Day 3 at Social Media Marketing World 2017: The future and the fundamentals

ICYMI: Here's a glimpse we shared about how this event came to be, and here’s our Day 1 and Day 2 recaps.

How fitting it was to end the final day of Social Media Marketing World 2017 by casting our gaze into the future.

Fitting too, however, that our excitement about this future was tempered by the speakers who acknowledged our need to first master the fundamentals available to us right now.

While there was a general sense of amazement that the event was so quickly winding down, the sessions today were razor sharp. Let’s take it from the top:

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Future of Social Media Marketing

This 4-person discussion featured, from left to right, Sandy Carter, CEO of Ecosystems; Christopher Carfi, Director of Content Marketing at GoDaddy; Christopher Penn, Vice President of Marketing Technology at SHIFT Communications; and the moderator Bryan Kramer, who is the President & CEO at Pure Matter.

The discussion spanned the gamut—from what artificial intelligence is and practical examples of how it impacts our everyday lives as both consumers (example: Amazon) and marketers (example: Facebook), to how to start learning enough about it so we can use it to guide our overall marketing strategies.

Of particular importance are two points emphasized by Sandy Carter: making sure the data your company collects is as bias-free as possible, and this gem:

Here are a few other takeaways on the intersection of artificial intelligence and social media marketing:

• Check out Bots.co to begin your learning. "It's basically a search engine for bots."
• Use GrowthBot to see which keywords other companies are purchasing via search ads.
• Explore OpenAI, a non-profit AI research company with a ton of resources.
• Seriously consider using artificial intelligence when you find yourself having to answer the same question more than 3 times.
• Dedicate an entire day to playing around with some of the free AI tools available. This is the best way to get your feet wet and see what can inform your social media marketing.

How to Create Engaging Content with Live Video

Alex Khan (right, beside marketing professor Jed Record) is the CEO at Attractive Media, and he's a world-renowned expert on using live video, particularly Periscope, to grow massive audiences.

The beauty of Alex's talk was in its sheer practicality. He truly opened up his playbook and gave step-by-step instructions for how he (and the many he's helped) built huge followings through live video. Alex covered everything from how to find your topic to how to shoot your live video while keeping in mind that most viewers of it may only see it at a later date on replay.

This slide was one example of many that he broke down point-by-point:

Here are a few of Alex's key points on using live video for social media marketing:

• The biggest barrier stopping you from using live video is often your own comfort zone. "Scale up" your social media marketing by stepping out of your comfort zone and giving it a shot.
• Use BeLive.tv when you want to interview somebody and stream split-screen.
• Live video is watched 3x longer than non-live video.
• Pre-promote your live streams so you're not relying too much on the randomness of your audience's availability.

Google Analytics Fundamentals: How to Measure What Matters for Your Business

Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media gave the most focused and engaged presentation of any that I attended here at Social Media Marketing World 2017.

Nobody is more knowledgable or passionate about the intersection of metrics and content marketing, and Andy conveyed both of these aspects brilliantly. Get this: barely 10 minutes into his talk the audience nearly gave him a standing ovation based on how astutely he had walked them through precisely how to set your site up for optimal use on Google Analytics.

Somehow, through the course of his leading us all through the entire process, he managed to drop other insights such as the importance of never putting your testimonials on a separate page, and the 7 things all testimonials should include:

To jumpstart your own Google Analytics setup, be sure check out his post titled How to Setup Google Analytics.

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