EventCamp10 Series – Post I

EventProfs, Social Media, Ideas and . . . cats. Lots of ‘em.

Oh, and Water Buffalo Hats.

Grand Poobah.

I’m writing this post from a plane, somewhere between NYC and Atlanta and marveling at the indescribably empowering weekend I just had . . . and all of the white stuff I can see tens of thousands of feet below me. (Not quite the snowpocalypse that had everyone nervous on Friday, but still kind of cool.)

Way up in the air somewhere between NYC and Atlanta

Organized by some of the most engaging and active participants in the #eventprofs community, EventCamp was an idea of Christina Coster’s that came to life through her collaboration with Jeff Hurt, Michael McCurry, Jessica Levin and Mike McAllen. These trail blazers aimed to bring together event professionals already active in social media to discuss best practices, trends, pitfalls and the future impact of social media on events.

With great minds like those collaborating to make EventCamp a reality, the outstanding success of EventCamp should really come as no surprise.

The camaraderie and collaboration began at dinner on Friday night, before EventCamp even officially started. After literally taking over the bar at the Roger Smith Hotel, the group headed out to Piola, a quaint little Italian spot.

Sitting at a long series of two-tops pushed together, it was quite a sight to see 22 individuals (EventCamp would later draw over 70 attendees), many of whom just met in person for the first time hours earlier, laughing and happily chatting it up like old friends.

Well, this shouldn’t have come as a surprise either, we are old friends. I’d even go as far as to say family. Dinner was amazing. A few of us that weren’t quite ready to call it a night headed over to one of Deb Roth’s favorite haunts, Jack’s, where she treated us to a great night.

Which makes me wonder why people always refer to “southern hospitality” when mentioning Atlanta – apparently, this is not exclusive to my part of the country.

EventCamp started bright and early the next morning with a lovely breakfast and jokes about the noticeably absent, but much-hyped snow.

Once sufficiently caffeinated and carbed up, I headed into the opening session, How to change the world: Good guide to Social Media Marketing, led by Dave Berkowitz of 360i.

He recommended that we measure the outcomes of social media marketing through evaluation via a weighted scored card in this format:

Impression                 1 X

View video                  3 X

Click through              4 X

Rate video                  4 X

Share video                10 X

Embed video              20 X

Create video               100 X

This was a really helpful nugget for me. I already knew that all of these things should be considered when monitoring your marketing initiatives – but by presenting this way, Dave is showing a no-nonsense way to measure the success of social media – something that is not always easy to do.

Dave also warned those who are new to social media avoid using the social media checklist when getting started, i.e:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Widgets
• MySpace

Just blindly broadcasting on the big three and other trendy platforms at this moment is not the way to go. Here is what needs to be considered before you invest any time, money or resources.

Where is your audience? If the people you are trying to reach are, say, a group of 50yo+ doctors, they may not be on Twitter or Facebook (and hopefully aren’t on MySpace). They may not be in any of these places. Yet.

Personally, I feel that if you’re dealing with a group like the aforementioned 50yo+ docs, meaning they’ve heard of these things but don’t yet understand the potential value or relevance and therefore have not been able to justify learning more. Our job is to help by educating and engaging.

I would suggest you put most of your time into blogging for this audience. On the about page, you can give some FAQ and quick tips to help them best utilize the blog. It may be helpful to have a Twitter account, but I wouldn’t have my main focus on that. This audience isn’t on Twitter yet. They may click to see your account, but that doesn’t mean they’ve seen enough to actually create an account and pay attention long enough to get into it.

Right now, so many people are saying to us “teach me Twitter.” It seems easy and like a no-brainer and something the cool kids are doing, and not really considering whether or not it fits in with your goals and audience. Something like a blog sounds like and is a lot more work – but in the end, putting the work into the right medium for your goals is worth it. Tweeting to an empty room? Not so much.

Dave told us that you have your arsenal of social media tools. Now it’s time to follow the rules of the road.

1. Travel – when you are visiting somewhere new, various social media mediums, LEARN THE LANGUAGE.
2. BE A PILGRIM, not a tourist! On “traveling” to the social media world. PILGRIMS earn respect – but as far as tourists . . .
3. Pack appropriately. (Looking back on my notes this is all I wrote down for this one and my memory is failing me – I am thinking this means quality content? Please let me know if you caught this one.)
4. You don’t have to travel alone, everyone’s welcome on the journey (media, PR, creative, HR, web development, corporate marketing)
5. Learn how to listen. As you travel social media – listen here (Twitter), and here (analytics) Google blog search, Google news alerts
6. Understand the platforms and how things have shifted. Don’t go out there and broadcast, broadcast, broadcast. Your audience now expects a two-way dialogue – and they want to direct it.

And not to downplay this session, which I really enjoyed and found interesting, Dave also enlightened us on my new obsession, Cat Paint. Which, I’m not alone on this, as you’ll notice throughout the tweetstream, people were twitpicking unknowing victims of what Ray Hansen refers to as Cat-Fancying. So fun!!!

This is all I have for now. Considering I have 17 (!!) pages of notes, I plan to recap EventCamp over several posts and will attempt to get them out pretty quickly while it’s still fresh in my mind.

Finally, a big, heartfelt, sincere, and humble THANK YOU to my friends that created EventCamp, supported me, and participated (virtual and live). EventCamp, and the weeks leading up to it will forever have an impact on me. Thank you.

And I miss you all already!!!