January 13, 2011By Carla Pendergraft, OwnerCarla Pendergraft Associates Web Design & Consultingwww.carlapendergraft.comCarla.pendergraft@gmail.com

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

Twitter

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

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.