Social Networking in St. Louis

Last week I ventured into the city not once, but twice, for professional development reasons. That hasn't happened since... well, it's been a while. And when I say "city," I mean anything east of Hwy 170, so yes that includes Clayton.

I haven't been as active in attending these types of professional development events lately mostly because of three reasons:

1. They are usually in the "city," AKA too far of a drive for this St. Charles County girl.
2. They can be expensive.
3. The topics don't pertain me, or I already know... or think I know enough about the subject.

But this week was the exception. First up was the REBUS (@REBUS) event last Tuesday night at Busch Stadium. Now, I'm not going to lie, the Busch Stadium venue was definitely a draw for me, especially since it was in the Cardinals Club, but that wasn't everything.

Source: St. Louis Cardinals website

The event featured the following panelists:

• Rebecca Saunders, Global Marketing Manager for Stereotaxis (@STXSontheRoad)
• Julia Row, Manager of Special Events for the St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals)
• Stephen Surman, VP of Digital Strategy for Anheuser-Busch
• Jessica Simmons, Corporate Marketing Communications Director for Monsanto (@MonsantoCo)
• May Scheve Reardon, Director of The Missouri Lottery (@MissouriLottery)

Talk about a wide variety of experience! They were a great panel and they provided a lot of insight into the advertising/marketing world. Here are a few of my takeaways from the panel:

• Consumers don't see a difference between digital, print, experience, etc., so brand strategy is key. For instance, Stephen Surman from Anheuser-Busch said, "The consumer doesn't see a digital Budweiser or a traditional Budweiser; they just see a Budweiser."
• Often when trying to come up with new and creative marketing ideas the end goal gets lost, which is to move your brand forward.
• Missouri Lottery and Anheuser-Busch have two totally opposite strategies when it comes to how to deal with online negativity: AB chooses to let sleeping dogs lie, while Missouri Lottery would rather "nip it in the bud." At SCC, we tend to go with the AB method of letting negative comments slide, rather than react right away.

While I thought the panel was great, I have to admit I felt a little uncomfortable at this event, mostly because I hardly knew anyone, which was unusual for me at a marketing/PR/advertising/communications type of event. And being out of the "networking" game for a while, I felt uneasy about approaching strangers and striking up a conversation out of the blue, so I kept to myself. I've attended one other REBUS event before, and felt the exact opposite, so I'm not quite sure if it was me or them. Probably me.

In case you're wondering, REBUS is a network of young advertising professionals, and they are sponsored by Ad Club St. Louis.

They host events throughout the year at various St. Louis agencies and organizations to give us young professionals an inside look at how these businesses work. The last one I attended was at Avatar Studios, a production company, and it was really cool to get a behind-the-scenes look at their shop. Oddly enough, they also happen to be the company that produced SCC's commercials last year.

Then Thursday, I went to an IABC (@IABCstl) event titled "Recipe for Success: Key Components of a Successful Social Media Strategy," featuring Eric Baggett (@smszombie), director of online marketing at Steady Rain (@SteadyRain). Eric was a great presenter and he gave us a lot of tips in creating a social media strategy, including:

• Before you being creating a social media strategy, ask yourself how you plan to add value to your campaign.
• When defining your goals and objectives, think about whether you want to innovate, initiate, respond or listen, then determine how you are going to measure your success.
• Think about what "success" means to you, and what it looks like.
• Your social media strategy should match your overall marketing plan.
• Steps to a successful social media plan: develop your plan, determine the channels, assign resources, execute, listen and measure.
• Determine the right channels for your goals. Every channel is not usually the answer.
• Just because someone is young doesn't mean they are a social media expert. What matters is if they have passion for it or not.
• The idea that you need to be everywhere because that's where everyone is, isn't always the best social media strategy.
• Sells your product/service not by direct advertising through your social media networks, but by building trust with your followers/fans.
• Anything you do in social media can improve your SEO.
• In order for your social media plan to be successful it needs to decrease cost, increase revenue and gain a competitive advantage.
• Social media isn't always the best option for B2B (business to business) businesses.

I had a great time at the IABC event and was able to meet a few new people, as well as catch up with some old friends (which is part of why I love IABC events!)

Both events were great, actually, and they were both worth my trips into the "city," so hopefully I'll be attending more events in the future... even if it means venturing out of St. Charles County every once in a while!