Dispatches from iMedia Conference 2015
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending iMedia Conference organised by Hello Media Co. at MacEwan University in Edmonton. Beyond measuring & evaluating it’s impact on overall internet marketing efforts, social media isn’t a huge part of my job. Usually my involvement starts when the outcomes of social media outreach are quantified and reported to clients; that’s why I jumped at the opportunity to attend iMedia. I was looking to learn a little bit more about the ins and outs of Social Media Marketing, and learn I did…
Plan, Plan, Plan
Just as it is the chorus of realtors everywhere: location, location, location; it would seem the unifying chorus of social media managers is to plan, plan,plan. While not all the breakout sessions dealt with planning as a main theme, for me it kept popping up and catching my attention.
Ryan Frankson, Director of Oilers social media, fielded questions about the challenges and opportunities of planning social media strategy with a variety of stakeholders – sponsors, internal communications, and even some players. Working collaboratively provides the opportunity for creativity, but more cooks in the kitchen means more diners have to be satisfied – so to speak.
Nikki Van Dusen of NIKCOMM discuss the importance of social media disaster preparedness (my words, not her’s). It is imperative that companies plan for social media “issues” that may arise, because time and tactics are of the essence when dealing with anything from trolls to errant texts to the company account.
Finally, the most tactically useful of all the talks IMO, was by Brian Siddle of Strong Coffee Marketing. Precisely named Developing & Managing A Social Media Campaign, it was a great help for a newbie like me to understand the process of developing a campaign from the ground up; including the oft forgotten plan: for when things go too well!
With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility
This conference also marked my first foray into professional (“professional”) social media management, as I was in control (“control”) of Adster’s twitter account for the day! While I would have like to have had the opportunity to plan, as recommended by the professionals above, it’s just the nature of the social media beast that some tweeting (‘gramming? vining? snapping?) will be on the fly. I live tweeted the day away & definitely gained a new appreciation for the power of these platforms as I saw my tweets flash across the giant screens at the front of the room and replies, retweets, and favorites rolled in from colleagues I hadn’t yet met.
But the question still remains: If I put an exclamation point right after the hashtag, will the hashtag still hash?