On Tuesday I attended SummitUp, a social media seminar that was pretty good. If you didn’t go, I put together the reader’s digest version of the morning session.

Kevin Dugan: What’s your Story? Storytelling’s Link to Social Marketing Success
Kevin’s presentation was about the power of storytelling. People love stories. They are easier to remember than facts! Stories are wrapped in emotion and are waaaay easier to remember. That’s right emotion. We need to share these personalized stories.
A few examples:
http://www.wecanliveunited.org/: Individual stories of how the United Way has affected them in Cincy. Read a few…they are hard to forget.
http://www.sharpieuncapped.com: Enabled users to tell their own stories with sharpie markers on everything.
Bestbuy: Asked employees and consumers how they could make their stores better. They listened and made the updates…and sales increased.

Artie Isaac: Social Media as a Vehicle for Creativity http://artieisaac.com/
Artie was very entertaining. He outlined how society and mass media has drowned us in entertainment and content. Social media also has a flood of mindless content. What’s the fix?…us. Each one of us needs to turn off the TV and reach deep inside to express our individual, unique creativity. Artie’s suggestions were simple: get sleep, breathe, make a to-don’t list, make a to-do list, try new things once a week, make time for the things that are important to you and write two pages each morning. Quality is good for you (and business).

Brian LeCount: Stop the Social Media Noise: Can You Grow Your Business Faster with a Blog?
Brian put the whole social media explosion in perspective. The media and the geeks love to go on and on about Twitter, tweets, LinkedIn, Facebook, Friends, and Fans…but at the end of the day it’s all about search. It’s what people are doing online more than anything. Using Blogs to get search results, works.

Bob Garfield: No, Tuesday’s No Good. Let Me Get Back to You After the Apocalypse
This guy was scary. Bob outlined the continued decline of traditional media, from networks to newspapers. If traditional media is doomed, now what? Well we just gotta listen much better to our customers and prospects. Let them tell us what matters most.

Lunch: The veggie lasagna and fancy brownie were stand outs. Nothing left on my plate. I washed it all down with curiously small cups of coffee.

Here is the link to the event: http://www.summitup.org/

Jen from our office did afternoon duty.

Sharpie Lamborghini