Web Design in Oklahoma City

Yesterday, a few of us attended the Innotech eMarketing Summit here in OKC. Element Fusion was a sponsor of the event and our own Andrea Decker moderated the opening panel discussion on creating social media strategies. Attendance this year was even stronger than last year, and the presentations were, for the most part, stronger as well. I was excited to see this event bringing some great content and discussion to Oklahoma City.

At the same time, my experience at the eMarketing Summit simply reaffirmed a belief I've operated under for years. That is, there's really nothing new under the sun. Time after time, the presenters knowingly or unknowingly drove home the point that the rules governing eMarketing and social media are really the same rules that have been employed for traditional marketing and other strategies for a very long time.

For example, the opening panel discussion focused a lot on how companies shouldn't just launched blindly into social media campaigns, assigning lower-level employees to handle communication through Twitter or Facebook just because they are "young" and know how to use the Internet. On the contrary, communication through social media channels is just like any form of communication for your company and it needs to be handled with careful attention to detail and tone.

Also, Christi Day from Southwest Airlines (a highlight of the event) gave a look into how her company uses social media. One minor point I noted is that Southwest doesn't have any "Twitter guidelines" for their employees. Rather, they have "leadership guidelines" that apply to their employees in all aspects of life. This simply reinforces the idea that regulating how your employees communicate on Twitter is really no different than regulating how they communicate through any other channel. Companies should set expectations for their employees across the board, not just on Twitter.

Finally, the recurring theme from most all of the presenters (and the theme you are likely to hear from any speaker on these issues) is that all of the fancy tools in the world won't really help your business or your website if you don't have something of value to offer your visitors. Content is king and it has always been king. Using Twitter doesn't make it more likely someone is going to want to read your stuff if that stuff isn't attractive and valuable in its own right. This is a very significant point to remember.

So, if you weren't able to make the summit, this is a message you can take away — embrace new tools and learn how to use them, but don't expect them to be a replacement for all of the standard, common-sense approaches to communication that you've hopefully learned over years and years.

Oh, and just one more thing. My favorite moment of the day was when one of the morning presenters made an off-hand remark that went something like this: "Sometimes we get so caught up in these newer technologies, we neglect the more traditional tools like blogs and email newsletters." I love it that blogs and email are now so stodgy they are being called "traditional." Here's to rapid change!

Did you attend the summit? What did you think? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.