Social Media Seminar gets a “like”

Abstract Niche; the messaging and feedback company based in Slough organised and hosted a Social Media Marketing Seminar last Friday for local businesses around the Berkshire and Buckinghamshire areas. Three industry experts were sourced and spoke about using Facebook, Linked In and Twitter for business.

Fifty delegates had an individual handheld messaging unit to use each and these units generated over 140 comments, questions and discussion points from the round table exercise. Comments came in such as, “Eye opening day – thank you,” “I feel a lot more confident now about using Social Media”.

Sam Russell’s presentation (aka Facebook Oracle) focused on 3 key areas and Sam really stressed the importance of quality content on business Facebook pages. Over half of the delegates attending had personal Facebook accounts so this was an area that many were familiar with. At the start of the day 17% of attendees thought Facebook was either ‘Very or Extremely Important’ to their business / marketing strategy. After Sam’s presentation and the round table exercise this number had gone up to 30%.

James Potter’s presentation (The Linked In Man) was so engaging that most of the audience hardly had time to draw breath yet alone ask any questions, although one of them had enough time to liken James to Lee Evans!

James’s tips and 5 key ways to improve their profile went down well. By the end of his session more than 6 in every 10 delegates thought Linked In was either ‘Extremely Important’ or ‘Very Important’ to their business / marketing strategy with those who thought it ‘Extremely Important’ changing from 5 to 10 delegates.

The Queen of Twitter – Wendy Kier’s session on Twitter received the most number of questions and it seemed an area which some people felt they knew least about or used the least. At the beginning of the day more than a third of the delegates thought Twitter was either ‘Not Important’ or ‘Of No Importance At All’ to their business or marketing strategy. After Wendy’s session where she highlighted several examples of how her customers were using Twitter this number had reduced significantly to 18%. Whilst several delegates thought 5 tweets a day sounded like a lot of work, Wendy’s point about linking tweets to articles on their website, making a story from the process, went down well.

The Head of Insight from the Institute of Promotional Marketing commented on the messaging units, saying that, “ it turns a one-way seminar into a two way learning experience, which we value at the IPM”. The seminar certainly gave everyone a lot to think about and as one person commented, “Gave me a good grounding on Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. Made me realise I have lots to do but that it will be worth the time.”

Full list of comments using our messaging units.

Eye opening day – thank you

Thank you. helps me clarify my overall business development strategy, what to use and when not to use.

Lee Evans was star of the show

It was really good. It would be helpful to have a list of delegates and their email or website addresses (and professions).

Well presented seminar, relative discussion, informed speakers, & the coffee was good for a hotel

Great event Linked In speaker could have given more practical hints and tips

Good format and well run. Good content, thank you

The sessions felt a little rushed- perhaps a full day would be better

Great session

Started with virtually no knowledge of Facebook, Linked In and Twitter, today’s seminar has given me lots to think about but probably needed more basic ‘how to’ information. Will go back to the office and put the tips in practice! Thanks very much

Possibly some more in depth twitter training as I still don’t really understand it

Thank you very much. I don’t normally ask questions as I find it a little daunting so having this machine really helped. Lots of useful information and it was nice to talk to the speakers around the tables.

Nice to have the round table with the speakers joining in. we really appreciated the chance to feedback during the sessions – James is a star, must buy him a coffee soon

I feel a lot more confident now about using Social Media – thank you and thank you to Wendy, Sam and James

Great seminar, gave me a good grounding of Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. Made me realise I have lots to do but that it will be worth the time

Good seminar, thank you.