Social Media & Conference Planning: Supporting the Bloggers
We just wrapped up our 3rd outing at the RSA Conference, whom we serve as the PR agency-of-record. The show is the largest IT Security gathering; it’s been going on for 17 years and regularly draws 17,000+ people. It’s a grueling, exciting assignment. We’ve rubbed elbows (or spotted & swooned over) folks like Al Gore, Malcolm Gladwell, Bono, etc. … and that was just this year!
With each passing year, Social Media has become a bigger component of our planning.
For example, in 2006, there was nary a blogger in sight.
In 2007, our RSA Conference client first wrestled with the issue of “What makes a blogger a blogger? How should we think about their credentials versus the bona fides of a Wall Street Journal reporter?”
In 2008, bloggers were embraced. Because RSA Conference is a hot ticket, we worked with RSAC organizers to set strict but sensible guidelines regarding the assignment of blogger credentials: the focus and longevity of the blog, frequency of updates, Technorati rankings and number of page views were all taken into consideration. Bloggers who made the cut were given full journalist privileges.
In addition, this year we offered RSA Conference bloggers an official online seal (pictured) to display on their blogs. And, we warmly supported a Security Bloggers Meetup and twitterfeed.
Our PR team also maintained their own twitterfeed, to guide “followers” at the show to important events. (I don’t know if this represents the 1st time that an official tweetstream was managed by a conference organizer, but anecdotally it was a well-received idea and I foresee more of this type of activity in the future.)
All in all, a successful event, and I want to offer kudos to our RSA Conference client. The IT Security field is filled with many brilliant, irascable, and understandably paranoid people; the decision to embrace the blogosphere was not taken lightly – but the right call was made, and I think it benefitted the show and its attendees.
Subscribe by Email
Nope, not the first. Dr. Kaye Sweetser’s class maintained an official Twitter feed at UGA Connect last year — http://twitter.com/UGAconnect — and we’ll be doing it again in September.
Todd,
What methods did you use to promote the twitterfeed to potential followers? Did you actually go out of band to physical cards, signage?
ahg3
Todd,
As one of the first bloggers to get a press pass and one of the organizers of the Security Bloggers Meetup, I want to say thanks for your support of our little community. Actually, given that we had well over 100 people attend the Security Bloggers Meetup party, it’s not such a little community any more. The 2007 Meetup had about 40 people in attendance, so we’re definitely growing.
Jennifer Leggio (aka Mediaphyter) was responsible for a large part of the success of our party and deserves as many kudos as I can give her. She also ran the twitter feed for another security event earlier this year, SOURCE Boston. That doesn’t make it the earliest use of twitter at a security conference, but it does pre-date RSA.
I don’t know of many industries that have spawned as many bloggers and embraced bloggers as whole heartedly as security. I guess we’re just starved for information and blogging is a great way to disseminate and collect that information. I can only hope this trend continues.
We’re already starting to talk about next year’s meetup. Given the growth we’ve had over the last two years we’re going to have to find a bigger venue and more sponsors. But the main thrust will continue to be creating an opportunity for security bloggers to meet face to face, to create a true community.
Martin
I think the World Economic Forum at Davos had a twitter feed set up but I don’t think they used it much. The UGA feed was very helpful.
Still it’s a useful tool for announcements and quick feedback, and it sounds like you did a great job.
As you know, we’re using @Campaign2008 to generate discussions about the US presidential elections, including the debates, conventions and primaries. As we experiment more with the tool and get a better feel for its applications, we learn a great deal.
So, first off, consider me SPANKED for not knowing that other conferences had had official twitter accounts!
@ahg3 – I asked our RSAC team about how they promoted the twitterfeed. Here was their reply:
“Since the addition of Twitter was an 11th hour project, we included information about the twitterfeed in the final two press newsletters that we sent out to pre-registered attendees, encouraging them to follow the @rsaconference handle. Here is how we promoted it:
Join the Conversation – Twitter at the Conference
Interact with us – and with one another – on Twitter at this year’s Conference! Go to https://twitter.com/rsaconference to stay in the know on Conference happenings – whether to report an Alan Turing sighting or to share information on who is behind the recent breach at the Massachusetts-based Hannaford Bros. stores. And if you do plan on Tweeting, be sure to use #RSAConference in your tweets to feed into the RSA Conference Tweme.”
As noted, we could have done MORE. Next year!
@Martin – Thx for stopping by; your dedication to cultivating this community is laudable!
Todd,
Thanks!
ahg3
I’ve noticed a spike in PR agency interest. I was also invited to several shows at NY Fashion Week this year (which came as a total shock!) I even had a three page article about my fashion photo essays recently published. And I’m just a lowly blogger following style trends. Imagine that.
Martin’s right, we used Twitter at SOURCE Boston in March and the live Twitter feed was a big success. We were not only able to update people unable to attend the con but also drive content into other sessions as well. It was a huge success — and through that we were also able to recruit a lot more security professionals on Twitter. Many of which we helped drive to the RSABloggers2008 feed when we launched that, as well.
I think that RSA Conference and SHIFT did a great job of determining which bloggers merited a press pass and such. We were less exclusive with the bloggers event itself because we’re trying to forge a strong community as well as encourage some of the lesser-known or lesser-published bloggers to write more. We had about 110 bloggers attend, and the feedback has been fantastic. Jeanne Friedman over at RSA was a tremendous help in launching the event blog for us, and we also appreciate SHIFT’s help in including the blog link and the Twitter feed link in the communications that went out to press. While I think we could’ve done a better job with the Twitter feed, it was still a great information vehicle. We’ll make it bigger next year.
Cheers.