#MRCCSocial: Content Marketing with Ramon Ray

Ramon Ray is a powerhouse.

The founder of SmartHustle.com wears many hats: entrepreneur, global speaker, best-selling author, White House presenter (and Obama-interviewer), Congressional witness, FBI Citizens Academy graduate, former United Nations employee - and new Christine Gritmon fan! ;)

Now, I'll tell you this: it was HARD live-tweeting Ramon's presentation. This guy moves a mile a minute. But he knew how to keep us along for the ride. And he'll teach you how to keep your audience along for the ride, too, with his key tips for content marketing.

I cannot WAIT to have Ramon as a guest on Social at some point in the future. No idea what I'll have him on to discuss - the options are pretty endless with him! - but I'm sure we'll think of something. Stay tuned!

#MRCCSocial: Pattie Simone keynote

As you've probably figured out by now if you follow me, well, ANYWHERE, I had a pretty amazing time at last week's Mahwah Regional Chamber of Commerce Social Media Day. And, as I tend to do, I live-Tweeted the crap out of every session I attended. I even won a prize for top usage of the #MRCCSocial conference hashtag!

Now, live-Tweets can get messy. I couldn't even navigate any of my observations when I wanted to discuss them on Social last Friday. So, as I also do, I put them into Storify threads, which I'll be rolling out throughout the week.

First up: conference organizer & opening keynote speaker Pattie Simone of WomanCentric discusses WHY and HOW we need to use social media.

Social - the scoop from #MRCCSocial!

Happy Friday! Today we had an awesome episode of Social with the amazing Karen Accavello of Human Touch Media, LLC & my intern Jaylene Kessler (#InternJaylene) discussing our experience and learnings from yesterday’s Mahwah Regional Chamber of Commerce Social Media Day (#MRCCSocial)!

(ICYMI, I did a workshop called Rock your Personal Brand - see full presentation & materials here - and live tweeted from the conference – my Storify threads will be released on the blog next week, since I need to give you all a rest from my content for two seconds!)

Here are some of the key takeaways from this morning’s conversation at Jane:

- Everyone is distracted. There is so much going on in every consumer’s life, so you have to make it your goal to truly capture their attention and give them a reason to actually be interested in what you’re saying. Your goal is to cause the consumer to call to action, whether that means purchasing your product or just checking out your website. Set attainable goals, and have a plan to draw the consumer in!

- Engage, don’t sell! Offer something to the consumer, don’t just try to sell them your product or service. Don’t keep your information to yourself! Offer something of value (example: how to video, DIY, etc.), which in return will cause consumers to trust and like you because you have given them this knowledge for free!

- Don’t try to force consumers to sign up for an email marketing list until you tell them everything your emails will offer them. Without a benefit for THEM, they will not give anything to YOU! Keep everything short, sweet, engaging, and professional!

-Build a TRIBE, don’t just try to generate sales. Quantity is not as important as QUALITY! Your following isn’t as important as the loyalty they give to you and they trust you build with them!

-Keep your email subjects short, to the point, and as vital as they truly are. Don’t tell someone your email is URGENT, when it actually isn’t at all... this will break trust between you and the recipient as well as make your future emails extremely invaluable.

We all learned so much, and got to network with so many amazing people – can’t wait for Social Media Day 2018! (Pattie, FYI, I definitely want to come back as a speaker!)