A Social Media Primer Driving Better Engagement For Your Events

2009 Lumen Consulting, LLC. All Rights Reserved

November 2009

A Social Media Primer: Driving Better Engagement for your Events

Desiree LehrbaumTwitter: @lumendesiree

facebook.com/lumenconsulting www.lumen-consulting.com


Definition of Social Media

“A social trend which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than traditional institutions like corporations”

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What Do We Mean by Social Media?

Corporate and individuals

BLOGS

Product/SolutionWIKIS

SOCIAL NETWORKING

LinkedIn Facebook MySpace

USER COMMUNITY

Private knowledge sharing

“FILE-SHARING”

SlidesharePosterous

MICRO-BLOGGING

Twitter FriendFeed

VIDEO SHARING

YouTube Vimeo blip.tv

BOOKMARKING

Digg, delicious, Reddit

SOCIAL MEDIA

Why is Social Media Different?


Years it Took to Reach a 50M Market Audience

5

50 MILLION USERS

Radio

38 Y

EARS

TV

13 Y

EARS

Internet

4 YE

ARS

iPod

3 YE

ARS

Facebook

2 YE

ARS


Top 10 Web Brands for September 2009

#1

#2 #3 #4

Ranked by:The Nielsen Company(U.S. Home and Work)

#7

#5 #6

#10

#9#8


Top 10 Social Networking & Blog Sites Ranked By Total Minutes (Y/Y Growth)

Source: Nielsen NetView, 6/09

Site Apr-08 Minutes(000)

Apr-09 Minutes(000)

Y/Y Percentage Growth

Facebook 1,735,698 13,872,640 699%

Myspace 7,254,645 4,973,919 -31%

Blogger 448,710 582,683 30%

Tagged.com 29,858 327,871 998%

Twitter 7,865 299,836 3712%

MyYearbook 131,105 268,565 105%

LiveJournal 54,671 204,121 273%

LinkedIn 119,636 202,407 69%

SlashKey N/A 187,687 N/A

Gaia Online 173,115 143,909 -17%


Users comfort with social media increasing

According to Nielsen* visiting social media is the 4th most popular online activity – ahead of personal email

93%** of social media users believe a company should have a presence on social media

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*Nielsen Global Faces & Networked Faces, 2009**CONE Business in Social Media Survey Sept 2008


Exponential Growth of Facebook

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2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

00M15M30M45M60M75M90M

105M120M135M150M165M180M195M210M225M

Internationalization

Facebook hits 300M users

Nana Pauline joins FB

300M

If Facebook was a country it would be the 4th largest in the world


Facebook for Content Sharing

Facebook has over 30,000 servers Manages over 25 terrabytes of

data daily for logging 2 billion pieces of content are

shared weekly on Facebook Facebook is now the largest photo

sharing platform in the world with 2 billion photos uploaded monthly Serve up 600,000 photos every

second More than 10 million users join

Fan pages every day

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Facebook U.S. Demographics

13-1710%

18-2530%

26-3424%

35-4419%

45-5411%

55-656%

June 2009 The number of US Facebook users 45-54 has more than tripled in the last 6 months, to a record 7.7M ac-tive users

Users over 26 now represent 60% of to-

tal U.S. Facebook population

Source: InsideFacebook 7/6/09

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50% of Facebook users log-in

everyday


Twitter

In June 2009 Twitter hit unique 44.5M users worldwide No. 52 largest site in the world (bigger ESPN and coming up on

BBC and craigslist) 20M of users are US based 55% of audience is international

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Source: comScore, August 3, 2009

Impressive since over half of Twitter users don’t access the website, but use Twitter apps to digest and consume Tweets


Unique Visitors to Twitter

Source: Nielsen NetView, 2/09 U.S. Home & Work

Age Group Unique Audience Composition

2-17 250,000 3.6%

18-24 Insufficient sample sizes Insufficient sample sizes

25-34 1,379,000 19.6%

35-49 2,935,000 41.7%

55+ 1,165,000 16.6%

65+ 477,000 6.8%


Focus on strategy, not the tool

Social media tool providers can quickly fall out of favor In 2006 MySpace had twice the

unique visitors as Facebook Little over 3 years ago typing

“twitter.com” = 404 error Your objectives and audience

should determine which tools you should use – not the other way around

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Why and how companies are responding to Social Media


Your brand is being discussed online

According to Penn State Study, 1 in 5 tweets is brand related*

ITSMA reported that 55% IT business buyers use social media in the buying process** A 50% of increase over 2008

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* Penn State Study **ITSMA How Customers Choose Soultion Providers, October 2009


Ignoring it will not make it go away

"A customer that has a good experience will typically tell 3 to 5 people, but a customer who has a poor experience will tell more than 20. When this trend occurs via the web, these numbers can rapidly multiply and could spell disaster for

brands that don’t have strategies in place to combat online negative chatter.”

