Notes From a Social Media Conference MC
Just back from – and thoroughly enjoyed – the iStrategy 2010 Conference in Chicago. The event’s strap line says ‘participation in social media and interactive marketing is no longer revolutionary. It’s crucial.’ Which is a paradigm shift not even Che achieved.
This is not a blow-by-blow breakdown of the conference and its content (other people do that with a far sharper editorial eye). This is about what I learned. The keynote presentations were varied and passionate, the interaction and questions from the audience impressive in their breadth, and the answers in their candour. I came away with five points…
A bloody good one. But it’s not THE solution. Use it to listen to your consumers. Use it to target local. Use it to trial smaller, less expensive marketing campaigns – or all three, as Mary O’Connell at Clorox* demonstrated with toilet humor and big hair. Then use it to deepen your messages, and to engage.
Embrace risk. Chris Heuer said it. Jeff Hayzlett said it (in the most repeated mantra of day two: did anybody die?). And when you see success, add layers to the campaign. To use Clorox again: it has complemented the humor with human interest and charity motivators that amplify the message.
There is a real hunger for case studies. Proper, in-depth examples of what was done, why, and how it worked. Follow @iStrategy2010 to see what they are doing to make this happen.
Whoever solves metrics, and – more importantly – can sell that solution to advertisers, media buyers and companies, well… let’s just say there will be laughter and a bank.
Never let a drag queen manage your social media strategy. Okay, this isn’t a key learning, but it was a highlight and thanks to Amy Wigler for sharing.
If you attended iStrategy and enjoyed Jeff Hayzlett’s presentation on day two as much as I did, here is an interview we did with the man himself earlier this year. It’s a cool explanation of his work and approach at Kodak. Registration is free. And nobody dies.
*Note: You can purchase Mary’s presentation to watch here.
Topics:
Adam has interviewed over 450 chief executives from Adidas to Zappos. He has spoken on communication, leadership, and innovation at several major conferences, for organisations as diverse as CA and CeBIT, and is Master of Ceremonies for a number of brilliant business events.