#SMCAkl 5 - Jam-packed and Facebooked

Social Media Club Auckland NZ #SMCakl Social Media New Zealand

Social Media Club Auckland (#SMCakl 5) was packed to capacity... and with 150 attendees, was the biggest meet so far. Just goes to show, awareness as also interest in social media is growing with each session.

Featuring some big names in Social Media, including the biggest of them all, the topic for the evening was Marketing through Facebook: an opportune one to discuss as the number of advertisers on Facebook today has quadrupled since 2009!

Keynote speakers at the event and the main points they made were:

Rowan Schaaf, Ogilvy; Paul Webster, Facebook

Rowan Schaaf, Ogilvy

• We want to achieve a general collaboration in thinking wrt media campaigns and sourcing the right media and tech talents.
• No platform or methodology is foolproof' - make sure you've got the right message going to the right person at the right time.
• "I get laughed at for not having a TV, I can get away with that. I can't get away with not having a Facebook"

  

Paul Webster, Facebook

Paul Webster, Facebook

• 1.67 million active users of Facebook in NZ
• Average no. of friends for every FB user = 130 (potential number of people you reach everytime you connect with someone on FB)
• 75% of Kiwis aged 15-39 are active Facebook users
• Brands build connections through Facebook using 2 way dialogue
• FB case studies in NZ - 100% Pure Tourism NZ; 2degrees; Holden

Tom Osborne, Wag the Dog

Tom Osborne, Wag The Dog

• You don't own your brand, nor does your marketing dept. Customers do.
• Social Media is just a channel, not a magic bullet
• Combining SM with above the line helps
• Social Media is not a campaign medium, it's a 5-10 year medium
• Good reads: Social Object Theory & Conversational Capital

Piero Liguori, 2degrees

Piero Liguori, 2degrees

• Facebook is about linear not sporadic campaigning
• Being active on social media doesn't mean you have to lose control. 2degrees deletes people who are  consistently offensive (= trolls)
• 2degrees has full time front line customer service staff working on social media platforms

Q...

...& A

The talks were followed by a Q&A session where Piero gave away 2degrees starter packs to audience members who participated.

Social Media Club offers great networking opportunities with people from all walks of life, with a keen interest in new media. A few attendees I met:
 
 

David MacGregor, Idealog/ BrandWorld

Toni Knowles, 3D Interactive; Julian Waters, Communico

David Sakey, Colmar-Brunton; Ghanum Taylor, Below the Line

 
 

Debbie-Mayo Smith, NZ Herald; Piero Liguori, 2degrees

Justin Flitter, FlitterMedia; Tom Osborne, Wag the Dog

James Townend (ASB Bank), Nicholas O'Flaherty & Kevin Ptak (Bullet PR)

And a few more pics from the event:
 
 

 

  

 Tip to put Twitter to better use
If you're looking for info on something popular (aka a trending topic in Twitter lingo) - be it breaking news, a major incident, celebrity goss or a public event (eg. Social Media Club Auckland), the first thing is to identify the assigned hashtag - protocol sign-off used by all tweeting on the topic (#SMCakl, in this case) - via Twitter feeds or Google.

Now, for all those who cannot make it to the event (and this to my mind, is the true beauty of collaboration), just Twitter Search the hashtag and all the tweets related to SMCakl appear. You could follow the feed in real time and thus 'attend the event' remotely; engage directly with attendees via tweets/ RTs; or tune in for a listen later.

 

Huge thanks going out to: Ogilvy NZ for playing gracious hosts and for plying the venue, beer and vino; to Bullet PR for organising the event, and Nick O'Flaherty (above pic) for emceeing the proceedings.

Social Media Club meets on the second Tuesday of every month. The next one will be on July 13, 2010. Check out the Facebook profile for updates and event details. Feel free to jump in anytime and join the conversation.