Marina Maher Communications

Are virtual conferences the wave of the future?  I sure hope so.  MMC recently participated in SocialExaminer.com’s Social Media Success Summit.  The 3-week online Social Media conference provided over 15 webinars on strategy, measurement, case studies, Twitter, Facebook and more.  MMC’s rich Social Media capabilities allowed us to actively participate in these sessions to stay on top of the latest trends and tools.  We were most excited to hear from prominent thought leaders such as Guy Kawasaki, Jay Baer and Steve Rubel.

I’m a believer in extracting a “top 5” after every industry conference.  Here’s my top 5 for the Social Media Success Summit:

• Measurement: Social Media can be measured in a number of ways but the most significant item in your measurement checklist must be to determine goals and benchmarks in advance so that you have clear points that you’re measuring against.

• Contests: The three critical factors for building buzz around an online contest are
  • Compelling reward that incentivizes
  • Ease of entry
  • Social Media components encourage consumers to promote for you

• Online video: The demand for online video continues to increase.  These stats speak for themselves.
  • 86 % of U.S. Internet users view videos online
  • There are 24 hours of video downloaded each minute
  • YouTube has 84.1% of all the Web’s video traffic

• Social Media Strategy: Focus on the tools last when developing a cohesive Social Media Strategy.  (Okay, this one we knew, but it’s one of our favorites and bears repeating.)
• New tools:  There are hundreds of Social Media tools my team and I are leveraging and experimenting with, but as a result of the Twitter session, I’ll be checking out hashtags.org, wthashtag.com and tagal.us.

If you want to see what others are saying about the Social Media Success Summit, search Twitter for #smss10!

As a “social media person” it’s easy to say that my life revolves around my computer for news, entertainment and connecting with friends.  My blackberry is never far from my hands and my Twitter followers know more about me on a day-to-day basis than my family does.

Every now and then, though, I have to kick it old school.  The feel of reading a newspaper while riding the bus or the laughter of the audience at a late night television show are the reasons I entered a career in public relations in the first place. Like most consumers, my media consumption habits are hybrid.

The best is when the real world and the virtual world combine.  Monday I had the opportunity to sit in the studio audience of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  Host Jimmy Fallon (@JimmyFallon) was one of the first celebrities to truly embrace social media platforms like Twitter.  He often interacts with followers and even hosts contests providing fans with a direct connection to the show, a brand in and of itself.

It was through Twitter that I was given the opportunity to attend the taping.  Jimmy hosted a trivia contest on Twitter over the weekend to win tickets.  While I unsuccessfully tried to win myself, a virtual friend of mine was one of the winners and invited me to meet in real life and attend with her.  The contest attracted 100s of people vying for a chance to sit in the studio audience.

The line between media as we knew it in the past and social media is disappearing.  Social media allows you to connect with other forms of media in new and unique ways.  It’s like a front row seat without ever leaving your home.  While this time I was lucky enough to be in that audience, there are many times I am home and following the experiences of others participating live via online platforms enabled for sharing. If you can’t be there, join them (virtually)!