Social Media Toolbox
August 18, 2010

Most event marketers are trying to find the best way to maximize the power of social media at their events. But that can be hard to do if Facebook and Twitter are the only tools in their bag of tricks. With new and more targeted platforms popping up daily, it can be just as challenging to keep up with which ones are relevant and useful for the event industry. EM narrowed the field to eight of the most interesting social media tools, sites and platforms fit for events.

Foursquare

foursquare.com

What it does: The darling of the last 60 days, Foursquare has steadily become an online Twitter-based sensation. The basic premise: Using Twitter, players in the Foursquare game “check in” via tweet to the locations in real life that they visit. By doing so, they win “badges” that equate to bragging rights. The most sought- after badges can inspire fierce competition and “swarming” (another badge that players win if enough people check in at one location). Brands that want to be part of the action invite attendees to check in at their event, if they already use the app. If not, they can invite them to download the app to any smartphone and then start checking in. Important note: Foursquare uses the Internet to find your location, so if you’re in an obscure locale, you’re outta luck.


Why use it: Consumers love a little healthy competition, and Foursquare can bring that competitive spirit to life at your event. If you want guests to come to your booth or fan zone, and return again and again, let people know that the “mayor” of your zone (the user who checks in the most) gets special perks, like a jump to the front of the line, discounts or cool giveaways. Be creative. If you give them the tools and the incentive, they may “check in” at your next event and inspire others to do the same.



AerWave by Aerva

aerva.com

What it does: Aerva’s new widget allows brands to aggregate most major social media feeds into one easy to read display, which is then broadcast to a screen via a proprietary player for all event attendees to see and (hopefully) interact with via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other platforms. Use it for large audiences who need to see your display to follow a Twitter hashtag, or get updates from your branded Facebook page. Great for conferences and trade shows, or large consumer events.


Why use it: Though it is possible to build a multi-platform widget of your own and then connect a flat screen television to a laptop for display, there are a lot of moving parts in that kind of an operation, which makes for a greater chance of snafu. To avoid that possibility, AerWave’s simpler methodology might be the answer, for about $1,000 in annual subscription costs.



SocialTalk by Syncapse

socialtalk.com
What it does: So your brand already has a presence in social media. You’re on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Now, the time has come to get the detailed tracking you need to prove that your time is well spent and that the trusted staffers who are managing your social identity have the supervision they need. Enter SocialTalk. This content management system takes care of the whole cycle, from creation to measurement, across several major platforms. Once the post or tweet or video is created, it goes though a predetermined workflow path, which includes automated approval mechanisms and tracking for changes and edits. Finally, the data capture tool is truly powerful, with an integrated dashboard for all key metrics, tracking data for key commentators followers and fans.


Why use it: Because it matters how and why your online presence gets there and what happens to the investment in time and money you made to be there. It’s just that simple. Thing to know: SocialTalk isn’t free. Contact a Syncapse sales person for more info.



Chatter by Salesforce.com
salesforce.com/chatter

What it does: Chatter is a secure, private social media cloud à la Twitter, that will allow members of an organization to collaborate in real time on projects across distance. (Note: Chatter is still in beta and is scheduled for full release this year.) It incorporates document sharing, outside social networks like Facebook and Twitter, an app exchange for Chatter-specific mobile apps, feeds for projects and events that matter to the user and security protocols that keep only the people who should be in the know, in the loop.


Why use it: Well, the tricky part is that Chatter is a feature of Salesforce, a CRM platform, so if you don’t use salesforce.com, and don’t plan to, then Chatter isn’t for you. However, if you do or are considering it, then Chatter’s ability to keep your team all on the same page, on the back end, where key communications, files and instructions are communicated in real time, it might make the difference between a disaster and a disaster averted.



Ustream

ustream.tv

What it does: This live video feed website is pretty simple to use; set up an account, plug your camera into your computer (gotta be online, remember), name your show, then broadcast your live event like a live television show. Easy as that. The possibilities are endless: “XYZ Brand presents, live coverage of its national road tour. Tune in Fridays at 5:00.” 

