Lessons Learned from Conference Blogging
I'm really interested in how we connect F2F and distributed participants and interested folks with and to F2F events. I've blogged things like the Appreciative Inquiry Conference, Northern Voice, SXSW and other events and have been amazed and how appreciative people have been.
More and more folks are starting to think about a structured approach to conference blogging. I think there is a place for both ad hoc and structured. Conference & Corporate Blogging as a Marketing Tool tells the story of a more structured event. Tara Hunt shares not just what went well, but also the pitfalls, which I appreciate in a debrief report like this. She included many issues from technology, process and sponsorship. Thanks, Tara.
Here are a few snippets:The Results: What Worked
...A post-conference survey revealed that a majority of the conference participants knew about the blog, almost 40% of them actually read the blog, and many others were quick to give tips and comments regarding what they wanted to see in the blog for the following year. Some of the comments received included wanting to see more tips for out-of-towners, advance exhibitor "contest" alerts (who is having iPod giveaways specifically) and where to find them and overall comments on the visibility of the weblog (needed to find out what it was, where they could go to access it and what information it included). The exhibitors at the trade show also loved the blog and used our writers to promote their contest giveaways and announce winners.
The Results: What Didn’t Work
...Lack of visibility was one of the biggest issues. The combination of our members not being familiar with the medium and the late start on promoting the blog as a conference tool resulted in lower awareness than we hoped. Because of late approvals and planning, we had only two weeks before the conference kicked off to promote the blog. ...
We also encountered various sponsorship issues with the blog.... Having a sponsor also skewed the look and the feel of the blog site, so eliminating sponsorship for this particular item would allow us to better align the overall conference with the blog brand.
What We’ll Do Differently Next Time
...I would start posting changes and announcements on the blog sooner than the actual conference days, so that delegates would get used to visiting this source for news early on. ...the Annual Conference blog will remain open access because it acts as an excellent marketing tool for those not in attendance. ...I enjoyed the end-result of the various writing styles and would like to add an even more diverse group of writers for the blog next year—pulling volunteers from student members and CHRP (Certified Human Resource Professional) candidates.
...Overall, because this project has gone from "pilot" to part of the overall marketing, we will promote the blog much earlier on in all of the conference materials—something that our late start for this conference didn’t allow us to do.
Once the presence of the blog is widely known among our members and non-member conference delegates, we will have the opportunity to promote the RSS feeds for conference updates and teasers. ...
posted by Nancy White at 7:21 PM
4 Comments:
Nancy -
I've been enjoying Jay Cross's blog http://metatime.blogspot.com/ and his descriptions of a couple conferences like the Taining 2005 in New Orleans. I think that there are two keys to what I enjoyed about Jay's descriptions:
1. He didn't pretend to be official anything or neutral or objective. He was more of a commentator than a reporter. And his comments reflected his personality as much as the conference. And that's a Good Thing.
2. He uses pictures in his blog. A LOT of pictures.
Bill Bruck (Q2Learning)
bbruck@q2learning.com
Collaborative Learning Blog
Join our CoP at http://cop.collabhost.com
Bill, great points through Jay's example (walking the talk!).
A bunch of us were talking at a F2F gathering recently about conference blogging and "authentic voice" AND picture both were mentioned. Pictures, in my recent examples, meant the speakers, people behind the scenes at conferences and any available graphics. Jay does a great job of that (and in his PPTs too!)
One thing that struck me in your comment is the need for people to be transparent about their roles. The linked article in the post above was clearly the conf organizer effort and should be portrayed as that. Independent bloggers should be clear of their position or voice in some way (at least if they are a) getting paid to blog it or b) represent someone in their blogging other than themselves.)
Yet another person asked me, why waste the precious F2F time blogging? I said simply, to contribute!
Hey Nancy,
Thanks for reading the article. I'm not much of a 'corporate' writer, but was asked to do a true case study type post for the journal.
Unfortunately, the powers that be decided not to run a blog this next year, but I'm being underhanded. I'm adding an RSS feed, comments and trackback to the standard 'conference news' section of the website. It's still difficult to get the point across, isn't it?
Tara
Tara, I appreciate that you took the time to write it. Not enough of us do that!
They nixed it, eh? Tell them they have lost their minds. Not a smart move.
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