Engage365

Engage365 T-Shirt Giveaway at MPI’s WEC (video interviews)

Christopher Uschan — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:08:27 +0000

Check out these funny and interesting videos from the 2010 MPI World Education Congress where we (Omnipress) gave away Engage365 T-shirts to anyone willing to go on video and answer one random “wacky interview” question.

Enjoy the show and thank you to the brave MPI attendees willing to go on camera.

Here are a few videos from others:

P.S. – ASAE Annual Meeting attendees… you’re on deck!

Who are your favorites?

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Guru on Deck at Vancouver – Scrolling on a Trackwheel (part 4)
It's Tuesday morning (pacific time) and I'm exhausted. I'm also a day late (hopefully not a dollar short) on my Engage365 blog series. Forgive me, but I arrived in Vancouver a day later than expecte...
Being an MPI Social Media Guru Isn’t Without Its Challenges (part 3)
Although it has been great promoting MPI’s event on Twitter via the hashtag #WEC10 and all that will be happening throughout the Congress, there is still a sense of "what am I supposed to be doing?" ...
Harnessing the Power of Social Media Leaders: MPI’s Social Media Guru Program (part 1)
MPI recently came to the conclusion that traditional media and social media had some significant similarities: both groups attended events and covered important issues for attending and non-attending ...
Beyond the Big Three: UStream
This is the tenth in an ongoing series called “Beyond The Big Three,” which highlights social networking sites other than Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. There are tons of other social media outpost...
Promote Your Meetings With YouTube Search Stories
There are many ways to build excitement about your events using social media. One way is to create short videos using YouTube Search Stories. It's where you combine Google searching with music to crea...

The Networked Nonprofit – Using Social Media to Accomplish More With Less (Kanter)

Christopher Uschan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:47:35 +0000

Aug 18, 1:00 pm ET - Webinar (Beth Kanter)

The Networked Nonprofit - Using Social Media to Accomplish More With Less

Guru on Deck at Vancouver – Scrolling on a Trackwheel (part 4)

Vanessa LaClair, CMP — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:33:35 +0000

It’s Tuesday morning (pacific time) and I’m exhausted. I’m also a day late (hopefully not a dollar short) on my Engage365 blog series. Forgive me, but I arrived in Vancouver a day later than expected due to a flight cancellation Saturday morning. So I gave myself an extra day to finish this entry. Thankfully, my other fellow Gurus picked up the slack, and the conversation continued.

What’s It Been Like On The Scene as a Guru You Might Ask?

It’s been positive, but again, not without it’s challenges. MPI loves social media, that want to be hip, they want to keep up with technology, they want to engage those members both attending the congress and watching the stream from the comfort of their home (or office). But is it technology overload?

My biggest issue right now, Twitter overload. There are so many WEC attendees updating the Twitter stream without being asked to by MPI. So the question might be, did MPI really need this program? Maddie Grant (Social Fish) asked the same question in her Case Study: MPI and the “Social Media Guru” program for #WEC10. There are so many digital extroverts who would be happy to promote the event, the knowledge sessions, etc., without being asked.

Not all MPI Members and Congress Attendees Love Social Media

What about the attendees who don’t Tweet? I attended a session with Corbin Ball on Technology Trends, who asked the room on a scale of 1-4 (one being the least), who feels they have an experienced handle on social media tools – half the room was a “one” (they are NOT connected). To put it in perspective, there were probably 100 people in the room, and many standing in the back.

Overloaded? Yes. Distracted? Maybe

I give MPI huge props for designing this program. They want to engage their members, event attendees and the virtual audience. And they should! But with only five official Gurus on deck, I personally felt that we were not enough to effectively represent the entire congress of over 2,500 attendees. How are five people supposed to blog, tweet, update Facebook, Foursquare, etc. all day long while trying to attend sessions, receptions, network events, and the tradeshow to name a few? Are we really engaged in the congress or is social media too much of a distraction for us? For me it has been not so much a distraction, as one more thing for me to try and squeeze into my day. Not that I can’t tweet during a session or two, clearly I did so, but I feel pulled in two directions.

Twitter Fatigued? Yep!
How much can one person really tweet? I thought I had this in the bag. But I have realized that I am getting tired – and it’s not just because I’m going on about 5 hours of sleep per night either. It’s difficult to keep up. You want to share the information with the world, with those who are following the stream. You want to provide them with useful tips and tidbits, but sometimes it’s just too much. During a knowledge session on Career Management, information was flying around so fast, that I had trouble just taking quality notes on the subject, let alone sharing it with the rest of the world.