Why use it: Though pre-recorded video as seen on Vimeo, YouTube and countless other sites have value, live, unedited viewing is much more trustworthy to consumer audiences than recordings. Also, it really helps absent attendees taste a bit of the energy of the event when they can see it as it happens. Finally, because it’s live, the length of the clip isn’t a problem, though bandwidth can be. Tip: Make sure your connection is fast enough to handle the feed. If your live event has a wide audience, some of whom might not make it but want to feel like they’re there, and you want a professional, high quality look, with the comfortable familiarity of television, Ustream could be the way to go.



LinkedIn

linkedin.com

What it does: Forget the notion that LinkedIn is just about networking now in case you need to look for a job later. Most of the active users of LinkedIn are not there for the networking, but for research. They’re looking into people they might do business with and businesses they might hire or recently heard about. Therefore, the opportunity exists to augment your next trade-show presence (live or virtual) with your company’s LinkedIn profile. “Want to know more about us and about our company? Visit us at ...” Get it?


Why use it: It has been said that LinkedIn is out of date and growing irrelevant. Untrue, especially in the b-to-b world, thanks in large part to a suite of new features the site is in the process of rolling out. One of the more recent is the “Follow Company” button, which lets users and visitors link to a given company as easily as a “fan” on Facebook. Followers will get info on new hires and promotions, new jobs and company profile updates. Delish.



Gowalla

gowalla.com
What it does: Gowalla is a location-based social network. Consumers use it to direct friends and neighbors to the coolest places, like restaurants, hiking paths and other hotspots, in their cities. If you want to be one of those places, you just have to get the Gowalla cred to do it. Unlike Foursquare, you can register your event site, even if it doesn’t have a true street address. Once you do, Gowalla’s giant e-map will put a pin on your spot and start tracking who’s coming. If you’re really cool, you might be chosen as a Gowalla featured spot, but don’t get too excited—that takes awhile. Gowalla is downloadable as an app to most smartphones and can be used online directly.


Why use it: Gowalla allows you to earn that off-beat street cred that keeps you from looking like Big Brother’s holding company. It also enables your brand’s existing fans and followers to share the virtues of your event with their network of friends and colleagues. The virtual recommendations may help drive attendance or bring together like-minded consumers interested in your brand.

eventSocial
threestage.com/eventsocial

What it does: Conferences and trade shows are the natural home of this event-based social networking tool, but with a little creativity it can be translated to a variety of events. Three Stage Media, which owns the eventSocial software, says it can embed the program into any event's microsite or homepage in about a week. To do so, the organizer has to upload the .csv file of the attendee list to eventSocial and the company does the rest. Once uploaded and set up, attendees can search their own networks for people they know who are attending the show, and invite non-attendees to come to the show, if they think they'd enjoy the subject matter.
Why use it: Everyone knows that the most important advocate for a brand or event is an attendee, so eventSocial has created a great way for attendees to collaborate on site and bring new attendees into the mix who might otherwise have not come at all.

Social Media Toolbox
Making the ROI case for social media
August 18, 2010

Executives eager to avoid getting involved in the whole social media thing frequently cite lack of clear return on investment as a shortcoming. It's time to put that misperception to bed.
The Internet is the most measurable medium ever invented, and anything that can be measured can be used to calculate ROI. The first thing you need to know is the value of a customer. If you don't know that, get your CFO to figure it out. It takes about two hours. Then you need solid customer relationship management practices and decent Web analytics. Here's how it works.

Let's say a typical customer spends $10,000 with you annually and stays for five years. If your profit margin is 10%, then the average new customer is worth $5,000. Once we know that, then we can plug in conversion rates to figure out the value of a website visitor, a Twitter follower, a webcast registrant or anyone else.

Let's say Twitter brings an average of 1,000 monthly visitors to your website and that you typically convert 50 of them to customers. That's $250,000 in monthly Twitter value. If it took 50 tweets to get 1,000 visitors, then each tweet was worth $5,000.

Or let's say a search optimization program brings an additional 1,000 visitors per month and that searchers convert at a 0.1% rate. That means the program is delivering $50,000 a month in value. If you spent less than that, you have positive ROI.

It isn't that simple, of course. You also need to understand the cost of getting those additional visitors. But if you have a clear picture of staff and time costs, that's not rocket science. For example, if the fully loaded cost of a full-time social media expert is $100,000, and if you can trace 20 new customers to her efforts, then she's paid for herself.

