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Social Media Week and internal communication

3rd October 2013 by Rachel Miller

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Last week was Social Media Week across multiple cities around the globe, and my hometown of London was no exception.

I saw stats released today showing that the week involved eight cities, seven countries, 1061 events, 1700+ speakers, 25k+ attendees, 210k+ mentions and 555+ million impressions. Wow!

I spoke at two SMW-related events, Social Media Inside the Large Enterprise (SMILE) on Monday and also appeared on a panel alongside some of my fellow Share This Too book authors at Ketchum on Thursday for a session looking at The Future of PR,

SMW Rachel MillerI then went to the SMW closing party at Supperclub. The top photo on this page was taken at the party and I’m alongside Tina Clark who I first met in person at Social Media Week last year when I spoke at Facebook and it was lovely to meet Rylan Holey from HootSuite. If you went to anything Rylan was at last week, chances are you have a HootSuite bandana at home now too.

Have you used a photo booth before at your events? They’re great fun and really get people talking – when they’re not posing! This one was from EngageSciences who by all accounts had a whale of a time videoing and snapping Social Media Week attendees.

If you have used props and pics and want to share your story, do let me know.

I’ve written before and will repeat again, that I’m really encouraged by the fact SMILE was an official Social Media Week event. I’d love to see more opportunities for people working in internal communication to get involved in the conversations and to participate in activities throughout the week.

If this is new to you, SMW is held twice a year – in February and September. Do sign up for alerts so you can discover what’s on during the next one. You can watch an overview video here.

The 2014 theme has just been announced as The Future Of Now: Always On, Always Connected.

The Future of PR

My fellow panel members at the event on Thursday night were: Mark Pack, Head of Digital, Blue Rubicon, Russell Goldsmith, Social Media Director, markettiers4dc, Michael Litman, Co-Founder, BRANDSONVINE and Stephen Davies, Director, Ruder Finn UK.

Jane Wilson, Chief Executive of CIPR moderated our discussion (and snapped the photo on this page) and you can view the conversations via #smwKetchum or see this Storify.

I’m going to highlight some of the Tweets to give you a flavour of the discussion. The room included comms pros, PR students and people who wanted to discuss the future of PR and what digital means for communications.

We each spoke for five minutes about our chapter in the book and then answered questions from attendees.

About Share This Too

Freebie: download a chapter of Share This Too for free.

You can find out more information about Share This Too, and particularly my chapter, via this review by IC pro Richard Cooper.I wrote about social in corporate communications.

In his review Richard wrote: “Sometimes there is a risk that concepts around social media can become too abstract, however, Rachel brings her ideas to life with contemporary case studies and gives clear guidance on how to get the best from social media in your organisation. Rachel’s is one of 33 chapters within this book and there are plenty that are directly relevant to IC professionals with the opportunity to read more broadly.”

If you are looking to order the book, don’t forget to use the discount code VBE14 to get 20% off the recommended retail price via www.wiley.com

So what did I take away from Social Media Week 2013? Lots of things, but these three in particular:

  • You can’t beat meeting face-to-face people that you’ve only communicated with online. A fact I already knew, but had reinforced countless times throughout the week as I put real faces and personalities to names and photos
  • Conversations about the use of social media for internal communication are louder than ever before and IC pros have a wealth of information at their fingertips to learn, discuss and choose from
  • I’m proud to work in internal communication and would love to see more IC pros on panels in future, helping to shape conversations and highlight the importance of employee communication.

What did you go to? What would you recommend? Don’t forget to let @theICcrowd know any events you spot so they can be added to the comms calendar and shared with other people.

Thanks as ever for stopping by and if you haven’t done so already, please do take five minutes to complete this short survey on how internal comms pros use social media.

Coming tomorrow is the seventh episode of internal comms TV plus a very special article giving the inside story on the Thomas Cook rebrand – I covered the external comms side earlier this week, and you can discover the internal comms side tomorrow.

Rachel

As promised, here are some of the Tweets from the session:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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