What we learned at BlogWorld 2010- #bwe10

Going to BlogWorld was one of the best things we did this year. We have been to every single one but this year was really special.

There was a session for everyone, no matter in which stage they are in social media.
I attended some amazing sessions. Declan Dunn on the session “How to turn friends into fans and customers was one of my favorites. He stressed the need to create a community around your business and the use of frequent e-mails.

Tom Webster with “The Current State of Podcasting” showed very good data about podcasting consumption that I will share later.
Lewis Howes was a nice surprise. His tips on how to give webinars where awesome. He uses lots of pictures and not a lot of text and a strong follow-up series in the 2 days following the webinar.
The session “Is internet radio alive or dead” was very interesting. Some nuggets I’ve got from that: Women have more ear time than eye time. Voice is emotional and voice tells a story.

Another very interesting session was “How to hire a social media agency” . The speakers shared a lot of their experience and showed different ways they measure roi.

Todd Cochrane did an awesome job in his session The triple streaming, podcasting and blogging.
He shared some stats from Roku that owns 10% of the US Market, that 66% of users are between 36 and 55 years old. Do you create content for this audience?

The session “This is not your father’s YouTube” with Paul Colligan as the moderator was fun and informative with lots of prizes. They stressed the importance of being active on YouTube and treat it as a social network and to have your videos answering a problem. I was very impressed with all inputs from Julie Perry.

Most keynote sessions were fine but the one on social media and the mid-term elections.

On the trade show some nice surprises. Techmunch with presentations and topics related to social media and food. A look inside Google TV, and Kodak which in my opinion rocked. They had a challenge using QR codes, partners, education marketing and engagement on social platforms they are present in a very clever way. We did a show on this strategy and an interview with their interactive marketing director. This is the kind of strategy business owners could do with their audiences.

The parties were fun, I specially liked the first one by the pool and the kareoke at the last party.

I think BlogWorld has matured and combined the best for hobbysts and professionals. Way to go, I’ll be there next year.