Many meeting planners have started to see the importance of hiring social media moderators or social media concierge teams for their events. However, there’s no line item in the budget for on-site social media logistics because this is a relatively new set of skills required to produce a successful conference. Unlike marketing efforts where you may be able to substitute social media for a traditional marketing tactic that you used in the past, we are talking about customer service for the event and content marketing so it will need to be discussed within your organization what the benefits of these activities are to the organization and brand. Social Media Strategy for an event has three parts: promoting the event, customer service at the event and content marketing to help your event reach stakeholders who are not physically there. These will involve lots of different platforms and sometimes different platforms for each step. Don’t just assume that because your attendees aren’t active twitter users, that they won’t be using it at your event. The hashtag is the great equalizer. Social media concierge teams became more popular in 2012. Because it takes at least a handful of people to be physically available for all of your attendees, it is understandable to want to keep costs low here. It is the objective of the team to encourage your attendees to share what they are learning with their online networks. Some of your attendees may not be currently using social media for professional purposes and need someone to explain the benefits of doing so. To increase the number of active community members online, you need social media teams who are active in online professional communities. The power of social media lies in other people talking about you, not you talking about you. You already have influential attendees. What are you doing to acknowledge and appreciate them? You also have attendees who would benefit from using twitter, but they haven’t been shown how it will benefit them. Having the right people and environment where they can learn/practice is a win/win for you and for them. A proactive, customer service minded professional can create conversations with event attendees and help them share their positive experiences. If your attendees share their positive experiences, anyone in their network who sees those messages gets a good impression of your organization. If your attendees have a complaint or feedback for you, and it is handled graciously and promptly in a public way, their network will still have a good impression of your organization.

1. Social Media Concierge Teams
Elizabeth Glau, CMP
Building Blocks Social Media

2. Social Strategy for Events
Content
marketing Promoting
at the the event
event
Customer
service for
the event
@elizabethglau

3. Designed Engagement
Photo: Interactive Meeting Technology
@elizabethglau

4. Ambassadors
Potential Attendees
Help other attendees be social
Recognition and Perks
• Identifying
badge or
ribbon
• Special seating
(up front /
with power)
• Tweetup or
special
reception
@elizabethglau

5. Win/Win
Photo: Interactive Meeting Technology
@elizabethglau

6. Play to Your Strengths
Training
“Paparazzi” Encouraging
@elizabethglau

7. Structure
Designer
Manager
Team
@elizabethglau

8. Choosing the Team
Interview via
Ask to see
Local staffing / Skype or
personal online
temp agencies Google+
profiles
hangout
@elizabethglau

9. Professionalism
@elizabethglau

10. Training Your Team
Photo: Interactive Meeting Technology
@elizabethglau

11. Preparing Attendees
Promote Training Help from
hashtag videos speakers
@elizabethglau

12. Questions / Feedback
Elizabeth Glau, CMP
614-286-4685
eglau@BasicSocialMediaTraining.com
www.SocialMediaForPlanners.com
@elizabethglau

13. For Further Information
• Sales: Steve Mackenzie
– sales@etouches.com
– 1-877-386-8248
• Marketing and PR: Dan Murdoch
– marketing@etouches.com
– 1-203-295-4484