Walking into Tampa Bay’s second Synapse Summit was nothing but buzzing entrepreneurs and coffee stands filled with early bird risers. Connections were ready to be made. As soon as you stepped foot in Amalie Arena there were local vendors on either side with the latest swag ready to be handed out. The arena was filled with leaders, entrepreneurs, startups, Vice Presidents, and more established businesses ready to learn and scale their business.
The summit had multiple lectures on relevant topics regarding the new age of digital. All these lectures had many coming away with one thing: the future of digital is here. There were probably over 100 lectures every day. I found myself wanting to attend all of the lectures, unfortunately, I could only be in one place at a time, so I was limited to a handful throughout the day. Each of the lectures were in different parts of the arena, so you had to set aside extra time to find where the lecture of your choice was going to be held. Luckily, most of the lectures I attended were in the same area, so I did not get too lost.
Here are a few things I took away from some of the lectures and wanted to share those gold nuggets of information with you.
How to Leverage Your Network Session
One of the many lectures we had the pleasure of listening to was on the topic of, How to Leverage Your Network. Here are some of the takeaways from that lecture.
- The power of networking can change your life – No matter what age you are, you are always meeting someone new. Using the words like “Please” and “thanks” can actually make you stand out. Just being nice in general can be the starting point of a new connection.
- Stand out – When meeting someone new, make sure to stand out. It can be anything, your speech, a super colorful tie, a joke you told or even something as crazy socks.
- Follow up after 24 hours – You just put all that effort in someone trying to remember you so do not let them forget you. If you swapped business cards, then follow up with a friendly email. Something as simple as saying, “Hi _____ nice meeting you at ____ loved hearing about what you do and your business. Let me know if you ever have any questions about _____ I will be glad to help. Good luck with your business! Kind regards _____.” Add them on LinkedIn. If they have social on their business card, follow them on social.
By now, you should be the master at meeting new people and your network has now expanded by many.
Designing a Winning Company Culture Session
In order to have a winning culture, you need to expose it. Exposing it can be as simple as taking a picture you and your coworker (with their approval) and posting it to social with #bestcoworkeraward or taking a picture of a social event that takes place within your company and posting that to social. However, with the digital world taking off just about anyone can work from home nowadays. So having a company culture can be very difficult if people have different schedules and you don’t interact with them face-to-face. Just know that it can be done! If you can deliver energy over the phone and/or an email then you will receive some sort of energy back. The more you can put forth into your company and be invested in growth and making connections, then that will happen. Always keep in mind that there is a real person sitting behind the email you just got. It was not a robot who sent that. Just be personable. Culture is all about people, so if you can relate to another person then you all already on the right track of paving the way to having a great company culture.
The Future of Advertising
Here are some of the key takeaways.
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- Make sure the things you put out are worth the time and attention others will give you.
- Social media is a two-way street today – The audience is no longer the target. Instead, they are helping to get the message out. This is being done by their friend groups and what they post and reshare with their friends.
- User or consumer have to see themselves in the ads – The moment a user or consumer can see themselves in your ad then it will be applicable and they can relate.
- Consumers are the new age marketers – A prime example of this would be an influencer such as Kylie Jenner sharing a product then #ad at the bottom of her post. Casey Nesitat is another example. He uses his videos to market products he was given by subscribers as well as paid companies.
- The future may be about fewer interruptions and more about entertainment – Netflix has already started with this. Anytime you participate in a paid subscription you have fewer ads. However, for Netflix, there are multiple ad placements in shows. If you are listening to music on Spotify and then an ad gets interrupted, you are instantly annoyed. All those paid subscriptions incorporate entrainment into the advertisements.
Day 2 of Synapse Summit just as much of a success as the first day. This time I knew my way around the arena
The lectures that Digital Neighbor attended had such good information that we decided we had to share it with you all.
The Way We Work is Being Transformed by Technology Session
Technology has transformed so much in that past few years. Every day there is something new for digital markets to learn. There is an augmented workforce that has new digital and technologies.
There are 3 dimensions changing the future of work
- Work – How work gets done.
- Workforce – Who is doing the work (Ex. Robots).
- Workplace – What work looks like today.
So many people can work from home and even on the go. We live in an age where we are always connected so we can get work done. Meetings can be held through phone calls and even FaceTime. Since we are always connected we have found that we can get robots to do the work for us so we can double up on the amount of work we have and get more things done within a days work.
Lastly here is another lecture we found to be very helpful within the world of digital.
5 Must do’s to market your brand in an omnichannel digital landscape
In today’s digital world it can be very overwhelming and competitive. Here are 5 strategies to help you get on top and lead the way for your brand:
- Make your content king – Content is important and so is your brand.
- Take a data-driven approach – Data makes you credible and will earn the trust from others.
- Personalize the process – Adding a personal touch to your brand will help your audience engage with you.
- Provide value to social media – Social media is not going away so be active and present.
- Think mobile first– Most people today are connected to a smartphone or tablet. If your brand is not compatible with mobile you will not get far.
Key Takeaways
I hope these tips were helpful for you. I definitely learned so much at the 2019 Synapse Summit. Making new connections and learning to scale your business can be applied anytime in your career. Networking is a great start to scale your business. I currently have a mountain of business cards on my desk from all the people I met at the Summit. Investing time in yourself to grow and learn will help by growing your business. Hope to see you next year at the 2020 Synapse Summit!
