Apr 26 2013

Plan your PR around the release of the 2012 ICCA country and city rankings

ICCA Statistcs

Quick note to all ICCA members: Please note that we will send the full 2012 ICCA country and city rankings to all members on Wednesday 8 May. We kindly ask you to not publicize the news on your 2012 rankings before next Monday 13 May, when ICCA will send out an ICCA press release. This way we all publish the rankings simultaneously, which avoids creating confusion and gives all members a couple of days to prepare and plan their news releases.

Please do not forget to use the ICCA PR Kit to profile your news to international meetings industry media:

For some guidelines and good examples of how ICCA members have used the ICCA rankings to create interesting news releases last year, see this post: ICCA statistics – make them rock!.

Should you have any questions or need any help or advice please contact Mathijs Vleeming: mathijs@icca.nl

By Mathijs • Media relations, Social media marketing • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Jan 7 2013

Happy 2013!

happy2013

By Mathijs • Uncategorized • 0

Nov 13 2012

#icca12 Case study social media for events: from follower to sender to moderator

As two-thirds of the ICCA Congress delegates are senior level CEOs and Managing Directors, many of them are of an older age group, which provides a challenge for the implementation of social media around our annual Congress and GA.

In 2010 we only followed and slightly moderated the online discussion around the ICCA Congress in Hyderabad, India. In 2011, when we first started to roll out more extensive social media activities we were primarily sending messages and trying to get delegates engaged, but we still only had a small group of early adopters who actively contributed to the online discussion (See also #icca11 Case study social media for events).

At this year’s 52nd ICCA Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico we had many more delegates who actively contributed useful ICCA Congress related content via our social media channels. This meant that for a large part our role has changed from “follower” to “sender” to “moderator”.

So why were more delegates active on social media during this year’s ICCA Congress, despite the fact that we had 700 delegates compared to 1,000 last year? Is this just a natural evolution, as there are now more social media users in general? Or did we do a good job in actively managing and stimulating the online discussion?

Go with the flow!

Well actually, it was actively made to happen by building on top of trends and encouraging and enhancing the natural social flow rather than creating an artificial current.

If everyone is dancing Gangnam style to weird, nerdy K-Pop during the CAT Night it surely does not come as a surprise that a picture of the Asian CAT Team dancing Gangnam style receives so many likes! If a flow exists, exploit it! Don’t fight it by insisting on Abba…

Let’s take a closer look at this year’s social media activities around #icca12.

1. Before the Congress 

1.1. Pre-event social media setup

Last year we already had the basics in place. We learned from last year that we had to start communicating the ICCA Congress hash tag early (at least 3 months before the Congress takes place), and we actually already introduced the #icca12 already at the end of the 2011 ICCA Congress.

These are the social media channels we used before, during and after #icca12:

We had also created a Facebook Event Page for this year’s Congress, but ended up not using it. Instead, all our ICCA Congress related communication was channeled through our main Facebook page as this is much more visible.

1.2. Driving content: Combining channels

Like last year, all pre-congress communication was combined through the different channels (ICCA Congress Bulletin and Event Information Emails, the website and the hard copy Congress Programme). The difference with last year is that we had a much broader integration of social media channels in all our communication already:

  • We have added social media links to our email signatures and E-newsletter
  • We added an ICCAWORLD Twitter feed on our homepage
  • We have integrated “Follow” and “Share” social media buttons on our website
  • We introduced QR codes to our social media channels
  • Much of our content is now regularly shared through our social media channels

1.3. Identify brand ambassadors
ICCA members who were most active on social media were identified as “brand ambassadors” and were stimulated to keep the online discussion going, as well as any Congress delegate who contributed to the #icca12 discussion. Also, more ICCA staff members were contributing pictures and content of sessions they visited compared to previous year.

2. During the Congress

2.1. Offline social media support during the Congress

  • Social Media Desk: Like last year, we set up a Social Media Desk during the Congress, which was located next to the registration desk. It was staffed by ICCA’s Marketing Executive and ICCA’s Manager Marketing & PR, to help delegates with all their questions about social media. This year we also communicated the Social Media Desk as being the central go-to point for ICCA’s media members for the latest ICCA Congress related news. We also had some tech support questions (like how to connect to the WiFi) which we were happy to answer.
  • Free WiFi was available in the HQ Hotel and in the whole congress centre throughout the congress, which is of course crucial in making your social media activities a success
  • Screens with live feeds of our social media channels were displayed on 5 large screens throughout the venue. This year we created our own feeds (see screenshot) which included an #icca12 search feed and a feed from the ICCA World Facebook page. We created the Twitter feed ourselves and used http://zooshia.com to create the Facebook feed. By far the most of our delegates used Twitter instead of Facebook though, so in the future a Twitter feed only will be sufficient.

