Creating a "Socially-Enabled", Non-Techie Conference

Last month, The HSUS held their annual "Taking Action for Animals" Conference (TAFA) which brings together animal advocates all over the country. We've always done search ads, blogger outreach, and posts on our social networking profiles, but this year, I was ready to take it to the next level.

I wanted to make this a social conference. And I wanted to prove that it could be done, even if we weren't SXSW or NTC. Many people think that only "techie" conference attendees will grasp ideas like live-blogging and tweeting. But we proved that if you make people aware of the tools and start early, it can be done!

But the reasoning goes beyond just something that I wanted to do. The great thing about social networking is that it breaks the ice. Attendees want to meet and network at conferences, but they don't know how to get started. Providing an outlet using social media gives them that opportunity. The benefit for us is that we'll know more about our attendees, identify them online, stay connected with them, and tap into their own networks.

Here were the social components of the conference:

Community page on the website - I created a page on the conference website that served as a "home base" for all things social related to the conference. My good friend Jordan did a write up about it on Convio's blog. Here were the elements of the page:

1. Tweetup widget from TWTvite
2. Twitter Followers Widget from Widgettropolis
3. Option to set your Twitter status to tell us who you are
4. Link to the Facebook event
5. Link to downloadable conference banners
6. Widgetbox Widget displaying all tweets from the official conference Twitter feed
7. Widgetbox Widget displaying all tweets containing the conference hashtag
8. Flickr slideshow of photos from the conference
9. YouTube promotional video for the conference
10. Google map of conference attendees using Zeemaps
11. Sharing links for Facebook and Twitter

Conference Twitter Feed - the official conference Twitter feed was used to promote the conference ahead of time and keep the momentum going after the conference by staying in touch with attendees.

During the conference, we had someone tweeting "housekeeping" items like schedule changes and reminders via Twittermail. We encouraged people to sign up to get our Twitter updates via SMS during the conference. Any highlights were retweeted to @humanesociety, our main Twitter account.

We followed anyone who mentioned TAFA on Twitter and reached out to our exhibitors, sponsors, presenters, and staff on Twitter and asked for their help in promoting the conference.

Tweetup - This gave those animal advocates on Twitter a chance to meet up in real-life. They talked about everything from the conference sessions to their pets.

Here are my tips for organizing a successful tweetup:

1. Use TWTvite to organize RSVPs and help spread the word on Twitter.
2. Have it during conference downtime, and not on the first day. Ours was right before the opening remarks and I think attendance suffered because of it. Many people's flights didn't come in till later as well.
3. Have someone well-known in your field attending. Our advocates were so happy to meet Mike Markarian, our Chief Operating Officer.
4. Have nametags, and plenty of blank ones for those who did not RSVP.
5. Have signs at the entrance and on the table with the nametags. I remember feeling awkward at the first tweetup I went to because I didn't know anyone and couldn't figure out where they were. Here, I had signs that included the hashtag for the tweetup, which was #tafatweetup.
6. Don't forget to take photos, especially a group photo!

Mashable also has some great suggestions on how to organize a successful tweetup.

Booth in the Exhibit Hall - my department had a booth in the conference exhibit hall that displayed all of our social networking profiles and gave us a chance to talk to attendees about using social media.

This is what our booth contained:

1. Posters for each social networks showcasing our profiles on each as well as how to fan and follow us via text message, the conference hashtag and twitter feed, and flickr tag.
2. A display of tweets about the conference projected on the wall using Twittercamp
3. A computer for monitoring tweets about the conference (backchannel) using Tweetdeck
4. A raffle for a free Flip Camera when someone participated in our "I'm here because" activity. We asked people to fill out a sheet of paper on why they were at the conference, took their photo and posted it on Flickr, and taped all the papers on the wall at our booth.
5. Trivia questions and giveaways via our Twitter feed
   

Cross promotion - making sure these social aspects were included in our usual promotional channels was important because we wanted to start building momentum early. This is where we promoted the community page as well as the Twitter feed and hashtag:

1. Conference website homepage
2. Program book
3. email blasts
   
4. organization website
   
5. print ads
6. Google & Facebook ads
   
7. Listings on event sites like craigslist, eventbrite, meetup, upcoming, eventful
   
8. Blogs on our social networking profiles
9. signage at conference
10. flyers and posters
11. our CEO's blog

Inclusion in conference materials - we had a postcard included in the conference bags that had wireless connection information on one side and the Twitter hashtag and feed on the other. Every attendee received this postcard.


All of this added up to some great success metrics.

1. # of Tweets: 357
2. # of contributors: 72
3. Average tweets per day: 51
4. % of ReTweets: 17%
5. % mentions: 43%
6. #followers post-conference: 401
7. #followers pre-conference: 304
8. # people who identified themselves in the community: 101 (22 attendees, 11 exhibitors, 7 staffers, 5 speakers, 56 people who couldn't make it)
9. exposure from bag insert: 1,000 people
10. contacts from flip cam raffle: 72
11. # people RSVPed to the Facebook event: 139 yes, 43 maybe
12. # views of the promo video on YouTube: 1,505
13. # Flickr photos: 263

Twitter stats were obtained from What the Hashtag and Twitter Search.

