#DellSocialBiz TweetUp in Sydney - What Went Down!
As many of you know I popped over to Sydney for a whirlwind trip last week. I headed over to the #DellSocialBiz TweetUp featuring Richard Margetic, Dell's Global Social Media lead, at the Victoria Room in Darlinghurst.I took my SLR camera with the intention of snapping away all evening, but my mouth was too busy talking and my hands kept having cocktails shoved in them, so I didn't manage to get as many as I anticipated.The event was pretty casual, which was nice. I find it easier to mingle and network in those environments when everyone is a little more relaxed. I arrived and met the lovely Lauren from PPR Sydney who had been emailing me all week and organising the trip for me, grabbed a beer (Coopers) and made a beeline for Richard.Richard was exactly as friendly and chatty as you would expect a guy from Austin, Texas to be. We had a great chat about me, him, my shoes, and even some social media stuff. He was really happy to know someone had flown ALL the way from Auckland to come to the TweetUp. We chatted about small businesses in New Zealand and their social media use. He surprised me with his knowledge about New Zealand and its social media environment. I managed to have him all to myself for a good 10 minutes before he was dragged off to get ready for his 'official talk' to the group - but I managed to get a photo of him for ya'll.
Richard spoke about how Dell has used social media internally in the business to become a market leader. I was live tweeting the event, and if you take a look here, you should be able to find my tweets about it.
The point that most resonated with me was the one he made about social media strategy. I am just finishing up my little social media dissertation (due tomorrow!) and it was GREAT to hear this smart person who works in social media discussing the ideas i had reflected on in the critical reflection part of my dissertation (i should totes get 10/10 for it). Richard said that there are two elements to think about with any social media strategy: the reason why people are on social media (the drivers, which are the same offline as they are online) and secondly, business objectives. EVERY social media effort should match those.
I totally agree. I think people and business often get caught up on the hoo-har of social media and forget about what it is they are actually trying to achieve. It is important to remember those two elements every time you are strategising, and implementing your social media strategy.
Here are the acceptable, I mean rest of the photos from the evening. I'd like to give a huge shout out to Andy Scales and his team at PPR in Sydney. They all did a great job of making SMNZ feel a part of the night, and were super friendly. That last cocktail at 12am really did the trick and I slept like a baby, right up until 5am when I had to get up for my flight back to Auckland. Ouch.
Look it's @SocialMedia_NZ on the big screen! See Soc_Syd and their awesome image with the orange RSS made to look like the Opera House? Funny story: As I was sitting there taking this photo a guy came over and was like, oh heya. I said hey back, and told him how much COOL I thought this icon was, what did he think. He was like, uh yeah - that is my Twitter. I was like, DUDE. YOUR TWITTER IMAGE ROCKS. Total honest compliment, and totally didn't know it was him. *virtual fist pump*.
There was a lot of great food. This is just one example.
Having a serious conversation with Lauren from PPR Sydney about social media. Or my shoes, one of the two.
I think this pretty much sums up the end of the evening.