In preparing a social media campaign for a Disney Institute professional development program, I evaluated the available materials that the marketing group was providing.  Based on a traditional marketing effort the materials included email, press releases, Word of Mouth and partner promotions.  They had some video but due to the Disney Brand, there were not allowed to be posted on Youtube for sharing by others.

I created my own

I needed more content to share and created slide presentations (for Slideshare)  and blog articles.   I started to track down past attendees of the events to interview them myself via phone or using video.  In order to understand the magic behind Disney and what makes  these professionals evangelists online and off about customer service, the Disney leadership principles and customer experiences I needed to talk directly to a few Disney evangelists.

Of course I used social media to make some connections. I first joined the Disney Institute Alumni Group on LinkedIn to see what everyone was talking about. Then I started to network and ask questions with various people in the Group.  David Balentine was one of my first connections and he said that his experienced at the Disney Institute unleashed a passion in him for customer service.  He believes that everyone has a role to play in customer service and he  writes about on his blog All For the Customer.

David Balentine’s Disney story

David Balentine and Family at Epcot (Photo Credit D. Balentine)

Let me first give you a little background.  David is a general manager of several General Nutrition Centers (GNC) in the Atlanta area. David first visited Walt Disney World (WDW) in August 1972 and then not again until 2001.  After that he had business conventions in and around WDW every other year.  In 2003,  he started taking his family with him.

“In 2009, I already considered myself a Disney geek, downloading Disney podcasts to my iPod, registering on numerous Disney forums and listening to Disney music on the internet day and night. We booked a 5-night stay at the Contemporary Resort. One of the days, we went to Blizzard Beach instead of one of the theme parks. We did not have any dining reservations for that evening so I stopped by the Concierge desk for assistance. I explained to the Cast Member that we didn’t have any reservations anywhere and I understood it was last minute but I wanted to have a special dinner with the family. . . . could he help me? Cary, the CM from the DC area, looked at me and said two simple words that. “Of course.” He was there to help me and how dare I think that he couldn’t help me. He didn’t say those words but that’s what he meant. He found us a table at Le Chefs de France at Epcot and we had a wonderful time.”

When David returned he started to educate himself  about Disney-style customer service. Its no small wonder that continuing educating yourself is one of the leadership principles at Disney.  One of the books he read was Lee Cockerell’s “Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies From a Life at Disney.” After reading, he booked a course on Leadership Excellence at Disney Institute in Orlando.  And that one was not his last.

Question and answers

Curious about David’s impressions of that first Disney Institute training, I asked about the details.  The Leadership Excellence course held in  November  2009 was a 3.5 day leadership principle program that closely followed the principles and tips in Creating Magic.  David said that Disney looks at everything surrounding their guest.  From the way the sheets are folded, to the way they clean up the resorts and parks. Cast members are graded on smiling at guests and even picking up any trash they see on the ground.  After reading Lee Cockrell’s book, he wanted his operation, at least what he was responsible for, to run like Lee Cockerell talked about.  He paid for this training out of his own pocket. During the sessions he attended, he found the attendees to be very diverse – large corporate,  insurance businesses , Christian youth home, military, individuals, retail and business to business.

Although David manages two retail stores, he never received formal training on how to be a leader.  While  he loved being in direct contact with  customers,  he was lacking the qualities that are Disney’s guiding lights.  Another concern for him was his lack of a formal degree.

“By the time [the first]course was over, I was feeling like I could run any Fortune 100 company if given the right people and enough time to do the job!” David Balentine

Suggestions for others

David Balentine during training (Photo credit D. Balentine

Its obvious that David is an evangelist for Disney and customer service. He has continued his quest for more education (another key principle in Lee Cockerell’s book) by taking a second and this fall will attend his third course.  His drivers are both personal and professional, but still remains funded out of his own pocket.

“It is my goal one day to be employed by the Walt Disney Company. Until that happens, I am going to take what they have to offer and bring the level focus and energy back and apply it to our operation. There were already some processes in place because we are very customer focused. But there is always more you can do. The courses leave you with a feeling that tells you to get moving!”

