I recently had the honor of being the special guest for the Content Marketing Institute’s #CMworld Twitter chat. We were talking about how social media guidelines can help you increase employee brand advocacy, rather than squelch employee social sharing. (If you missed the chat, check out the Twitter Moment recap for conversation highlights.)
It was so much fun catching up with many of the now familiar faces I’ve grown accustomed to seeing in the weekly hashtag gathering, many of whom I’ve also gotten to meet in person at the event in Cleveland each September.
Shortly after the chat, I noticed something else I look forward to each year has already started: “See you in Cleveland.” While #CMworld doesn’t have a secret handshake, we do have our own subliminal message: See you in Cleveland. We say this to each other as a mantra. As a promise. As a warding off of evil.
See you in Cleveland.
We repeat this to each other on Twitter and Facebook, and it’s such a simple but powerful expression of friendship.
You see, #CMworld is more than a hashtag or a huge, informative conference packed full of content nerds (although it is all of those things too).
#CMworld is a community. Nurtured by the CMI staff for years and protected by my friend and amazing community manager Monina Wagner, #CMworld is my content marketing family, as it is for so many other content geeks.
This is why I smile every time I get a social message that ends with “See you in Cleveland.” It’s a reminder that however lonely it may be as a solopreneur building my own content marketing consultancy, I have my #CMwrold community of friends right there with me along the way.
See you in Cleveland?
P.S. I’m speaking on Friday, September 7 at 8:00 a.m., presenting “Your Lack of Social Media Guidelines is Killing Your Employee Brand Advocacy.” I’d love to see you there—register and use my affiliate code HEALD to take $100 off the registration price. Prices go up at the end of this month so you’ll want to register soon. Hope to see you in Cleveland.