This year, Stikky Media attended Social Media Camp 2019. Read on to learn about our experience at this unique Canadian social media conference, topics covered by the speakers and our key takeaways.
If you haven’t heard of Social Media Camp, it’s a conference that’s focused around Social Media Marketing. It was founded and organized here in Victoria, BC and just celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. It took place at the Victoria Conference Centre, attached to the Fairmont Empress Hotel on April 25th and 26th. (https://socialmediacamp.ca)
Social Media Camp is centered around social media marketing specifically, which differentiates it from other digital marketing conferences that are more broad. “I’d be lying if I said we haven’t ever thought of broadening the conference to be about digital marketing; however, we’ve carved a niche for ourselves as the largest social media marketing conference in Canada and we attract an international audience. This year we had attendees from the US and as far away as Australia,” said Paul Holmes, Co-Founder of Social Media Camp.
Keynote/Featured Speakers included former CEO & founder of MOZ Rand Fishkin, Scott Stratten of Unmarketing Inc., Mari Smith (aka the Queen of Facebook), and Zach Nelson (YouTube sensation) from JerryRig Everything. Attendees got a free copy of Rand Fishkin’s book: Lost to Founder. “We were lucky this year to have a combination of speakers that normally would cost far more than our budget would allow; however, many of the speakers were very generous, out of support and excitement for Social Media Camp’s 10th Anniversary, allowing us to have an extraordinary line up this year,” said Paul Holmes, Co-Founder of Social Media Camp.
Delving deep into social media marketing, the conference covers all of these areas: communications, sales, crowdsourcing, e-learning, digital marketing, content marketing, email marketing, inbound marketing, and more. Furthermore, it hosts a conversation around the cultural impacts of social media, its effects on politics, and its security and safety implications. “Social Media Camp has grown with the evolution of social media. Every year we talk about the latest themes and issues that platforms are facing. A hot topic of discussion this year has been the issue of censorship with social media giants, such as Facebook,’ said Paul Holmes, Co-Founder of Social Media Camp. As the platform grows to more than 2 billion users, the issue of censorship becomes more controversial – is it healthy for Facebook to intervene in who gets to speak and use the platform? How does this affect the broader concern of internet censorship? “Facebook’s censorship practices have lead to micro social media platforms emerging, that don’t have censorship and in turn end up attracting the people who got kicked off Facebook, and hosting hate groups. This can be dangerous because there’s little opposing views on these platforms,” said Paul Holmes, Co-Founder of Social Media Camp.
Build Your Brand To Win On Social Media
Isabelle Mercier Tourcotte from LeapZone Strategies on Vancouver Island, BC (https://leapzonestrategies.com) kicked off Day 2 with a breakout session called: Brand to Make Life Better: Be the First, The Best, or The Only. Her energy was electric and her passion for branding, undeniable. Her session was packed with takeaways, differentiating on what branding is and is not and what you can do to make sure yours leaves people feeling on fire. She demystified common branding myths, such as: ‘your brand needs a mission statement’, explaining that most people in an organization don’t even know what the mission statement is; that what’s important is your brand’s MISSION: how it leaves people feeling (Hint: It can not be more than 2 words). Leaving the audience to think about it: “What are 2 words that people in your company can embody when facing your clients?”
Build Your Following With Influencer Marketing
In the afternoon, Jason Miles (CEO of Pixie Faire, Sew Powerful and author of Instagram Powerful) hosted a session called Influencer Marketing Master Class. He taught attendees how to strengthen a brand by using influencers and detailed a step-by-step process on how to find them, evaluate them, and make a deal. Who would have thought there were 4 types of influencers?
Keep it Simple with Social Media Marketing
Lastly, these two ladies Heather & Catherine from Keep it Simple Social Media hosted their session on how to monetize your brand on Facebook & Instagram. Their session was loaded with tons of tips, tricks, and hacks to convert followers into paying customers. Not to give away too many of their secrets, but remember:
Live video is huge and having an episodic show for your business that occurs 1x month or 1x week can be instrumental in building a loyal and engaged community around your brand. Video is especially hot on Facebook these days – Have you seen Will & Jada Smith’s Show: The Red Table?
If you want to make money on Facebook, you have to advertise! Create targeted audiences on Facebook, make a bunch of different ones and name them. Create a post or ad and target the right audience for your ad and content. Your audience will be smaller, but your return will be larger.
Social Media Camp was such an amazing conference! Jam-packed with tips, hacks, contacts, and social media experts – we can’t wait for next year. Will you be there? #SocialMediaCamp
Stikky Media helps organizations manage and grow their social media presence. If you’d like to learn more about our social media services, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