Key take aways from a Disney event

David offers the following comments on this Disney training:

• On the Disney Institute site they don’t rank the course as to order, but he would suggest taking the leadership course  last or after some core topics under your belt.
• He felt welcomed but felt personally he was not professional ready to deal with all the topics.
• He has written letters to compliment the programs and the structure.
• Wears a Disney pin each day – to remind him to focus on the customer.

His key take aways were as follows:

• Setting through which your business works (office, retail, warehouse) main delivery methods for message out. Needs to be seamless for getting message out. Use to hit on the sensory details for a brand. Makes the difference when people have choice.

• People – onstage and behind the scenes. Guest never see them, but if they don’t do their job the rest of the organization can fail.

• Process  to deliver the experience they have to offer.

Its clear from the interview I had with David that he was able to embrace the Disney principles at the courses he has already completed in Leadership Excellence and Quality Service.  He hopes to complete People Management in 2011.

What effect has the Disney brand had on your life?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why I love Disney and Twitter! (momblognetwork.com)
• Alan Bergstrom of Brand Insights talks about Disney Institute’s Approach Programs (customerthink.com)
• Disney Imagineer Tony Baxter Speaks at the Creative Problem Solving Institute (eon.businesswire.com)

Related posts:

1. What I learned at the Midwest Internet Marketing Super Conference
2. Social Media Tools |Thoughts on Blogs | Week of 11-06-2009
3. Social Media Breakfast Madison | Do It Yourself Video | February 2010

Are you an event manager or promoter looking to use new tools to more effectively get the word out on your next event?  The Social Media Club of Madison recently played host to Chris Brogan who, in the social media channel at least, is a guru and

thought leader.  We had several components of the total event to promote and looked to social media channels and tools to do the promotion and word of mouth extension.  I had a vested interest in making this work both as a social media consultant and  personally because Chris Brogan is my go to thought leader and has provide significant guidance for me on the path to being a trust agent.

Creating an event with a twist

For the benefit of anyone thinking of some type of social media campaign integrated with traditional efforts, I thought I would relate the activities that the Social Media Club Board Members,  the Madison social media community, and a few individuals did to promote this event.  Over all we engaged the community, shared user generated content, and created dialogue. We had a relatively short period of time to work with – just 6 weeks.  I would certainly recommend more planning and more time to promote such an event. More time would also allow the media distribution across various channels move a little more than it did.  That being said, we accomplished a lot in the time we had-using primarily social media tools and word of mouth.

The kernel of thought

Chris Brogan was brought to Madison by American Family Insurance to present an internal social media related training. The date was slightly in flux from last October, as to when American Family would be able to have Chris Brogan speak.  Part of their contract negotiated a separate presentation to the public. The decision was made to offer this program to Accelerate Madison, as one of the leading technology focused professional groups in Madison, to promote. Accelerate Madison in turn coordinated activities with the Social Media Club of Madison who planned and executed the free Brogan After Dark After Party (with Chris Brogan) in attendance.

Create a game plan

Some time in the first week of May, with a finalized date confirmed, the first contacts were made between Accelerate Madison and the leadership team of the Social Media Club of Madison.  The SMC, which usually has Skype conference calls before events,  quickly scheduled a face to face  board meeting on May 15th to finalize the action plan for promoting the Chris Brogan Event. We implemented BaseCamp to provide a better resource for managing this project and the future events the club intends to sponsor. The main Social Media Club site also provides access to PBworks for consolidating notes, information, calendars etc and its has an RSS feed to allow updates to get to the right individuals.

Step 1:  Planning

TIMELINE: Saturday, May 15th SM Club Board Meeting – Monday, June 21, 2010 Brogan Presentation. 6 weeks.

• OBJECTIVES – Fill the 300 person auditorium reserved for this event.

