Top Tweets from the Social Media & Inbound Marketing Master Class

If you follow Publishing Executive on Twitter, you may have noticed a wave of tweets filling your feed Friday accompanied by the hashtag #simc2015. Those were our uber-engaged attendees at the Social Media & Inbound Marketing Master Class held in New York City.

The event focused on teaching attendees how to craft effective social media content, measure success, and drive conversions. The master class also featured a track specifically devoted to exploring how leading publishers, such as Dwell, ALM, and Foreign Affairs are driving their social media strategies.

The event, which was hosted in partnership with Grow Socially and sister publications Target Marketing and Printing Impressions, gathered 60-plus professionals from the publishing, printing, and communications industries.

Fittingly, attendees were socially amped up. We wanted to share some of our favorite tweets and highlight the biggest lessons from the master class.

The event kicked off at 8:45AM in the beautiful Affinia Hotel in Manhattan.

Excellent group of "students" in today's #SIMC2015! They've come to master #socialmedia & #inboundmarketing! pic.twitter.com/dVRN9bi3yu

— AwarenessHub (@awarenessinc) October 16, 2015

John Foley, CEO and CMO of social media consulting firm Grow Socially, emceed the event and led two morning sessions. The first session dove into the value of social media for publishers, marketers, and printers, and the second provided tactical advice on building a social media strategy, executing, and securing buy-in from within the organization.

Enjoying @johnfoleyjr talk social media & inbound marketing in #NYC today! #simc2015 #Education #entrepreneurlife

— Tammy Mastroberte (@ElevatedTammy) October 16, 2015

Throughout his sessions, Foley reiterated the value of quality content and its ability to “lure” new audience on social media. Strong content and an effective social media strategy make a powerful combination, he said.

If Content is the Lure that attracts, Social are the hooks! #SIMC2015 @PulsePointBuzz

— Radik Kizhnerman (@radik76) October 16, 2015

The hallmark of quality content, continued Foley, is that it disrupts as opposed to interrupts. Disruptive content is exciting and different, whereas content that interrupts is promotional and spams consumers' feeds.

Your #content shouldn't interrupt, but it must Disrupt! @johnfoleyjr #simc2015

— Thorin Mcgee (@TMThorin) October 16, 2015

Foley and other speakers noted several times during the event that a social media strategy is useless if the organization does not dedicate the time or resources to execute.

"The only thing that trumps strategy in #socialmedia is execution" @johnfoleyjr #simc2015

— Ellen Harvey (@Ellen_M_Harvey) October 16, 2015

A worthwhile use of time and effort on social media is actually responding to followers, one attendee shared. Her organization grew its Twitter following to over 10,000 users by taking the time to develop real conversations with individuals.

Conversations win over a megaphone! RT @SLake03: How do you get to 10K followers? 2-way communication! #SocialMediaMarketing #SIMC2015

— Donna Vieira (@DonnaVieira) October 16, 2015

Measuring social media success is key. Foley recommended that organizations set specific goals, whether that is to grow referral traffic, increase leads, or garner greater engagement. Then, pick the key performance indicators (KPIs) that best measure those objectives.

#SIMC2015. Measure, measure, measure! @johnfoleyjr pic.twitter.com/MOOTo2Umay

— mfleischner (@mfleischner) October 16, 2015

Thank you to all who attended the Social Media & Inbound Marketing Master Class! Look for more coverage of the event in the coming weeks.

Thx to the #SIMC2015 attendees & for all of the tweets! #FF these great folks: @RareDR @mfleischner @ElevatedTammy @Konhaus @TiffanyHamm929

— John Foley (@johnfoleyjr) October 16, 2015