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I wanted to write a quick note and thank all of our speakers, attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, and Board of Directors members who attended our Online Marketing Workshop last week. With the beautiful Camelback Resort in Scottsdale Arizona as the backdrop, it seemed that everyone who attended benefited from getting out of the office for a few days, networking with their colleagues, learning from the keynote speakers and panel discussions, and getting a fresh perspective of where we are today and where we are going.
Members of our content committee may have refered to me jokingly as Dr. Doom in the past, but the general vibe of the workshop was the worst could be possibly behind us, and now we faced with the rebuilding process. The online channel remains as resilient as ever and is a beacon of light in a stormy and turbulent environment.
While the theme of the event was Optimization and it was addressed in nearly every session and roundtable, the topic of social networking was also a very popular discussion point. However, it seemed to take a very fresh approach. For years at Shop.org events you could hear about what social networking is, why it is important, the details of the available tools, and how retailing is changing due to this new paradigm. However at this event, retailers were sharing tactical stories and solutions to challenges of how they are currently using social networking in their retail operations. Whether it is connecting it with email marketing to stimulate consumer response, viral distribution of online marketing videos, how it effects marketing channel attribution, and even how affiliates are using it to drive sales. It seems like the ever popular topic of social networking may possibly have taken a step towards maturity for our retail members. We all know WHAT it is, but our community was sharing specifically HOW they are using all of the available tools. Not just as a stand-alone, but as a way to grow and support all of their marketing efforts. We are going to continue this discussion thread at our Annual Summit with our retailer panel discussion titled of “Twitter and the Social Media All-Stars”. Sign up now for the Summit along with our upcoming Merchandising Workshop.
Thanks again to everyone who made the Marketing Workshop a great event!
Larry Joseloff
VP, Content
joseloffl@shop.org
