DLK Life
Conferences and social media
I
recently had an opportunity to participate from afar at a conference.
No, I didn't actually travel to the conference but I was trying to
use social media to see what was going on for those attending the
conference. I found a number of things that were both good and bad
about how the social media was used by the conference accounts. I am
going to comment on Facebook and Twitter usage because that is what I
was using to look at the conference.
Twitter
– It was used just to re-post the same items that were being
posted on Facebook. Twitter wasn't used to help people figure out
what sessions were being hi-lighted until after the session was
underway or in some cases finished. Maybe Twitter could have been
used to hi-light some of the times for Keynotes and such just prior
to the sessions so it was a reminder to those attending. For someone
attending trying to follow the Twitter feed, it was next to useless. If
you are going to be on Twitter, BE on Twitter don't just use it as
a re-post location.
Facebook
– this is the one where I am going to have the most to say because
this is where I was seeing some of the things.
Need
improvement:
- A lot of the pictures were about the fun
activities that were
happening and not a lot of what the conference was about. The
conference was an IT conference so I would have been making sure that
the sessions and networking should have been a key part of what was
being shown. I was extremely upset seeing all the partying and not
much else when our employee was losing 5 days of being billable to
be at the conference.
- Posts to a page – this was used in the side panel
so it was very
difficult to see what others were saying about the event. Possibly
as a result not a lot of activity in the posts to a page other than the
goodies that could be won through various activities.
- Use quotes from attendees to help show the value
of the conference. What were some of the takeaways? What did you learn?
Have someone
whose focus is to try and gather comments from attendees about their
experiences.
- Show people in the various sessions more to show
that sessions and
networking were the key part of the event.
- Pictures – maybe show some of the layouts for
meals to show what was
being offered to the attendees. Also, try and get some of the booths
with people around them instead of very empty booths.
- Collecting success stories – don't tell me you
are collecting them
and not summarizing any of them. The very high level would have helped
get attention. This doesn't make me want to follow-up on this topic. If
you weren't going o quickly followup within Facebook, don't
bother mentioning it in Facebook.
A
good start....
- Sessions – the first day of the conference was hi-lighted
through
pictures of the keynote and even pictures after some of the sessions
but then it stopped and it then shifted to just the fun activities
that were the extras. I was really happy about the posting on the
first day as it gave me a feeling of what really was happening, at
the keynote and during the day. This is very valuable to assist in
marketing the event for upcoming years. Coordinate with scheduling
to get pictures of high attendance sessions and pictures from the front
into the audience at keynotes.
- Highlighting some of the networking was great
because it shows it is
not just all work but sessions and networking should be the focus
instead of the parties and other activities. This could have been
done more to show groups together talking.
If
a
conference is going to use social media to help show what the event
was like they should be ensuring that the key importance of the event
is to be front and centre. The free t-shirt giveaways and things like
that are extra and not what the conference is focused on. The
conference had a clear mandate stated in the keynotes of Learn,
Network and have some fun in that clear order of priority. The
event's social media during the event showed a reversed priority.
Social
media is a great means of communicating about an event and the value
of the event. Why would I spend x dollars to attend or how would I
convince my company to spend the money to send me and allow me the
time out of the office? So many companies are cutting back on
employees attending conferences because of the financial cost as well
as the manpower costs. Social media could be used to show the wins
that companies can get by incurring the costs at least hint at a
positive ROI.
If
social media was used better to show what benefits a conference can
have it may assist in companies being willing to spend the funds. If
an event is showing only all the fun and games it doesn't help sell
it for the next time.
Last
updated 2015-04-29 |
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