My Top 3 Takeaways from 2009 Inbound Marketing Summit

I had an awesome time last week in Boston for the Inbound Marketing Summit. Chris Brogan, Justin Levy and New Marketing Labs put on an excellent event. Great people, great ideas, great venue (Gillette Stadium)--overall a great event (yes, that was a lot of great).

One of the most interesting moments during the conference was when video guru Steve Garfield had everyone with a recording device take part in an experiment. We all shot video all the same time, and were encouraged to post it online somewhere. Steve believes (and he's right) that the revolution in video is due to the fact that we can now record and share video from the same device. Check out the video below to see this experiment.

Here are my top three takeaways from the Inbound Marketing Summit, since you probably don't have time to read my 11 pages of notes. :)

  1. Companies that are doing a great job with social media have integrated it into all aspects of their business. Responsibility doesn't just rest with one person or department.
  2. Companies that do a good job of getting found (in search engines, by bloggers, in real-life, etc) and trusted are successful. It's more important than ever to focus on building trust with your audience.
  3. Content (creating the kind people WANT to read) is crucial to building relationships online. The sooner companies can figure out how to create interesting, remarkable content, the sooner they can gain a competitive advantage. Never outsource content or social media accounts. Companies should own it.

If you went to #ims09, what were some of your top takeaways?

I'm really looking forward to BlogWorld in Las Vegas later this week. I'd love to connect if you're going to be there!