The results were impressive, given that there was no wireless access in the exhibit hall and common areas. That was my #1 recommendation for next year. I'm convinced that it would increase participation drastically.

Because we made these tools available, afterwards we were able to take advantage of that “post-conference glow” many attendees have, when they’re jazzed up about what they learned. They have a place to talk about it, and we're able to gather their feedback on the event. Sure, there were plenty of people there that do not use social media, but they either saw the conversations and became interested, or simply ignored it. Our goal was to create a "cool factor" for those who were interested, and I think we succeeded!

Please feel free to share your thoughts, particularly if you've had experience with using social media at an event.

Sharing is the New TAF

If you haven’t implemented sharing tools on your emails yet, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to engage existing advocates, recruit new ones, and drive substantial traffic to your website and campaigns.

Granted, this is no small feat. For us, it took 2 weeks for me to figure out how to rig the code so that it worked in our content management system and pulled the right information when posting to Facebook and Twitter. But the payoff was well worth it. Preliminary results showed that just in the first day of enabling sharing features on our email, we got 500 tweets and over 15,000 visits to the web version of our email from Twitter alone.

Now, that’s great, but it wasn’t perfect. As Beth has stated before, I’m a HUGE advocate for the listen, learn, adapt method and not afraid to fail before I succeed. It’s frustrating but I don’t give up; I learn from my mistakes and apply the lessons to future campaigns. This project was no different.

I was so excited that I got the sharing features to work properly that I didn’t even think about tracking. When we sent out the email (you can see it here.) and my boss asked me how it did, I blanked. He wanted to know how many people shared and viewed it per service, and how many people viewed the web version of the email.

I had no idea.

I could see in Tweetdeck that people were sharing it on Twitter, because I have keyword searches set up for our brand. That was really exciting to see all the activity, but I wanted actual numbers. I was able to scrounge some stats by using Tweetmeme and bit.ly for Twitter, but had no idea what the Facebook impact was or how many people viewed the page. We didn’t have a unique URL for Facebook, and we didn’t have Google Analytics tracking codes set up on the web version of the email. Oops.

So, for the next email we sent out, I used trackable URLs from Google Analytics for both Facebook and Twitter. The URL you shared on Facebook now looked like this:

http://community.hsus.org/humane/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=34514987&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=share&utm_content=34514987&utm_campaign=email

And the URL you shared on Twitter was a shortened bit.ly URL linking to this:

http://community.hsus.org/humane/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=34514987&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=share&utm_content=34514987&utm_campaign=email

Oh yeah, and I made sure the Google Analytics tracking code was installed on the web version of the email. Don’t forget that.

Now, I was able to see stats in Google Analytics for each separate medium. My predictions were correct; sharing on Facebook almost doubled that on Twitter. The numbers were significant, and when I shared them with my team, they were floored.

By adding this simple feature, we’re enabling and encouraging people to spread the word, and making it as easy as possible for them to do so. And we’re seeing how well its working by making sure we can track everything.

Here’s how to enable sharing for your emails:

For Facebook Share: Grab the code off the Share Partners page on Facebook, but take out any javascript. There’s also some great info on that page about how to configure your code to make sure Facebook pulls the right information into the title and description when sharing. Replace the URL with the web version of your email.

The trick: if the web version of your emails begins with “https”, you have to take off the “s”. Sharing functions are not fully compatible with secure pages just yet.

For Twitter, you can set someone’s status by using “http://twitter.com/home?status=check+out+this+link:+http://bit.ly/xxx”.

The trick: make sure you use the + signs in place of any spaces. Then, shorten the URL to the web version of your email using bit.ly or your favorite URL shortening service. We add “(via @humanesociety)” in there to give our Twitter account a little extra exposure.

Note: You might be wondering why we didn’t use an existing tool like AddThis or Share This. While those tools are great (we even use them on our website), they just didn’t do everything we needed for email.

Some best practices:

• If you’re using a CMS like us you’ll need to make sure you’re using an email wrapper that pulls unique meta data into each email.
• Take the time to tweak and customize your sharing code. By simply adding “via @humanesociety” anytime someone shares on Twitter, we’re giving our Twitter account huge visibility.
• Make sure you use tracking codes from your stats program so you can track your success. Use unique URLs for Twitter and Facebook.
• You’ll get better results if you ASK. Basic constituent engagement – if you ask, more will participate. We did a “PS” in our first sharing-enabled email asking people to share it.
• If you’re sending out a big campaign email, set up keyword alerts with something like Tweetdeck or Tweetbeep. Some people like to customize the Tweets that they share, so you may not see it. For instance, when we sent out the first email, I started monitoring the keyword “Petland” so even if someone took out the “via @humanesociety” or changed the title, I still saw it.
• Don’t be afraid to respond to people who aren’t following you when you come across something. I found many people talking about going to Petland and thinking of buying a dog there. I replied and introduced them to our campaign, asking them to consider adoption instead. Starts the conversation in hopes of educating and changing behavior.
  

