I’ve been presenting seminars and workshops on the topic of the network society and social media since 2009.
The past four years have seen a huge uptake of social channels as part of integrated commercial communications plans by businesses across all sectors. Every time I speak at a public event, I ask the audience for a show of hands to gauge how many delegates use social for both personal and/or business use. In 2009, I was lucky to a) get anybody in a room interested enough to hear me speak on the subject, and b) those that did turn out, certainly had no exposure to social technology, either from a personal or business perspective.
This morning I presented at the first of a series of breakfast seminars, hosted by Guernsey Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Grant Thornton, on the topic of Social Media and how to get the best from it.
Chamber informed me that over 70 delegates signed up within the first five days of the event being promoted. This response demonstrates the level of interest on this topic today, versus a few short years ago. I think pretty much every business sector was represented within the audience too. A real shift in the requirement for knowledge!
A brief 25 minute presentation from me setting the global scene and how to create a strategic approach to social was followed by Nic Legg, of Coast Media, giving a case study of Guernsey Football Club’s highly successful social campaigns.
Questions post presentation ranged from how do you sell multiple suites of products across multiple social channels, to mitigating risk and managing customer service, and the ever present issue of time management and resourcing social communications as a brand.
“I enjoyed the seminar and found Jo Porritt’s presentation particularly useful as we are currently developing our social media strategy in relation to customer support and customer engagement. I came away with some very useful tips – for example using social media platforms as part of our competitor analysis. The event certainly broadened my view on how social media can be integrated into our overall customer communications activity” Charlotte Dunsterville, Customer Experience Director at Sure.
Many people have requested my keynote, so please find the full deck of slides below, hosted on our SlideShare account. (You can take a peek at some of our other content here too)
Crowd Media were early adopters of social as part of integrated communication plans. We were instrumental in educating the local marketplace and raising the profile of tech related debates. Our hard work, passion and enthusiasm has resulted in us now working with some of the largest brands in both Guernsey and Jersey. We are one of the only communications agencies to have provided genuine and measurable commercial success for our client base, by using social technology as part of strategic and cohesive marketing planning.
It seems that Guernsey and Jersey businesses are certainly realising the potential benefits of utilising social technology.
Crowd are planning a series of informal coffee mornings ; these will be held in a relaxed environment where delegates are able to raise any questions or concerns they may have with regard to emerging social technologies in Guernsey. We hope that this will be a beneficial format for attendees as our contribution to recent seminars and events has shown that there is a growing thirst to be able to have their questions answered directly. Watch this space.