• STRATEGY – Develop a campaign aimed at getting a broad category of individuals, large business, Small Midsized Business and education representatives to attend this event. Ensure that Accelerate Madison members, for whom the event was free, and Social Media affectionatos in the greater Madison area, knew about and had access to either event. Decide where “home” is and have all links send back to that location

• KEY MESSAGES – Focus on Madison being a technology savy community (think Google Fiber RFP) and ready to get a thought leader to speak. Active social media community – Social Media Club, Social Media Breakfast, Meetups and Tweetups ongoing, copious technology hardware and software groups. Share that this is thought leader  presentation, social media author, special event and fun.

• TOOLS – Email lists, Blogs, word of mouth, local calendar /event board postings, Pitchengine.com, local media resources, Twitter, Youtube, WordPress, IMBY.info, Slideshare, Event Brite, LinkedIn, Facebook, Foursquare, and yes picking up the good old phone.

• MEASUREMENT – #1 – total seats filled at presentation. #2 – total attendees at After party.  Planned to measure indirect and direct indicators of impact, including: Web site hits, calls and e-mails, comments, posts, pictures, video, and media coverage.

• COMMUNICATIONS PLAN – We involved board members of the Social Media Club of Madison, Social Media Breakfast, American Family, and Accelerate Madison.  Many of the team members were public relations professionals with  social media skill.   They provided ideas that were then assembled into a quick action plan.Members of all organizations were asked to pass along, RT, share links, digg news stories, stumble, and bookmark posts and images.

1. Registration landing page created – Accelerate
2. Eventbrite event page created with all details for After Party
3. LinkedIn Event setup (Presentation and After Party)
4. Facebook Event setup (Presentation and After Party)
5. Use a socialcrm tool like Xeesm.com to target key invitees, sponsors or promoters of the event
6. Plan Blog Posts ( at least 1 per week)
7. Plan Twitter Activity (use MadisonSMC account for event)
8. Post to all local digital and print calendars
9. Solicit After Party event SWAG sponsors
10. Collect questions and video interviews to drive awareness and excitement of event
11. Create Social Media Press Release for presentation and after party
12. Pursue interview at TV stations
13. Pursue print interviews/stories with newspapers
14. Create videos for Youtube promotion
15. Use and suggest  status updates out each week for connections
16. Get regular updates out on Twitter and ask for RT
17. Traditional word of mouth
18. Encourage people to bookmark, Digg, Delicious, and buzz any and all efforts.
19. Calls to Media outlets for story lines and press conference
20. Setup Press conference
21. Capture the event in pictures and video
22. Make arrangements for online streaming and recording
23. Get sign copies of Trust agent books and give away
24. Create followup blog posts to recap event (include link to recorded presentation)
25. Upload pictures from event  – tag madisonsmc
26. Upload video from event

STEP 2: PUT PLAN INTO ACTION

(TIMELINE: May 24 – June 21st)

1. Branding – make sure #MadisonSMC is mentioned in tweets and is used else where on events
2. WEB SITE (May 25)– the SMC site was updated for the event and two people committed to blog and post each week prior to the event.
3. Sponsors – if expecting 300 attendees, we needed 10-20 SWAG sponsors or limit bags
4. Event Calendars (By June 1)- IMBY, YourHomeTownbiz, Isthmus, InBusiness, Accelerate Madison Website, AmericanTowns, Personal websites,  Plancast, EventBrite, Facebook, LinkedIn, Personal but public calendars
5. Social updates on sites (ongoing) – LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Slideshare (select the ones that are most appropriate to your audience.
6. Social Media Press Release (2 weeks out) – Pitchengine
7. Blogs – Social Media Club, Examiner.com, WISocialMedia, MadisonSMC.  If necessary to capture buzz and community after your event, consider creating an event blog (ie Ning or similar site)
8. Groups/Pages: LinkedIn group posting, Facebook pages
8. Involve third party stakeholders – standup at your professional business meetings and mention the event. Winning the support of  other groups and community organizations can mean the difference between success and failure as they have valuable tools in the form of newsletters, e-mail lists and Web sites that can help carry messages further. For example, Disney Institute promotes their local events with non profits trade and professional associations and Chamber of Commerce groups to get the word out quickly to business owners.
9. Materials – Determined what materials would be needed to help spread event messages. List included: key messages for internal use, program, FAQs, newsletter, membership info, Web site copy for stakeholders, and media materials such as press releases
10. Call TV station NBC 15 for interview

