A Look Back at #CMWorld and 2018

The year is almost at an end. That’s hard for me to believe since it feels like Content Marketing World was just yesterday.

Our community got together nearly every Tuesday in 2018. We kicked off the year chatting about pitching creative ideas without fear of rejection. And we ended it with greater confidence to set personal and professional goals.

As we look back at the last 12 months, content creation, creativity, and productivity are among the top topics of 2018. The most popular chats include:

• Why Marketers Need to Unplug More with Joe Pulizzi
• Using Customer Service to Create Content with Jay Baer
• Creativity and Marketing with Allen Gannett

And that brings us to today. We wanted 2018’s final chat to be all about you. What happened, what didn’t, and what’s to come. Below are highlights of a lively, fast-paced discussion.

Allow us to show off for a moment. Here are some of the greatest successes our community members experienced this year.

A1. I’d say I’m most proud of the B2B content marketing plan I put together for my company. We didn’t have one before, and this one was designed to get us off on the right foot. #CMWorld https://t.co/KoGCwxZZUG

— David Simanoff (@dsimanoff) December 11, 2018

A1. HANDS DOWN: Being honored as #CMWorld Community Champion!!! Thanks you so much! <3 (It was cool that my son got married, too…) https://t.co/UJKInS4VQD

— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) December 11, 2018

A1: Growing! Our team has expanded beyond our foundation in pay per click advertising work and into other digital marketing and social realms. We’ve added to our full-time team and are so excited for all the opportunities so far! #CMWorld pic.twitter.com/dETIDfL8Sk

— Click Ctrl Marketing (@ClkContrl) December 11, 2018

A1: My proudest professional achievement for 2018 was the publishing of my novel, THEY.

My proudest personal achievement for 2018 was building an addition on our house with the help of my son.#CMWorld https://t.co/4UXfdbNXlm

— Kathryn Lang (@Kathrynclang) December 11, 2018

A1: One of our proudest achievements was our Here’s Why marketing video series making finalist at the #CMWorld Awards our first time entering!

— Mark Traphagen (@marktraphagen) December 11, 2018

A1. We’ve launched our blog and had a 20% engagement raise almost every month on FB and Twitter. And now I’m thinking how one year’s hard work could fit into one tiny sentence… #CMWorld https://t.co/0kOG36uoeG

— Pitchbox App (@PitchboxApp) December 11, 2018

A1: Professionally … Bright Horizons, launched a second podcast called Teach. Play. Love. Parenting Advice for the Early Years. We’re still early in its soft launch, but it was a glorious team effort I’m proud of #CMWorld

— LaDonna LaGuerre ?? ?️‍? (@ladonnajonze) December 11, 2018

A1: Really getting involved in chats like #CMWorld and others. I’ve found reading the community’s answers, gaining their insights, and follow up discussions have taught me substantially more than just browsing articles alone. It’s expanded my own efforts / results substantially!

— Patrick Delehanty (@MDigitalPatrick) December 11, 2018

But with the highs came some low lows.

A2) Don’t chase the money when freelancing. A consulting gig went sour within 3 months. I knew it was headed that way, but I stuck around longer than I should have because the money was good.
Not worth it.#CMWorld

— Jason Schemmel – Speaker & Podcaster #GSDChat?️? (@JasonSchemmel) December 11, 2018

A2: Being too trusting.

This year was the worst as far as potential clients “ghosting” & just not getting back-one way or the other.

I learned that I need to be clearer about the terms & conditions of working w/folks-& not trust until we’re actually working together. #cmworld

— Michelle Garrett (@PRisUs) December 11, 2018

A2: Biggest mistake was marketing too much on social media and forgetting to share value. Biggest lesson: social media is about being social and sharing useful content—even if it’s others’. #CMWorld

— Narmadhaa (@s_narmadhaa) December 11, 2018

A2. Too much of a good thing can still be a bad thing lol Taking on too many Twitter chats and even too many social channels. A recipe for quick burnout due to being overstressed. #CMWorld

— Gene Petrov – Leadership Coach to Marketers (@GenePetrovLMC) December 11, 2018

But we persevered and are now planning for the future.

A7: I just wrote up my goals a couple of days ago, inspired by @JoePulizzi‘s talk (although it took me some time to sit down and do it). One of them is to devote time each month to learning – either with books on writing/marketing or #CMWorld videos

— Kristen Hicks (@atxcopywriter) December 11, 2018

A7: Mentioned it earlier, but improving my work/life balance to get back to creating the content I enjoy…which helps both personally and professionally. #CMWorld https://t.co/vCPWCwKDD3

— Jeremy Bednarski (@JeremyBednarski) December 11, 2018

A7: My goal in 2019 is to take more classes. For professional development and for my other interests! #CMWorld pic.twitter.com/tQiOkQI7fp

— Rachel Wendte (@rkwendte) December 11, 2018

A7. I’ve started creating a lot of educational content about leveraging Google Analytics for measuring online and offline #marketing results. There’s a lot of great How-To articles but very little for the CMO or marketing director to realize what they’re missing. #cmworld

— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) December 11, 2018

A7: 1. Increase by website traffic by 30%. 2. Start a videos series with Founders’ Views. 3. Relaunch the old blog articles. #CMWorld

— Socialinsider (@socialinsiderio) December 11, 2018

A7: Setting boundaries. Only doing the right things for the right reasons. And only doing them in the right way. If those criteria aren’t met, I’m not interested in wasting my time or energy on it. #CMWorld

— Jill Golden ??‍? (@_goldengrams) December 11, 2018

So, what’s ahead?

You’ve set goals. The experts have made their predictions. And the CMI team is working on some exciting plans for our community.

Is there a way we can help you further your career? Have an idea for a future chat? Want to share a suggestion on we can better serve our community? Let us know in the comments below.

Thank you for making 2018 a spectacular year. Here’s to 2019. Cheers!

Let’s take our Twitter chat offline and meet up! Attend Content Marketing World, September 3-6, 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio. Get the best available rates when you register before New Year’s Eve.