This was a presentation given to ABPCO in the Barbican, London in January 2012. The topic was how to use the web and social media to enhance events and conferences.

2. Hybrid Creative Agency

3. Branding
Advertising
Design
Social Media Marketing
Online Activation
Website design & build
Sponsorship Rights Management

5. How to engage your
audience online

6. 1. Pre-event
2. During
3. After
4. Throughout

7. The tools at your disposal

8. Social Networks

9. Why use them?
The process of selling hasn’t changed.
The process of buying has...

10. Inbound Marketing?
• Focuses on earning, not buying, a person’s
attention
• Done through social media, search and
engaging content
• Costs less and has better a ROI than
Outbound

11. Why do it?
• 44% of direct mail is never opened.
• 86% of people skip through television ads.
• 84% of 25 to 34 year olds have clicked out of
a website because of an “irrelevant or intrusive
ad.”
• c90% of all email is now spam
• The cost per lead in outbound marketing is
more than for inbound marketing.

12. WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA
MARKETING?
“Social media marketing is a term that
describes the use of social networks,
online communities, blogs, wikis or any
other online collaborative media for
marketing, sales, public relations and
customer services.”
Wikipedia

13. Why
should we
care?

14. Over 2/3 of the global internet
population visit social networks

15. Visiting social sites is
now the most popular
online activity – ahead of
email

16. Where to start?

17. Social Networks

18. Blog sites

19. Your own website

20. Evaluate your site
• Does it use Flash?
• Does it work cross-browser?
• Is it easy to navigate?
• Is it fast to load?
• Is it more than a company brochure?
• Is there a clear call to action?
• What is front and centre? Does it adhere to your brand?
• Is there a search function?
• Is it easy to get home?
• How does it perform in search?
• Is sharing made simple?

21. Email Marketing

22. Technologies

23. Event Specific Tech

24. Online Polls

25. Making it work for you
pre-event

26. Create an event landing page
with social media ‘share’ buttons and
SEO it

27. Crowd Source
the
programming

28. Crowd Source
the
programming
Facebook,
Twitter and email
poll

29. Record video intros of the
speakers and upload to YouTube

30. Social signups
On registration ask for:
- Twitter @ name
- Facebook Profile
- LinkedIn Profile

31. Social signups
Score your
attendees’
influence

32. Social signups
Create
buzzworthy
name badges

33. Create a Facebook page, then
create an ‘event’.

34. Sell tickets on Facebook via
Eventbrite

35. Create a LinkedIn ‘event’.

36. Advertise on LinkedIn

37. Create your event on

38. Promote all of this online
presence via twitter

39. Use twitter ‘lists’ to build
a target audience

40. Use twitter’s Retweet
functionality as a competition
entry mechanism

41. Use Facebook’s ‘like’ function
as a competition entry mechanism

42. Register your event on Lanyrd
then use twitter to create a
pre-event community and buzz

43. Use a social dashboard to
schedule messages and stay
across all your feeds

44. Create a twitter hashtag to
create an event community
#abpcoconf12

45. Use a hashtag tool to
disseminate the info on the
hashtag
Conference solution that creates a conference hub of all
things related to your event: content tags, members and
contributors, photos, related websites, RSS feeds, Tweetups
and event schedules, and videos.

46. Create Google and twitter alerts on
the hashtag

47. Your VIP?

49. Show and tell. What’s worked for
you and what hasn’t?

50. During

51. Use a twitter wall

52. Competitions, promos &
giveaways during the event on
Twitter

53. Use technology to not only engage,
but create a Wow! factor

55. Set up a Flickr Page for the event

56. Mobile apps
Create a free app for
the event

57. Or use a commercial app
for conferences
Real time programme info
Branded narrowcasting - event TV ads etc
Twitter feeds
Personalised SMS messages
Private messaging to screens
Mobile voting

58. Social Checkins

59. Integrate with Facebook offline

60. Stream live video - for free!

61. Show and tell. What’s worked for
you and what hasn’t?

62. After

63. Spread the
content far and
wide

64. Share the presentations

65. Aggregate all the #hashtags on
your site or email a PDF to
attendees

66. Share your event stats as an
infographic via your social
networks

67. Share videos on YouTube and your
site

68. Deal with feedback

69. Use your blog

70. Blogging

71. It’s like your 5-a-day

72. Good for you.
But you don’t
necessarily enjoy it.

73. Let me show you
an easier way

74. Blogging doesn’t have
to be 400 words.

75. Blogging doesn’t have
to be 400 words.
(Although it should be)

76. Blogging can be 140
characters or less

77. “Oh, I can’t think what to say.”