Traditional Tell-a-Friend methods like email and web forms are not dead; but like any other emerging technology that’s out there, we have to recognize that people are sharing information in new and different ways than they always have. And we have to adapt by fitting these methods into our communications strategies or we’ll simply fall behind.

Has anyone else implemented sharing features on their emails? I’d love to see examples of how other organizations have made it happen and how it has worked for them.

My Presentations

Here are my presentations listed with most recent first:

Taking Action for Animals Conference - July 09
"Using Social Media to Advocate for Animals"
COMING SOON

BizSummits Webinar
"How HSUS Uses Facebook Causes"
COMING SOON

Frederick Social Media Conference
"Advanced Social Media Monitoring"
COMING SOON

Nonprofit Technology Conference -- May 09
"Confessions of a Social Media Campaigner"
http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/ntc09-clewis-ppt

Animal Care Expo -- May 09
"HSUS Social Media Case Studies"
http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/expo09-clewis-ppt

South by Southwest -- Mar 09
"Nonprofit ROI Poetry Slam"
http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/sxsw-09-doc

Convio Summit -- Sept 08
"Online Advocacy 2.0 - Beyond Petitions"
http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/convio08-clewis-ppt

The Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation -- Aug 08
"Web 2.0 Case Studies"
http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/dmanf-clewis-ppt

Taking Action for Animals -- July 08
"Using Web 2.0 to Advocate for Animals"
http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/tafa08-clewis-ppt

Nonprofit Technology Conference -- Mar 08
"Managing Your Brand in a Distributed World"
http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/ntc-brand-clewis-ppt

Nonprofit Technology Conference -- Mar 08
"Fundraising in Social Networks - Are You Ready?"
http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/ntc-fundraising-clewis-ppt

Nonprofit Technology Conference -- Mar 08
"Web 2.0 ROI - Are These Tools Really Delivering Value to the Sector?"
http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/ntc-roi-clewis-ppt

Convio Summit -- Sept 07
"Web 2.0 - New Fundraising & Outreach Techniques"
http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/conviosummit2007-carielewis-ppt

Emetrics Marketing Optimization Summit -- Oct 07
"Using & Measuring Web 2.0 in the Nonprofit Sector"
http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/carielewis-emetrics-ppt

"Confessions of a Social Media Campaigner" at NTC '09

I'll be back with my NTC takeaways, but for now, here are my slides:

http://drop.io/cariegrls/asset/ntc09-clewis-ppt

And the entire session was simulcasted by ReadyTalk here:

http://nten.org/events/webinar/2009/04/28/09ntc-live-confessions-social-media-campaigner

Some great tweets from the session here:

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23ntcconfessions

Thanks to those who attended, either in-person or virtually!

#SXSW

So, my first experience at South by Southwest (SXSW) is coming to a close. If you don't know about SXSW, it's a conference in Austin that brings together the best & the brightest in the Interactive industry. There's also the Music & Film segments too, but I'm here for the Interactive, of course.

It's been amazing. They say that your best takeaways from the conference are usually not from the panels, but from the networking opportunities at parties, in hallways, in line for lunch. It's so true. I met the CEO of ICanHasCheezburger, Pete Cashmore from Mashable, my counterpart at Best Friends, Holly Ross from NTEN, and so so so many more. I even walked away with an official LOLcat.

But don't get me wrong. The panels were great. Everything from "Ur Blog Sux and Print is Dead" to "If You Liked it Then You Should Have Put a Digg on It." I even spoke on one, where we recited how our nonprofits measure ROI in a rhyming format. It was so much fun. I love how everyone is casual here - we're all wearing jeans and sporting our org or company swag, they're cursing on every panel, and the speakers have a sense of humor. It's all about forming relationships and being "real". Which is exactly what social media is all about.

One big thing that came out of this - I reactivated my personal twitter account. You simply cannot come here without it. SXSW twitterers have overloaded Twitter many times. Everyone's writing their Twitter handle on their badges. People aren't just twittering where they are or who they're with.... they're broadcasting key takeaways and session content. If you weren't into the networking aspect, you could essentially attend SXSW without being in Austin.

Here's some personal nuggets from my experience:

- i need a new set of business cards with my twitter handle, facebook url, etc on it
- they need more power supplies in the meeting rooms
- whoever designed the austin convention center was on something.
- they need a map of nearby restaurants. there aren't many. I've been living off of beer and saltine crackers.
- it's impossible to know everything that's going on. i didn't even know there was a nonprofit panel on the day stage until i heard about it on twitter.
- twitter is going to take over the world.

So there it is. Thank goodness they're putting podcasts of all the presentations on the site, because it's really hard to pay attention when you've got 100 emails coming in per hour from back at the office.

You can follow my play by play @cariegrls if you're interested. Don't even try to follow the #sxsw hashtag - there's still like 100 tweets per second coming in. If you're in the nonprofit space - I recommend checking out #sxswnp #socialgood and #roi.

Pics are on my Facebook page - more to be added.

See you next year!