On Thursday, May 3rd the Digital Brand Conference came to Hartford, featuring a series of workshops on social media and the evolution of marketing. Our own Jessica Lyon was featured on the panel ‘The Future of Marketing’ which discussed how businesses can keep up with new marketing technologies. Joining Jessica on the panel were Andrew Perry, Director, Interactive Media at eVariant and Derek Beere, New Media Manager at Mason, Inc.
During the panel, Jessica discussed how businesses can leverage blogs to generate leads and convert prospects into customers. Among her recommendations were including compelling calls to action in blog posts and optimizing content with website keywords to make it search-friendly.
Fellow panelist, Derek Beere, encouraged attendees to consider experiential marketing, discussing the ideas of convergence and emergence. He shared a case study from Coca Cola, which set up an amusement park in Israel and engaged audiences to share their experiences on social media through RFID technology. Derek also discussed the transition of the media landscape from paid and earned to paid, earned, and owned, and how it impacts businesses’ marketing strategies.
Addressing the owned media space, panelist Andrew Perry cautioned attendees to be mindful of the 80/20 rule – 80% of people on social media do a lot of listening while 20% create a lot of noise. Andrew encouraged attendees to find meaningful ways to interact with those who are talking on social media, recommending companies invest in paid social media marketing tools to engage this prime audience.