Post Event Blogs
I attended MeetDifferent virtually in February, and after each day I posted a blog about my experience. I have wanted to provide updates like this for WEC on my personal blog, but again, unable to do so as we are so busy with networking, knowledge sessions, and general twitter updates, it’s hard to find the time. Actually, I find that with all sharing and contributing, I feel less inspired to write a blog about the experience. At least when I was participating virtually, I was sitting on my couch – I had time, I could reflect.

Who Needs Guidelines?
Although I’m here, I am not always sure what I should be reporting on, or chatting about. Guru’s are free to share whatever they wish to share – and as often as they would like to share it. My communications channel was Twitter, so I continue to share my experiences and take-aways from sessions I attend, and I spend time re-tweeting MPI messages as well as fellow Guru tweets. We are in a sense, managing ourselves. Sharing things that are important to us, and attendes, not just the gospel of MPI as some would lead you to believe.

How’s the Wireless?
With such a large contingent of attendees plugging in, wireless access was a big concern. Props to MPI and their wireless internet sponsor – connection here at the convention center is awesome. Wireless might be great, but I’m running low on power. MPI needs to give Gurus (and attendees) better access to power strips and outlets, as well as tables during events, so they can plug in and report. Smartphones, iPhones, iPads laptops, it’s inevitable that I’m going to run out of juice!

What Do WEC Attendees Think of The Gurus?

My biggest comment was, “we need to get more involved in social media!”
Second biggest comment, “doesn’t social media get in the way of being focused?”
Others included: “we’re really glad you’re doing this, how can you pay attention during an event and tweet at the same time? Can you show me how to use this application?

MPI Guidelines and Open Forum
The MPI WEC 2010 Social Media Guru efforts caught a little heat last week, and several blogs were written about it. (see below) If you are interested in the conversation you can check out my third third blog in the series. I think we’ve just about exhausted this issue, but it was important to discuss the language. We need to remember to stay focused – if it’s the language that’s a problem, that’s one thing, calling into question the integrity of others will ruffle feathers any day.

Stay Tuned for More Adventures of a Social Media Guru
This is the fourth blog of a series of my trials and tribulations of a social media guru and how you can learn from our team’s success.

Part 1: Harnessing the Power of Social Media Leaders: MPI’s Social Media Guru Program
Part 2: The Power of Social Media: Making it Work for WEC Attendees
Part 3: Being an MPI Social Media Guru Isn’t Without Its Challenges

About MPI’s Social Media Guru Program
MPI recently came to the conclusion that traditional media and social media had some significant similarities: both groups attended events and covered important issues for attending and non-attending public alike – and social media representatives even became a part of the event. This revelation led MPI Public Relations Specialist Kristen Kouk to create a Social Media Guru program to empower members of the industry to lead their social media efforts and help engage members around the World Education Congress (WEC) in Vancouver this year.

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Being an MPI Social Media Guru Isn’t Without Its Challenges (part 3)
Although it has been great promoting MPI’s event on Twitter via the hashtag #WEC10 and all that will be happening throughout the Congress, there is still a sense of "what am I supposed to be doing?" ...
Engage365 T-Shirt Giveaway at MPI’s WEC (video interviews)
Check out these funny and interesting videos from the 2010 MPI World Education Congress where we (Omnipress) gave away Engage365 T-shirts to anyone willing to go on video and answer one random "wacky ...
13 Ways Linkedin Supports Event Marketing
Linkedin is an amazing tool. Being “Linked In” means different things to different people. For some its an address book that gets updated when people move, for others its a trust-based network. Her...
Harnessing the Power of Social Media Leaders: MPI’s Social Media Guru Program (part 1)
MPI recently came to the conclusion that traditional media and social media had some significant similarities: both groups attended events and covered important issues for attending and non-attending ...
35 Tips To Successfully Use Twitter For Your Event
You’ve decided to take the plunge and create a Twitter profile for your event. So what’s next? Where do you start? What should you do? Here are 35 tips to help you manage your Twitter event pr...

Who Are You Connected With?

Christopher Uschan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:33:57 +0000

Ever wonder who you are connected with on Twitter? Or what hashtags you spend the most time at? Could you really be seven degrees of Kevin Bacon?

Speaking of seven degrees… Let’s see who is connected with Jessica Levin of SevenDegrees Communications using this really cool, interactive tool – MentionMap.

(Go ahead. Mouse over the map. Click on a person or a hashtag. Drag the map around. Have fun!)

* a personal thank you to Lindy Dreyer for sharing this with me.

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This Week’s Reading Assignment

Social Media: What Meeting Planners Need to Know – Sue Pelletier
20 Fantastic Content Ideas For Your Online Community – Richard Millington

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Engage365 is an online knowledge community where association and corporate meeting professionals can network with each other and learn proven concepts and strategies to help their organizations maximize the use of social media for their events… yada yada yada.

