How could I miss an event like this right on my doorstep !?!

I had the choice of 3 seminars from the selection of 10.  (and this is my only criticism of the day, I wish I could have attended 3 more); I chose the LinkedIN Session with James Potter (thelinkedinman), the Facebook session with Amanda Hill and then the Social Media Monitoring Session with Matt Hodkinson.

All really good content, as you would expect I knew pretty much all of the content but that didn’t stop me picking up a few new ideas and some mentions of online tools I had not previously heard of.  It is always difficult at an event like this for the speakers to know what level to pitch their material at.  Do you prove your knowledge to the others who are already in social media or keep it to a level where new comers will not be alienated by what you say.  I must say all three of the speakers who’s session I attended did a really good job of balancing it.

The wrap up for the day was a Keynote from Penny Power and Thomas Power of Ecademy.  Which gave much food for thought and raised some very interesting points about who you are online, how you behave and how you should think about your actions online.

So, my BIGGEST take-aways from the day are:  (and this is thanks to my own tweets on #whatsnextevent because I forgot my notebook on the day)

• 1. To drive engagement on Facebook – Start A Fire !! Share quality content and let others fuel the fire (comments)
• 2. Polls are a really good way to drive engagement on Facebook.
• 3. Build a “happy” social media buzz and reward your network “relevantly”
• 4. Think about exactly what your Target Market wants to read.
• 5. Link your Facebook to Twitter and not the other way around – There is too much activity on Twitter that might annoy your Facebook followers.
• 6. Social Media allows us to stay in contact forever.  You can lose a business card, phone number and just fall out of touch – social media keeps us connected at all times.
• 7. When online “Be Yourself”
• 8. Be social – its not all about business.  Be known as a person and not a walking billboard.
• 9. Are you a Change Maker or a Trader in business?
• 10. Don’t be CSC (Closed, Selective and Controlling) be ORS (Open, Random and Supportive)

Well done to Allan Blair Beaton for organising a really great event, I am already looking forward to the next one….

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