Carla Pendergraft, CMP Waco Convention & Visitors Bureau

1. Social Media for Meeting Planners Carla Pendergraft, CMP Waco Convention & Visitors Bureau

2. What Social Media are You Using Personally? (Poll) Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MySpace YouTube Flickr Other

3. What Social Media is your Agency Using? Facebook Fan Page Twitter LinkedIn Group or Profile Wiki MySpace YouTube Flickr None Other?

4. Definition of Social Media “Social media websites enable people to post, comment, share content, and participate in a community.”

5. Social Media Characteristics • It’s about conversations and communities • Relationships, not selling • It requires a new way of thinking. • Push vs. Pull; Telling vs. Asking • Allows your audience to connect with you and with each other.

6. U.S. Social Media Communities • Facebook: 400 million users • 700,000 Fan Pages • Twitter: 75 million users • YouTube: 100 million visitors/month • LinkedIn: 50 million users • Flickr: 4 billion images • Blogs: Over 112 million • Wikipedia: 12 million registered users, 20 million pages And new social communities are added every day.

7. Social Media’s Reach • Social networking now accounts for 11% of all time spent online in the US. • A third of adults post at least once a week to social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. • A quarter of adults publish a blog and upload video/audio they created. • ~60% maintain a profile on a social networking site. Source: Forrester Research, 1/10

8. Barriers to Using Social Media • Fear of potential legal issues • Unfamiliarity with best practices for social media policies • Open Records Act • Open Meetings Act • Lack of interest by top management • Hostility of IT Dept. – fear of viruses, etc. • Unsure of return on investment – time drain • Unfamiliarity with the tools themselves • Fear of mixing personal with business

9. What if you don’t have access? • Start your own presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Learn to use the tools on your own, at home. • That way, when you’re given access, you will already know how to use them.

10. Meeting Planning and Social Media • FooCamps, unconferences, BarCamps – All sessions are provided by participants • Wikis are potentially the most powerful tool out there for Meeting Planners. • Twitter and Facebook are starting to be used by meeting planners.

11. Wikis for Meeting Planning • Well suited when people don’t work in the same office but must collaborate on projects, plans, etc. • Email is not efficient for discussing ideas • Wikis are web pages anyone can edit • Wikispaces.com • Ad-supported: free • No ads: $5/month • No ads plus custom domain name: $20/month

12. Wikispaces.com

13. Facebook

14. Facebook – 2010 Zumba Instructor Convention – 2,200 fans

15. 2010 Oregon FFA Convention – 1,000+ fans

16. TX State Missionary Baptist Youth Convention – 150 fans

17. Facebook • Find these convention’s pages on Facebook, and notice what they are posting about. • Links to main convention website • Asking them to apply for scholarships • What sessions would you like to see? • Things to see and do in the host city • Info on room block status • What was your favorite part of the convention?

18. Twitter

19. State Bar of Texas!

20. State Bar of Texas • Tweets by their web manager • YouTube Video Contest • Links to convention page on website

21. Saved Twitter Searches • Use a Tweetdeck to save a search on your organization’s name or other key words. • Anytime anyone in the world uses those key words, you’ll see the tweet. • You don’t have to be their follower to see it!

22. Twitter for Planners • Learn to use hashtags so twitterers can follow specific conversations about the convention or topic. • #sxsw • #nsbeconvention • Set one for your convention. • Encourage and publicize its use. Ask your followers to help spread it to their followers.

23. Twitter for Planners • Try using a twitter chat room to segregate the tweets during a live meeting. • Tweetchat.com • Some put the chat up on a screen live behind the speaker or within speaker’s view • Others have a moderator who monitors the chat and feeds questions or comments to the speaker. Much more controlled.

24. Twitter for Planners • Some planners are setting up a Twitter account specifically for the convention. • @nsbeconvention • @OAR_Convention • “OAR's Annual Convention & Expo to keep attendees informed of schedule changes, news, and notification of social events.” • @sxsw • Official user of the SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Conferences and Festivals • Several other twitter accounts for SXSW parties, etc.

25. Twitter backup • backupmytweets.com

26. Other Social Media Tools • YouTube – upload some videos and display them on your website and/or Facebook page. • Flickr – Create a photo gallery of pictures from the various events you conduct. • Blogs – Create one at Wordpress.com or Blogger.com and put a link to it on your website.

27. Summary – Social Media • Blogs: wordpress.com • Blog search engine: technorati.com • Bookmarks: delicious.com, digg.com • Photo albums: flickr.com, photobucket.com • Social networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter • Create your own social network: Ning • Create a social website: webs.com

28. Additional Social Media • Wikis: wikispaces.com, pbworks • Videos: YouTube, Podbean.com, fliqz.com

29. Bonus – Software Tip Sheet • User name checks: namechk.com • Email newsletters: constantcontact.com • Surveys: surveymonkey.com • Exchange huge files: http://drop.io • Webinars: gotowebinar.com • URL shorteners: tinyURL.com • Twitter management tool: tweetdeck.com • Post to several sites at once: ping.fm • Share powerpoints: slideshare.net

30. Double Bonus Favorite Software • Online file conversion: zamzar.com • E-learning: digitalchalk.com • Skype: phone calls via the internet • Tubemogul.com: track your video stats

31. Questions?Thank you for your attention!