Graeme Crossley CEO Brand Reputation

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Social media investment is on the rise

70% of CMOs say they will do more with social media in 2010

According to eMarketer, advertisers spent $40M on social networks in 2008 and expected to grow to $210M in 2012

Forrester predicts social media spending will increase from $716M in 2009 to $3.1B in 2014

According 2009 ITSMA Survey members are Increasing spend – 73%

54% increased budget > 10% Starting to integrate with traditional

channels 60%

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Why event marketing struggles with social media


Good events = tight control

Event managers pride themselves in creating a controlled, scripted environment that minimize risk

In social media, the culture mandates giving up the illusion of control

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Why events should embrace social media

Events offer genuine personal connections whether they be online, virtual or physical

All about deepening customer relationships

Nothing is more social than events

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Desiree Lehrbaum

new graphic


Social media shifts the control of power

“Technology is shifting the power away from editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it’s the people who are in control.”

Rupert Murdoch

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Desiree Lehrbaum

new graphic


Requires new thinking for events

Customers as co-creators Customers dictate how they want to engage with organizations Customers driving how and what they want to know Customers want more than just corporate boilerplate

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Social Media Framework

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Phased Participation Engagement

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Conversation Community

Passive Active


How users participate differs

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A social media framework

Know your audience Strength assessment Mapping needs to event lifecycle

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Consider participants engagement propensity

Fish where there are fish IT will participate differently than a SOHO Owner

Map the right social media channel to the target audience Takes care and feeding to cultivate deeper levels of

participation

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Target Audience Assessment

Vehicle Target Audience A Target Audience B Target Audience C

Bookmarking ✓

Blogging ✓ ✓

Online Communities ✓ ✓

Social Networking ✓

Micro-blogging ✓ ✓

User Communities

Social Videos ✓ ✓

Word of Mouth ✓

Wikis ✓

Strength Assessment

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Where are you strong today? Where do you need to be?

Vehicle Strength (Rank 1-10) Development Needed

Bookmarking 1

Blogging 10

Online Communities 9

Social Networking 6

Micro-blogging 5 ✓

User Communities 8

Social Videos 2 ✓

Word of Mouth 1

Wikis 8


Enlisting cross-functional resources

Most organizations who are doing this well do not of have dedicated headcount to “manage” social media

Social media is all about personal connection vs. traditional corporate speak

Identify individuals in your organization who are active digital media natives online Product management/marketing Executive teams – CTOs especially

Deputize cross-functional teams to listen and dialogue Full disclosure is an imperative Encourage ownership of customer engagement around certain

topics

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Social media part of every Dell employees job Culturally consider social media part of every employees job –

they’re encouraged to spend 15-20 every day

“It’s an add-on not a replacement, and is like using phone or email.”

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493 employees Tweet at Zappos

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The connection to brand

“There may be some times when an individual Twitter message out of context can give a bad impression. But generally people on Twitter aren’t looking at one single Tweet. They see what we do over time. For customers, I think

it’s a way to get an inside glimpse of what people are like and what are culture are like. Our belief is that your culture and your brand

are ultimately, the same thing.”

Tony Hseiu CEO Zappos

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Mapping Social Media to the Event Lifecycle

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2009 Lumen Consulting, LLC. All Rights Reserved 37

Opportunities to event lifecycle

• Research• Speaker recos• Content feedback• Event

ambassadors

• Audience Gen • Event reveal

• Connecting • Optimizing• Monitoring • Updates

• Feedback • Extend the life • Monitoring• Celebrate

Where could your event program benefit by social media the most?

Think about using social media to build community not just “market” an event


Digital event ambassadors

Traditionally event communication = corporate -> individual New thinking create event ambassadors

Can be internal or external people Offering key people exclusive event news to their audiences Bring participants along the entire event lifecycle Twitter, blogs, Facebook, user groups excellent vehicles No dictating what they say

Benefits People respond more to individuals than anonymous company 1:1 facilitates building trust, credibility and relationships Diverse communication channels broadens reach Build anticipation for the event and speakers

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Pre-event strategy

Validate event strategic direction Co-create content and program with attendees

Gather feedback and recommendations for content, speakers, locations, activities

By listening to community will build more effective program and gain buy-in from attendees

Build momentum and excitement for event launch Establish 1:1 connections online with event ambassadors Social media tactics

Survey community via blogs, communities, Facebook, Twitter Have event ambassadors personally solicit feedback Create online advisory steering communities for event

Create private Facebook/Ning groups

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Launch Inspire evangelism amongst community Deputize your ambassadors

Build excitement for event, sessions, speakers Encourage community engagement with each other Potential social media tactics

