How can you support business growth and customer engagement with new social networking tools?
The annual Southern California Business Growth Conference, sponsored by the Harvard Business School association of Orange County (CA) and Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA), wanted to increase the value of conference registration to offset the slow economic times.
Solution
Customers That Click proposed using the Ning social networking platform to offer a private online community for conference registrants. This site provided an opportunity for conference attendees to make new contacts and start networking before the conference began—a benefit that appealed to all registrants.
Because the social networking site was private (by invitation to those registered for the conference) it was a high-value network – with many participants at the C-suite level, or venture capitalists and angel investors or similar individuals with access to capital.
The site was launched nearly 2 months before the conference date and was marketed through emails and other social media (Linkedin and Facebook) to drive sign-up and participation.
The entire Ning site was designed, developed, and maintained by Customers That Click. In fact, we performed the role of community manager, marketer, facilitator, and advocate for the new social networking platform with attendees, sponsors, and conference volunteers. Our efforts included phone conference tutorials to educate each level of participant how to use the Ning platform to their maximum benefit.
Result
The conference organizers were thrilled with the appreciation and comments about the Ning site at the conference and its supporting role to conference registration.
62% of paid attendees participated in the Ning social network. This is an amazing result given the annual conference had not offered anything similar to participants in the past.