Stars, Champions, Trolls and Your Event Community
We know much more about setting up and managing an event community than we did a year ago. The report “Best Practices in Online Community Management” produced by Pathable reads like a secret dec...
Social Networking for Events and Tradeshows
Lindy and I presented a three-part webinar series for Expo Magazine recently on Social Networking for Events. We were very privileged to have a fantabulous case study for each one: For Part 1, “...
Social Media & Event Marketing in 2010: Engagement!
Social Media continues to grow as a channel in the integrated Event Marketing mix. Any of a myriad of surveys and polls validates this trend, including one conducted by eMarketer, which notes 60% o...
7 Steps to Your Event’s Social Media Marketing Campaign
You can't escape the viral buzz that the new media has created. It serves as an efficient marketing tool and if done right, can be quite effective. There are 7 basic steps to creating a social media m...
What to look for in an online event community
The following is the second part of my interview with The Social Collective’s Clinton Bonner concerning online event communities. Jenise: It seems that there are more and more choices when it co...

Social Media: What Meeting Planners Need to Know

Sue Pelletier — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:01:39 +0000

Highlights

Social media experts Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer share tips on how to get started with using social media for your meetings and events.

Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer

The buzz these days is all about social media, from Facebook to LinkedIn to Twitter to Flickr to blogs and podcasts and … well, the array of options is seemingly endless. But is social media right for your organization’s events, or is it just a fad? To help you sort through what you need to know before jumping into this pool of sociability, Association Meetings called on the expertise of Lindy Dreyer and Maddie Grant of SocialFish, a consulting company based in Washington, D.C., that they formed to help associations and nonprofits build community via the Web.

AM: Let’s start with the question I heard repeatedly at ASAE and The Center’s annual meeting in Toronto this summer: Is social media just what the cool kids are doing, or does it really add value to an organization’s meeting strategy?

GRANT: Social media does more than add value—it’s about a new way of communicating between individuals and their friends and colleagues, and between individuals and brands or organizations. The idea that it’s something only for the cool kids or early adopters is fading as every main social site is showing exponential usage growth in every demographic. What that means for associations is that you can guarantee that some of your members or stakeholders are out there using these sites—and maybe talking about you, or your industry—so it makes perfect sense to think about how to join that conversation.

DREYER: Also, associations are in the business of bringing people together for collaboration and community. The Internet is empowering collaboration and community in ways that were not possible before. It is important for associations to adapt their thinking and prepare for a future where social media is taken for granted.

AM: What can social media do to enhance an association’s meetings and trade shows?

GRANT: Actually, we see face-to-face meetings as one of the cornerstones of a good social media strategy. Online activity can feed real-life events, and real-life events provide amazing content for social media activity. Essentially, you can build buzz for your event by “teasing” potential attendees with snippets of the best stuff that will be at the event; you can add a whole layer of networking and connectivity during the meeting; and you can make the meeting content (both official and social) live online long after the actual event is over.

DREYER: Also, social media opens up a lot of possibilities for informal and peer-to-peer learning channels. This adds value both for the attendees who are experiencing the meeting for themselves, and for spectators who are connected to those attendees but may not understand the value of your event until they see the richness of their colleagues’ experiences.

AM: How can you tell if your organization, your members, and meeting attendees are ready to use social media around meetings?

GRANT: You can tell by listening and monitoring. You’ll find out very quickly if any of your members are using public social sites like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn by doing a few keyword searches. It doesn’t matter if there are only a few people using it—you can still provide value by participating and showing others how to use it.

DREYER: We’re in an awkward spot at the moment. For a lot of associations, the percentage of folks who’ll actively contribute to or monitor social spaces during a meeting is fairly low. That said, they are often some of your most engaged participants, and the value they add can be tremendous. It’s worth adding a layer of support into your meeting for social media activity; there are a lot of ways to dip your toes without overwhelming your resources or your budget.

AM: What costs and staff time are required to implement a social media strategy?

GRANT: How long is a piece of string? You can do it halfheartedly or you can throw yourselves into it—you’ll get out of it what you put in.

DREYER: For Buzz2009—a meeting we hosted for associations on how to use social media—we spent four to five hours per week leading up to the month before the conference. Then we spent six to eight hours per week and had one staff person on site whose job it was to live-blog and tweet at the event. We used all free tools. When you’re getting started, it’s about picking one or two things and doing them well. Small and good can grow to large and good. Large and bad cannot be salvaged. Spend your resources on a thoughtful plan for connecting people and feeding the social space with content they can socialize around. Find champions from your membership to help you.

AM: What can you gain from using social media with your meetings? What are the potential pitfalls?