Screenshot of ICCA’s social media screen at the 52nd ICCA Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Twitter feeds

As a backup for our own live feed page, I did some research into existing tools that can provide a free Twitter feed for on-screen display during events. The following were on my backup list:

For more information on this also have a look at Michael Heipel’s blog post 7 tools to present a Twitter stream at your event.

When you are designing the layout of your own social media screens it is vital to keep in mind that your feeds should be visible from a further distance. We had some issues with the sun reflecting on the screens and the screens being visible from a further distance only, which made some of them not very well readable.

2.2. On-site content, monitoring and moderating

If you provide all these social media channels and are stimulating an online discussion, it is obviously very important to monitor and moderate the content on your channels and to answer questions directly, in order to keep the interaction going.

This year we mainly used Hootsuite (http://www.hootsuite.com/) to monitor and moderate ICCA social-media channels in real-time on-site. Hootsuite is a social media dashboard which gives a clear overview of social media channels for monitoring and an easy interface to directly post new content to different social media channels. Hootsuite has an iPad app as well as a browser version and we used both depending on if we were at the social media desk or in sessions.

We also used Sprout Social (http://www.sproutsocial.com/) which has the same monitor, moderate and posting options as Hootsuite, but Sprout Social excels at creating social media statistics and reports.

2.3. Social media competition

This year we did a little experiment to stimulate engagement of delegates and try and convert them into “ICCA Congress in Puerto Rico ambassadors” by setting up a competition:

Enter the ICCA & Meet Puerto Rico Social Media competition + win an iPad 2!
Post your best picture of “meeting in Puerto Rico” on the ICCA Facebook page (http://Facebook.com/ICCAworld)! Tag the pictures, comment on them, share them! The picture with the most likes on Wednesday at noon, will be announced winner at the end of the CaseHunters’ Social Media session on Wednesday afternoon (WE204: How to apply Social Media to destination marketing? Lessons from the CaseHunters.)

Almost 20 pictures were posted on the ICCA World Facebook page and the winning picture was from Karyl Leigh Barnes from DCI with 52 likes:

Winning picture ICCA & Meet Puerto Rico Social Media competition: DCI’s very own @Karyl Leigh Barnes had a little too much fun getting ready for CAT Night last night. We always love her passion for great brands and events! “Meeting in Puerto Rico”

Some other notable entries:

ICCA & Meet Puerto Rico Social Media competition entry from ICCA Scholarship student Katharina Schuh.

ICCA & Meet Puerto Rico Social Media competition entry: Asian Team goes Gangnam Style!

The winner received an iPad2 sponsored by ICCA and other good entries received Puerto Rican prizes sponsored by Meet Puerto Rico from Gerrit Heijkoop from HCIBS, who did a Hybrid session, combining a virtual Google Hangout table with live round table discussions in the Case Hunter’s session on Social media for destinations. http://www.slideshare.net/ICCAWORLD/how-to-apply-social-media-to-destination-marketing-icca12-wednesday-24102012

2.4. ICCA Daily online

For the first time this year, we also had the ICCA Daily available online (http://daily.iccaworld.com), which provided quality content for our social media channels for ICCA members who were in Puerto Rico as well as members who were not attending the Congress.

The ICCA Daily contains ICCA Congress related news as is produced by ICCA media member CAT Publications. Without going into details here, the visitor statistics of this new online version were already quite good, so we will definitely extend the ICCA Daily Online activities in 2013.

2.5. Pictures

All ICCA Congress pictures were uploaded to ICCA’s Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/iccaworld/sets/ on a daily basis during the Congress and a selection of pictures was also shared on Facebook.

2.6. Videoblogging

New ICCA media members Meeting:the World http://www.meetingtheworld.com posted a couple of videoblogs live from the ICCA Congress on their Facebook channel http://www.facebook.com/MTWORLD, which provided some very good and social-media friendly material:

  • ICCA CONFERENCE SPOT ME APP: Every delegate at this year’s ICCA Conference, currently taking place in Puerto Rico, has access to this excellent app to help them get the most from the event. Here one of the many Spot Me’s Jeremy Pros talks you through its functionality… http://tinyurl.com/8q6dh87
  • ICCA INSIGHT EXCLUSIVE: DELEGATE BOOSTING – Should meetings suppliers, such as venues, destinations and other support services, be helping associations increase delegate numbers? Eduardo Chaillo of the Mexican Tourist Board thinks so… http://tinyurl.com/9224c6z
  • ICCA INSIGHT EXCLUSIVE: ONLINE CONTENT IS KING FOR DESTINATIONS – DCI’s Karyl Leigh Barnes discusses her company’s latest destination research, which uncovers a number of fascinating findings, such as the importance of rich online content for destinations. http://tinyurl.com/9owyldh

