Using Webcasting and Social Media to Increase Attendance, Followers and Fans: An UNLEASH09 Case Study

In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, compounded by travel bans, budget constraints and an all-out assault on corporate meetings, Sonic Foundry was able to achieve a 15% increase in attendees for its user conference - and more than quadruple their fans, followers and forum membership.

How? By using webcasting and social media to engage both on-site and online attendees with the event planners themselves, conference speakers and other attendees. The campaign was recently recognized with a Forrester Groundswell award, and now the conference organizers are ready to share their playbook with you, including:

• Easy ways to use online video, webcasts and social media (including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Flickr) before, during and after the conference to drive attendance
• Techniques to get your attendees more involved through webcasts, social sharing and event networking
• A roadmap for what to record this year so you can market with it next year
• Inspiration for a full year's worth of email touch points based on conference webcasts, plus an email calendar template with even more ideas on what to send when
• Evaluation guidelines to measure attendee engagement, content viewership and conference satisfaction

Presenter:

Erica St. Angel is the VP of Marketing at Sonic Foundry. She oversees demand generation, branding, social media, PR and analyst programs to increase mindshare and drive business growth for this publicly-traded company. She's a tech marketer who is pushing the envelope of marketing technology, merging her two obsessions: what gets results and the latest in B2B marketing measurement.

Her unique background blends 15 years of corporate, public information and political campaigns, with an emphasis on measuring outcomes, building community and increasing customer engagement. Erica has spoken at numerous events and webinars. Her work has earned both industry and marketing awards including most recently the Forrester Groundswell Award for the B2B-Energizing category.