The Situation: Our client, a professional association for school district technology leaders, sought to implement a strong social media campaign and communicate a consistent message across all social media channels prior to and during their annual conference. The client wanted to have a well-defined social media strategy in place to facilitate an even more successful conference experience by increasing visibility and engaging current and prospective members.
The Results: C. Blohm & Associates (CB&A) developed a comprehensive social media plan, which focused on increasing the number of Facebook posts and tweets, creating conference-specific content, pre-scheduling posts and interacting with users. This effective strategy more than doubled Facebook page views, unique visitors and total impressions, and boosted the client’s Twitter followers and retweets.
Determining the Social Media Needs
CB&A’s first step was to develop a timeline with the client in order to capitalize on the social media content in the days before and during the conference. The campaign was split into two focused segments, and a detailed schedule created for each. The segments included a developed list of over-arching, basic necessities for all social media platforms and an outline of expectations for each specific social media site (Facebook and Twitter).
Creating the Content
Prior to the conference, CB&A drafted a strong mix of suggested Twitter and Facebook content so the client could join and engage in conference-specific conversations, share their proprietary information, and offer “teasers” to pique fans’ interest. We suggested live-tweeting during the conference and issuing session status updates to provide instantaneous coverage for individuals unable to attend. This lent an authentic, real-time feeling to the social media interactions.
To burnish a busy posting schedule, CB&A designed a diverse blend of social media activity. This included sharing pictures and videos, polling fans, engaging in real-time conversations, offering promotions and sharing related articles. A wide breadth of content was created to attract and retain engagement, and to promote “viral” sharing among followers.
The Results
During the week surrounding the conference, the client posted 207 tweets on Twitter and 55 posts on Facebook. Activity summaries for Twitter and Facebook, the main social media sites targeted, compare totals from before, during and after the conference.
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- Tweets week of conference: 207
- Retweets week of conference: 246
- Followers Before Conference: 4,954
- Added 62 followers
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- Normal Average: 25-30 posts per week
- Week of Conference: Doubled to 55 posts
- Shared posts: 84
- Page Views
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- Normal Average: 5-10 per day
- Tuesday of Conference: 23 page views, 10 unique visitors
- Wednesday of Conference: 11 page views, 6 unique visitors
- Day After Conference: 11 page views, 6 unique visitors
- Reach
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- Normal Average: 250-500 persons per week
- Week of Event: 858, more than double the weekly average
- Daily Total Impressions
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- Normal Average: Typically varies, but peaks around 500 impressions
- Week of Events: More than doubled to 1,396 impressions
It was a successful campaign – engagement, interaction and number of followers surpassed the goals and expectations set by CB&A and the client. Building a solid social media foundation based on the client’s priority list allowed CB&A to formulate a winning strategy and execute it with aplomb.