3. Post-congress social media follow up

After the congress ICCA uses social media to extend the online relationship with the #icca12 attendees, and all ICCA Congress information is shared through the combined channels, with links to the videos, pictures and presentations on our social media channels;

4. Statistics

To further analyse the social media activity related to our 52th ICCA Congress we monitored all our social media activities and compiled these in a statistical overview. Below you can find a general overview as well as an overview for individual channels. The statistics are generated with Sprout Social (http://sproutsocial.com).

General overview
In the data below you can see an overview of ICCA’s total activity level on both Twitter and Facebook from the week before the Congress (taking place Saturday 20 until Wednesday 24 October) until the Friday after the Congress. Please note that all comparisons with last year are made in the same period as in 2011 (17-28 October 2011).

This year we had 2k interactions by 1.1k unique users and a reach of 1.2m impressions. In 2011 we had around 1k interactions by 500 unique users and a reach of 560k impressions

Twitter statistics

The Twitter statistics below show an overview from 15-26 October; from the week before the Congress until the Friday after the Congress (the Congress took place Saturday 20 until Wednesday 24 October):

General stats:

Number of followers before ICCA Congress: 2,936
We had 188 new followers during this time period, which makes 3,124 followers after ICCA Congress.

As a comparison: we had 144 new followers during the same time period in 2011 and a total of 1,713 followers after the 2011 Congress in Leipzig.

  • @mentions (how often a Tweet has been sent to username @iccaworld): 511 (2011: 314)
  • Messages Sent (the amount of messages sent out): 371 (2011: 276)
  • Messages Received (the number of messages received, including direct messages): 513 (2011: 317)
  • Clicks (the number of clicks on links in our Tweets): 124 (2011: 36)
  • Retweets (the number of retweets of our messages): 256 (2011: 118)

Key indicators:

Engagement here means the level of interaction with the audience (e.g. replies, retweets, private messages, one-on-one-conversations). Like last year we had an engagement level of 71%. However, the engagement level during the Congress alone (20-24 October) this year was 77%.

Influence means the rate in which your audience will view, read and/or interact with the content you send out. During the Congress this level was very high at 90% and towards the end even at 100%; last year this percentage was 87%.

You can clearly see that the engagement level rises dramatically with the start of the congress and then keeps a steady level and drops again after the congress.

Follower demographics:
Shows Twitter followers by age range and gender. Last year the age range 25-34 was the largest, this year the age range 35-44?. In 2011 48% of our Twitter followers were male and 52% female, this year it is 50-50%.

Facebook statistics

The Facebook statistics below show an overview from 15-26 October; from the week before the Congress until the Friday after the Congress (the Congress took place Saturday 20 until Wednesday 24 October):

Number of Facebook fans before ICCA Congress: 1,097
We had 100 new fans during this time period, which makes 1,197 Facebook fans after the ICCA Congress.

As a comparison: we had 98 new fans over the same time period in 2011 and 610 Facebook fans after the 2011 Congress in Leipzig.

Page impressions:
This year we had a total of almost 140k page impressions. On Tuesday 23 October we had a record number of almost 33k page impressions.
As a comparison: we had 50.5k total impressions over the same period in 2011.

General Facebook fan demographics:
Shows Facebook fans by age range, gender and location. In general we have younger (25-40) and more female fans on Facebook compared to Twitter (56% female on FB compared to 50% on Twitter).
ICCA’s Best Marketing Award winner Meet Taiwan apparently had generated a good buzz around their ICCA BMA entry! Also the Asia Pacific Chapter “Gangnam Style” picture generated a lot of shares and views.

Facebook sharing statistics - Stories and share type:

Over the period from 15-26 October we had 1.4k stories created by 868 users; last year 579 stories were created by 346 users over the same time period.
A story on Facebook is created when a user likes your Page, posts to your Page’s Wall, answers a Question you posted, RSVP’s to one of your events, mentions your Page, photo tags your Page, checks in at your Place or likes, or comments on / shares one of your Page posts.
1.2k people have commented on a page post, 102 have liked the ICCA World page and 36 have posted on the ICCA World Facebook Wall.

Facebook sharing statistics – Demographics:
71% of people sharing our stories during the Congress were female and most of them were 35-44 years old.
The top 3 of our “sharers” of ICCA Congress related content were based in The Netherlands, Norway, the USA and Mexico and most of them speak English.
Like last year, the Facebook posts related to the CAT Night and the Dress to Impress Awards were most engaged.