GRANT: You’ll energize your community. You already have people who care enough about your event to talk about it, share their experiences, and look forward to next year, right? So now you’re empowering that community with tools that make it easier for them to stay connected throughout the year. You’re making it easier than ever for them to tell their colleagues why attending makes sense. And you are potentially creating a public record of the ripple your event made in the hearts and minds of your fans. When someone searches the Internet for your event, the opinions they find from people in your community matter.

DREYER: There are potential pitfalls—you know your attendees love to complain about the food, the boring speaker, the room temperature. And yes, some people will be on their computers or tweeting during the keynote—but that doesn’t mean they’re not listening. In fact, they may be deeply engaged in capturing the best of the session and sharing it with their network. The biggest risk for associations is in not being prepared to listen and respond to the social interactions happening before, during, and after the meeting—and that risk exists regardless of whether you choose to add social media to your meeting. By consciously adding social media and recruiting champions from your membership, you’re actually ensuring that your fans will be a part of the conversation, as opposed to ignoring social media and just leaving it to chance. The folks you recruit can and will come to your defense.

AM: If your organization is using social media for other purposes, how do you fit the meetings piece into the existing strategy? Or, if you’re starting your social media strategy with meetings, how do you make sure it can expand to incorporate objectives outside of the annual convention?

DREYER: Think about real life for a minute—most meetings exist to bring an existing community together face to face. Apply that concept to online community, and what we’re really talking about is using your meeting to find and connect with people who care about your organization, and then building community with those people. It’s a long-term process, and your meeting is essential to jump-starting that process.

GRANT: Meetings are a great way to start experimenting with social media, because there is a specific time frame and you’re tapping into an existing groundswell of energy from people looking forward to the meeting. It’s still important to know your objectives for both the meeting and for your organization as a whole. Pay special attention to the sweet spot—where your meeting objectives are in line with your organization’s objectives. Over time, you should strive to build an online community that reflects the diversity of your association.

AM: Of all the social media tools and resources out there, which are being used most effectively for conferences? Should you do everything—LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter and blogs—to try to meet your members/attendees where they like to hang out, or do you pick one or two media and concentrate on those?

GRANT: It’s always a good plan to meet your members and attendees where they hang out. This is where the listening piece is so important. We usually start with the big three: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Find out if your members are using one or more of these, and concentrate on them. LinkedIn and Facebook can be really useful for organizing groups before and after a conference, but in our experience Twitter is by far the most popular social site for on-site engagement by virtue of its ease of use with mobile devices and its quick-fire, real-time communication method.

DREYER: Another strategy is to choose a tool that lends itself especially well to the type of content you are capturing on site. If your members love photos, you might want to try Flickr. If your presenters love PowerPoint, Slideshare might be a good place to explore. If you are able to capture short videos of speakers, YouTube is a natural fit. All three of these tools are easy to share in blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere else your members might be.

We’ve only talked about outposts (social sites hosted by third-parties).

Associations also have a lot of good options for their home base—everything from an event or association blog to a full-featured online community hosted on your organization’s Web site. Outpost strategy and home-base strategy can work in conjunction. Generally speaking, it’s easier to build a presence in outposts where your members already are, and then work to pull those members back to your home base.

AM: Once you’ve built it, how do you get your attendees to use it?

DREYER: It’s a Catch-22, isn’t it? If no one is there, no one will come. This is especially challenging with groups who choose to invest in their own online community, where the temptation is to pre-populate the space with the entire member directory, forgetting that a database record is not nearly as interesting as an actual person using the tool. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Some groups have members and attendees who have been begging their association to build it. Even in that case, you need to start small and good. Get the most excited members to give you feedback or beta test your new tools. As interaction in the community grows, you can start to scale it by bringing in more people.

GRANT: You also need to manage expectations. Keep in mind that participation in online social spaces follows the 1:9:90 rule: 1 percent creates content; 9 percent interacts with that content through commenting, sharing, rating, or reviewing it; 90 percent are spectators. That’s normal and quite healthy. The trick is to manage your social spaces in a way that makes it easy for people to move from spectator to commenter to creator.

AM: How can you tell if your social media strategy is working?

DREYER: There are so many ways to measure social media, but it’s difficult to actually measure results. That’s why it’s important to define measurable objectives that your social media efforts can reasonably impact. For example, increased attendance could come from any number of sources. Increased online mentions of your event, on the other hand, are much more measurable and very likely to come from your social media work. If the mentions are positive and other factors (economy, location, health of the industry) cooperate, you’ll see an increase in attendance as a byproduct of the buzz.

