Tag: MDMC19

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#MDMC19: Instagram Expert Jenn Herman Shares How to Grow Your Instagram and Make More Sales

By Sarah Thomas

Here’s the undeniable truth about Instagram at the moment – it is POWERFUL. The engagement rates on Instagram are higher than all social media platforms making it is the best platform to build a community for your brand.

Instagram expert Jenn Herman, who you may know by her Instagram handle, Jenn’s Trends, shared everything you need to know to strengthen your game on Instagram at MDMC this year. Jenn is a social media marketing consultant, author, and speaker with a huge community of followers on Instagram. One thing is for sure, Jenn packed the room during her presentation and captured the attention of the audience with her vivacious personality and humor! Continue reading for a recap of the valuable steps Jenn provided to grow your Instagram and make more sales.

Clearly, you should not want to miss this, I mean look at how packed her session was!

Create a Profile That Attracts Followers

Jenn shared that the most important factors in your profile are as follow:

  • Name & username
  • Profile Photo
  • Bio Description
  • URL
  • Contact Info

These are the first impression of your audience so use them wisely! One thing Jenn stressed is the use of hashtags in your bio – do not overdo this. The only hashtags you should be using in your bio are hashtags that are specific to your brand, otherwise, you are sending viewers to a hashtag that has nothing thousands of photos with no relation to you.

Better Attention with Better Content

Jenn explained that less is more when it comes to content. The quality of your content is much more important than the quantity of content. A couple of posts a week that get engagement are much more effective than posting every day with little to no engagement. To get more engagement with your content, find ways to connect to your audience through emotion, this can be done using humor or relatable stories.

Get More Reach and Followers

Strategies you should be using to get a larger reach include:

  • “Tag” friends – have your audience tag friends in the comments, this gives more exposure to your posts
  • Hashtags – use hashtags that are specific to your brand or industry
  • Resharing to Stories – make sure your audience is able to share your stories to theirs, you can find this option in your settings.

With all of this in mind, you are officially ready to go step up your Instagram game and build your brand’s community! If you aren’t familiar with Jenn be sure to follow her on Instagram @jennstrends, there is no doubt you will benefit from all of the tips and tricks she is constantly sharing with her followers.

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#MDMC19: Wilson Raj- Elevating your Customer Experience with AI

By Kyle Eggering

AI has begun to dominate the marketing discussion. Who better to give us a rundown on AI than Wilson Raj!? Raj is the Global Director of Customer Intelligence at SAS. SAS is a world-renowned data analytics company that’s been around since the 1960s. The quality of their company is clearly shown in Raj, a true leader in his field and an excellent speaker as well.

One of the main points Raj tried to emphasize is that AI does not do all the work for you. An example he used an ancient stone tablet of one of the first recorded transactions ever made. On it, it listed everything you would expect a transaction to list. The name of the buyer and seller, what was being sold, how much it was sold for in the end, all data that is easily stored. But what it didn’t have was what Raj called “haggling data.” Haggling data is the human part of the data that machines don’t tend to pick up. How aggressive was the seller? What did the buyer expect to have to pay in the beginning? How much debate was done between the two on the pricing? This is the type of data that would be considered haggling data.

What AI does allow us to do, is worry less about the statistical data, and focus on the human data. By learning what your customer is like, you can turn them from a customer, into an advocate. This is the main point Raj wanted to make, and AI can help with this. By learning data on the customer, AI can help you find out what you need to do to please them. But ultimately, humans know humans better than computers do, and it’s up to you to keep that customer. Just know that AI can give you a little bit of help with that.

Are you interested in MDMC? Be sure to check it out at https://bestmarketingconference.com/en/. And if you want to know more about Raj, be sure to check him out on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilsonraj/.

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#MDMC19: What You Missed At The 2019 Midwest Digital Marketing Conference

 

By Katelyn Chostner

I hope you made it to the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference this year because it was every digital marketer’s dream! We saw a rise in attendees with over 1900 people showing up to get their digital marketing on at Union Station in St. Louis.

The mornings started off with keynote speakers that were jam-packed with onlookers. MDMC decided to live stream the speakers in the exhibitor hall so that everyone would be able to hear the presentations. After the keynotes, everyone got up to attend breakout sessions or explore the tables in the exhibitor hall.

The hall was packed with so many different St. Louis companies, like Anvil, UMSL Business, SteadyRain, SLAM! Agency and more. The crowd was able to visit with these exhibitors and speak with them about their company missions. With so many different companies and organizations, there was something there for everyone.

Emily Koehler, an MDMC first-timer, talked about how she was there to learn more about digital marketing. She works for ej4, a training technology company, as a marketing coordinator. Koehler works a lot with SEO strategy and optimizing their website and MDMC was a great place for her to learn more.

“So far I love it. MDMC is a really great mix of people. Everyone is so friendly, and you can just tell that people are here to meet and network with other people and just share expertise… Sessions so far have been really interesting. I just went to a great SEO panel and all of the speakers had different expertise, but they all shared such interesting things that I’m definitely going to take back to the workplace with me,” said Koehler.

Some booths had amazing handouts and attractions for attendees. Strange Cares was giving out some of Strange Donuts’ signature treats, such as Maple Bacon, Rainbow Pony, and Gooey Butter. An even crazier, but awesome attraction was Voltron. Shareable: Social Video Strategy by Coolfire invited people to come and visit their booth in the company of the Legendary Defender. Fans were able to walk around Union Station and grab pics with (the scaled-down-to-size) character who roamed the halls.

 

Eventually, everyone’s favorite time of the day came around: lunchtime. MDMC provided everyone with some crazy good food trucks to choose from. K-Bop, Locoz Tacoz, UKraft, and Andrew’s Bayou Ribs were just a few trucks out of many that served everyone. Some people were worried about lines, but these trucks showed their skills by getting people their food only a few minutes after they ordered.

K-Bop seemed to be the most popular choice for lunch as people lined down the sidewalk past other trucks to wait for their mouth-watering Korean BBQ in a bowl.

“I love the food selection. I think it’s a great representation of all the food and culture St. Louis has to offer and even though there’s a ton of people here lines are moving so quickly. There’s something here for everyone and the line was a great place to get to know people and network with other marketers also,” said Koehler.

There’s no better way to get to know people than over food and sunshine (or a little bit of rain for those there on the second day). If you missed the chance to network and educate yourself on the latest marketing trend, or even grab some great food, you can always sign up for next year. You know what they say: Don’t make the same mistake twice! Keep an eye out on MDMC’s website for next year’s tickets.