5. Evaluation and sharing our experience

Apart from this statistical analysis, questions on our use of social media during the congress are part of the general post-congress evaluation surveys, which will help us to fine-tune our social media strategy for #icca13.

We are currently working on compiling a “Social media for events” publication for association meeting planners and others, which functions as a manual / reference for future events. This publication will include this case study and much more useful information which will hopefully inspire you in the organisation of social media activities around your events.

The next stage of the journey?

I think we can conclude that you can actively stimulate the online discussion around your event by building on top of trends and encouraging and enhancing the natural social flow rather than creating an artificial current. This strategy requires active moderation and of course close contact with your delegates so you get a good grip on what lives amongst your delegates at your event.

So what is the next stage of the journey? At the Shanghai Congress in 2013 what role will ICCA play: will we still just be a “moderator” of the social media flow, or will we progress to become a “conductor”, helping our members to feel part of a giant harmonic social orchestra?

By Mathijs • Social media for events • 6 • Tags: , ,

Aug 23 2012

How are you using social media for your events? -Social Media & Events Report 2012

amiando, in partnership with ICCA, asked 1,000 event organizers worldwide, amongst which many ICCA members, about how they are using social media for their events. The Social Media & Events Report 2012 based on this survey has just been published.

It points out the latest trends, numbers and facts, current challenges and future developments of event organisers concerning social media. The comparison of results from last year suggests some important changes and the report contains some very useful “How To:” social media tips & tricks for the events industry.

I highly recommend to check out this report. Please download the Social Media & Events Report 2012 from amiando’s website.

Please also have a look at the #icca11 social media for events case study and see how ICCA has used social media for its 2011 Congress in Leipzig last year.

By Mathijs • Social media for events • 0

Jun 26 2012

ICCA statistics – make them rock!

Yes, I know, statistics are boring and do not rock at all… but please read on because this blog-post is actually all about how to transform dull columns of figures into valuable (and, yes, interesting!) stories that pull in readers and help to reinforce your company’s or destination’s brand image.

ICCA’s online media coverage 2012

The annual publication of the ICCA worldwide country and city rankings by number of meetings, which we publish in May -right before IMEX, is traditionally the basis of ICCA’s annual “PR rush hour”. Not only because of coverage generated by our own news releases, but mainly because many members are effectively using the ICCA ranking as an angle to promote their destination.

It’s a fact: The press loves surveys and statistics. So the ICCA rankings provide a perfect and easy angle for you to use and generate a high free profile for your organisation and your destination in the media, if done correctly.

Let me share some good examples of news releases in which ICCA members are using their new ranking as angle to promote their destination and services. If you are not taking advantage of this opportunity yet, I hope these will inspire you to start doing so! ICCA provides you with an up-to-date press list of approx. 400 international meetings industry contacts, so you have all the tools at your fingertips to make this a success.

Create a story

When looking at the examples it is good to realize this: journalists are not interested in the news fact alone, but in a story with news value. So instead of just communicating the news fact, you should create a story around it that provides a context. This context should typically answer the 5 W’s.

The releases that get the most coverage are the ones that create an interesting and newsworthy story around a news fact.

ICCA member releases: the first

Brazil was the first to spread their good news of climbing from 9th place in 2010 to 7th in 2011. This article was posted on the day we sent the rankings to them (9 May!):
Brasil sobe no ranking de eventos internacionais e ocupa 7° lugar (Spanish)

Germany, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Amsterdam were also very much on top of it and eager to spread the news. One day later (10 May) for example this article was posted:
Germany number two worldwide as a convention destination

Create your own regional or alternative rankings

Create your own national or regional ranking to create a story:
Melbourne is number one in Australia for international conventions
Vancouver tops convention list
ICCA poll sees NewcastleGateshead move up in international meetings sector

If you are not as big as the others, you have to get creative to make the news:
Gdańsk amongst the 10 bigget risers in the statistics of the ICCA

We used specific rankings ourselves to promote our ICCA Congress as well:
Puerto Rico jumps in international ranking of association meetings

Some other good examples:

Berlin maintains its position in the top four ICCA rankings

Some smart PR for profiling the London Mayor, using the ICCA rankings as an angle:
Mayor drives London into world’s top-10 of international convention destinations

How a convention center uses the country and city ranking to raise their profile:
Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre contributed to Malaysia’s and Kuala Lumpur’s higher ICCA ranking in 2011

How Japan uses the ranking to illustrate their recovery:
‘Surprisingly fast’ post-quake recovery spurs Japan to growth

In an article about Vienna’s ranking there is sensationally referred to a “Bombshell at ceremony for 2011 congress organizers at City Hall”, tying in their number one city ranking with a ceremony held at the City Hall by the City of Vienna to honor Vienna’s 2011 congress organisers:
Vienna is No1 world-wide in congresses – city honors organizers

Combine the ICCA statistics with your own local statistics

This makes your story even stronger:
Singapore reigns as Asia’s Top Convention City for the tenth consecutive year
Prague rises in the international congress rankings

Take it to the next level and do a smashing encore!

