The topical subject of social media attracted a large crowd to the third instalment of the Digital Enterprise Program breakfast series seminars held last Wednesday at the Ex-Services Club.
Guest speaker for the morning was Scott Ward of Sydney-based Digital Infusions who specialise in helping organisations transition into the new world of social media engagement. His keynote speech focused on how social media can be a powerful tool to build and complement businesses.
“Social media has exploded across all countries, age groups and cultures and is now a major force in communications. Early adopters of this profound shift are now enjoying significant market advantage, while those that continue to neglect this change decrease in relevance,” said Mr Ward. He also went on to describe how there is a profound misunderstanding of what social media is and how many businesses wrongly view it as a threat.
Mr Ward outlined how social media allows small businesses to be more effective in their communications by connecting with customers and employees and showing people how they can take the knowledge that they have spent their careers developing and how to best use this in a social context.
Local business owner Amber Young of Scarlet Ember and Bean Coffee attended Tuesday’s interactive workshop and found it to be a captivating insight into the use of social media to effectively market to customers.
“It really highlighted the right path for me to take when posting comments and building a business profile on the Facebook platform, and how to use this much more effectively and actually get results. I’m already implementing changes learnt in that one-hour lesson and looking forward to the next one,” she said.
Sally Strelitz of award-winning Milly Hill Lamb is an avid convert to social media and believes it is a fundamental tool in the successful growth and marketing of the family business. Ms Strelitz illustrates how, through the use of twitter, the business has gained new clients. She went on to say, “Since winning the Royal Agricultural Society President’s Medal, we went from having 80 followers to well over 300. The RAS tweeted the news to all their followers and, within half-an-hour, my mobile message bank was full from chefs ringing to congratulate us — it went direct to the people that you most want to see it.”
Another example on a much larger scale is the overwhelmingly successful social media campaign that Cadbury undertook during their Olympic Sponsorship campaign. According to Cadbury, social media activity, as part of the overall Olympic campaign, was responsible for adding 2.5 million social media fans over the course of the Olympics and Paralympics. The steepest growth was on its @CadburyUK twitter account, which added 25,000 followers over the course of the event, followed by a 20 per cent increase on the Cadbury Facebook page, all in just 17 days.
Milly Hill Lamb can be found on twitter at @millyhilllamb
The Digital Enterprise Breakfast Series runs each Wednesday morning (with a brief hiatus over school holidays) and speakers include local and national experts. Cost is $20 and includes breakfast. Please contact Elizabeth Egan at the Armidale Business Chamber on 6770 3924 or www.digitalenterprise.armidalechamber.com.au for a full program of speakers.
