts from this week’s Inbound Marketing Summit. This year’s Boston event broke new records in terms of attendance, rock-star speakers (see our press release), exhibitors and general good-vibes about the state of social and inbound marketing.

TPN contributor and video know-it-all Steve Garfield also broke his record for the most people shooting video at the same time (how cool is that).

 

It’s all about…content!

So, what were some of the prominent themes? Personalized content, storytelling, and video content were at the top of my list. Along with integration and how consumer social and enterprise social (CRM, CMS, video, mobile) are coming together.

In fact this is how we are thinking about organizing our next IMS – in New York at the end of January – around a content marketing track and an enterprise technology track. We’d love your inputs as well. And to all who made #IMS11 a big success – thanks!

So, on to some of what others were saying and pondering while at IMS this week:

  • “Professor Youngme Moon talked about brands that we feel passionate about, and used Mini as one of the examples, including some of their powerful advertising. More so, she shared her own feelings about the brand and how the story related to her. These tales give us more to consider than simple numbers and data points.” – TPN advisor Chris Brogan, on his blog
  • “A panel on Social CRM reinforced the idea that marketing & sales is about the individual. No longer are reps able to sit in the office of a sales lead and see the diplomas on the wall, pictures of kids on the desk or other mementos that helps build a relationship. Instead, there is social media. A good CRM will make it easier for a good salesperson to integrate their calendar, contacts, emails and deal history into one source. If your only interaction with a customer is over the phone, you need every piece of information you can get to develop rapport quickly and perhaps most importantly, authentically.” – inbound strategy blog – read post
  • “Social media “scientist” Dan Zarella is a different kind of marketing guru. He eschews head-nodding maxims like “be part of the conversation” and puts commonly held notions to the test. With a mix of scientific method and just enough statistics to be dangerous, Zarella recently shared his own version of Mythbusters at the Inbound Marketing Summit (#ims11) in Boston, Ma – The Contest Strategist – read post
  • “Brian Halligan (founder and CEO of HubSpot) was really good. He really talked about how the next wave of marketing will be the personalization of the web.” – PointBlank, Direct Capital blog – read post
  • “How much better does it get for online marketing geeks? Former Apple chief evangelist and author Guy Kawasaki spoke about his book Enchantment this morning. His updated take on How to Win Friends and Influence People gives a fresh take on how to connect offline as well as online in a digital world. He definitely models his first premise: Be Likable!” – New PR Words and Music blog – read post

 

Filed Under: The Pulse on Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Creating Good Content, Have Some Fun

August 4, 2011 by

This is part four of a five part series between Tyler Pyburn, host at The Pulse Network, and Butch Stearns, Chief Operating Officer at The Pulse Network, as they hash out what goes into creating good content.

 

In order to bridge the communication gap between you and your audience, it’s important to be a great conversationalist.

People who understand and grasp the concept of conversational communication have developed an audience that may not like them, but need to hear what you have to say next. One key component of communication that many people forget when trying to win approval of an audiences attention is laughter. Making a person laugh goes longer than you think. When creating conversational content, the easiest way to learn is through examples. I like to use Chris Brogan as a key example. Chris created a video of his son talking about a book he recently wrote. If you watch the video, all you can do is laugh! It turned out that because the video was so addictingly funny, it landed an endorsement with a book company. Whether it’s video, audio or even written text, if you make people laugh people are going to pick it up and share it to the world (“going viral”). Laughter gives people the ability to not only stay conversational, but it also creates great quality content that people will want to watch.

 

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In case you missed Part 3 of this series, I explained how communicating in a conversational manner went a long way in creating good content.

In Part 5 of this series I’ll be summarizing the concept of “creating good content” by giving viewers an outline of everything I discussed in the entire series.

 

Butch Stearns is the COO of The Pulse Network and can be found on his Blog, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Tyler Pyburn is a host at The Pulse Network and can be reached on his twitter or e-mail, tpyburn@thepulsenetwork.com

 

 

 

 

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Communities or Channels – that is the question of the day…

April 10, 2009 by

 

Recently, I have been debating with Chris Brogan (www.chrisbrogan.com) – president of New Marketing Labs (www.newmarketinglabs.com) about the difference between communities and channels and which will be the future of internet communications.  While I believe “pure” communites have their place – particularly in social settings, I am becoming a firm believer that is the channels that are the true future of the Internet.

First – the definition

Before I explain my thinking, let me first explain the differentiation as I see it.  Communities, in their truest sense, are made up of a large number of equally important individuals meeting each other, sharing ideas, and communicating with and amongst each other.  While a community might havea community manager and / or a community leader, all people are – for all intents and purposes – treated equal.  Channels – on the other hand - still have many of the same aspects of community – the ability to communicate, comment, share ideas, and connect – but they are focused on a certain, designated group of content providers who formulate the thought leaders of the group.

Why I think Channels are the future…

With that definition in mind, here is my reasoning behind Channels over communities.  When communities were small and the sharing of ideas was concise, the ability to read all, identify the poignant ideas, and get the most value out of the community site was possible and very accomplishable.  But now, as communities have grown, it is becoming increasingly impossible to discern who is providing quality content and who one should read versus the noise of the larger community.  Take – for instance – Twitter.  While most Twitter users are following hundreds of people, they are truly only following a select few people and paying much looser attention to the others.  In fact, for new Twitter users – the first questions are always the same – who should I follow – who is worth listening to.  They are readily admitting that while they will follow many, they will only listen to some.   The same is true in most other community sites where the numbers are sizeable.

Is this a new phenomenon?

I would argue – it is not.  For those of us who used to read the newspaper (and those who still do) – is this not a channel?  By choosing which newspaper to read, were we not choosing who was “important to listen to”?  And for those who watch TV – are we not making that choice all the time?  Yes.  It is not different.  In fact – even in our social lives and school lives – we chose – amongst all of the people we have met – who to spend time with – who to share ideas with – who to “listen to”.

So why is this important?

I believe it to be important for the following reason – as everyone is trying to figure out the new communications mechanism that are arising with the proliferation of social media and social platform tools – those that choose to create these platforms and tool with a channel-centric perspective will emerge victorious.  Their content will be considered the most useful, their site the most valuable, and their business the winners.

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