7:00 AM: Social Media Breakfast (Shout out to Freeman Leonard for the hospitality)

Giovanni Gallucci (@Giovanni) delivered a well-rounded presentation regarding selling social media. The presentation unfolded as Giovanni explained how to successfully sell social media parallel to a real life campaign he previously pitched to a client (and knocked it out of the park). By presenting his speech this way, Giovanni was able to deliver a powerful message both to the sales professionals in the room, but also to the social media marketers in the room such as myself.

The presentation explained how the sales team and creative department must work together in order to draw up the perfect pitch. Decide what the goals are of integrating social media into the sales plan, decide what the voice of the company will reflect, figure out how to add value to the client and finally, train the client—involve them in the campaign. The following are quotes from the one and only, Giovanni Gallucci that I found extremely impactful:

“If you are not passionate about what you’re doing, stop. I’m serious. Just stop.” Words to live by.

“Anyone who says social media is free and easy, doesn’t know squat about running an effective social media campaign.” Preach it!

“87% of high school students said they would give up sex before their mobile phone” What high school is this? Yikes.

10:00 AM-5:00 PM: Insert workday.

6:30-8:30 Social Media Club of Dallas (Thank you Chili’s for the awesome food)

A huge two thumbs up goes out to Scott Stratten (@unmarketing). Even though he was suffering from a terrible case of food poisoning, Scott delivered the most entertaining, hilarious, and geek-a-licious presentation I have ever seen at SMC. (Plus, everyone received a free copy of Scott’s latest book).

Excuse me; I forgot a key detail…

7:15 Popcorn Guy enters stage left. (If you were present at SMC, you know exactly what I’m talking about)

6:30-8:30 Back to Social Media Club of Dallas

Rather than ramble a formula off for being awesome and how to implicate it into your marketing campaigns, Scott “spoke in tweets” and provided example upon example of big name brands that have been “awesome” in their social media marketing strategies. There were also numerous examples of how not to be “awesome”. Aside from being extremely entertaining, presenting in this fashion motivated you to think beyond the presentation. I often found myself thinking, “How can I learn from these examples?” There were simply FAR too many quotes to take away and sum up Scott’s comic performance, but my personal favorites are as follows:

“Brands are represented by experiences.” Not logos.

“Awesome does have ROI.” Simply put “Passion+Knowledge+Profit.” Here’s this passion thing again.

“It’s content that gets shared, not advertising.” “Outrage doesn’t take a day off.” “When it hits the fan, you can’t hide the fan.” In social media marketing, be on the lookout for a crisis and be proactive in your actions against it.

“Every time you use a QR Code incorrectly, a kitten dies.” Not really, but this is hilarious.

8:30-10:00 After Party at People’s Last Stand

If the social media comedy show hasn’t recruited you yet, surely this will. After all, social media is all about being social isn’t it? At the end of the night, the crowd migrates over to enjoy the delicious (alcoholic) concoctions made by the fabulous people of People’s (see what I did there?) and the networking continues!

This is merely a brief summary of everything that happened at SMB and SMC yesterday. I can honestly say, to retain the most knowledge, these events are definitely something you need to check out. If you’re interested in signing up for next month’s events, follow Social Media Breakfast Dallas and Social Media Club Dallas on Facebook for the latest updates!

Sources:

Gallucci, G. (2012, 10 25).