Last year, the Istanbul CVB organised a “Lucky 7” branded PR campaign at IMEX to celebrate their climb from 17th position in 2009 to 7th in 2010, which provided a huge profile for Istanbul and Turkey and I think serves as an already classic case study example of how to take your PR efforts related to this subject to the next level.

A specially designed “Lucky 7” logo was used in adverts, on invitations, news releases, at the stand and on badges worn by the representatives, and ICVB and Turkish Airlines organised a “Lucky 7″ party which drew hundreds of guests to the Turkey stand. ICCA President Arnaldo Nardone and several Turkish officials of the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry and of the Consul General of Turkey in Frankfurt were invited to attend the party and to raise the profile. As a part of the “Lucky 7″ party, seven lucky guests received a holiday package that includes round-trip tickets to Istanbul by Turkish Airlines, 2 nights free accommodation at Istanbul’s best hotels, and city tours and airport transfers provided by leading Turkish DMCs.

See also: ICVB Celebrated Istanbul’s 7th ranking with a special event

The influence of social media

A note on the influence of social media: In order to give our members advanced notice and some time to prepare for any questions they might get from journalists plus an opportunity to have the news scoop instead of ICCA, we always provide members with the full 2011 country and city rankings one week before we go public with them; we sent the full rankings to members on 9 May and on 16 May we sent a news release to the meetings industry media (using the ICCA Press Database) and published them on our social networks.

For the first time this year, we noticed a big difference in the speed by which the news got out to non-member media: After we initially sent out the new rankings to members only, they immediately started posting the news about their ranking on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, especially if it was good news of course.

James Rees, Director of Conference & Events of ExCel London for example, posted this news about the biggest “Olympic” climber in the top ten (from 14th to 7th place) the minute after he received our email:

As a result, compared to previous years, a lot more journalists from all over the world were contacting me for information about our rankings before we went public with them.

The speed by which the news spread illustrates the quick and transparent nature of Social Media, but it also shows the higher adoption of social media amongst ICCA members and journalists.

Online news monitoring

The above articles have been found using Meltwater News, which allows you to monitor online news sources for specific keywords. The following news sources are monitored:

  • The top 10% of general online news sources as identified by Meltwater News.

Please note that all ICCA members can use the Digital Clipping Service in the My ICCA section to monitor their own online news coverage.

Did I not include your example or did you run into any other good examples? Please share them with us!

By Mathijs • Media relations • 3 • Tags: , ,

Apr 11 2012

Crisis communication -Vodafone Netherlands case

Vodafone Crisis Communication

Just thought I should quickly share this case study on good crisis communication by Vodafone.

What happened: A fire at Vodafone in the Netherlands caused clients not being able to call nor use mobile internet for days over Easter, and problems are still not fully solved at the moment of writing this post.

Vodafone replied clear and simple: they released YouTube videos of the Dutch CEO and other key staff explaining the problem, giving a behind the scenes look and showing the damage and how hard they are working to fix it:

CEO Rob Shuter gives an update of the incident at Vodafone NL

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRY6-YBYSxI]


Vodafone CEO takes us through the building and gives clear background information on the damage caused

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFB534Mwr34] Lesson learned: Honesty and transparency (and personalization) create understanding amongst the public and is the best way to respond to a crisis.

See all related Vodafone videos on http://www.vodafone.nl/herstel/

By Mathijs • Crisis communication • 0 • Tags:

Feb 3 2012

Less is more


As some of you know, I am a big fan of the guitar. I can be deeply moved by a great guitar solo that is delivered with a lot of feeling and expression. What makes the great guitar players so special is their ability to use just a few well-timed notes to channel the emotions of a song directly into the hearts of the listeners through their instrument. In fact, a “simple” guitar solo, from BB King for example, which consists of just a couple of notes but is brought with great feeling and timing, has a lot more impact than a speedy “see how many notes I can squeeze into one measure” virtuoso solo from someone like Steve Vai.

As with many other things, when it comes to targeting your PR efforts, less is more.

