Reaching the Summit

The Social Media Success Summit 2013, was a live online conference spanning over four weeks and taking place all over the world. This conference gathered the world’s leading social media experts to discuss the power of social media in marketing.

One speaker at this year’s Summit was Lee Odden, author of Optimize: How to Attract and Engage MoreCustomers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing. He is also the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, a marketing and PR agency, as well as a successful online marketing blogger.

So I think it’s safe to say; Lee knows his stuff.

Odden is a firm believer in the power of social media in today’s world. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Google+ and so on, make it so much easier for businesses to not only create but share content with the public. During his presentation Odden mentions that 90% of all the data in the world has been created in the last two years. Social media has made it possible for anyone, anywhere to share their thoughts and opinions on products, businesses, events and really anything that catches their attention.

When something has this much power and influence with the public it would be foolish for any company to not utilize it.

Enter social media marketing.

Odden mentions the statistic that 79% of marketers agree that they have integrated their social media with their traditional media. This fact is laughable. Integrating social with traditional media is more than just creating a Facebook page or adding a Twitter icon to your website. If a business wants to be called social media savvy then they have to be willing to put in the time and effort. Weekly, if not daily Facebook posts, Tweets and blogs must be created, and they can’t be mediocre either. The content needs to be useful and interesting to be relevant to potential consumers.

As Odden preaches, this is the age of ubiquitous connectivity, and social media is what makes this possible.