By: Kari Dunham, Interactive Account Executive, and Bill Finn, President, of Finn Digital LLC, www.finndigital.com
As humans we continuously strive to grow our network of relationships. Events like parties, dinners or reunions are the original social network, bringing people together to expand personal and professional relationship, so it’s no surprise that we created conferences to build our professional black book. In the digital age, we professionals seldom develop a solely "in-person relationship." Therefore, conference organizers are beginning to bring what was once a "physical" event to the web.
Successful conference exposure has expanded to include social technology before, during and after an event. Serving as a hub for information, online social networks can initiate key relationships between presenters and attendees prior to the event. Attendees can utilize conference-specific community platforms to post notes from presentations, print out agendas or develop list of attendees to meet while onsite. Further, traffic on these conference social networks double after these events, specifically because they act as "online archives" for conversations and event feedback or attendees use them to follow-up with contacts.
Some popular platforms being utilized for conferences include:
1. Ning
Ning is as an external social networking site where attendees can create their own social community and invite others to join. Similar to social networks like Facebook or MySpace, Ning offers profiles, comments, and photos, as well as conference-friendly features like "chat", event pages for attendees to RSVP to conference sessions with visible attendee lists, and a blog tab to post notes or comment post-sessions. The premium version can integrate a live Twitter stream on the home page. Ning is free to use, with ad-free and customizable premium packages available for $25 a month*.
2. CrowdVine
CrowdVine is a conference-developed social network offering in-depth profile, messaging, and search features, establishing relationships between attendees as "a friend"; "a fan"; or "someone to meet". Calendar features allow attendees to create their own agendas and discuss sessions. A feedback feature rates a session’s content or speaker while want-to-meet lists help attendees pinpoint who they would like to meet and who wants to meet them. Blog, photo and Twitter streams are aggregated into the dashboard for easy viewing. CrowdVine has free versions, but customizable, ad-free versions begin at $399 per event.*
3. Pathable
Pathable is a conference-specific social networking platform with a "tagging" system. As a member of this network, attendees can identify and converse with others at the conference with similar tags. Pathable also works with existing Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, alerting attendees when their connections will be attending. Perfect for the mobile world, Pathable offers iPhone and smart phone applications for organizing agendas, contacts and more. They can also produce name tags/conference badges with basic attendee information, attendees’ tags and a list of people to meet. Pathable charges, on average, a $1,000 set-up fee for each event and approximately $3 – $6 per attendee for its services.*
Social networks provide the tools for conference attendees to "socialize" before, during and after the event. However, these networks require a marketing strategy to educate attendees on the features and benefits of each tool. Encourage attendees within the social platform to blog, tweet, geo-tag and post photos, videos or comments to discussion boards/forums. This official "social media team" can receive conference perks/incentives as a bonus during the event while demonstrating the use of the tools. With a conversation already started, attendees won’t be intimidated to share their comments and experiences.
See how the Business Marketing Association’s National Conference in Chicago demonstrated this team effort.
With online social networking platforms, attendees are seeing more business opportunities out of their conference experience, raising their ROI in professional events despite the economic climate.
*These prices are provided as of July 2009 and are dependent on quote from each company.
