YOU Are the Media! [Includes Slideshare Presentation]

YOU are the media! This was the theme for a keynote presentation I delivered this past weekend for the Florida Blogger & Social Media Conference held at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida.

The attendees were social business savvy, primarily consisting of business owners, business leaders working for both small and large brands, and of course bloggers.

The conversations were just too compelling to leave at the conference. I have compiled the highlights of my keynote and even embedded the exact slides I used for the presentation below.

In addition, we will be continuing the conversation on #GetRealChat Twitter Chat, Tuesday September 24th at 9pm et. Special guests will be Dino Dogan of Triberr, Justice Mitchell of Kaseya and David Glass of iSummit.

You can check out the entire slide deck below and on Slideshare here-> You Are The Media.

“Your Are the Media” – Keynote Presentation Highlights

1. We (you) are the media.

2. Bloggers should stop calling themselves bloggers. Instead integrate their blog into their business if in fact they want to monetize their efforts.

3. Quit whining. If you have not had success running your blog, starting to integrate social media, building a content and brand architecture, stop whining about it and instead DO something about it.

4. Run it like a business. Quit thinking small and getting upset you are broke or not meeting your goals. Instead, focus on setting real goals and objectives, a plan to achieve them and metrics to measure success.

5. Take an audience based approach from day one. Focus on your audience needs and providing them the highest value possible. Don't start with the tactics and technology. Align to your goals, objectives with a clear focus on audience requirements.

6. Enjoy the journey. You are not going to get there overnight. Grab your backpack, walking shoes and get ready to work. Enjoy the ups, downs and everything in between.

7. You must eliminate the Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) from your marketing and business plans and execution. If it's not funded, not in the plan and you have no metrics for success then it is a RAM. Stop them asap as RAMs will eat every last morsel of ROI you have any chance of achieving.

8. Communities create markets but take time to build. Invest in the humans within your ecosystem. Invite and invest in them. The better you serve them what they want and need the higher you chance they will become loyal community members, brand evangelists and eventually paying customers.

9. Listen more than you talk. You must listen to your audience and larger ecosystem to understand the tone of the conversation and how you can best contribute value to the individuals within the communities and larger ecosystem as a whole.

10. Humanize! Humanizing your business and your content marketing is a requirement, not an option.

11. You are your brand. Everything you say, do, tweet, share, and even the way you drive is a representation of you and your brand.

12. Quit chasing shiny objects. Don't ignore the trends, but make sure you are paying attention to the objects that are going to deliver the highest return for your audience, clients, parters and your business.

13. You must build and design for mobile first. Responsive design is a requirement. IDC predicts there will be approximately 1.3 Billion mobile workers by 2015. I have one word for this statistic… yowza! If this doesn't grab your attention, then I don't know what will. This impacts every business, from mom and pop donut shops to big brands. Don't ignore mobile, period.

14. The power is in the people and community. The heartbeat of social media is people. The heartbeat is you and me. You must figure out how to inspire, connect and help your audience achieve their goals.

15. Identifying and activating key influencers is key to success for any brand. You must cultivate a culture to inspire, engage, empower and activate internal and external influencers.

16. OPCs rock. This is not the same as the “OPP” song and dance that some of you may remember. OPC = other peoples communities. Tapping into the power of other peoples communities takes both art and science. It must be done authentically and with a serving, giving heart and culture.

17. Stop faking it until you make it. Buying fake followers, likes and comments is equivalent to owning a restaurant and filling it with fake blow up people, trying to make your restaurant look busy. Don't do it! Invest in authentic means to grow community and create loyal brand evangelists.