Digitalium 2019 and My Ten Take-Away Ideas
The day started with Dan Knowlton talking about Instagram for Brands. I was prepared to be bored with yet another presentation of B2C promoting strategies. Fortunately, it wasn't the case. Dan began his talk stating that people don't like ads that look like ads. And here comes the influencers' role to advert products in a real-life situation like this one here:
Next on stage was the Oprah of LinkedIn, Goldie Chan, asserting about video content on LinkedIn. It may sound counter-intuitive because we're not seeing too many videos here, but that's because there are only about 800K users that currently create and distribute video-content out of a whopping of 575+ million users. LinkedIn wasn’t about to left video behind for the very compelling reason that if the content was found in both video and written format, 59% of executives said they would choose to consume it via video - and now made it possible to upload native videos through the mobile app.
When talking about video content, Derral Eves is the expert. He got pretty explicit on what Youtube's AI tracks in order to determine your Satisfaction Signals and to predict what you want to watch next: What you watch, What you don't watch, How much time you spend watching, Likes & Dislikes, "Not interested" feedback, Survey - appeal after video, Come back & watch again, Saved & watched again, Come back & finish watching.
Right now I'm not sure if I watch YouTube or YouTube is watching me...
A dull (read technical) presentation is not the best thing that can happen after lunch, but this is what Kelvin Newman delivered on his keynote about the ever-changing face of Google search Result Pages. The single thing I remember is his advice: ?Write for what search engines think(?!) the users are searching for”, which is somehow weird but if I'm thinking again at YouTube's AI Satisfaction Signal tracker, I tend to think he's right.
Things got animated again when Cristian Munteanu, from Early Game VC, took the stage. Cristian invited the start-ups they invested in to pitch their ideas in no more than 3 minutes. A big round of applause for each one of them for they delivered a concise and relevant pitch in front of an audience of 900 people. They were: Daniel Nicolescu Symphopay, R?zvan Dinu - RoboSelf, Marius D?nescu - Bunnyshell, Lauren?iu B?la?a - Underline (former BookVitals) and Daniel Pintilie - WATTO. Congrats!
Jessica Best demonstrated once again the value of e-mail marketing, a channel that the modern marketeers tend to ignore and consider obsolete, but if used well drives revenue. ?If you put in $1, you could get $38!” said Jessica. The secret is engaging the user from the subject line to the content, putting to work the e-mail's secret weapon: data (Personalisation + Segmentation + Automation + Optimization)
Andrew & Pete were breathtaking! These guys stole THE entire SHOW! Fun to watch, rapid pace, fantastic examples, insightful information and, those rhymes, oh my god, let's not forget, the rhymes! It wasn't a presentation, it was a play, a theatrical one. All started from the assumption that:
?Posting something is better than nothing”
but Pete kept challenge everything until eventually the conclusion led to this (take a good breath a read everything in a single sentence to get a glimpse of the atmosphere these two created):
I strongly recommend visiting their page dedicated to how to DISCOVER YOUR 90:10 AND GROW FASTER.
Finally, the closing speech. Randi. The other Zuckerberg, the human one. I didn't know what to expect from her speech. I discovered a human being, who concentrated on motivation and encouraging everybody:
?to have big bold ideas and not be afraid of being judged.”
Final thoughts
Every speaker stated in a way or another what is already obvious for every one of us and we tend to forget when we return to our Inbox: Consumer first, Brand KPI second.
This edition of Digitalium was my first. Avi Cicirean and his team did a fantastic job creating, promoting and delivering this event. Great content, valuable speakers, well organized. Hats off!
10 ideas I took away from Digitalium 2019
- Video, video, video
- Instagram. People don't like ads that look like ads. Instead, the ads should be entertaining, emotion triggering and fun to watch.
- LinkedIn. Become a subject matter expert, by dominating a set of keywords and being consistent about the subject. Use no more than 3 hashtags.
- Youtube. Create valuable content on the crossroad of what your brand stands for and what your audience cares about.
- Google. Don't forget about the search engine's algorithms when writing content.
- If you have a brilliant idea for a start-up, talk to the guys from Early Game VC. Your life may take an incredible turn with their help.
- E-mail. Used well, e-mail drives revenues + Never buy e-mail lists + Don't ignore mobile users' experience anymore.
- Andrew & Pete. Do just 1 thing remarkably well. How? This may be a way: https://www.andrewandpete.com/something/
- Randi. In a world of digital everything, the best advice is to unplug from time to time.
- Babies and puppies. Every presentation has to have a baby or a puppy picture mingled between the slides. Every speaker from #digitalium2019 had either one or both! :)