It was Saturday morning and I woke up to 8 inches of snow.  It was only 7:00 a.m. in the morning and the weatherman was predicting more snow, anywhere from 12 to 18 inches for our area.  I knew the snow was coming, but didn’t think it would hit that hard and with so much force (blizzard like conditions).  Of course, it wasn’t just any old Saturday, it was the Saturday of Event Camp and I needed to be in New York City at the Roger Smith Hotel for a 4:00 p.m. presentation.

As soon as I saw that the snow was almost over my dog’s head, I sent a DM to @jessicalevin and asked her, “Do we have a backup plan just in case I can’t get into the City today?” Notice that I used social media as my preferred choice of communications.  I knew Jessica would be checking her DMs.  She informed me, there was the possibility of doing a Skype video. This way I would be at the event virtually, if I couldn’t make it in person. After all, isn’t that what social media is about? But, I have a confession…it was at that point that I started to stress out…yes, I’m human and I was stressed   No matter how much the snow came down, I still had my heart set on being in NYC.  I was determined to make it to Event Camp, even if that meant by dog and sled team.

What is it about a physical event that made me so determined when I could have used social media to be a part of this unconference?  That’s where we all have to keep our eye on the ball.  Social media is one of the best things to happen for the event industry and for marketers and PR pros. Yet, there is still so much benefit to getting together face-to-face with a group of like-minded people.

Of course, I made it to NYC with the help of my husband, who is a much better driver in the snow.  And, at the end of my presentation, I participated in a brief interview with the event’s virtual community.  The last question that was, “With all of the snow, what made you so determined to get to Event Camp.”  My immediate response was the pure passion in my heart! For me, it meant so much to me to be in the room presenting and feeling the energy of the audience, meeting the people and talking to one-on-one with people afterward to share ideas.

I think we all realize that social media is incredible, because it enables so many more people from all around the world to access an event and information that just wouldn’t have access to otherwise.  However, there’s a physical component that, in my opinion, cannot be replaced. As much as we can enhance our events with social media, hold virtual events or produce hybrid events, I hope we don’t forget that nothing beats being with people in person, watching their reactions, seeing their heads nod, eyes light up or even seeing what gets them nervous or concerned (I see that every once in a while when it comes to traditional communication vs. social media). In any case, social media will always enhance the success of our events and build a strong community even before the event occurs.  But, if you have a choice or the means to be in person to participate…take advantage of it!

I’m so happy that I made it to Event Camp. The energy and excitement was unbelievable (not to mention the knowledge sharing that was going on during the sessions and afterward in the bar).  The connections I made were incredible and there are people who I will be interacting with in the future.  I’m not sure if I would have made these exact connections or felt the same type of energy, if I wasn’t in person.

Social media gets us excited, molds our passions and energies around a topic of interest and it provides us with incredible and useful information.  It’s the people congregating and sharing who truly make a difference. My advice … if you can ever meet your virtual friends in person then that’s the best event scenario, in my opinion.  What do you think?  Do you believe that in person events enhanced by social media make a better event, or do you think that virtual events will eventually replace our in person connections? And, let me know if you would have traveled in a snowstorm or Skyped your presentation?

I’ll start with the Skype presentation for the Social Media for Executives Event.  My presentation was a mixture of my knowledge and work in the area of PR 2.0 and information I learned years ago in my MBA program.  I tend to mix business with PR (it’s always been about the business of PR for me) so that people can understand that anything you do in marketing and PR should be aligned to the company’s overall business goals/objectives.  I framed my presentation around building an internal social networking program for employees, by wrapping a change management program around the effort, to drive a successful cultural shift in an organization.  Organizations that are resistant to the 2.0 changes in business are prime candidates for a change management program.  They need to get their employees to change their behavior from inactive to participatory and foster social media brand champions for the company.

The 8 steps of change management include:

• Create a sense of urgency
• Build a strong coalition
• Set your vision and strategy (build a social media policy and plan)
• Communicate your change vision
• Empower employees for a broader based action
• Get some short-term wins
• Consolidate wins and create more change
• Anchor the change in the organization’s culture

I believe the questions that you receive at the end of your discussion, as well as the tweets in the form of feedback, will tell you if your presentation was successful.  For the Skype presentation, I received questions about B2B examples, how I felt about Apple’s approach to social networking.  I had to dig a bit deeper on this question as my first response didn’t quite get to the point quick enough, or just wasn’t stated clearly that Apple’s lack of participation in social media was a disservice to the brand.  I was appreciative that one of the participants said that I really didn’t answer the question.  So, quickly gave a stronger statement and opinion.

