As a self professed Internet adventurer and explorer I am always looking for opportunities to put in to practice the discoveries I find on my digital journey. I'm an independent social media practitioner sharing my knowledge, favorite locations and destinations. The resulting media being key, it's reach and impact. In order to credibly share my discoveries I do need to revisit and engage with each service before I proffer recommendations or introduce a client to a platform. Time is always a concern and making sense of the digital landscape can seem random and time resource heavy. This is where my travel analogy enters the scene. If you travel you plan your itinerary very carefully taking recommendations from friends and fellow travelers. A cafe or restaurant you must eat in for example. There are a mind boggling number of restaurants in London, you couldn't ever sample them all, you take recommendations.
As social media advocates know, Twitter is a huge player. Becoming familiar with it's mechanics and user interface is one thing, how to Tweet appropriately for the task in hand and understanding where and who they got to is vital also. When Chris Hambly announced the Social media in Business conference SMIB10 I knew I had to go. A regular MediaCamp delegate the speakers always inspired me to journey further and develop my own practice.
During a recent contract I tweeted for Ambition.com - getambition through out their nation wide roadshows around England. Its objective was to provide access to those unable to attend and for those attending as an amplification channel to connect with teams back in the office unable to leave an office unattended. Monitoring and Facilitating these objectives as a Twitter curator was very interesting.With a series of roadshow I effectively got the opportunity to tweet the same event 5 times. I learned a lot. Discovering twitter behaviors reflecting users proficiency of the platform was particularly valuable. Managing a coherent data stream, responding appropriately and knowing when to, in Ghostbusters styley, "Cross the Streams"! Gradually it its like watching the Matrix! Hmmm may be I've thought a little too much about this?
But... as the title of this blog alludes "PCM creative in action" for me its about social media in action what can be done with it. In the case of Social Media in Business, Twitter in Action. I was able to put my evolving theory in to developed practice.
Leading up to SMIB10, a short hand reference to the event itself also operates as its Twitter hash tag (and widely accepted official web tag) it was monitored using a Tweetdeck column search and a Google Alert. I also ran column searches on
- "Social Media in Business"
- smibevents
- All friends for SMIBevents
- Direct Messages for SMIBevents
In an ideal world the main Friends stream should reflect the tagged column stream or a least contain a similar selection of faces. The event tag filters out the specific conversation but a Tweet from the events account should reach its followers and those reading the tag without the aid of the tag. After all you never know is actually watching the filtered stream.
A question for you. When you filter out an event tag do you follow the event account or fellow hashtagging tweeters? If you want updates beyond the lifespan of the event it is the only way. Granted its not always clear who the main account is. Googling the tag should guide you right direction if they have been consistent with their application of tags.
SMIB10 was a fascinating case study. Twitter provided an event back channel of the thoughts of delegates along with a touch point for those unable to attend. Being able to share thought within the conference via Twitter was important to those I spoke to specifically about the role of twitter at events. It wasn't amplification to a network or status posturing high lighting where they were it was internal.
Once I report my findings back to the event team headed by Chris Hambly and Nigel Clarke I'll post them. I've used Klout, TwitterAnalyzer, TweetStats to benchmark pre-event activity as well as HootSuite, Tweetdeck and Tweeple to manage the growth and engagement.