Target your news

Targeting your news distribution is vitally important for success. Feedback from meetings industry media learns that when distributing your news to media, instead of sending out mass e-mailings, your PR efforts will be much more effective when you personally target a limited number of media titles. Sending out your news releases by mass emailings will only do harm in the long run as editors will no longer read your release if the majority you send them is not relevant to them, and your PR efforts will be less effective.

Select a Top 10

You should first realize what target group(s) you want to reach and select a small number of media titles which readership has the same target group. Even within this selection you should start with let’s say a top 10 of media titles with which you want to identify your brand with, read a large number of the articles in this magazine/online news portal/e-newsletter, so you get to know what type of stories they publish, and approach the editors of these media titles personally with your news or story ideas.

Selecting media titles in which you want to get coverage does take some time and effort, which is often not available to ICCA member organisations who do their PR in-house. ICCA has recently launched an upgrade of one of its media relations tools, which makes it much easier for its members to target their news.

The ICCA Press Database

The ICCA Press Database is an online searchable database of the leading media (magazines, websites, e-newsletters) and freelancers in the international meetings industry. It contains almost 400 profiles with full update, print and export (to MS Excel and PDF) functionality. The database is updated on a continuous basis by the media contacts themselves and by ICCA members who can report updates when they are browsing the profiles in the database. ICCA includes links to Press Database Update Forms in every press release that it sends out and is also sending out update request emails to all media every 6 months. The media profiles are updated in the live database after a confirmation check.

ICCA Press Database Search Page

ICCA Press Database Search Page (click on the image for a larger version)

Here is what some ICCA members have to say about the ICCA Press Database:

Long-standing ICCA media member Martin Lewis of Conference and Travel (CAT) Publications says:

It is important that media buyers understand how to identify the publications searching the precise audience they wish to reach in their PR and advertising efforts. In the modern world it is imperative that budgets are used carefully to target specific market segments. The new ICCA Press Database allows ICCA members to target their news releases very specifically and it makes it able for them to make the right choice for their advertising. I am convinced ICCA members will be able to increase their PR profile using the ICCA Press Database and that it ensures maximum ROI of their ICCA membership.

Davide Odella, Event Manager International Markets of Grupa TRIP (Polish PCO and DMC):

With the new ICCA Press Database it is definitely easy to identify the top media contacts for the target groups we are interested in. With the ICCA PR Kit, companies without a dedicated PR department or outsourced PR Agency are able to maximize the power and profile of their news releases. You can easily do your PR yourself in-house, the media profiles are regularly updated by ICCA and I am making sure with ICCA’s help the world’s meetings industry media covers my latest developments and successes. Since we use the PR Kit provided by ICCA we definitely noticed a big increase in the number of articles published by the main magazines in our industry which cover our news! Thanks ICCA!

The ICCA Press Database is available to all ICCA members in the My ICCA section on www.iccaworld.com. For a more detailed description of the ICCA Press Database visit the ICCA website.

How are you distributing your news to media? Are you sending out mass emailings or are you personally targeting a small number of media titles with your news and story ideas? Are you sending out releases by email and/or are you using social media channels? Have you used the ICCA Press Database already? Has it helped you to raise your profile? Have you added the media profiles to your own (local) press list? Please leave a comment and share!

By Mathijs • Media relations • 0 • Tags: , ,

Jan 4 2012

Happy 2012!

By Mathijs • Uncategorized • 0

Nov 15 2011

#icca11 Case study social media for events

Compared to our 2010 congress, social media activity was buzzing during the 50th ICCA Congress in Leipzig, Germany. So what did ICCA do to get this buzz going?

In fact, it was not that difficult; we just got the basics right. The meetings industry is still in an early adoption phase of using social media for events and there is a lot of hype around social media. We just used our common sense and just did it.

We hope this #icca11 case study will inspire you to organise your social media activities for your event.

1. Pre-event social media setup

Before the congress took place, ICCA’s different social media channels were set up and the ICCA Congress hash tag was chosen and communicated. We actually were a bit late with creating the Event Facebook page and communicating the #icca11 hashtag to our members. This should be done at least 3 months before the Congress takes place, but preferably earlier: We are going to set up the Facebook event page for the 51st ICCA Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico immediately after the 2011 Congress, to take maximum advantage of the #icca11 momentum.

These are the channels we set up:

In the last days before the Congress we posted an @ICCAWORLD Twitterfountain (http://www.twitterfountain.com/) on our ICCA Congress homepage to start building the momentum.

Driving content: Combining channels

All pre-congress communication was combined through the different channels:

  • ICCA’s social media channels were pushed through the ICCA Congress Bulletin- and Event information emails after registration
  • ICCA’s social media channels were included in the hard-copy final programme
  • Congress related news was posted on ICCA’s social media networks and members were invited to discuss the education programme, the General Assembly, CAT Night, Dress to impress outfits, etc.

