Top 5 Insights from the Internet Summit #ISUM13

Fellow Cisco IT Blogger, Aaron Chiles, and I had the great fortune to attend the Internet Summit in Downtown Raleigh last week. For those of you unfamiliar with the awesomeness that is the East Coast and thus the Internet Summit – it is “the Southeast’s largest gathering of digital minds – 2,000 innovators, senior marketers, entrepreneurs, and technology professionals.”

With keynotes and sessions given by leaders in the social media industry like Gary Vaynerchuk (CEO, Vayner Media), Alexis Ohanian (Co-founder, reddit), Ben Huh (Founder, Cheezburger) – it is safe to say that we learned quite a bit about content marketing, innovative story telling, and winning with social media.

Take a look below for our top 5 insights from our week long adventure in the land of marketing.

5. Be Innovative in Telling Your Story
It’s a noisy world we live in where information is flying at you from every direction.  @GaryVee had a lot to say about getting your story out to the masses.  His biggest advice?  Be Innovative. Go where the traffic is

“Every organization here today is in the media business, and then sells something else.” @garyvee #isum13
— Som (@soethichall) November 13, 2013

“The most innovative brands in the world are human beings” @garyvee #ISUM13
— Meredith Oliver (@CreatingWOW) November 13, 2013

“The only way to be a good storyteller on different platforms is to use them and understand them.” @garyvee #isum13
— Fifth Letter (@fifth_letter) November 13, 2013

4. Privacy Isn’t a “Thing” Anymore

Did anyone reading ever say “I’ll never buy anything with my credit card online, ever!” – I know I did. Once. But then I did, and it was the most glorious thing ever.  Now Amazon saves my credit card information, making it simpler for me to make quick purchases.  I win because I save time.  They win, because I’m more likely to make purchases.

People don’t care about privacy as much as we think. It depends on the net gain/loss of giving up personal info. #isum13
— Bill Teague (@bill_teague) November 13, 2013

3.  Work is Not a Place

I think we can all agree that we were already aware of this.  With mobility, smart phones, and now tablets taking the consumer market by storm, the way people engage and “work” is completely changing.  It’s no longer a “work-life balance”.  Now it’s all about integration.

“Used to be you worked where your computer was. Now your computer works where you are.” @myHealthImpact Fay Payton #ISum13 — John Mark Ivey (@GKJohnMarkIvey) November 13, 2013

2. Be Human

We are all human.  We all make mistakes.  Social Media, Blogging, Branding aren’t about perfection, they’re about aligning with your stakeholders.

Don’t build a brand that’s robotic. Use every opportunity, even in error messages, that humans are behind the brand. #isum13 — Alison Phalen (@aliphalen) November 13, 2013

Second time today I’ve been told to “be human” on social media #wtpbook #isum13 Thanks for reminder. — Sara Paisner (@SaraPaisner) November 13, 2013

and our #1 discovery?

1. Siri is also the Voice of Delta

Siri is also the voice of Delta Airlines… mind blown. #ISUM13 — Aaron Chiles (@AaronChiles) November 13, 2013