BTC Social Media: The Holy Grail For Your Event?

WHO IS THIS GUY?

- Social Media Executive @ ICCA

- Ex Advertising Creative @ DDB

- Wants to be a professional racer

WANT TO TWEET?

#BTC #HOLYGRAIL

SOCIAL MEDIATHE HOLY GRAIL FOR YOUR EVENT?

SOCIAL MEDIATHE HOLY GRAIL FOR YOUR EVENT?

Quick answer:

Now let’s find out why!

LET’S GO BACK IN TIME AND VISIT THE OLD M&E SPACE

REMEMBER WHEN NEW MEDIA WAS AN AFTERTHOUGHT IN THE M&E INDUSTRY?

WHEN COMMUNICATING WAS SIMPLE...

... AND WE WERE A PAPER DRIVEN SOCIETY?

BUT THEN...

TECHNOLOGIC ADVANCEMENTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA TURNED THE WORLD INTO ONE BIG HUB WERE WE’RE ALL CONNECTED 24/7/365

... THE RESULT?

THE RESULT?

OUR WORLD IS IN A CONSTANT STATE OF ONGOING CONVERSATIONS

THE CHALLENGE?

- LISTEN AND FIND THE RIGHT CONVERSATION

- JOIN THE CONVERSATION

- ADD VALUE

THE CHALLENGE?LUCKILY YOU’RE NOT ALONE

(JUST LOOK LEFT OR RIGHT FROM YOU)*

*AND YOU JOINED IN ON THIS PRESENTATION

GREAT!SO WERE DO WE START?

AGENDA

1. Quick recap on Social Media

2. The tools at hand

3. How to use social media pre- during- and post your meeting or event

4. Measuring social media’s impact on your event

5. The dangerzone

6. What you really should remember

AND WERE DO WE END?

“By the end of this presentation you will have learned how to extend the conversation and leverage the power of social media for your next meeting, event or experience.”

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?(quick recap)

WELCOME WEB 2.0.

THE CURRENT STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

SOCIAL MEDIA (IN PLAIN ENGLISH)

WHY SHOULD M&E CARE?

- People now have more options when it comes to selecting a meeting, event or experience;

- People now have more ways to find out about your event and more ways to tell others about it;

- Incorporating social media into your planning can increase content relevance, drive participation, make it more measurable and drive positive ROI;

GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO YOUR NEW BEST FRIENDS

(tools section)

Let’s start with big daddy.

- Facebook is a cost effective way to build awareness for your meeting or event;

- Once you have your meeting or event set up on Facebook you can easily reach your attendees through updates / mass messaging / personal messaging;

- Fans of your page or event will automatically generate WOM through their own personal page reaching all of their friends;

- Facebook can be used throughout the whole pre- during and post process of your meeting or event;

WHY SHOULD M&E CARE?

The power of bloggers.

- Blogs and videoblogs are a cost effective way to build awareness and engagement pre- during- or post your meeting or event;

- You don’t need high production values to be effective;

- Makes your meeting or event more findable through search or social media;

- Great way to build love and awareness from search engines;

WHY SHOULD M&E CARE?

Twitter. Friend or Foe?

Impressive numbers, so what’s the catch?

- Social Media is shifting the balance of power in favor of the audience;

- Audiences will increasingly demand a say at meetings and events;

- Speakers and meetings professionals should not only acknowledge this trend but also prepare for it;

- Smart planners will embrace this trend in social media;

LEARNING MOMENT

- What are you doing right now becomes what is happening right now at your meeting or event;

- People who aren’t physically attending your meeting or event can now follow the content, join in to listen or participate and receive other insights;

WHY SHOULD M&E CARE?

Content is king.(and a king is well connected)

- Great way to extend the experience of your meeting or event beyond the physical meeting day(s);

- Build link love and awareness from search engines;

- Re-use created content as a catalysator for upcoming meetings and events;

- Created and shared content can be used to measure the success of social media during the meeting and event process;

WHY SHOULD M&E CARE?

Cut the crap.(the easy way)

- You can syndicate / broadcast content on the web seperate from your own website;

- Call to action for a revisit;

- Easy method for planners to track hundreds of sites (content);

WHY SHOULD M&E CARE?

Bookmark. Before you forget.

- Easy to add to any web property you own or control;

- Great way to amplify WOM on your meeting or event;

- More important than traditional search;

WHY SHOULD M&E CARE?

Use your existing network.

- Ideal way to find keynote speakers and grow your professional network;

- Validate meeting content by getting input from the experts;

- Find out what your future meeting or event attendees expect (content wise) from your meeting or event;

WHY SHOULD M&E CARE?

APPLYING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA SKILLS

(pre- during- and post your meeting or event)

- Establish your event-related channels;

- Provide incentivized WOM promotions;

- Define social media tags #yourmeetingoreventname;

- Create pre- meeting or event content;

- Promote your content through the event-related channels and encourage sharing;

- Make registration social;

BEFORE YOUR MEETING OR EVENT

Define your brand / meeting / event ambassadors

First-peek-incentive

- Ensure that there are no technical difficulties;

- Use location based services and check-in rewards;

- Bring your event to life with Twitter;

- Include non-attendees;

- Moderate! Moderate! Moderate!

DURING YOUR MEETING OR EVENT

NO WI-FI...NO SOCIAL MEDIA.

Think about the world outside your meeting or event (third parties – sponsors – reward attendees)

USE MODERATORS

- Extend the life of your event;

- Use social media metrics to measure succes;

- Crowdsourcing;

- Start planning your next move;

- Keep in touch!;

AFTER YOUR MEETING OR EVENT

Remember: Content is king.

*more on measuring social media in the next part.

*

WISDOM OF THE CROWD

FANS ARE EVERYWHERE.

MEASURING SOCIAL MEDIA(used to be really, really, really

hard)

Start by using a baseline (e.g. use last year’s participation numbers)

MEASURE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

- # of people that joined event-related channels (growth);

- # of people or blogs that create event-related content;

- # of people who viewed (visited / read) your event-related content;

- # of people who interacted with event-related content (likes, comments, sharing content);

- # online ranking (how much do the search engines like you);

- # of positive and negative keywords (social sentiment);

... Got all that?

USE THE PREVIOUS FIGURES

- Incorporate engagement and advocay stats into your overall cost per acquisition costs for your meeting or event;

- Compare this year’s participation numbers from last year to gage impact of social media;

COMBINE THE KNOWLEDGE

- Segment your prospects and participants for your next meeting or event based upon:

• Awareness;• Reactivated;• Active;• Advocate;• Lapsed;

DANGER (Social Media ahead)

THE DANGERZONE

- The cold start;

- You can’t control everything (so learn to let go or it will fail);

- Negative feedback (it takes a trained group of professionals to deal with this);

- No hard selling (invest, invest, invest – wait long time – results);

- Rumours and speculation (hey, it’s the internet!);

- The internet never forgets (if something bad happens it stays online);

WHAT YOU REALLY SHOULD KEEP IN MIND

(if you’re asleep now you should wake up just for this part)

1. How you promote your meeting or event has evolved.

2. Content is now created, shared and distributed through many different channels. Don’t say goodbye to paper though!

3. Feedback from participants is instant. And social. And mobile. And public.

1. Interactivity is happening right now at your meeting or event. Shouldn’t you be joining the conversation?

2. The conversation extends well beyond your physical meeting or event.

3. It’s not a question if we do social media but how well we do it.

BONUS(so why isn’t it the holy grail?)

THANK YOU(contact details on the next slide)

/in/raphaelkamp

@raphael.kamp

/raphaelkamp

@raphael