New Media Expo kicked off 2013, and I’m glad to say that the rebranded Blog World conference had some great take away moments around community building and engagement strategy.

Certainly one of the best attended and most talked about sessions was Triberr co-founder Dino Dogan‘s Insane Loyalty: How to Get People Fanatically Addicted to You.  I especially liked Dino’s style of presentation – it really helped to kick off this year’s NMX experience.

Dino’s examples really helped to bring his presentation to life; neither egocentric nor obtuse, the presentation was relatable and insightful. My take aways?

• Don’t be afraid of creating polarity.
• Status indicators make people happy.
• Triberr is something I should probably get on, stat.

I think what he was really getting at is the idea of understanding your community to enable genuine points of connection; watch the video and you’ll get some fabulous real life citations.

My other favourite presenters at NMX were both from the SEOmoz crew. If you’re not familiar, get familiar with this website… I have learned more about SEO here than almost anywhere else.

CEO Rand Fishkin gave an elegantly quirky presentation entitled The Mighty Nudge: The Future of SEO, Social Media & Content Marketing.

The slide show is below, but in case it’s not overly clear my take away is an assertion that agressive and inherently ‘unhelpful’ SEO strategies are being outperformed by the social nudge.

SEOmoz Director of Community (and ‘voice’ of Roger, their mascot) Jennifer Lopez also gave a stellar performance as she discussed combining SEO + Community to “Make this Long Term“. I love the fundamentals, and Jennifer did an awesome job not only reviewing what goes in to proper SEO, but explaining its impact and benefit to your community.

My take away wasn’t a revelation, but a reaffirmation of the long term value of SEO and community building – huzzah!

Of course there was plenty more to NMX, including some fabulous networking events where I was fortunate to meet a TON of bloggers… it seems that although the conference was more intimate, it is also reaching a broader audience. While I didn’t find every panelist compelling, I’m happy to say that the three standouts above made the NMX experience well worthwhile.