8 Things I Learnt From Australias 'Most Unconferencey Conference' | State Of Social 2019

If you aren't in the world of marketing there could be a chance you have never even heard of State Of Social... and that is perfectly fine. But I am going to tell you all about in any way, because not only was this event super informative and interesting, it was also a pretty big moment for me mentally.

Here are six lessons, both marketing centric and personal lessons that I learnt over a whole day of Australias "most unconferencey conference" talking all thing social and digital marketing.

Let's begin with the personal:

1. I do have the strength in me to overcome my social anxiety and not end up in a nervous wreck in a room full of people that I don't know. This event was a major stepping stone for me mentally- I came away feeling incredibly proud of how I held up mentally. I walked in telling myself that my minimum number of people to introduce myself too was 3- just talk to three people I repeating in my head. I surpassed three people, I talked to many new people and I was so happy about it.

2. People don't worry about what you're doing, they're too busy focusing on what they're doing. Social anxiety is more often than not sitting in the back of my head telling me that the person next to me is judging what I'm doing- am I writing to many notes? Not enough? Is there too much food on my plate? Do they think I'm eating funny? These are the thoughts that would be running through my head, but something made me realise, we're all out here trying to make it in our own way, just trying to get shit done and no one else really gives other people a second thought.
   
   And now for the marketing side of things:

3. As Matt Navarra, social media specialist put it "don't chase the algorithm". The algorithm is constantly changing and we are never going to be able to know the "magic formula". There is no point in spending all your energy trying to learn how to outplay the algorithm when you will not be able to understand it for more than a little while.

4. Artificial intelligence is the way forward for marketing and computing. Chris Messina, the guy who invented hashtags and the last keynote speaker of the day, gave a very compelling and interesting presentation on the arc of computing. He also talked about voice as the next step for us, we'll be stepping from touch to voice.

5. We all need to start writing better captions. Most upbeat and fun presentation of the day without a doubt goes to Jenn Herman and her fabulous shoes. Jenn walked (ran) us through Instagram and how we can use it's features to our advantage. Our captions need to add value to your audience's experience with your content- educate them, connect with them, be vulnerable with them.

6. In the same token Chris Wirasinha from Pedestrian.TV told us we need to have killer headlines. Headlines are the first thing people will see of your content, ultimately it will decide if you'll get a link click or not. You need to have stand out headlines, you need to grab peoples attention.

7. We need to drive and gain trust in the people reading and interacting with our content. Jonathan Harley, journalist and broadcaster gave a presentation on trust. We need to make an active pursuit of gaining trust and telling the truth. We need to be credible and we need to be informed.

8. No conference is complete without puppies. And yes there were puppies. No conference will top this unless they have puppies and kittens. Conference

Will I be at State Of Social 2020? You betcha!