06 – The Social Media Hat

Back in 2013, friend and gourmet chef Dennis Littley put on a virtual summit about blogging and social media marketing. Today that doesn’t sound particularly impressive, but imagine how limited platform options were back then? There were virtually no software solutions for such an endeavor. Nor was it commonplace for people to put on or even attend online events that lasted more than an hour or two.  Yet he accomplished something special, pulling together a variety of talented speakers, leveraging the capabilities of Google+ and Hangouts On Air, to successfully help and educate hundreds  and hundreds of people.

In fact, it worked so well, he did it again in ’14 and once again in ’15.

Like most of us involved back then, it was our first full experience with a completely online event and it was impactful. Several years later, in 2018, when I put on my own virtual summit, I thought back to how Dennis ran things often.

Whew, that first event was a huge learning experience for me. I ran 16 live streamed webinars over the course of two weeks. Each was hosted on a platform called livestorm.co which was great for a single webinar… not so hot for a whole series of them. Registrants had to sign up for each session individually, and there was little engagement.

And yet, by our standards it was a huge success. Over a thousand people signed up and attended and learned from our presenters.

A little time passed while other projects took priority, and then in 2019 I hosted another summit, and then another. Each time I learned, adapted, improved, and achieved more! A thousand attendees grew to two thousand and then three thousand. And the sessions themselves improved in quality and content and quantity.

Earlier this year I worked with Agorapulse to launch a new Facebook Group, Social Pulse Community, and then we re-branded the virtual summits to be Social Pulse Summit. I continued to innovate, by using new technology and features like Messenger Rooms to deliver increasingly engaging event experiences!

My last summit was focused 100% on LinkedIn and, after it was finished, I started talking with my CMO and CEO about what my long term vision might be for the event. What do I hope to achieve over the next year?

The answer was simple, if not intimidating… Become The Premiere Event In The Social Media Marketing Space, Attracting The Best Speakers And Tens Of Thousands Of Attendees.

I want Social Pulse Summit to be THE event that you can’t wait to dive into each and every quarter.

I want to get to the point where, as soon as you learn when the next one will be, you rush to sign up because you know there are going to be tremendous speakers and sessions, incredibly valuable information, and a rich & rewarding community experience that provides numerous networking and relationship building opportunities.

To say then that my new mission in life is to help you is not an understatement. This is literally my main objective and most important recurring project at Agorapulse. I’m currently investing weeks and weeks of time to put together the next summit, and foresee that by the end of 2021, I will have one or more staff members helping me, and will have started to plan the next quarter’s event even before the current one takes place.

Speaking of which… did I mention that the next summit is ready for you?

Social Pulse Summit: Twitter Edition

Head over to summit.agorapulse.com to read all of the incredible sessions and speakers happening on Wednesday, November 18th. Like last quarter, this summit is focused on a specific platform: Twitter. You’ll find dozens of fascinating sessions on how to better leverage Twitter to grow your business, spread brand awareness, work with customers, or even discover influencers!

You’ll hear from Jay Acunzo, Neal Schaffer, Jessika Phillips, Heidi Cohen, Donna Mortiz, Madalyn Sklar, Christopher Penn, Troy Sandidge, Sarah Evans, Ian Cleary, David H. Lawrence XVII, and many more!

You’ll learn how to create compelling videos and graphics, specifically suited for Twitter. How to leverage and launch your own tweet chat. And most importantly, how to measure the success of all your activities.

What’s great is that, while the focus is on Twitter, there are doubtless lessons to be learned and applied to all platforms and areas of marketing! From planning strategy to building relationships, there are deep, impactful presentations to consume that will help you well into 2021.

For instance, and this is particularly timely… Jay Acunzo will be sharing with us his thoughts on planning and, most importantly, how to change plans successfully. He writes:

Our world as marketing leaders has always been overflowing with ideas and answers, available instantly, everywhere, from everyone. Yes, the dark side of the Information Age seems to be advice overload. But now? Impossibly, that feels kicked into high gear. Everyone has their own “recovery” concepts for you, your team, and your brand.

The thing is, when everyone inside and outside your team has a million answers for what works best “in general,” the real question becomes: What works best for you?

It feels like we’re caught on an endlessly spinning wheel, full of reactive, stress-induced work. To do our best work, we need to break this wheel.

In this fast-paced, inspiring talk, Jay Acunzo will hand attendees a sledgehammer. With hilarious but eye-opening stories of real businesses from diverse sectors who escaped their cycle of reactive work and found a path back to something better — all in the face of adversity.

Things will always be different, but different shouldn’t mean worse. To do anything exceptional, we can’t settle for Plan B, C, or D. We need a new Plan A.

All of that, and more, is happening on Wednesday, November 18th, and you’re invited to grab your FREE ticket here: summit.agorapulse.com

And that’s just the breakout sessions! I haven’t even announced who are stunning Keynote Speakers are going to be, as well as live speaker Q&A sessions during the day, table talks, prizes… don’t miss out. Block out the day – get your boss to sign off if you need to – and plan to make the most of this edutaining event.