GRANT: At first, measure what’s easy, like your number of Facebook fans or Twitter followers, and keep track of anecdotal evidence and feedback from members. You’ll get a sense for whether it’s working or not, based on the energy you see in your social spaces. As you get more comfortable with social media and begin to understand more about what it can do for you, you can delve into more meaningful metrics. Just remember to measure what you need to know in order to see if you are successful! Align the metrics with your objectives and use that information to try different things, or to prioritize projects that are going really well.

Posted with the permission of Sue Pelletier | Originally posted @ http://meetingsnet.com.

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20 Fantastic Content Ideas For Your Online Community

Richard Millington — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:57:21 +0000

The best content for any online community is content about the community. Too many communities focus on advice or industry news. You should focus on community people and activities. Here are 20 fantastic ideas you can use:

Week ahead. Write a weekly piece about what members can expect in the week ahead.
Events preview. Write an events preview, include predictions from members, short snippet of interviews and other material that involves a broader group.
Events review. Review recent events. Let others contribute their opinion. Members can reflect on the event together.
Predictions. Invite members to make predictions about the future, everyone loves to do it.
Interview members. Members interviews should be cornerstone content. It creates engaged readers for life, encourages referrals and gives people means to compare themselves to others.
Interview VIPs. VIPs are usually eager to talk to connected groups of people. Mumsnet has interviewed no less than two Prime Ministers. Who is a VIP in your industry?
Product reviews. What products are members likely to be using in the future? Can you review some?
Member achievements. Who has achieved something fantastic this week? Ask members to submit their achievements.
Gossip column. Risky, but often popular. Invite members to submit topical gossip and publish it as a weekly column. Go easy on the venom, heavy on the fun.
Member of the week/month. Like the above, but a member of the week/month tends to be popular. Use promiscuously.
Statement from the community. On a frequent basis I’d ask members to contribute to a statement from the community. i.e. We’re furious bank fees are going up, please input on what you would like in a statement from the community.
People on the move. Who is moving? It might be people changing jobs or people moving house or any relevant ‘move’. Hard to resist this sort of content.
Latest news. Overused in most communities, but often useful. What’s the latest news in your topic?
Job vacancies. Any jobs available? Reach out to recruiters or compile a job tips page. Any information that would encourage people to participate in the job vacancies page.
Competition. I ‘usually’ hate competitions. When they’re done right they’re really a lot of fun.
VIP spotted. Has any member spotted a VIP at an event recently, submit it here.
Opinion pieces. Give people in your community a chance to give their opinion in a rotating-authorship opinion section. Everyone gets a turn.
Guest columnists. Will any relevant business in your sector write a guest column?
Advice section. Summarize the latest advice, what’s the general consensus of the online community?
News round-up. What is the round-up of the news this week? It’s a simple place a member can visit to see what’s new without trawling various sources of industry news.

Do you have more? Please share them.

Posted with the permission of Richard Millington | Originally posted @ http://www.feverbee.com.

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Engage365 Shirts Travel to Vancouver for MPI WEC

Christopher Uschan — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:16:47 +0000

MPI World Education Congress (WEC) attendees get the first crack at the coolest T-shirts in Canada.

Omnipress, the organization behind Engage365, is giving out Team Engage365 shirts to WEC attendees. But wait, the shirts aren’t free. WEC attendees must agree to be video recorded while telling us a little about themselves and answering one random question. How easy is that? 30 seconds of fame for a shirt!

Be on the lookout for these short videos next week.

Get the complete Engage365/MPI shirt details at the Omnipress blog.

Want a shirt, but can’t make it to MPI? Perhaps we’ll see you in LA at the ASAE Annual Meeting.

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Webinar Reminder – 20 New Tech Tools for Meeting Planners…

Join Jessica Levin, CMP on July 27th at 1pm ET for a 1-hour webinar. She will expose you to 20 new tools that you may not have heard about. From Skype to DimDim to Jing to Meetings Wizard and many more. Register Now (free)

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3 Must Read Articles

Being an MPI Social Media Guru Isn’t Without Its Challenges (part 3) – Vanessa LaClair, CMP
Virtual Attendees are Real People Too! – 5 Mistakes with Hybrid Events – Michael McCurry
43 Social Media Tips, Tricks, Big Ideas & Real World Examples for Meetings & Events – Samuel Smith

Being an MPI Social Media Guru Isn’t Without Its Challenges (part 3)

Vanessa LaClair, CMP — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:14:25 +0000

Although it has been great promoting MPI’s event on Twitter via the hashtag #WEC10 and all that will be happening throughout the Congress, there is still a sense of “what am I supposed to be doing?”

Should MPI Provide Social Media Direction?

I spoke with WEC Guru Miguel Neves who stated that although he is excited to be a part of the program, there is a need for more guidelines.