Step 3. Execution Day of Event

Chris Brogan Presenting at Accelerate Madison/Social Media Club of Madison Event

KICKOFF – An event can be an easy way to generate news coverage and buzz. A press conference to officially announce the campaign could make an impact. We got a press release out on Pitchengine.  We secured a news interview on Channel 15 the week prior to the event.

LOCATION & TIMING –  The press conference on June 21 was a little last minute as we did not get final authorization until late on Friday before the event. Due to the speaking program that Chris Brogan was contracted for, the time slot of 3PM did not allow for TV stations to attend, nor did it allow for newspapers to get any details for stories for morning papers.

SPEAKERS & GUESTS – Accelerate Madison personally called key journalists and representatives in the Madison and greater Dane county area about the press conference.

LOGISTICS – Needs such as A/V, seating, parking and catering need to be determined well in advance. This was well handled by American Family who did a wonderful job with the food preparations prior to the event.

MEDIA RELATIONS – To ensure media attention throughout the campaign, we solicited attendance at event, and on-site, interview and photo opportunities.

BEST UNEXPECTED EVENT – Getting Oscar Mayer/Kraft Foods to arrange for  a couple of Wienermobile Hotdoggers to take Chris Brogan to the

Chris Brogan goes first class to airport in Wienermobile compliments of Oscar Mayer

airport instead of a car.

Step 4 Assess the Campaign

MEASUREMENT – After all the hard work of planning and executing the campaign, we took stock of results to determine success:

• web site visits –  We did not do a pre campaign benchmark which I would suggest to anyone else.  total traffic since January 2010 start up is 8,173 views.  The highest day was 290 and during the Brogan effort we had a high of 179 views.
• We had  300 people attend the event at American Family Training Center

Chart showing view build up on Madison SMC blog/website for Chris Brogan Event

• Blog posts – A total of fourteen posts (that I counted) were made between 7 blogs.

1. Social Media Club of Madison (host site)
2. Accelerate Madison (host site)
3. Wendy Soucie Consulting (board member)
4. Networkmindshare blog (boardmember)
5. Examiner/Madison Edition (national online news)
6. Blog site for the Wienermobile Hotdoggers
7. Miri Mcdonald blog (attendee)
8. Miscellaneous  pickups from blogs event pages  (At least 4 posts were made as followup stories to the event.)

• Presentations with photo collection – 1 posted on Slideshare.net

• Videos – 13 total, posted and tagged Madisonsmc on Youtube.

Final thoughts

I am not sure we used our member network as well as we could have. By breaking up the board members into groups focused on event setup and logistics, event promotion, member outreach, and followup, I think we could have used our members of both Accelerate Madison and Social Media Club more effectively. One thing I have found when I have been asked to buzz an event is that when I am given a list of 10 things to do, with concrete suggestions on places, wording to use and with deadlines to meet,  I do at least half of what is suggested – maybe in my own way, but I do it. Just asking to help out a bit is like asking someone to write a recommendation for you.  It usually happens quicker if you write a suggested framework first and let them (your recommender)  edit the document.

I also don’t think we effectively used Twitter. Next time I would define a stronger plan, created scheduled tweets to drive conversations mixed with promotion for the event.

You can see by the views of the website, the blog postings did generate traffic.  Next time I might do more outreach to members who have blogs and encourage them to post and link back at some frequency that they are comfortable with and one that would compliment the efforts of the main “home” blog.

