The 
Situation: CB&A sought to increase opportunities for clients at ISTE 2015 by launching BuzzHub, a mutually beneficial, layered approach to visibility at conferences. The event included speed meetings between startup companies and key media members, one-on-one interactions, educator led roundtable discussions and after-hours networking events. To make these events a success, CB&A set out to create a strategic social media campaign that would promote the launch and events of BuzzHub across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. CB&A’s goal was to make the industry aware of the events at ISTE and increase its social following.
The Results: The CB&A team saw impressive results from ISTE 2015. The social media strategy promoted a larger online following across channels and increased engagement before, during and after the conference.
Planning & Execution
Prior to ISTE, CB&A surveyed members of the media in order to gauge trending topics and the type of coverage the media was likely to publish. This feedback helped design BuzzHub events and form social media content. A comprehensive infographic was curated to explain these survey findings and was then used widely across CB&A’s social channels.
To create anticipation for the events at BuzzHub, CB&A drafted blog posts, news releases and social content. BuzzHub was announced by a short preview of each event and a reminder to followers of what was going to occur during ISTE. For the event itself, all social copy was written a week in advance and preplanned in order for operations to run smoothly.
During the conference, an onsite liaison was designated to live tweet and send rich material back to the team. Other members of the CB&A team looked for client news and trends to develop engaging and informational social media content. In addition, diverse social media tools such as Periscope and Vine were used to live stream and highlight conference happenings. As a continuation of its strategy, CB&A wrote additional blog posts after the conference to increase exposure of BuzzHub, our clients and industry influencers who attended.
Outcomes
- CB&A’s blog posts earned 253 unique pageviews
- Top five tweets garnered more than 4,800 impressions and gained 26 followers
- Facebook totaled more than 200,000 media impressions
- LinkedIn accumulated 37,000 impressions
With preplanning and onsite execution, CB&A achieved, and in some cases exceeded, its goals for BuzzHub. CB&A’s social media strategy increased visibility for BuzzHub and heightened the awareness of CB&A’s role in the education industry and on the conference trail. This campaign earned a PRSA Alchemy Award of Merit.