The MPI Guru program is a fantastic initiative from MPI and we all feel honored to have been chosen, as it is a great way to boost non-traditional media coverage and move WEC into a Communication 2.0 realm. Attendees become the media.

The challenge to this point has been to understand exactly what MPI expects the Gurus to cover.

Where do we draw the line between following MPI’s lead and voicing our own opinions of the days’ activities?
As paying participants of this congress, we cannot compromise our independence. And although we are all HUGE supporters of MPI, will it be okay to reports on all aspects of the conference, even if the feedback is negative?

That said, each of us is embracing this opportunity and looking forward to sharing our thoughts with the world.

It’s Social Media, Who Needs Direction?

There are challenges, but not all the Gurus agree on the lack of guidance. Fellow Guru Sam Smith seems to have this Guru stuff down pat, so to speak.
The applied MPI social media guru agreement was about blogging and tweeting (of course, I think that we can do as much or as little as we want).

Write a blog post before the event and one during or after the event
Share comments on twitter during the event
Offer balanced reporting

Ideas for On-Site Social Media Gurus

Sit Closer: Having access to special seating at sessions and press passes to help feed our digital habits.
Tweet during sessions
- Tweeting session sound-bites and highlights
- Being a bridge (or link) between the virtual world and the face-to-face world
- Asking the remote attendees questions or answering questions
- Retweet the smart ideas of attendees in a session Tip: Slow typer? Focus on retweeting and being a bridge.
Engage attendees
- Take pictures with interesting people and tweet those out (after editing)
- Ask questions in general and see what people say
- Comment on cool things at various booths – if there is something noteworthy for others on the floor or the people at home

FYI: MPI plans to have someone watching the Twitter hashtag #WEC10 during the Congress, who will catch all of the temperature, speaker fouls, and AV issues that will be going around.

How Being a Social Media Volunteer Increases Personal Brand

Fellow Guru Leanne Calderwood is very positive about the Guru program and how it has provided her with a different level of networking and social media skill set.

Being on a team with a number of highly experienced social media professionals has exposed me to different social media formats and ways of using the various tools. I hope to take my new-found knowledge not only to my personal space, but also to my MPI Chapter. The chapter’s use of social media has really been a prominent way of getting information about chapter happenings to our membership and we want to stay ahead of the curve when providing them information.

My other social media guru colleagues are leaders in the industry and connecting with them has been invaluable to my growth as a social media advocate. I encourage everyone to take the time to learn from your fellow MPI members during WEC.

What MPI Headquarters Has To Say…
I asked MPI-HQ for their thoughts on the Gurus being able to speak freely. According to Theresa Davis, MPI’s Director of Strategic Communications:

We’ve developed this program to experiment with giving proven social media leaders within our industry access and privileges that suit their medium, much like what we do for traditional media outlets. We intend to respect the integrity of the social media covering the event as we would the traditional outlets. All we ask for is fair and unbiased coverage.

We certainly make recommendations on what hosted social media promote and discuss, much like when we pitch hosted traditional press on story ideas and potential interviews. It’s up to each reporter to select what they cover and report within the parameters of their hosted agreement.

As to expressing opinions on what works and what doesn’t, MPI looks forward to that unbiased professional input. In fact, it was much of the input from our virtual attendees at the last MeetDifferent that encouraged us to start this program and make enhancements to WEC. One of the unique things that social media representatives have over the traditional press is that they are meeting and event pros in addition to being media voices.

Personally Speaking (Literally!)

I do think that MPI wants us to be able to critique – and I don’t believe they expect us to be positive 100% of the time throughout this process. Believe me, I was not “Ms. Positive” for MeetDifferent’s VAP process, but I wasn’t altogether negative either. I plan to be critical (although fair) when need be during the Congress.

I love being a member of MPI and I’m ecstatic that I get to participate in WEC as a Social Media Guru, but as a member of an association – you have to be able to voice your own opinion – you’re paying membership dues! But if you are going to criticize, then you should at least be able to provide your own opinion on what you think would work, how YOU would change it.

I plan to tweet and blog as much as I can throughout the Congress, but one can only do so much while trying to attend knowledge sessions, puppy cuddling, a career fair, and all the other networking opportunities available to an attendee. Sleep seems to be the last thing on my to-do list.

Stay Tuned for More Adventures of a Social Media Guru

This is the third blog of a series of my trials and tribulations of a social media guru and how you can learn from our team’s success.

