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A presentation aimed at government meeting planners and other meeting planners, with fresh information about new cloud-based meeting planning software, mobile apps, and how to use social media to enhance your convention or event.
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January 13, 2011By Carla Pendergraft, OwnerCarla Pendergraft Associates Web Design & [email protected]
Learning Goals
Discuss cloud-based and mobile meeting planning websites
Identify major social media technologies for planners
Learn about The Power of Weak Ties Discuss the role of a meeting planner
in creating new ties between people
Before We Start
Is there anything you want me to be sure to cover today?
Any burning questions? Also: feel free to tweet or facebook
about this presentation as we speak! Listen for good sound bites that will
get retweeted!
Slideshare.net
This presentation will be posted at: www.slideshare.com/carlapen
Websites for Meeting Planners Cvent.com
This service seems to have outlasted many others. HelmsBriscoe, among others, uses it to issue leads.
Eventbrite.com Free if event is free; 2.5% + $.99/”ticket
“+ credit card processing Meetup.com
Mainly loosely organized, volunteer groups
Drawbacks
Most planners already have software installed on their computer to plan meetings, integrated with membership software
I have seen many cloud-based services come and go over the years. Before committing, you must consider: Will this service be around in 5 years?
Rise of Mobile
Many new apps are fighting it out in the marketplace.
Big 3 – iPhone, Android, BlackBerry “Native” apps – built specifically for
the smartphone Custom programming required to
create “native” apps ($$$) “Mobile Friendly” – a web page that
is easy to view on a phone.
Mobile Friendly
Big buttons and menu items Push to call Simplified information Not a lot of text Simple, big graphics
Sample Mobile Friendly Site
Mobile Apps (Native)
Conference schedules Trade show map Info on speakers and seminars Personal agenda builder Area information Course notes, speaker downloads Text alerts ALL ON A TINY SCREEN!
Sample Mobile Apps for Planners FollowMe - www.core-apps.com EventKaddy - www.eventkaddy.com EventLink – www.core-apps.com EMA – www.epromeetingsapps.com Zerista – www.zerista.com ChirpE – www.a2zinc.net Meetings2Go –
www.meetings2go.mobi/
Drawbacks
Not everyone has a smartphone Costs of these apps can be very high They don’t usually publish their
prices on their website. New smartphones every year
Rise and fall of BlackBerry
Takeaway (hint: tweet this!) Be sure your event website is mobile
friendly!
Social Media and Meeting Planning Facebook: 500 million users Twitter: 106 million users LinkedIn: 65 million users
Facebook demographics
Source: Jeffrey Van Camp/Digitalsurgeons, Yahoo! News, 12/21/2010
Twitter demographics
Source: Jeffrey Van Camp/Digitalsurgeons, Yahoo! News, 12/21/2010
Key Concepts – the long tail
The long tail and planning How can this concept be applied to
meeting planning?
The Strength of Weak Ties Mark Granovetter – Wrote thesis at
Harvard about this concept long before Facebook was invented. He observed that job offers often came from weak ties, not strong ones.
More open networks, with lots of loose connections and weak ties, are more likely to result in new ideas and opportunities than small, closed networks.
Strong and Weak Ties
Closed networks are similar to cliques Are there any cliques that show up at
your conventions? How do we engage young people
and new people who feel left out by these cliques?
How do we integrate young people into our networks so that we can benefit from their fresh, new ideas?
The Power of Ambient Awareness Social media gives you ambient
awareness of what’s going on in many peoples’ lives
You feel more connected to them as a result
You get a feeling for who they are You listen to their ideas and learn from
them Twitter and Facebook are great
examples of ambient awareness.
Clout
Power, or clout, does not automatically result from title or high pay grade.
Power within any organization often comes when an individual is at the center of many relationships.
People with many connections, both weak and strong, can act as a broker by bridging two networks.
In other words, by introducing people!
Let’s tie these together! Ambient awareness can lead to weak ties
between people Loose, open networks are full of weak
ties As a planner, you create the opportunity
for people to join new networks through conventions, seminars, and events
Resulting in learning, growth, and a greater sense of connectedness between people…
…and social media is a great way to engage and integrate people prior, during, and after your convention!
Social media & long tail
2,000 people on your email newsletter list Usually they have passively accepted
300 people on your Facebook page All of them actively “liked” your page
150 people following you on Twitter All of them sought you out
The long tail here is that you are reaching people the way they want to be reached. You are using multiple forms of media and reaching more people as a result.
Facebook for planners
Facebook is based on personal profiles You have to have your own profile first
You can create Groups or Pages for your events
You can create Events on your Facebook Page
Facebook Groups
These are networks with a membership
Mail goes straight to the member’s inbox
Try setting up a Facebook Group to help convention attendees get to know each other prior to the convention
Gen Y will be receptive to this idea.
Facebook Pages
People “Like” your Facebook page You can put a “Like” button on your
website Set up a Facebook Page for the
convention Update it with info on speakers and
presentations, with links to their websites
Most of what I learn about social media and technology, I get from following smart people on Twitter.
They post a teaser statement and interesting links
Many uses for meeting planners
Twitter and Planning
Like Facebook, you’ll post info on speakers and their presentations
Teasers about social events Reminders on deadlines Set up a hashtag for the convention
Allows like posts to be grouped #SXSW #SGMP2011
Twitter During Presentations “Monitoring the back channel” Very difficult to do while speaking Have someone do it for the speaker Encourage questions via Twitter
May get more participation from Gen Y this way
Text Message Marketing
“Text sgmp2011 to 41411 for conference updates”
Textmarks.com Super easy to use! Try it with your
officemates Not very expensive. Monthly fee.
BIBISI.com Advantage: Doesn’t require
smartphone.
Photo Sharing
Encourage people to upload conference photos to Facebook
Set up separate Flickr account as an easy way to preserve images (flickr.com)
Make sure people know that if they upload photos, you might use them in materials.
Video
This is the future! You will need to learn how to do
simple videos and edit them. Recommend Flip video camera (not
HD) Easy upload to YouTube
LinkedIn profiles are so thorough that I feel I really know the person that I connect with.
Much smaller than the other networks, but still very important
Summary
As a meeting planner, you have a unique opportunity to be a broker between people to enhance their learning and personal opportunities.
You have true clout! Consider using social media to
extend your long tail clout and connect people prior, during, and after your conventions and events.