Identify brand ambassadors

ICCA members who were most active on social media were identified as “brand ambassadors” and were stimulated to keep the online discussion going, as well as ICCA staff and students who attended the ICCA Congress as part of the scholarship programme for students of ICCA member universities.

2. Offline social media support during the Congress

What's On? at #icca11

What’s On? was used to display the #icca11 programme on screens throughout the venue, including a Twitterfountain feed. The programme was also available in a mobile version.

  • Social Media Desk: During the Congress we set up a Social Media Desk, which was located next to the registration desk, and which was staffed by ICCA’s Social Media Executive Raphael Kamp, to help all delegates to get started with using social media.
  • Free WiFi: which is off course crucial in making your social media activities a success
  • Tech support: there was a separate IT Helpdesk, but tech support was also often done by the Social Media Desk (how to get WiFi working on my phone, how to set up a social media account, etc.)
  • Screens with live feeds of our social media channels were displayed throughout the venue. We planned to use Storify for this, but as we used the “What’s on?” application to display the Congress Programme on the same screens, which had a Twitterfountain tool integrated in it, we did not use Storify.

On-site content, monitoring and moderating

ICCA Social Media Executive Raphael Kamp showing off his gear at the Social Media Desk at #icca11

ICCA Social Media Executive Raphael Kamp showing off his gear at the Social Media Desk at #icca11

If you profide all these social media channels and are stimulating an online discussion, it is obviously very important to monitor and moderate the content on your channels and to answer questions directly, in order to keep the interaction going.

The following tools were used to monitor and moderate ICCA social-media channels in real-time on-site:

Sprout Social is an excellent social media dashboard tool which lets you do the following things:

  • Monitor multiple social media channels (from Facebook and Twitter to LinkedIn and YouTube);
  • Show social media statistics per channel (demographic, level of engagement and influence, increase in fan / followers volume etc.);
  • Compile social media reports;
  • Directly send out social media messages through a wide range of social media channels.

Hootsuite is a social media dashboard tool similar to Sprout Social, but doesn’t feature the advanced compiling of social media reports. It features are:

  • Clear overview of social media channels for monitoring (limited amount of channels available);
  • Easy interface to directly post new content to social media channels.

3. Post-congress social media follow up

After the congress ICCA uses social media to extend the online relationship with the #icca11 attendees. A very important post-congress content item is the videos created during the Congress by both a local camera crew and journalist and the videos created by ICCA media member Meetings:Review. Also all ICCA Congress information is shared through the combined channels, with links to the videos, pictures and presentations on our social media channels.

4. Statistics

To understand the success of social media during our 50th ICCA Congress we monitored all our social media activities and compiled these in a statistical overview. Below you can find an overview for individual channels as well as a general overview.

In the data below you can see an overview of ICCA´s total output level regarding both engagement and influence.

  • Engagement here means the level of interaction with the audience (e.g. replies, private messages, one-on-one-conversations);
  • Influence means the rate of success that your audience will either view, read and interact with the content you send out;

The demographic box shows the demographic statistics from our twitter followers. Next to that is the social scorecard box which gives us more information on the amount of new followers (per day), how often our keywords (in this case or hashtag #icca11, username iccaworld and keyword icca) are mentioned in the social media space. Underneath it the amount of message being send out (per day) and the level of engagement (how well we interact with our community).

Twitter statistics

Before ICCA Congress: #1616 followers
After ICCA Congress: #1713 followers

As you can clearly see that the engagement level rises dramatically with the start of the congress and then keeps a steady level together with the level of influence.

Facebook statistics

Before ICCA Congress: #498
After ICCA Congress: #610

Note the dramatic change in views, new fans and the amount of likes and comments. They all build upon the level of engagement that takes place during the congress.

Other social media tools available

During the course of the congress (before, during and after) you can use several tools to your advantage to maximize the use of social media. Please check below for a comprehensive list of tools:

  • Twitterfountain.com (show tweets and photos regarding a certain subject on a big screen);
  • MindMeister.com (gives attendees the opportunity to make a live mind map on a big screen during an seminar or workshop);
  • Google Docs (easy way to share documents online, for example notes taken during a seminar / workshop or presentations);
  • Google Moderator (easy moderation tool which makes it possible for people to ask questions on the go and have polls on questions before they go live to the speaker);
  • U-Stream (live video blogging, can also be saved as a video archive for later use);
  • Speakonomy.com (tool for attendees to rate a speaker / seminar, great way to find out which speakers your audience approve of and which not);
  • Twoppy.com (mobile congress app);
  • Google Analytics (measure web activity during the congress);
  • TribeMonitor / Tweetreach (monitor the reach of certain content / social media);
  • Sprout Social (social media monitoring tool);

5. Evaluation

Questions on the use of social media during the congress are part of the general post-congress evaluation surveys, which will help us to fine-tune our socia media strategy for #icca12.