Part 1: Harnessing the Power of Social Media Leaders: MPI’s Social Media Guru Program
Part 2: The Power of Social Media: Making it Work for WEC Attendees
Part 4: Guru on Deck at Vancouver – Scrolling on a Trackwheel (part 4)

About MPI’s Social Media Guru Program
MPI recently came to the conclusion that traditional media and social media had some significant similarities: both groups attended events and covered important issues for attending and non-attending public alike – and social media representatives even became a part of the event. This revelation led MPI Public Relations Specialist Kristen Kouk to create a Social Media Guru program to empower members of the industry to lead their social media efforts and help engage members around the World Education Congress (WEC) in Vancouver this year.

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Virtual Attendees are Real People Too! – 5 Mistakes with Hybrid Events

Michael McCurry — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:07:50 +0000

Have you ever attended two conferences simultaneously? I have. MPI’s Meet Different in Cancun, Mexico and the Virtual Edge Summit in Santa Clara, CA, without ever leaving my office.

Yes, I am the “Virtual Attendee” and this my perspective on Hybrid events and the problems with them

While I certainly missed the face2face interaction at both events, the experience of navigating two conferences at the same time was very interesting, to say the least.

Both events had their highlights, including some great program content, but my “Ah Hah moment” was the realization, that event professionals have much to learn about perfecting the virtual attendee experience. To be fair about it, most organizations have not been playing in the Hybrid or Virtual event arena for very long, so it is reasonable to expect there is still much to learn about them.

Before diving into this discussion I feel compelled to clear up a distorted perception, by some event professionals, as to what a virtual attendee is, and is not.

Virtual attendees are real human beings, and just as “live”as their face2face counterparts.
Event professionals (myself included) need to discontinue referring to face2face participants as “live attendees.”

For Hybrid events, the core challenges, for organizations, are to:

Build community among the virtual and face2face participants, thus creating a common bond to the event.
Design an engaging experience for all attendees.

It is not sufficient to slap a virtual component onto a traditional meeting, and then label it a Hybrid event. That approach will certainly lead to failure.

The dynamics of staging a Hybrid event are different, and more complex than its conventional counterpart. Event professionals must Learn to understand virtual attendees expectations. They must become event engineers, and craft the event with consideration for both the face2face and virtual attendee components.

So what are the most frequent mistakes made by Event Professionals in creating/operating Hybrid Events? Based upon my own experiences, over the past year, here are my thoughts:

Mistake #1: Poor Customer Service –This is perhaps the most unforgivable error an organization can make. Most meeting attendees realize there will be challenges and problems with any event. As long as they are able to obtain customer service support promptly, the situation will usually resolve itself. As a virtual attendee, it is very frustrating to ask for help, and not get any response. Two simple solutions to avoid this problem are:

Assign a staff/team of CSR’s (customer service representatives) to watch over each of the virtual components of the event. Make sure they identify themselves to the attendees.
Have very clear and explicit instructions within your conference promotion and confirmation materials advising attendees how to obtain assistance if they need it.

Mistake #2: Inadequate Internet Bandwidth to Support Event – The lifeblood of a Hybrid conference is the online access provided to produce and operate the event. Sadly, many organizations attempt to cut corners with this essential technology, usually due to expense, and in doing so they may be jeopardizing their chances of providing any respectable online experience for their virtual customers.

Four suggestions:

Dedicated “hard-wired” Internet lines (At least T1) should be installed in each room where webcasting will take place. These access points should be used only by the webcast provider, no one else.
WiFi Access – is a nice benefit to provide attendees throughout the conference area. Please make sure you have sufficient number of “hot-spots” to accommodate your volume of attendees.
Electrical Power – If you anticipate heavy use of laptop computers you should arrange for extra power drops in your meeting rooms to make electrical connections safely available. An unexpected spike in electrical power usage could lead to a power failure, bringing down the entire event
Backup Bandwidth – having a second line available as a backup, should the primary line crash, is advisable, in an ideal world. This may be an expense your organization may not be willing to bear.

Mistake #3: Poor Attendee Engagement Strategy – Ignoring or leaving virtual attendees without interaction opportunity, while face2face attendees are active, is a disaster and perceived by many as a “virtual slap in the face.” Session Breaks, Coffee Breaks, Social events, Group face2face exercises and Q&A are the usual culprits. Event Professionals should consider, when developing the program, these time slots as an opportunity to enhance the virtual attendees experience. Some Suggestions:

Speaker Training – ask and expect your presenters to welcome virtual attendees at the beginning of the session. If there is a group exercise, then the speaker should somehow address the virtual audience too. During Q&A equitable time should be dedicated to responding to virtual attendee questions.
Back Channel Monitor – Have someone monitor whatever social media channels you are using as a conversation agent (i.e. Twitter Hashtag). This person should identify themselves to the virtual participants. When questions or comments are made, make sure those are called out in the overall dialogue taking place.
Interview Speakers/Attendees during Breaks – Treat your virtual attendees to exclusive “journalism style” video or audio interviews during breaks and social events of any sort. This is a huge value enhancement!
Post Pictures – Create an online photo album and post pictures for all aspects of the event and make those available to the attendees.

