This guide has been made with the double purpose to give instructions on how to use social media for and at the Fresh Conference as well as to give some examples and tips for your own conference social media strategy. Social Media for meetings and events are immediate channels that drive the conversation through networked collaboration and active participation. While most meeting and events organizers use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and all the other channels to share information about their conferences, we decided to ask to our community to become the evangelists for the Fresh Conference.

1. Using Social Media
for and at The FRESH Conference
13-15 January 2013
reFRESHing
social media
Guidelines for The FRESH Conference Community
Team, speakers, sponsors, participants, supporters...

2. Social Media for meetings and events:
The Fresh Conference is an annual conference dedicated to meeting
professionals.
This guide has been made with the double purpose to give instructions
on how to use social media for and at the Fresh Conference as well as to
give some examples and tips for your own conference social media
strategy.
Social Media for meetings and events are immediate channels that drive
the conversation through networked collaboration and active
participation.
While most meeting and events organizers use Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and all the other channels to share
information about their conferences, we decided to ask to our
community to become the evangelists for the Fresh Conference.

3. The FRESH Conference Community
is a group of:
a skilled and passionate international team
influential thought leaders as speakers
the most innovative companies connected to the
meeting industry as sponsors
a tribe of meeting and event professionals.
You can join us, personally attending our annual
conference or at the main conferences and trade-shows
(FRESH Dinners) and virtually through social media.
ACTION REQUIRED:

4. Our Social Media strategy
The aim of this guide is to give the right information to our community
on how to use social media to interact with us and with the other
members to share their info, but also to share our case with other
meeting professionals to provide food for thoughts and to receive
feedbacks.
Reading this guide you will find several social media profiles.
We chose to dedicate some social media channels (profiles and pages)
to the meeting owner, the Meeting Support Institute and
some others specifically to the FRESH Conference.
We did it to become more “findable” and to
facilitate relevant and valuable interaction
with our colleagues.
So don’t worry about who to follow, choose the communication channel
that best fits your preferences.

5. Suggestions for your conference
First of all create a website, a blog or a landing page for your
conference.
Then add the social media buttons in a visible place of the main page
to facilitate your visitors to like, follow or share your conference.
Then set up all the social media profiles according to your audience
preferences and your conference objectives.
Differentiate the content shared in the social media channels as much
as possible and do it in different moments, depending also on the
different time zones of your audience.

6. Linkedin for conference
How can you use it
LinkedIn is the most important social network for meeting professionals. With 85
million LinkedIn users, we can assume that virtually the majority you want to
connect with in the Meeting Industry is there. For conferences Linkedin is a
superb tool.
Steps to take
1. Set up a Linkedin profile for the meeting owner and create a community
connecting with the target audience of your conference.
2. Set up a company page for the meeting owner and promote it posting an
update about it even throughout other social media.
3. Create a product for your conference in your company page. You can link
the website, add a promotion with a discount code or a prize and do not
forget to ask for a recommendation by your speakers, sponsors, previous
year attendees or team and supporter. Visit ours: http://linkd.in/SRGYZS
4. Join Linkedin groups focused on topics related to your conference and
joined by the target you selected as your future attendees (remember to
respect the etiquette of not posting promotional updates in groups. Share
only valuable information of interest for the specific group).

7. Linkedin
Our profile is:
MEETING SUPPORT INSTITUTE
Interact with us!
Scan the QRcode or simply click the links to connect with us
or follow us.
scan & connect
You can connect with the Meeting Support Institute
Linkedin profile here:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/meetingsupportinstitute
scan & follow
And follow the Meeting Support Institute company
page here:
http://www.linkedin.com/company/meeting-support-institute

8. Linkedin tips:
Connect with our Linkedin profile or follow our business page: there
you will find some of the most important updates and news we share.
Suggest and re-share all the contents that are valuable for you or for
your network.
Recommend to us interesting meeting and event professionals to
connect with and introduce Meeting Support Institute to those
meeting professionals you think can be interested in what we do.
If you think it is useful, in the business page of the Meeting Support
Institute recommend the Fresh Conference, you can find it in the
products section.
We are part of many Linkedin groups related to the Meeting Industry.
Support us by sharing the news or commenting our discussions in your
specific groups.

