Erika Heald Marketing Consulting

Content marketing that drives results

CMworld

September 9, 2019 Content Chat Recap: Post-CMWorld Wrap-Up

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Another incredible CMWorld conference has wrapped up, and the community can now hit the ground running with all their new ideas and inspiration. In this #ContentChat, we share our top takeaways from the sessions, exchange tips for future presenters or moderators, and highlight some of our favorite extracurriculars to check out next year. If you were at the conference and want to relive your favorite moments, read through our recap and comment if there’s anything we missed. Or, if you were unable to attend CMWorld, check out our highlights below and don’t miss these speakers as they continue the conference track.

Q1: Were you in Cleveland for CMWorld last week?

More than half of our poll respondents were at the conference, with others facing FOMO for missing out. For those that couldn’t attend, #CMWorld kept folks up to date on the latest and greatest from the show floor.

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September 10, 2018 Content Chat Recap: Post CMworld Conference Catch-Up

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Content Marketing World (#CMworld) is my favorite conference of the year. And this year, the #ContentChat community came out in full force to join in on the fun—our friend Carmen Hill even won the Community Champion Award! In this chat, we shared some of our favorite takeaways from the one-of-a-kind event and started the countdown for next year.

Q1: What was your goal for attending CMworld and did you reach it?

Many of us attended to connect (and reconnect) with fellow marketers to network and share ideas.

But the conference is also a great place to gain exposure for your company.

And for the presenters, there was a whole different set of goals for success.

Regardless of what your goal was, it’s great that you came to the conference with a purpose. Continue setting goals for any conferences you attend to stay focused!

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See You in Cleveland

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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.

 

Hello Content Marketing World 2017!

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Hello Cleveland Lego selfie | erikaheald.com
As I write this post, I’m sitting on a plane from San Francisco to Cleveland for the 2017 Content Marketing World conference a.k.a. CMworld.

Believe it or not, this is my fifth consecutive year making the trek from the City by the Bay to Cleveland for this event. No other conference I’ve attended even comes close to that!

So what keeps me coming back to #CMworld, year-after-year? It’s the people and the unrivaled opportunity to hear from the smartest minds in my profession all under one roof.

I’ve met so many amazing colleagues and friends thanks to this event. At this point, even as a shy introvert, I can easily count on a hundred or so people I am personally excited to see and give a hug to over the next few days.

And that’s saying something!

This year, I’m privileged to be speaking on a panel with a group of awesome content marketers I met through the #CMworld weekly Twitter chat and bonded with during last year’s in-person event. We’re going to be sharing our perspective on the intersection of content and community, and we’re leaving plenty of time to answer YOUR questions. I hope I see some of you there on Thursday!

If you’ve been considering attending CMworld in the past but haven’t gotten around to it, I can’t encourage you to do so enough. I’ve paid for this conference and the travel out of pocket. I’ve used precious vacation days to attend. And it’s always been worth it.

Isn’t it time you invested in yourself?

Why I’m Attending my Third Content Marketing World (and You Should Too!)

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CMworld
In just two short weeks, I’ll be in Cleveland taking part in my third Content Marketing World in as many years. With so many conferences, many in more glamorous locations, what keeps me coming back for more? In one word: community.
Throughout the year, I get to check in with the Content Marketing World community through the Tuesday morning (my time) #CMworld twitter chats. I love seeing the familiar faces each week, and enjoy have a place to catch up on what’s new on content marketing and hear from my peers as to what’s working. I leave every week with a number of ideas to put into practice for myself and my clients.
But I have to say, although I look forward to kicking off my Tuesday mornings each week with the chat, nothing beats having a week of content marketing immersion in Cleveland at the conference. That’s my time to focus 100% on learning more about content marketing and connecting in person with the awesome folks I’ve gotten to know through twitter.
I will admit I’m more than a little sad that I won’t be having Brandie McCallum by my side this year though. She was absolutely the best conference buddy I’ve ever had. It’s hard to believe that was our first time meeting in person because she instantly felt like an old friend. That’s the power of the  #CMworld community for you.
I’m charging my backup power supplies, packing my Hello Kitty notebook, and prepping my Evernote notebooks (more here on how I prep for the conference). How are you getting ready for Content Marketing World? Can’t wait to see you there!
P.S. If you’re attending the conference, add yourself to my Content Marketing World 2015 list.ly to connect with other attendees and speakers.

My 10 Key Takeaways from Content Marketing World 2014

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CMworld

Last year, I headed out to Content Marketing World as a self-employed content marketing consultant, eager to connect with other content marketers working with technology start-ups on creating effective content marketing organizations. This year  I was back on the plane to Cleveland for the conference, but this time as a client-side marketer, building a global content marketing infrastructure for my employer, the business planning and execution platform Anaplan. What’s amazing about the conference we regulars refer to by its weekly twitter chat hashtag #CMworld is the conference had just as much value to me in both of these roles.

A few of the highlights for me included:

  • Meeting so many twitter folks IRL
  • Sharing my content curation presentation in a packed lunch session
  • Spending a day in the Tech/Software Lab soaking up great content from some amazing content marketers
  • Kevin Spacey’s awesome closing keynote
  • Walking the exhibit hall and getting a first-hand look at a diverse selection of content marketing tools
  • Picking up Ann Handley’s book Everybody Writes hot off the presses!

I did a ton of live tweeting, and sharing others’ comments and insights on twitter throughout the week. Here are 10 of my favorites of those takeaways from the twitterverse:

  • Of effective content marketers 54% document their content strategy; only 11% of ineffective do
  • Want demonstrable ROI from your content? Focus on the MOI! (Moment of Inspiration) via  Andrew Davis
  • Secrets to creating MOI? #1 Build suspense. #2 Foster aspiration. #3 Drive empathy. #4 Harness emotion.
  • Gini Dietrich shared a simple and useful content hub structure by Andy Crestodina, as a strategy for breaking through online content clutter and getting your content found
  • Smartling shared an interesting infographic on the meaning of numbers world-wide, which definitely gave me pause as a global marketer
  • Content marketing lesson from @Buzzfeed? Spend 20% of your time on the title. It’s important!
  • PR 20/20’s Paul Roetzer shared a free toolkit to help assess the skills and skills gaps for your content marketing team
  • Kingman Ink was out in full force, taking amazing visual notes, like this one from REI’s session 
  • “The audience doesn’t care about the platform they care about the content.” Kevin Spacey, truth telling in his closing keynote
  • 57% of IT pros surveyed by LinkedIn knowingly giving false lead form data
  • What were some of your big takeaways?

P.S. During Andrew Davis’ opening keynote, he shared a few highlights from the Caine’s Arcade short film. It’s a great story. If you haven’t seen it, take a coffee break and watch it here:

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