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Tuesday November 30, 2010

Topic: Marketing Management

Reference: Stanchak, Jesse. “How to use Twitter to network at conferences.” Smart Blog on Social Media. Http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2010/11/11/how-to-use-twitter-to-network-at-conferences.

Tuesday November 30, 2010

Topic: Marketing Management

Reference: Stanchak, Jesse. “How to use Twitter to network at conferences.” Smart Blog on Social Media. Http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2010/11/11/how-to-use-twitter-to-network-at-conferences.

I recently returned from the sensational G2E gaming conference in Las Vegas. You know that you are at a real trade show when vendors are talking about taking orders, doing technical briefings, and arranging follow up meetings on the show floor. The conference was large in scope, but broken into various sections, which helped to foster zones of interest and participation. I found that it was very conducive to making contacts and speaking with attendees and panelists. The conference also featured digital signage, mobile messages, announcements, and press releases. To ensure that I maximized the opportunity, I preplanned and preset a number of vendor and partner meetings. Preplanned meetings go along way toward establishing a clear agenda and locking in value for a lengthy and relatively expensive trip. Still I found myself looking for a better way to meet and tap into the talent and potential business at the conference. In the referenced article, the commentator actually addresses this issue and delivers some great suggestions for using Twitter to enhance your conference experience. For example he suggests using the conference hashtag (e.g. @conference) to follow tweets about the conference, and potentially reach out to conference attendees. Use tools such as Hootsuite to track the hashtags as they may change. The commentator also advocates starting early, identifying potential people that you would like to meet, and follow conversations without necessarily posting a lot. A great tip is to use geography to your advantage. “If you’ve traveled a great distance to attend a show, try using Twitter to establish a little get-together for attendees from your hometown…promote the gathering using the conference hashtag.” I might not use that exact idea, but the concept is a good one. The point is that the technology is there to enhance your conference experience. I plan to use it as much as possible. Anything that helps improve the return on your conference experience and advances your business objectives is well worth the effort.