Search Team Blog


The Seattle Interactive Conference Takaways

Posted by ryanz on November 29, 2016

Sesame Communications is committed to staying current with digital trends to ensure that we are providing our members with the best possible service. With that in mind, we recently sent our SEO and Social Media teams to the Seattle Interactive Conference (SIC). SIC draws the thousands of attendees from cutting-edge businesses and leading brands, based in the Northwest and around the world. Sessions cover marketing, branding, strategic development, communications, design, culture, creativity, and more!

Our teams focused on learning and developing strategies that will benefit Sesame Communications and our members alike. We had the opportunity to hear from an array of amazing speakers from organizations like AOL, World Vision, T-Mobile, Facebook, Microsoft, and many other great companies.

One of the biggest takeaways from the team was a presentation titled “How Great Companies Engage in Employee Advocacy” by Randy Ksar of Voce Communications, Carrie Peters of Hotwire, and Brad Nelson of Starbucks. Their presentation focused on employee advocacy and creating a cohesive brand—not just online, but within the business or practice. Starbucks, for instance, trains all employees on how to effectively carry out their brand messaging regardless of their position in the company.

Take the time to train your staff on your marketing initiatives so they can carry out your brand messaging throughout the entire patient experience. Encourage the staff to engage with your social media pages and initiatives and maybe even incentivize this participation.

Another great presentation was delivered by Amy Balliet of Killer Infographics. Killer Infographics is a well-known organization based in Seattle focused on spreading knowledge through visual communications. This is important across all marketing platforms, but particularly important for social media. She stated that by 2018, nearly 85 percent of communications will be based on visuals. Many times you have fractions of a second to grab someone’s attention. A custom visual is going to be much more effective than a wall (or even a small amount) of text. That—coupled with the fact that almost 95 percent of first impressions are based on design—shows how important visual content is in your marketing effort. Creating unique and engaging visual content is a huge focal point of our social media team and we will take these important points and continue to create unique and engaging content!

These were just a few of the great sessions that Sesame was able to attend. We look forward to continuing education and making sure we are providing the best possible service to our members! Please feel free to contact the Social or SEO Team with any questions or if you would like to chat more about your online marketing strategy!

- The Sesame Search Team