9. Twitter for conference
How can you use it
For conferences, Twitter is today one of the most popular and effective tools in
spreading the message beyond the meeting itself.
Steps to take
1. Set up a Twitter profile for the conference (140 characters) and make it
informative even if it is short. 3 info are essentials: date of the conference,
place and website.
2. Create a community connecting with the target audience of your conference
and share useful content with it (not only promotion!).
3. Create a hashtag for your conference (simply writing #conferencename in a
tweet, like #FRESH13). Use it in all the tweets you send and invite your twitter
tribe to use it for joining the conversation.
4. Use the hashtag to follow what people say about your conference and
interact with them, to obtain analytics or to keep your attendees informed
with a twitter wall.
5. Give credits to your supporters, speakers and sponsors including their account
in the text of your tweets and retweet them.

10. Twitter
Follow
FRESH CONFERENCE: MEETING SUPPORT:
@freshconference @msimeetings
This account is dedicated to the FRESH This account is dedicated to the Meeting
conference Support Institute
You can connect clicking here: You can connect clicking here:
twitter.com/Freshconference twitter.com/MSImeetings
or scanning here: or scanning here:
@freshconference profile @msimeetings profile

11. Twitter tips: Let’s have a
conversation!
Tweet about and with the Fresh Conference using the official
hashtag #FRESH13 and our accounts @freshconference
#FRESH13
@msimeetings; we are always available.
Retweet all the info we share that are useful to you, but don’t
do it immediately, if you wait 1hr or more you enlarge the
audience significantely
Mention us in your #FF Follow Fridays or create a list “cool
scan & tweet
conferences to attend” ;) and add us!
Recommend to us interesting meeting and event
professionals to follow
Use also other hashtags while tweeting about FRESH to
engage other eventprofs. Examples : #eventprofs
#meetingprofs #MPI #PCMA #meetingplanners
#eventplanners as well as the event/tradeshow happening at
that moment eg. #EIBTM25.

12. Facebook for conference
How can you use it
For many meeting professionals Facebook is mostly a personal social media.
However, for conferences, they love to use it to stay tuned with all the content to
share: they also reshare useful links and they love to tag themselves in the event
pictures.
Steps to take
1. Set up a Facebook page and/or an event page for the conference
2. With your personal account, invite your meeting profs friends to like your
page or share it as your profile status.
3. Be sure to link the social media buttons of your conference website to the
facebook page.
4. Allow comments to everyone but moderate the posts of other Facebook
users to your wall.
5. Share valuable content possibly different from what you shared in the other
social media. Do not TAG anyone in the pictures you share, on the contrary
ask them to TAG themselves. Engage!

13. Facebook
Our page is:
MEETING SUPPORT INSTITUTE
To be informed and updated about the latest
news you can LIKE THE PAGE here:
www.facebook.com/pages/Meeting-Support-
Institute/304309966344329
if you prefer to be a “true MSI friend” connect here:
www.facebook.com/meetingsupportinstitute scan & like
We also have a Facebook event:
THE FRESH CONFERENCE
www.facebook.com/events/219660344832914
MSI Facebook page
click or scan to confirm your participation
The FRESH Event Facebook page

14. Facebook tips:
Support our updates liking and re-sharing them when you think they are
interesting or useful.
Invite those meeting and eventprofs friends you think could be interested in
what we do or in confirming their participation to the Facebook event.
Recommend to us other connections of colleagues who could be interested
in attending the Fresh Conference
Post news, pictures and videos about you and the Fresh Conference on
our wall.
Share your most memorable moments before, during and after the Fresh
Conference and tag yourself.
Are you a speaker or a sponsor? You can post videos, abstracts and previews
of your FRESH presentation or about your company.
Engage the community with quiz, polls and games.

15. Google+ for conference
How can you use it
For many meeting professionals Facebook is mostly a personal social media.
However, for conferences, they love to use it to stay tuned with all the content to
share: they also reshare useful links and they love to tag themselves in the event
pictures.
Steps to take
1. With your personal account set up a Google+ page and/or an event page for
the conference and share it with your meeting profs circles.
2. A page cannot add to a circle a personal profile. Google+ has the same limits
as a Facebook page; therefore be sure to link the social media buttons in
your conference website.
3. Create a Community for your conference and interact with the members:
open hangouts to discuss and share info and to receive useful input from
meeting professionals. Keep it alive!
4. Share useful and unique content, interact with members, +1 their good posts
and moderate your space.