There are certainly mistakes we made, but definitely a learning experience.  What have you done to promote an event using social media?  Please share your success stories and ideas in the comments.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Social Media: An Evening with Chris Brogan (slideshare.net)
• Chris Brogan On Social Networking For Business (blogs.forbes.com)

Related posts:

1. Why I am Thankful for Social Media – Business Relationships Part 3
2. Pizza and Social Media – A powerful taste
3. Digital and Social Media Holiday Greetings Rolling In

According to Marketing Sherpa’s latest research:

Considering that social marketing is at a very early stage in its life cycle, a 7% confidence rating indicating that it’s producing measurable ROI and therefore should be funded liberally, is outstanding.

Conservative budget increases by half of all organizations at budget time — based on the promise that social media will eventually produce ROI — demonstrate another vote of confidence in the tactic for the longer term.

via MarketingSherpa: New Chart: How is Social Media Perceived at Budget Time?.

Wendy’s Note: Where does social media as a channel belong in your business budget? If you only view it as a marketing tactic, you are wrong. If you only view it as a sales tactic, you may be sorry.  Maybe you are not ready for a huge line item in your budget, but this research suggests that you budget more than Zero.

Social media doesn’t work well started in a vacuum and separated from the other points of customer engagement within a company. As you consider building your listening station, creating your strategy and assigning resources within the company, begin a “right size” effort that you can commit to.  Then relocate budget allocations from customer service, human resources, product development as well as sales and marketing.  You may easily create a budget that will get one or two individuals spending 20 minutes per day doing what we all really want – building business relationships before, during and after the sale.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Social Media Gets Bigger Budget Share (wiredprworks.com)
• Hey Execs: It’s Time to Embrace Social (kylelacy.com)
• Pump Up Your Digital Footprint: NCI Launches HealthFIT Sherpa, A Social Media Marketing Solution (eon.businesswire.com)

Related posts:

1. Social Media Today | The State of the Twittersphere 2010 | In My Opinion
2. Pizza and Social Media – A powerful taste
3. Another Job Loss – Can Social Media Provide an Answer?

Radio interviews are social media too!

Text, video, pictures, and audio podcasts are all pieces of information that can be shared on social media sites. If you get a chance to be interviewed in print, TV or radio, be sure to say yes!  Afterward grab the file to embed in your web page, blog or social networking site. I have been on the radio several times in January and February and intend to post on my blog, share on Facebook, post to Examiner.com, and transcribe for a future blog post.

How do you get on a radio show?

It helps to be in the right place at the right time. Dr. Kathleen Paris asked me to work with a group of her clients on the subject of LinkedIn and improving their online profiles. One of the attendees was Carol Koby, radio show host of All About Living on WTDY.

Carol is the producer and host of All About Living and Living Minutes, is one of the most experienced broadcasters in our market. A former women’s director and reporter for WITI-TV in Milwaukee and consumer advocate for WKOW-TV in Madison, she also moderated the Picture of Health cable television series for University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.

Carol had a last minute cancellation and I had some time, so I headed over to Clear Channel to record what turned out to be a great time talking with Carol about social media. In the hour, we covered what it is, how to use it, what to be careful of and various personal stories about each of us using our favorite sites.

Do it yourself radio or TV

Find out who the local talk show hosts (TV and Radio) are in your area and supply them a one page sheet on specific topics you are available to speak on. Follow HARO (Help a reporter out site) for postings of journalists needing subject matter experts. If they don’t call you right away, consider recording your own.

With a audio recording device, make it into a mp3 and post it. Itunes is full of podcasts that you can download or upload for little to no cost. Or use a flip video camera or better to capture yourself or others in video and post anywhere you would like.  I have been doing this on my blogs, incorporating my Youtube channel at the same time.

If you want to get a little more sophisticated, get the help of a local Toastmaster International group. This is a public speaking organization that I have belonged to since 1979.  Not only did my self-paced training and practice prepare me for being interviewed by Carol, many Toastmaster participants are preparing themselves for interviewing others and would love to help you record your session.

Listen to the interview here or head to Open Source Audio

Start practicing today for your day in the spotlight! How are you going to more visible this year?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Social Media Enhances Personal Experience in Business (kylelacy.com)
• Social Media Predictions for 2010 (lazerpromotions.com)