The Tumblog of Matthew Delprado

Last night I attended the exponentially growing SMCSYD. This was my first, and probably my last, but its not because it wasn’t good, which frankly it really wasn’t, it’s because it strayed from it roots. SMC Sydney is reportedly the biggest of its kind round the world which is pretty much the problem. Last night seemed to have been some sort of turning point as the evening tried to become a free seminar instead of a social industry meetup. The presentation style beginning to the night was too superficial for some, too quick for many and too quiet and small for the rest.

You can read about the AV problems elsewhere, but for me it just meant it was hard to concentrate. I actually got a fair bit out of the presentation, and given that hardcore social media marketing isn’t something I spend too much time in, it was a good introduction. The biggest takeaway for me was a clear short term business goal for companies to engage in a social media campaign. SEO. Nearly every marketer I’ve ever talked to about this understands the brand value and word of mouth power of social media, but with good reason, this isn’t enough for them. As was pointed out a few times last night, without a clear, measurable business goal the entire exercise and be futile at best and dangeroud for the brand at worst. *cough*Coke Zero. Seo is that business reason most if not all business can glom onto, and especially for smaller business, which I’m dealing with a lot more, this is an excellent reason. learning about some of the tools available to measure the chatter was also very useful.

Sidebar, I think the awesome ispylevis missed a trick with their campaign. It was without any accompanying site for a long time, and now that it is up, it has no relationship to the twitter account, at least that I could find. I just linked to their twitter account for example. End sidebar.

The social part of the evening I could do without. I’ve wanted to get more into these meet-ups, but in the end I just talked to people I already knew and hadn’t seen in a while. I don’t need to go out on a monday or to a crowded bar to do that.

However this doesn’t mean the night was bad, it just means that it wasn’t for me. I’ll be avidly following the video posts of the panels in the future, but for me, and embeded slideshare widget and my snuggle make for a better learning experience.