Gary Vaynerchuk gave a very energetic and inspiring closing keynote address – a great way to end the first day. His topic focused primarily on the importance of building your personal brand, something he has done a super job with. Here is what we learned from Gary Vee:
On Branding …
* American love brands and you must do everything you can to create as much personal and brand equity
* Determine why you matter and why people should listen to you
* Work hard to network, sell, and learn
* Talk about what you are good at
* Get help for what you are not good at
On Encouraging Community …
* He works to encourage a community 2-3 hours everyday
* Make relevant (not spammy) comments on other blogs that link back to your blog
* Answer every email that comes in your inbox
* Respond to every comment on your blog
* It is your job to make a personal connection in the blogosphere, which will also will help to build name recognition
* Inducing conversation leads to money (consider a BIG email me button)
* Consider publishing your instant messenger address to show availability and transparency
* If you see something negative on Twitter – address it with the author – and learn from it
On Blogging …
* Create at least one blog post per day
* Don’t focus on the number of readers, but how many dollars you make
* Work to bring lots of eyeballs
On Marketing …
* Content is King, but marketing is Queen
* Learn what Google Adword terms are important in your space and exploit them
* Sell schwag!
ContentRobot really admired his enthusiasm and willingness to share his experiences with everyone.