16. Google+
Our page is:
scan & encircle
MEETING SUPPORT INSTITUTE
To be informed and updated about the latest news you can
add to your CIRCLES THE PAGE here: plus.google.com/u/
0/103947607566331856243/about
the Meeting Support
Institute page
Join The FRESH Conference Google+ Community scan & join
plus.google.com/u/1/communities/
100014935488480502194
This Google+ Community is for people that are professionally
active in designing effective meetings. It is the place where we
the FRESH Conference
can discuss, meet and connect with other meeting Community
professionals about the Fresh Conference and meeting design.

17. Google+ tips:
Support our updates giving “+1” (the same as the “like” button in Facebook)
and re-share them when you think they are interesting or useful.
Invite other meeting and event professionals to join the conversation
adding the the Meeting Support Institute page to their circles or to be member
of the Fresh Conference community.
If you are already a member of our community share your experience and
expertise with the other members, keeping the conversation alive.
Post news, pictures and videos about your most memorable moments before,
during and after the Fresh Conference.
Our speakers and sponsors are welcome to share content about their FRESH
presentation or about their companies.
Engage the community with quiz, polls and games.

18. Pinterest for conference
How can you use it
Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to
create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests,
hobbies, and more. Pinterest drive a lot of traffic to your conference website.
Steps to take
1. Set up your conference “business profile” adding an effective description
with the date of the event, the logo, the website and the location.
2. Create well-organized and relevant “boards”; categorize them according to
the needs of your conference and include descriptions with keywords. We
have one board for The FRESH Conference news, one dedicated to our
sponsors, one for the past edition of the conference and one for the social
media posts.
3. Create a network following other meeting professionals Pinterest users or
their boards and start pinning and re-pinning. See also the Pinterest etiquette.
4. You can pin (pin is a share button) a website adding a pin button to your
browser bookmarks bar. Some social media content and non-html websites are
not pinnable.

19. Pinterest
Our account is: THE FRESH CONFERENCE
You can follow us and our boards here:
http://pinterest.com/freshconference
scan & follow
At the moment we have 4 boards
FRESH Conference NEWS
FRESH Conference Social Media posts
Fresh Conference Sponsors
Fresh Conference - past edition (January 2012) the FRESH Conference
Pinterest profile
...and of course pin us and re-pin our pins you like!

20. Vimeo and YouTube for conferences
How can you use it
Youtube and Vimeo are powerful channels to share video contents.
They have the double function to give you visibility and to enlighten the sharing of
bulky content. You can embed videos in your website and share in other social
media a simple link to this content.
Steps to take
1. Set up your Youtube and/or Vimeo channel with logo, description and link to
your website
2. Upload your content. You can share:
Interviews with speakers and preview of their presentation before the
the conference
The presentation speakers give at the conference and other video
comments
Partners and sponsors promotional videos and interviews

21. Vimeo scan & follow
Our channel is: MEETING SUPPORT INSTITUTE
To see the video we upload visit:
vimeo.com/msimeetings
YouTube scan & follow
Our channel is: MEETING SUPPORT INSTITUTE
To see the video we upload visit:
www.youtube.com/user/MeetingSupport

22. Slideshare for conferences
How can you use it
You can use SlideShare to share any presentation files or documents
related to the conference. You can then embed them in your event
website and/or share the link in other social media.
Steps to take
1. Set up your Slideshare with logo, description and link to your website
2. Collect all the slides from the speakers attending your conference,
presentations from your partners and sponsors, any other useful abstracts or
documents and upload them to SlideShare space.
3. Link social media channels among them. For example in your Linkedin
profile you can show the slides you’ve uploaded in your Slideshare channel.
4. Embed the slides in your conference website and promote the page on
the other social media channels.

23. Slideshare
Our account is: MEETING SUPPORT INSTITUTE
You will see the slides of our speakers soon after their presentation
and download or read the documents we share like this guide:
Click and follow:
www.slideshare.net/MeetingSupportInstitute
if you follow us you will receive
an alert every time we upload
something new.
scan & follow

24. The Fresh Conference
will take place in Copenhagen, 13-15 January 2013
+ 1 optional day of training the 16th.
If you can come, don’t miss it.
If you cannot come, attend it remotely connecting to:
www.thefreshconference.com
ACTION REQUIRED:
Enjoy!
Thank you for downloading the guide: your prize is a 20% discount on the
registration fee using this code: smc-FRESH13-buyer-20%
icon set: Jurgen Appelo