Earlier this week, I attended the 2nd Annual Dallas Digital Summit (#DDSum13) at the Irving Convention Center in Las Colinas, Texas. #DDSum13 is a premier digital strategies forum with a goal of educating and promoting forward thinking and thought leadership on topics related to Internet business and digital marketing. In just two days, attendees learned the importance of implementing an effective content marketing strategy as well as the top 10 trends that are influencing modern consumers. Oh yea, and I had the privilege of meeting the voice of Siri, Susan Bennett, as well as the Co-Founder of Apple Inc., Steve Wozniak!

Day one, I attended the Pre-Conference Intensive Workshop focused on Content Marketing Strategies led by Arnie Kuenn, President of Vertical Measures.  During the workshop, Arnie defined Content Marketing as an art of providing relevant, youthful content to your follower base without selling or interrupting their activity online. “Relationships are created with useful information that will help them make decisions,” Arnie said. He went on to explain that there are eight steps to achieve a successful content marketing strategy, which are listed below:

  1. Think like a Publisher – What objectives do you want your content to accomplish? (i.e. who is your audience, who will create your content, what expertise will you need, where will the content be published?)
  2. Content Research  – Understand the questions that are frequently being asked about your business and know your keywords
  3. Content Creation – Types of content to produce (i.e. interviews, industry content curation / aggregation, videos, free guides / whitepapers, etc.)
  4. Content Optimization – Ensure that your company’s URLs are up to date and that your search optimization elements are solid
  5. Content Promotion – “Social Media is today’s Public Relations”
  6. Content Distribution – Ensure that you’re distributing and repurposing existing, relevant content
  7. Link Building – Always redirect users to your company’s website / landing pages
  8. Measurement – if you cannot measure content, then you cannot manage content

Day two consisted of keynote addresses from top notch industry experts in the digital space, which included Randi Zuckerberg, Founder / CEO of Zuckerberg Media, the voice of Apple’s Siri, Susan Bennett and Co-Founder of Apple Inc. Steve Wozniak. I found Randi’s keynote especially interesting as she focused on the Top 10 Trends Influencing Modern Consumers. Each trend is listed below for your reference:

  1. The Branded Newsroom – Companies are transforming into media companies
  2. Teens AKA Holy Grail of Technology – Anonymity trend among teenagers via the social space
  3. The Maker Movement (e.g. 3D Printing Revolution)
  4. Rise of the Entre-Ployee – Millennials brought up idolizing entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc.
  5. Life Logging – More and more users are sharing their life experiences via social media
  6. Increase of women in Technology – They’re Savvy but perceptions & social pressure is a barrier
  7. Gamification in Healthcare Information Technology
  8. The Rise of Passion Projects – Employees are becoming more creative and allocating more time for side jobs / projects
  9. Device Addiction – The Dopamine factor playing a major role in how we engage with our mobile devices
  10. UNPLUGGING & Being Tech-Mindful to create opportunities / benefits

The event concluded with Siri (AKA Susan Bennett) introducing Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder of Apple Inc. for the closing keynote. In case you were wondering who Siri is, here’s a picture of me and her at the event.

Sabre's Digital Content Editor Kevin Carrillo and Susan Bennett - "Siri" of Apple iPhone fame.

Sabre’s Digital Content Editor Kevin Carrillo and Susan Bennett – “Siri” of Apple iPhone fame.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

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