Another bit of feedback that I found interesting was in regard to some of the phrases that I chose during my discussion and in the manner that I explained change management.  One participant tweeted that it was a lot of “bizspeak” and that I needed to break it down.  She said she found it difficult to translate into 140 characters.  If she didn’t say anything to me, I never would have known.  After I was finished and reviewed all of the tweets, I saw the comment and immediately reached out to thank her for her feedback. I think what we all have to remember is that criticism, whether it’s good or otherwise, is a gift.  I will take this information and definitely find a way to communicate my meaning in a different way and in little digestive chunks.

My keynote at SchipulCon was received well by the audience and I enjoyed interacting with the conference attendees even after the session was over.  My Q&A was representative of an audience that really wanted to get deep into several issues. One such issue was what do you do if you have a troll or as @kamichat (who I finally met for the first time) told me a deterrent detractor?  The woman asking the questions said that she has been faced with whether or not you should try to take the time to change every influencer’s opinion and how do you judge who’s important and who’s not.  We got into a discussion (during Q&A) about how you should try to bring the frustrated influencer into your camp, if you can change their opinion and don’t bother with the deterrent detractor.  I also wish I had stated at the time that if it’s one of your customers (possibly someone who’s already tried to work through customer service) than do whatever you can to make the situation right. We could have chatted for another hour on the subject alone at which time I told her that we could pick up the conversation afterward.  I wasn’t sure if that was the best approach, but it proved helpful as we ended up talking and exchanging cards to keep in touch.  The same thing happened with another gentleman on the discussion of ROI and social media.

In any case, it’s really important to evaluate the types of questions and then go over how you answered them.  Did you get to the point?  Did you answer the question? Did you give the participant the information he/she needed? And, if you missed something, take the time to either strike up the conversation afterward or write about it in a blog post.  Lastly, with respect to feedback, incorporate the suggestions into your next presentation and show that you’ve learned from the experience.  That’s how we grow personally and socially.

I’ve been thinking a lot about “community” as I work on my presentation.  I read @chrisbrogan’s post on Feeling the Community and a lot of what Chris says stands out in my mind.  To me, community means feeling connected and finding where I fit in whether it’s business or personal. Because we spend so many hours a day at work it’s very important that employees find the connection to the company and feel like they fit into the culture of the organization. The main focus and key take away from my discussion will be:  Executives need to understand that if they want to build a community for their employees, then they have to get the employees engaged and feeling connected from day one.

Here a few important things that I’ve learned on my community building projects:

• The community should be for employees, about the employees and set up to answer their questions, foster healthy dialogue and through discussion work toward solving their challenges. It should also allow them to be innovative and share their thoughts with other employees who understand similar work related experiences.
• If a community is created based on management’s agenda, and not necessarily with employee objectives in mind, the community will not be active and/or successful.  Those are the communities where people remain in-actives or spectators and don’t truly move up the Technographics ladder.
• It’s not what the executives want to talk about (unless it’s an executive blog).  In any case, there should no company messages passed down from the C-Suite. The information shared is information that interests employees, and in many cases it’s what they want to share with each other in order to feel connected.

It’s also important to keep in mind the following:

• Your employees are your front line.  They are the eyes and ears of the company and the group that interact the most on your behalf.
• Your employees have the knowledge and the passion to discuss the brand with enthusiasm and loyalty.  When happy, you don’t even have to ask these individuals to be your brand champions, they do it on their own.
• The enthusiasm of the first day of the job is the type of enthusiasm that should carry forward every day.  Although, we all have a “bad” day every so often, you should generally feel included and connected to your company.  Great communications, rewards and recognition help.  From there, the positive sentiment continues to grow.
• Employees want to be involved in company initiatives in order to experience a connection with their managers, directors and senior level executives.  Involving them in social media will make them a part of the “family.”

It’s the reasons stated above that make it critical to engage in social media communications internally before your the communication goes external to the public.  I am a firm believer that your employees should know your social media goals, values and understand overall how social media affects the company’s business long before you’re community building begins on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The best way to include your employees in your social media program is to use social media communications internally (teach and train them in social media) and have them collaborate and interact in a growing, healthy employee environment.  However, companies face concerns and issues every day, from how to build their social media policies to guide communications to dealing with an entire cultural shift from traditional communication strategies to social media communications.  Yes, that means you need a plan and in many cases you may wrap a change management program around your internal social media goals to truly anchor social media behavior and interaction within your company culture.

There are many interesting challenges and best practice examples of companies that are using social media internally turning their employees into brand champions on every communication front.  As an internal community grows and strengthens, you will see your champions become more poised to communicate externally, not only with passion but also with the expertise to represent your brand accurately because they understand the social media communication goals.

These are a few of the topics and key takeaways that I will discuss with a core group of senior executives on Oct. 14^th.  All organizations are unique and I’m looking forward to learning about their communities and any specific challenges they are experiencing!