78. There are plenty of
blog topic websites.
However we believe it’s easier
and more inspirational to think
‘what sort’ rather than ‘what’.

79. There are around 25 different
blog styles in the world.
Here are my top 6.

80. Insight Blogging
Sharing sector intelligence, original ideas, commentary or trends on a
particular topic.

81. Piggyback Blogging
Writing about a topic that is currently popular in the news

82. Life Blogging
Also called reality blogging, this involves a blog post sharing the story of
something that happened to you in your personal life.

83. Event Blogging
Sharing impressions, opinions and insights from an event or other
gathering with others.

84. List Blogging
This is the highly popular format of the top ten (or any other number) lists
about something. Blog posts in this type of format are frequently
bookmarked and shared.

85. Evangelist Blogging
Passionate blog post sharing an affinity and support for a cause or belief.
These posts are meant to inspire others to believe in the same thing.

86. Don’t think ‘What shall I write?’
Think ‘What sort shall I write?’

87. Some more blogging and tweeting tips

88. Educate, assist and
ask for feedback

89. Identify your reader
Who
a re y
ou w them
ritin ly’ pi cture
g fo
r? n ‘actual
Th e
the p erson Imag
i n e yo
Picture u’re w
them riting
alone for

90. Find different angles
CURRENT HEADLINE: ‘Why customer service is our No.1 priority’
V.1 ‘Our five customer service goals’
V.2 ‘How we are redefining customer service’
V.3 ‘Take a peek at our customer service scorecard’
V.4 ‘How happy are your customers?’
V.5 ‘Unhappy customers? Here’s why.’

91. Write intriguing headlines
Write Drunk. Edit Sober. How to get a Google+
invitation.
Why it’s sometimes
right to think wrong. Wear you client’s
What’s the earliest ad shoes.
you remember as a The curious case of
child? incuriosity.
ALL OF THESE MAKE GREAT TWEETS

92. Make sharing easy
If it’s a longer blog, include social buttons
If it’s a tweet, make it as short as possible to allow
for retweeting

93. Blogging summary
Educate and inform 400 words
Use headings to
structure your post One thought or idea per post
Always use a photo Write intriguing headlines
Promote via your social networks
Blogging is permission marketing
Be topical
rather than interruption marketing

94. WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?
Subscriptions
Page Views
Comments
Inbound links
Followers
Retweets
‘Likes’

95. Badvocates
How to deal with
unfavourable comments

96. 1. @eventthinker The Wifi server at your conference wasn’t
compatible with my laptop
2. @eventthinker I found the wifi at your
conference a little unreliable. Maybe next time try
using Bitbuzz instead
3. @eventthinker Event stinker more like. I bet your
conference stank like a rancid cesspit of half-dead
pigeons. @event101 much better

97. Dealing with unfavourable
comments
1. Straight Problem – Someone has an issue with
your product or service and has laid out exactly
what went wrong.
Response is almost certainly necessary.
Whether that response is personal or a broad public-facing message
depends on how widespread the problem is and how many people
reported it.
If a real problem exists, steps should be taken to fix it and
customers should be notified that those steps are being taken.
Even a perceived rather than real problem should be given a
response, if only to say, “Thanks for bringing it to our attention, but
here’s why we use that particular server.’

98. Dealing with unfavourable
comments
2. Constructive Criticism Many customers,
including some of your most loyal, will use social
media to suggest ways in which you can improve
your product or service. While negative, it can be
extremely helpful to receive.
Constructive Criticism requires a response.
Most times you won’t want to implement the advice but you’ll build
loyalty and trust by responding to criticism with a positive message.
It is well worth the effort to thank those consumers who took the time
to provide you with a suggestion.

99. Dealing with unfavourable
comments
3. Trolling Trolls have no valid reason for being
angry at you. Also in this category are spammers,
who will use a negative comment about your
product or service to promote a competitor.
This category of negative feedback does not require a response. In
fact, it is almost always best not to respond to Trolling or Spam. This
type of feedback isn’t really feedback at all. It is designed either to
bait you into an unnecessary and image-damaging fight, or to
siphon off your customers using underhanded tactics. Always ignore
this variety of feedback, and when appropriate, remove it as soon as
you spot it.

100. Any questions?