Every other year, Cochlear Americas hosts a conference known as Cochlear Celebration. The goal of the conference is to provide their customers support for the products they sell, cochlear implants and baha, and also living with hearing loss and also give customers the opportunity to meet and talk with staff in person. The sessions provide the attendees with better knowledge in how to best care for and utilize the products, live to the fullest with hearing loss, and get best quality of hearing. They also provide ample amount of opportunities for attendees to socialize. Socializing is a very critical aspect of the conference because it gives attendees the opportunity to be with people who “get it.” Most important of all, the conference gives both employees and attendees the moment to celebrate the miracles of hearing.  Many of these people who are utilizing their products once have faced isolation, relationship problems, struggled to get a job and/or missed hearing music.  They now have their life back thanks to the technologies available to them today.

During my attendance at the conference as a staff member, I managed the company’s social media channels.  I took photos with my professional digital SLR camera and uploaded them to Facebook.  I had fun Instagraming and sharing them on Twitter.  I listened to the presentations and live tweeted quotes and facts.  From my iPad and iPhone, I responded to both attendees and non-attendees tweets about Cochlear Celebration.  There was even a special hashtag for the Celebration, #Cochlear2013.

So, why is it important to have social media presence during a conference?

• Companies gain greater publicity.  When attendees and non-attendees share posts relating to the conference on Facebook and/or Twitter, their friends on Facebook, and/or followers on Twitter will see their posts and possibly share them with their friends or retweet them for their followers to view.  As a result, the messages are being spread exponentially to a number of people.
• When photographing companies’ employees working at the conferences and sharing them on social media, it shows the customers that employees are passionate about their work and caring for their customers.  It could increase customer satisfaction.
• When sharing photographs of customers at conferences, especially those with smiles, it could persuade potential customers to choose to purchase products from the particular company because of the impressions customers show.
• If the conference is a recurring event, the posts from the conference could trigger non-attendees to register and attend the next upcoming conference.
• It’s an opportunity to build a brand evangelism.

Because there are many social media channels to keep up, I created a one-stop shopping social media catch all website to help attendees and non-attendees maximize their use of social media during the conference.

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