How have you used social media for your event?

Do you have any suggestions for tools that you have used? Any questions related to this case study or on social media for events in general? Please share and leave a comment by clicking the text balloon on top of this post.

By Mathijs • Social media for events • 9 • Tags: , ,

Nov 1 2011

“The meetings industry is lousy when it comes to PR”*

*Unofficial comment by some of ICCA’s media members.

No better way to kick off this blog than with a great Clapton (or of course Robert Johnson) song:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDJKLLdlzd8] And here’s why: Don’t worry, I did not sell my soul to the devil or anything like that (see interpretation of Cross Roads Blues), but I sort of arrived at a crossroads when preparing a presentation about PR for the ICCA Research, Sales and Marketing Programme 2011 in Gdansk, Poland.

Share my personal PR 2.0 learning experience

I have been creating and executing ICCA’s PR Plans for a couple of years now and with good results: ICCA has gotten much more coverage and general profile over the years. But still I had the feeling I could do more and that my PR activities were just a side job next to my main activities related to IT projects, web development and ICCA statistics. So here I was in Gdansk talking about all these great methods for conducting successful PR and I realised I was actually not taking maximum benefit of these myself and that there was a lot more for me to learn.

Moreover, when I did a session at the recent 50th ICCA Congress in Leipzig together with ICCA’s media members Alexandra Yeomans of CIM Australasia, Roger Kellerman and Atti Soenarso of Meetings International and Christine Fuchs of TW Magazine called “Fundamentals of PR and implications of modern technology and social media” I realised I also had to become more serious about using the new “PR 2.0″ tools, and that ICCA members are very interested to learn more about these and about social media in the meetings industry in general.

To just start using a PR 2.0 tool myself and to create a platform for sharing my PR 2.0 experiences in the meetings industry, starting this blog seemed like a very logical step to take.

Help ICCA members to be more successful in their PR efforts

But apart from sharing my personal learning experience this blog also serves another, much bigger, purpose. I have heard a number of ICCA media members say over the years (at unofficial occasions, usually over a couple of drinks) that the meetings industry is lousy when it comes to PR. And as it is one of ICCA’s strategic goals to enable its members to generate and maintain a significant competitive edge in their PR efforts, we have created some very useful PR tools of which I am convinced they can help ICCA members to improve their PR and social media activities. This blog also serves to promote these tools, and I also hope to frequently use the knowledge of some experienced ICCA media members to share their advise.

The PR revolution

It is a given fact that the new live, interactive Web or web 2.0 or whatever you want to call is forcing a revolution in PR activities and has made the traditional definition of PR invalid: traditional PR used to be all about media relations instead of direct consumer communication. This can be quite confusing and I think a clear distinction has to be made.

Media relations is all about trying to get the endorsement of editors and journalists to write about your subject, which means your story needs to have a news value or you need to get creative and find another way of being newsworthy.
The way in which you conduct PR activities to get your message across through media is very different than getting your message across to your target audience directly through social media and blog tools.

The Live and interactive web makes it so easy to reach out to consumers directly, that PR 2.0 seems to be more about direct relations with your target group than about media relations.

The majority of posts on this blog will be related to media relations, but I will also frequently post articles on direct consumer relations (in which social media plays a major role).

Social media for events

Another big focus of this blog will be on social media for events. The meetings industry is still in its early stages of adopting social media tools in the organisation of events. Together with ICCA’s Social Media Executive Raphael Kamp I am responsible for ICCA’s social media activities and I hope that by sharing our experiences in this field with our members, we can learn form eachother.

This blog is especially focussing on PR by ICCA and ICCA members and will contain case studies and tips & tricks on new technology and social media tools which could help ICCA members in their PR 2.0 efforts.

I hope you will enjoy reading it and find it usefull!

What topics would you like this blog to cover?

Are there any specific topics you would like to know more about and that you would like me to cover? Any questions related to media relations or social media in general, to ICCA’s Press Database or Digital Clipping Service, to PR opportunities at the ICCA Congress, PR opportunities related to your country or city ranking in the ICCA statistics, etc.? Please share and leave a comment by clicking the text balloon on top of this post!

By Mathijs • Media relations, Social media for events • 0 • Tags: , , , , ,


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