Mistake #4: Dysfunctional A/V Integration – I have seen many instances of organizations offering their meetings/events by webcast, only to exclude the a/v presentations (i.e. Powerpoint, Video, etc.) provided to accompany the event. This mistake may significantly diminish the impact of the event, and alienate your virtual audience. A solution:

Integrated Webcast Application — There are customized applications available that will integrate slides, a Twitter Feed and the Video together on one page.
Customer Service – Have a customer service representative assigned to babysit these applications to be available to respond to any questions or concerns that may arise.

Mistake #5: Education Misaligned with Event — A common mistake made by organizations is to pick speakers for their events, based upon their credentials, or “celebrity status,” without really understanding their ability to connect with an audience. A Poor choice of a keynote speaker can be a huge black eye for the event and the organization. To avoid this problem:

Do the Research – When making speaker selections, make sure their message is aligned with the education goals of the event. Also, view video samples of their work, and ask for/check references. It will be well worth your time investment. Speakers that do a great job of engaging audiences and interacting with them are the best choice for a virtual audience.
Selective Webcasts – If offering webcasts at only a certain number of events choose the sessions to be presented online wisely! Select topics/sessions that will offer a benefit to virtual attendees and avoid the “talking head” sessions that offer little, or no interaction.

From start to finish, a visible effort must be made by the Event Management team to welcome and engage virtual participants in all aspects of the meeting experience. Whether its the advance marketing materials, the event website, or the meeting itself, virtual attendees must be consistently acknowledged. Social media should be used as a tool throughout the life-cycle of a Hybrid Event, to enhance that process!

Remember, virtual attendees, at least a portion of them, may be potential customers who are testing the waters with your organization. Your success in making each attendee feel warm and fuzzy about the event experience, virtual or not, sends clear signals as to your organization’s commitment to customer service.

In a competitive business world this accomplishment goes a long way to distinguishing a great organization from a mediocre one.

Question: Have you had challenges at a hybrid event that I haven’t addressed in this article? What were your solutions to fix the problem? Please share those with us.

Posted with the permission of Mike McCury | Originally posted @ http://www.michaelmccurry.net.

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43 Social Media Tips, Tricks, Big Ideas & Real World Examples for Meetings & Events

Samuel Smith — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:02:49 +0000

When it comes to Social Media – all of us are learning. Some of us faster than others. You should be able to benefit from the successes, failures and experiments of other event professionals.

Think of this list as a “social media launching pad” to get your event’s social media program off the ground in a hurry. If you use all of the resources here – then you will find yourself inside a collaborative community of event professionals that are leading the events industry into the world of social media.

The list is loosely organized by category. Though, some articles could belong to several categories.

Start Here

As a starting point, watch this video of David Meerman Scott talking about Social Media in Events to the CMP Conclave in San Antonio, Texas last summer.

Resources & Communities of Practice

1. Free Social Media in Events ebook. Three excerpts from this ebook. that you might find interesting:

2. EventProfs Twitter Group: Self-organized community of Event Professionals

3. Engage365 (Social Media for Events Community)

4. Time to Shake Events Up

5. Three Perspectives for Developing a Social Media Strategy for Events

Planning Your Event

6. Social Media For Events: 101 (Link to 10 Social Media in Events Articles)

7. Mashable’s Guide to Using Social Media in Events

8. Meeting and Event Planning with Social Media

9. Why Event Managers Should be Using Social Media

Promoting Your Event

10. Using Social Media To Promote Events

11. 8 ways to use MySpace for Events

12. 13 Ways Linked Supports Event Marketing

13. 5 Powerful ideas for using Facebook for Your Events

14. Social Media Amplifies Event Marketing

15. Why You Need Bloggers and Tweeters at Your Next Event

16. Three Reasons to have your Presenters Create Videos to Promote Their Sesssion

17. Why User-Generated Content is Good for Meetings & Events

Social Media Marketing Guide by Anne Thornley-Brown

18. Social Media Marketing Strategies for Event Planners – Part 1

19. Social Media Marketing for Event Planners – Part 2: RSS Feeds & More About Blogs

20. Social Media Marketing Tools for Event Planners – Part 3: Twitter & Facebook

Disclaimer

I am not omniscient and I didn’t stay the night in a Holiday Inn Express. So, I probably missed some useful resources – like like your killer blog post or awesome online magazine article. Please accept my apology and use the comments section to add it to the list.

Posted with the permission of Samuel Smith | Originally posted @ http://interactivemeetingtechnology.com.

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