More latest marketing trends – big ideas

There was so much content at the Hubspot Inbound Marketing Conference, it was really hard deciding which sessions to attend. It was also a fun challenge to figure out how to summarize what I’ve learned. I probably could write a year’s worth of blog posts on what I learned!

So the second theme of the conference was big ideas. Several business and marketing leaders gave fascinating talks. Here’s a summary of the talks I attended. You’ll notice once again, none of the talks are about marketing or technology; they are about people and ideas.

JASON KEITH – A social media speaker and analyst. Runs Social Fresh, a social media education company.

Talk topic: “Why you suck at brainstorming.”

* We tend to treat creativity as magic. There’s some discipline involved.
* What’s needed for creativity: freedom, scale and friction.
* For freedom:

** Ideas don’t grow in cramped spaces.
** Don’t discount absurd ideas.
** Have a no judgment rule about ideas.

 * For scale:

** Generate lots of ideas.
** Fail fast and often.

 * For friction:

** Use your life experience, what challenges do you have that others’ may have? This can be the germ of a product idea.
** Leave your area of expertise. Take a break and learn something new! Do something different!

KATHY SIERRA – Co-creator of Head First series of books on technical topics. She takes an unorthodox approach to teaching.

Talk topic: “Word of obvious and competing in a post word of mouth world.”

* You can’t outsmart, outspend, outfriend or outtrend.
* Word of mouth drives sustained desirability.
* What drives word of mouth is “I’m awesome because of what this product enabled me to do.”
* It’s not what users say about a company; it’s what users say about themselves!
* What does having that tool enable a user to do?
* Word of mouth should really be called “word of obvious.”
* Content marketing involves HOW to solve a problem. It’s information that’s valuable, useful and lovable.
* The science of badass – reliably superior performance and consistently superior choices.

NICK WESTERGAARD – Brand-driven strategist, speaker and writer. He is also the founder of Brand Driven Digital.

Talk topic: “How Work Works.”

* The essence of work is how do you do what you do?
* The notion of balance is bunk. It’s more of a blending of work and life.
* Judging of others’ is pervasive.
* Time isn’t money. Per Alan Weiss, wealth=discretionary time.
* Don’t overschedule. Give yourself time for free mind flow. You’ll find this is when your ideas come to you.

The biggest lesson I learned from this conference is that business, not just marketing is about human connection and ideas. Think big and be human!

Big wave photo is courtesy of Steve Jurvetson’s Flickr photo stream, under Creative Commons Licensing.