Events are by definition social, yet many companies are hesitant or uncertain how to leverage social media in their portfolio. Social media is transforming the way we network and communicate personally and in business. In this interactive session, we'll consider what differentiates this technology trend from other fads and look at the demographics of who is using social media. See how any size organization can use social media to build awareness, foster word of mouth, and deepen attendee engagement.

1. 2009 Lumen Consulting, LLC. All Rights Reserved A Social Media Primer: Driving Better Engagement for your Events Desiree Lehrbaum Twitter: @lumendesireefacebook.com/lumenconsultingwww.lumen-consulting.com November 2009

2. 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” 2

3. What Do We Mean by Social Media? Corporate and individuals Digg, delicious, Reddit BLOGS BOOKMARKING YouTube Vimeo blip.tv Product/Solution WIKIS VIDEO SHARING SOCIALMEDIA SOCIAL NETWORKING MICRO- BLOGGING Twitter FriendFeed LinkedIn FacebookMySpace USER COMMUNITY “FILE-SHARING” Slideshare Posterous Private knowledge sharing

4. Why is Social Media Different?

5. Years it Took to Reach a 50M Market Audience 5 50 MILLION USERS 38 YEARS 13 YEARS 4 YEARS 3 YEARS 2 YEARS Radio TV Internet iPod Facebook

6. Top 10 Web Brands for September 2009 #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #9 #8 #10 Ranked by:The Nielsen Company(U.S. Home and Work)

7. Top 10 Social Networking & Blog Sites Ranked By Total Minutes (Y/Y Growth) Source: Nielsen NetView, 6/09

8. 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 8 *Nielsen Global Faces & Networked Faces, 2009 **CONE Business in Social Media Survey Sept 2008

9. Exponential Growth of Facebook 9 If Facebook was a country it would be the 4th largest in the world

10. 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 10

11. Facebook U.S. Demographics 11 50% of Facebook users log-in everyday

12. 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 12 Impressive since over half of Twitter users don’t access the website, but use Twitter apps to digest and consume Tweets Source: comScore, August 3, 2009

13. Unique Visitors to Twitter Source: Nielsen NetView, 2/09 U.S. Home & Work

14. 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 14

15. Why and how companies are responding to Social Media

16. 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 16 * Penn State Study **ITSMA How Customers Choose Soultion Providers, October 2009

17. 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 17

18. 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% 18

19. Why event marketing struggles with social media

20. 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 20

21. 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 21

22. 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 22

23. 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 23

24. Social Media Framework 24

25. Phased Participation Engagement 25 Conversation Community Active Passive

26. How users participate differs 26

27. A social media framework Know your audience Strength assessment Mapping needs to event lifecycle 27

28. 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 28

29. Target Audience Assessment

30. Strength Assessment 30

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

32. 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 32

33. 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.” 33

34. 493 employees Tweet at Zappos 34

35. 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 35

36. Mapping Social Media to the Event Lifecycle 36

38. Speaker recos

39. Content feedback

40. Event ambassadors

41. Audience Gen

42. Event reveal

43. Connecting

44. Optimizing

45. Monitoring

46. Updates

47. Feedback

48. Extend the life

49. Monitoring

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

51. 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 38

52. 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 39

53. 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 40

54. 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 41

55. 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 42

56. How do you measure this stuff? 43

57. 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 44

58. What value is derived from social media? 45 Source: Social Media Marketing Report 2009

59. Measurement Framework

60. 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.” 47 Chris Brogan & Julien Smith , Trust Agents

61. How are other companies doing this 2008 Lumen Consulting, LLC. All Rights Reserved 48

62. Ritz Carlton hotel managers listen 1 hour Each day reviewing online conversations before walking the grounds

63. Dell 50 “When we respond to people on Twitter, they get really excited, and we gain advocates.” Dell can attribute over $3M in revenue from Twitter

64. 51 @Comcastcares

65. 52 Jet Blue 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.”

66. @padmasree 53 Excellent example of how to effectively use Twitter to build personal connections to the Cisco brand

67. Facebook Contests 54

68. Facebook ads for events 55

69. Facebook advertising 56

70. 57 Good things can come in small posts Reward engaged fans with unique promos

71. 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 58

72. Closing Thoughts Seth Godin on Social Media 59

73. 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 60

74. 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 61

75. Thank youTwitter: @lumendesireefacebook.com/lumenconsultingwww.lumen-consulting.com 2008 Lumen Consulting, LLC. All Rights Reserved 62