Why aren't more businesses using these simple metrics? For one thing, most of them don't know the value of a customer. Fix that.

The bigger problem is that few companies use Web analytics or understand the analytics they use. They look at meaningless statistics like page views and ignore the capabilities of today's sophisticated tools to identify what visitors do once they reach a website.

Custom URLs let you easily identify where people came from; analytics let you profile their behavior. When you know the percentage of respondents to a Facebook promotion who drop a lead and the percentage of leads that convert to customers, you can easily figure the ROI of Facebook.

Does this take time and effort? Sure. Is there anything more important to your business than understanding the behavior of your customers? I can't think of anything.

B2B Online
Cost isn't the only rationale for open source adoption
August 16, 2010

Virgin America Airlines moved from commercial software to free, open source software, but it didn’t do so to save a buck.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, saving money isn’t the only reason to go open source, according to Ravi Simhambhatla, CIO for Virgin America, who spoke at LinuxCon 2010 here last week.

Though he was preaching to the converted at the show, Simhambhatla said he had his work cut out for him convincing Virgin America executives to ditch Microsoft Windows, Sharepoint and other commercially supported products in favor of open source software.

He had to prove that performance, stability and reliability were better than the commercial products the airline already used, and that it would require less maintanence than existing systems. He was able to do so. "We have 100% uptime and we only have one Linux systems administrator," Simhambhatla said.

Frank Basanta, director of technology for Systems Solutions, a systems integrator based in New York, said the stability open source systems provide is more important than cost.

“Open source software is very stable – we use it ourselves and don’t have any issues. It just runs and runs,” Basanta said.

The lower costs associated with open source were a bonus for Virgin America, he said. For instance, the company circumvented expensive vendor contracts and reduced the need for high-cost hardware and storage, as most open source software operates nicely on low-spec platforms, Simhambhatla said.

“Going open source saves us $4 to $4.5 million each year in IT spending, and we have much better performance and reliability, so why wouldn’t we use it?” Simhambhatla quipped.

Today, almost their entire IT infrastructure is open source-based, including the in-flight entertainment system -- Red. Virgin America uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 for its website, frequent flyer database, data and systems integration, border e-mail gateways, and anti-spam system. They also switched from a commercial VPN to OpenVPN and use KnowledgeTree for document management, MySQL for database, and HAProxy for load balancing and failover.

Open source -- it isn’t about the money
Some open source proponents say cost should never be the top reason for moving to open source, because in the end, it isn’t free.

“Cost is certainly something that drives people to open source, but in many ways it sets unreasonable expectations on vendors,” said John Locke, manager of the Seattle-based open source business solution provider Freelock Computing. “If the software is valued at $0, some [companies] think whatever feature they need should also be free, instead of something they have to pay to develop.”

People want software that just runs and runs, because that’s where you save time and money.
Frank Basanta, director of technology, Systems Solutions
Sophisticated software is expensive to maintain, whether it’s open source or commercial, and the more complicated the system, the more a company will spend over time, he said.

For instance, Locke uses the open source content management system Drupal, and said “it's far from a free solution.”

“There's a constant stream of security updates that somebody needs to apply -- and if it's not a vendor, it's probably an employee,” he said. “You're going to pay somebody either way.”

Some LinuxCon attendees agreed that cost isn’t the number one driver; they use open source for the flexibility and reliability it provides, and the flexibility to avoid vendor lock-in.

In fact, the risk of commercial vendor lock-in is one of the biggest drivers among  open source customers. With open source, IT pros know if they aren’t happy with a service provider, there are other developers capable of providing support.

“With a proprietary, software as a service vendor, if you like the software but have problems with the vendor, you're stuck -- you have no alternative but to start over on a new platform,” Locke said.

While “free” open source software isn’t actually free at the end of the day, the benefits it provides, and the stability in particular, summate into significant cost savings, said Systems Solutions’ Basanta.

“People want software that just runs and runs, because that’s where you save time and money -- when you don’t have to put your hands on it every month, like terrible Tuesdays with Microsoft,” Basanta said.

Many IT shops run a mix of Windows and Linux, because some applications simply require Windows, but Basanta said he always recommends substituting Linux for Windows wherever possible.

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