A targeted, effective
social media campaign
delivering enduring value
for your conference

Contents
• Why use social media to promote your
conference?
• Adding value before the conference
• Delivering value during the conference
• Extending value after the conference
• Timelines: what will happen, and when
• Why you need an STM social media specialist
managing your conference’s social media profile
• Interested?

Why use social media? (1 of 3)
• Traditional media formats are
becoming less effective as
promotional channels as
readership migrates elsewhere
• Even those communication
models we think of as ‘modern’
are being challenged: social
media (Twitter, Facebook etc.)
are now more popular than
email
• How much are you spending
on email promotion? How
c/o http://www.thewayoftheweb.net
much on social media?

Why use social media? (2 of 3)
• Social media offer:
– Relationships: community-oriented, interactive
communications, not one-way broadcasting
– Accuracy: targeted, effective connections with
your intended audience
– Speed: traditional media is outclassed, outpaced
– Reach: global, immediate, vast
– Participation: specialists, generalists, all levels

Why use social media? (3 of 3)

Adding value before the conference
(1 of 2)
• Maximize pre-registration potential
• Raise your conference’s visibility online
• Enhance your conference’s profile online
• Extend promotional reach into new channels
• Bolster credibility of your conference as a
contemporary, relevant, ‘must-attend’ meeting
• Nurture and then actualize the perception of
your conference as a community-building,
value-adding event

Adding value before the conference
(2 of 2)
• Massive increase in both proactive exposure &
‘chance-to-encounter’ your target audience via
multiple daily promotional posts, building
incremental interest in your event
• Advance ‘spotlight’ on speakers, sessions, and
facilities to familiarize delegates with the scientific
programme and venue, heightening anticipation
• Connecting delegates with each other and the
organizers prior to the conference to ensure they
get the most that they can from attending

Delivering value during the
conference (1 of 3)
• During registration, between sessions:
– Andrew Spong [AS] will man a ‘tweet-up point’
where delegates can network and interact with their
new connections
– The ‘tweet-up point’ will also act as a soft data
collection mechanism & listening post, allowing AS to:
• Collect feedback, comments, queries, issues to inform
future strategic planning
• Ascertain the likelihood of delegates’ attendance in 2010/11
• Sign up non-following delegates to the conference’s on
Twitter & Facebook presences

Delivering value during the
conference (2 of 3)
• During sessions:
– AS will report from sessions using Twitter in real
time (‘live tweeting’) using a pre-publicized
hashtag, providing immediate media coverage
hashtag

Delivering value during the
conference (3 of 3)
• As part of this process, AS will
manage the ‘back channel’
debate that develops during the
conference as delegates and
followers tweet their opinions
• AS will engage with non-attending
parties who participate in the
#hashtagged conference tweet
stream in order to maximize the
event’s real-time presence &
influence Back channel manager of the
#WHF (Westminster Health Forum)
conference

Extending value after the
conference
• Stay in touch with your target community 365/365
rather than 1-4/365
• Post links to videos, presentations, coverage,
comment, and reviews of the conference
• Elicit feedback from Twitter and Facebook followers
to inform 2010/11 conference planning
• Enduring presence reinforces credibility of your
conference’s commitment to adding value to your
target community, thereby increasing the likelihood
of repeat attendance & the recruiting of new
delegates

Timelines: what will happen, & when
(1 of 2)
• Twitter presence & Facebook group created by AS with your
On instruction
approval. Twitter and Facebook icon links added by your
webmaster to your conference’s homepage.
• Initial cluster of i) target attendees identified by specialty; ii) current
& previous registrants identified and followed on Twitter and
Facebook.
• Minimum of two Twitter posts published per day, every day (feed
linked to Facebook group page), including scheduled weekend
6 months prior
postings, delivering at least 60 targeted promotional opportunities
during an average month
• Posts to feature a mix of: conference news and updates, new
clinical items of interest to your target audience, links to abstracts
of new articles from your journals, as appropriate
• Regular weekly sweeps of Twitter and Facebook to find newly
registered users with a potential interest your conference to follow

Timelines: what will happen, & when
6 months prior (cont.)
(2 of 2)
• Daily monitoring of Twitter and Facebook presences for comment and
interaction
• Monthly teleconference between with AS to deliver uptake report,
discuss the next month’s posts concerning the conference, any other
issues
Conference
• Continuous real-time tweeting during conference hours
• Post-conference linking to presentations and enduring web content
published after the event
• Maintenance mode: volume of content & news published remains
6 months after
consistent at c.60 items per month, with intermittent reference to
2010/11 conference as appropriate. Continuity of community
development. Persistence of presence and visibility.

Why you need an STM social media
specialist managing your
conference’s social media profile
• You’ll be instructing a career STM professional
who understands that conferences now need to
deliver value not only to participants and
organizers, but also to remote observers in order
to be effective.
• You’ll be instructing someone who can ensure
your conference presence maintains:
Relevancy | Reciprocity | Interactivity
Transparency | Authenticity

Interested?
Contact Andrew Spong for further details
or to request an example & quotation.