Rollout your event hashtag # Create/advertise events in Facebook Have speakers Tweet, blog, post about their sessions Multi-channel publishing Sponsor event specific communities to encourage cross-pollination

amongst attendees Pay it forward - Participate in other speakers, communities, and

blogs

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On-site

Bring back channel to the forefront Empower all participants to engage and share learning Monitor what’s happening at event in real-time

Troubleshoot when things go wrong Pro-actively communicate changes immediately

Potential tactics Create blogging desks /Twitter lounges Deputize key influencers as official event Twitterers Coordinate Tweeting and blogging with your speakers Sponsor Tweet-ups – to foster community Solicit conference “reporters” with FlipCameras Encourage participants to upload to Flikr and YouTube channels

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Post-event

Feedback Enlist event ambassadors Use as springboard to gain momentum for next program Potential tactics

Online surveys Sponsor follow-on regional Tweet-ups Reward loyalists with acknowledgement for their efforts Enlist volunteers for future advisory committees

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How do you measure this stuff?

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Measurement

Event the early adopters of social media are struggling with measurement

Ironic that most management agrees there is value and willing to ride out the uncertainty of how to measure

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What value is derived from social media?

Exposure for business

Increase traffic/list/subs

New biz partnerships

Rise in search engines

Generated qual leads

Reduced overall mktg expenses

Helped close business

0% 10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

81%

61%

56%

52%

48%

45%

35%

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Source: Social Media Marketing Report 2009


Measurement Framework

Vehicle Reach Dialogue Conversion

Bookmarking • Visits• Views • Unique Visitors • Links• RT/Forwards • Web analytics

• Sentiment of comments• Reviews • Time spent • Votes • Downloads • Influencer coverage

• Revenue • # of leads • # trials • Net Promoter Score • Mktg efficiency• # of ideas implemented

Blogging

Online Communities

Social Networking

Micro-blogging

User Communities

Social Videos

Word of Mouth

Wikis


New paradigm in thinking about value

“Take one opportunity, grow it into something of quality,

and then leverage that opportunity into a new one that derives more value.”

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Chris Brogan & Julien Smith , Trust Agents

How are other companies doing this



Ritz Carlton hotel managers listen

1 hourEach day reviewing online conversations before walking the grounds


Dell

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“When we respond to people on Twitter, they

get really excited, and we gain advocates.”

Dell can attribute over $3M in revenue

from Twitter


@Comcastcares


Gradual growth turned out to be just what JetBlue needed on Twitter, as it gave the company time to learn what worked and

what didn’t.

Chatty posts and customer service assistance tended to generate a lot of

replies and new followers. Press releases announcements were met with silence.

“That’s a clichéd phrase, but Twitter really is about tearing down the artificial walls

between customers and the individuals who work at companies.”

Jet Blue


@padmasree

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Excellent example of how to effectively use Twitter to build personal connections to the Cisco brand


Facebook Contests

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Facebook ads for events

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Facebook advertising

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Structured Unstructured (keywords)

Location Activities

Age Interests

Gender Music

Education TV

Workplace Movies

Relationship Books

Sexual Preference Groups

Language Applications


Good things can come in small posts

Reward engaged fans with unique

promos


Social Media Takeaways

Content is still king – social media can’t help bad content Commit – be in for the long haul. No graceful exit strategy Iterate - do not need to wait for perfect information or

optimal resources to begin Be authentic – No placeholder social media Depth vs. breadth – focus on strengths and assets Diversify – digital channels are not all the same and offer

diverse benefits and results

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Closing Thoughts

Seth Godin on Social Media

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0h0LlCu8Ks


Tools we love Want to secure your username across social media universe?

http://namechk.com/ Measure sentiment and volume of your Tweets

www.viralheat.com URL shortener with tracking

www.bit.ly.com Think yellow pages for Twitter

www.twellow.com Host contest, promo, sweepstakes in Facebook easily and inexpensively

www.wildfireapp.com Nice Twitter eye candy to have running at an event

www.visibletweets.com Your Twitter app outfitter

www.oneforty.com Great apps to view multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts

www.seesmic.com www.tweetdeck.com

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http://www.viralheat.com/






http://www.bit.ly.com/



http://www.twellow.com/



http://www.wildfireapp.com/




http://www.visibletweets.com/



http://www.oneforty.com/



http://www.seesmic.com/

http://www.seesmic.com/

http://www.tweetdeck.com/


Recommended reading

Facebook Era, Clara Shih Groundswell, Charlene Li Good for Business, Bennett, O’Reilly, Gobhai, Welch Trust Agents, Brogan & Smith Twitter Book, Tim O’Reilly & Sarah Milstein

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Thank you

Twitter: @lumendesiree facebook.com/lumenconsulting www.lumen-consulting.com


A Social Media Primer Driving Better Engagement For Your Events

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