Experts speak to community at Social Media Conference
Social Media marketers from around the region gathered at Delaware Technical Community College for the Sixth Annual Social Media Conference on Feb. 15 at the Owens Campus.
The audience had an opportunity to connect face-to-face with social media professionals and learn about the new technologies and strategies on the Internet platform. The conference was aimed at addressing the social media needs of small businesses, nonprofits, big businesses and anyone in between.
A total of 400 people attended the event to learn how to effectively use a social media platform for their businesses.
Delaware Tech President Dr. Mark Brainard welcomed the audience and thanked the Owens Campus team for organizing Delmarva’s Premier Social Media event.
“This is one of those must not-miss events on my schedule,” Dr. Brainard said. “The speakers are so practical and they are so engaged with all of you.”
Dr. Brainard also shared with the audience that Delaware Tech’s marketing team takes the information from the conference and uses it at their own campus locations.
The keynote speaker was the publisher of the Cape Gazette, Dennis Forney. He discussed his experience in using Social Media as a powerful tool. In addition, Forney spoke about the Cape Life section which is the most unifying heading in the Cape Gazette community.
“TheCape Life section often focuses on all the different organizations in the community that are doing great things for the community, whether it is fundraisers or different causes,” Forney said. “People get it together to try to do wonderful things to improve their community.”
The event included more than 15 breakout sessions, covering strategies and tactics of creating social media content. Local Delmarva social media experts such as Caroline Judge from Sodel Concepts and Courtney Hastings from Hertrich Family of Automobile Dealerships discussed a variety of topics spanning from “creating a social media plan” to how to use “smartphone apps” to interact with customers.
During the session, Judge said engagement with the followers is the most important aspect in social media marketing. Judge often publishes live photos of employee on social media sites like Instagram and Facebook in order to interact with the customers.
“People love to feel included, people like to feel like they are getting involved and see what you do on your day to day cases,” Judge said. “ In the new Facebook algorithm you really have to get comments and shares to get people engaging with your post.”
Throughout the conference, a total of more than 20 speakers presented over the course of the day, social media leaders spoke about the variety of tools which can be used as a successful marketing campaign. Attendees were able to gain the mindset, tools, and skills they need with social media and bring in positive ROI (return on investment) from each effort.
Attendees were encouraged to share posts on their social media accounts using the conference's hashtag in order to win a prize at the Social Media Conference. Photo by O. Kochegura
Delaware Tech Community College thanks Dennis Forney for speaking at the Social Media Conference. Photo by O. Kochegura
Many people attend to Social Media Conference to learn how effectively use Internet platform in business. Video by O. Kochegura