Day 2 of INBOUND 2017 has come to an end, and it has been one for the books. The day began at 6:45am in line to see Michelle Obama’s keynote at 9am. All I can say about that is her keynote was worth the wait! I could write an entire blog about her insights, demeanor, and control of the room, but for the sake of this post I will keep it to my key takeaways.
She opened with the biggest lesson being the first lady taught her: that she can do anything. Her goal as first lady was to make her role substantive, so she entered with initiatives based both on her passions and the needs she saw in the country. She shared insights about her time in the White House including:
- The craziness of the transition in and out of the White House (and the whole time spent there)
- Her, and Barack’s, approach in raising their daughter’s in the White House, as well as the spotlight
- How she maintained her sense of self while being scrutinized and constantly looked at as nothing but the first lady
- Her key initiatives when in office, which included nutrition and exercise – with focus on childhood obesity, focus on military families and supporting them, and encouraging young people to pursue education
- How she is processing the changes being implemented by the current office
She also shared with the audience that “she and Barack are both working on books.” Her book, which began as a memoir is becoming the story of how Michelle Robinson from South Side Chicago got where she is today and what prepared her to “tap into her inner voice and her authentic self”. Her hope is that her book will create a conversation and that it is inspiring and fun.
The first breakout session of the day for me was exciting because it fell into my comfort zone – technology! I spent time today learning about marketing automation using messaging and bots.
- 71% of respondents are willing to use messaging apps to get customer assistance
- 49% are very likely to contact a company using Facebook messenger if they want an immediate response
- 42% are very likely to contact a company using Facebook messenger if they have a complaint or need help
My key takeaway from this session, which had a lot of great content, was that I need to put some focus on how we can benefit our customers using Facebook messenger (or any messaging platform) and bots.
The other breakout sessions I attended focused on the importance of brand influencers in a trust economy, sales conversions, and creating standout content. A key theme that ran across all of these sessions was the importance of focusing on your audience. Brian Williams summed it up in one sentence, “Start and end with the audience, because it is all about the audience.”
Today was more than keynotes and breakouts. I was invited to a customer lunch with a few members of the Bedrock Data team. The lunch was a great time, and the team shared some very exciting new integration tools that we have been short listed to beta test later this year. I also learned that LookingPoint was featured on the marketing collateral that Bedrock has been sharing will all conference attendees (as well as other potential customers)!
There is one day left of INBOUND 2017, and I’m ready for a strong finish to what has been an incredible, educational, inspiring conference so far.