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Guest: Lenka Koppova Topic: Marketing and Social Media Events

Discussion Points • What does it take in 2020 to coordinate an event? • What is different from previous years? • What is the best thing about organisation them? • And what's the hardest thing about online events? • What are your social media tips for 2021?

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk  The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/  Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/  Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81 

Transcript (this transcript isn’t 100% accurate but provides a decent representation of the conversation – soz for any confusion)

Peter Sumpton And we're live. We're back live and I've got a guest this week or two weeks it just me. So it's great that I have got a guest again this week and what a privilege to have lenker cup of are with me today on marketing study lab live, first of all, Lenka thank you so much Samuel, do this. And joining me, of course, happy to be here. Thank you for having me. Excellent. So as the ticker at the bottom says, we're going to be talking about marketing, and social media, but social media events as well. And we'll come on to that in a little bit after you have just explained to the audience a little bit more about yourself about the wonderful world of Lincoln.

Lenka Koppova Okay, so Hello, everyone. I'm Lanka, and I'm a social media consultant. And aside from running my own business, doing social media strategies, and content and trainings, I'm also the founder of Cambridge social media, which is an organisation it's a community for small business owners and freelancers where we all help each other. And we support our community with anything social media marketing related. And from there, we started with monthly meetups, which obviously, this year, is not as easy to run in person meetups. So we've turned our monthly meetups into weekly Facebook, live training sessions and zoom workshops. And I'm also the organiser of embrittled. Media Day, which again, this year going virtual. So it's a conference in November, and I'm super happy that Peter is running a session for us as well.

Peter Sumpton Yes, so am I thank you so much for the opportunity to do that, really looking forward to that as well. And you'll see that over social in the coming weeks, but really super excited for that and to be part of it and to get to know a bit of your community as well, which will be really, really cool. Okay, so like I said, At the start, all we're going to do today is have a bit of a chat around social media events. So first and foremost, if people got any questions, post them in the comments, and we'll get around to them, or just say hello, or a shout out or whatever you want to do. That's fine with me. But so first Lanka, 2020 has been a bit different over the years, from from, you know, for the past 2030 years, it's been slightly different to what we used to. How have you had to Well, first of all, how did you make the decision to go ahead with your events? And secondly, what changed? You know, first, let's do one question at a time. How did you make that decision to do this?

Lenka Koppova It was very interesting this year, because I run to in person events in the past two years. And it's kind of started as my side project with it just blows my idea after running a couple of meetups to be like, How hard could it be to run all day conference for about 200 people? How did you imagine? years in a row people loved it. But it was very stressful. So I was at the end of last year finished this event in November and it was kind of pondering what to do next. And I found a part partners, I found, you know, one of my business colleagues, Alex Hughes from shift T's who we've known each other for a while, and we had a couple of conversations about what I want, where he's heading, where I'm heading to be like, well actually sounds like a perfect partnerships. So then we nail down the plan, we were had a very ambitious plan for the third annual Cambridge Social Media Day, we plan to change venues go bigger and better. And we made an announcement first week of March that we're doing it, it will be bigger and better. And a week later, like what just happened? So we were back to the drawing board to be like, so what do we do? Do we postpone the oven and make do nothing? Or do we hope that it will be okay in November? Because you know, in March, it looks like it might be discovered. And everything will be okay in November? Or do we go to Safeway, we still want to do something for the audience. We still want to keep the momentum of year or the events doing we still want to celebrate. So let's do it online. And let's figure out a way to bring the best conference the best event the best virtual experience for people or communities

online.

Peter Sumpton Mm hmm. Excellent. So yeah, a bit of a no brainer, but still something that you really have to consider because I'm guessing the way you would lead up to that and will not necessarily lead up to it but structure it is usually different. So what are the differences that you're seeing? Because you're right in the middle of this now the differences you're seeing from trying to organise something that's that's face to face that's offline to something that is less classes virtual, I don't really like that phrase. Well, that's classes virtual.

Lenka Koppova It's interesting because the feedback that we've got from the past events and the things that really matter to me during organising these events was the people vibe, the friendliness didn't come up, you're really the energy of other people, which is the hardest thing to do online. So when we thought about is, obviously I wanted to have great speakers, I wanted to have great content I wanted to make sure they were providing is relevant. It's timely, it's helpful. It's designed for our audience. But the biggest challenge was thinking about how we do we translate our values of really to community feel and positive friendly vibe online. And I consulted with a couple of facilitators, people who are like workshop hosts, and who had to turn their whole business virtual this year, to break down event to make sure did we pay attention to people's energy that we don't just overwhelm them with videos, and just staring at a screen, some time a wall or some exercises away. And it also we have a tool that supports what we do to support this feeling of online interactions. And it allows us us as much as we can to represent the real life feeling and look and atmosphere of in person event. And I think we found a solution, I think we find a pretty cool tool. And we plan the layout of the event, vertical layout to replanning virtual out for our virtual conference room and conference building. And we've planned a lineup and agenda of those two days with the mind of people's energy. And they're not only for them to learn some factual things, but to have as many opportunities as possible to interact, network meet, and build partnership, build connections, find people like them, because I always remember people coming year after year, to me from those conferences to be like this person that I've met, I sit next to, you know, we started working together, we started accountability group to get to where we started this, and I want this to translate on my event as much as we can.

Peter Sumpton Yeah, I mean, it's, it's a big ask in some ways, but from a positive point of view, people have had at least half a year to get used to communicating more on on tools such as stream yard, or zoom, or teams, or you named 610 20 100 of them. At this moment in time, you know, we always got chairs and those back in during life would be slightly different right now I expect. And so with with the actual event, then I'm just interested to know, I mean, I do know, but it'd be good for people that are watching or listening to know that. So it's, it's a social media event. So the folks on social media fantastic. But that isn't just the topics that you're going to be covering. So why, first of all, if you could explain just a couple of the topics that are, you know, exciting for you, as the creator of the event. But secondly, why you covering topics that might not be specifically geared towards social media.

Lenka Koppova So even though it is a Cambridge Social Media Day, and the main theme is social media marketing, I always tell my community, I always tell my clients that social media can't stay alone, not only marketing tactics can stand alone, you can't do just video marketing. You can't do just email marketing, you can't do just the SEO. It's all not only all digital tools, but all marketing tools and tactics and techniques, they need to be complemented to each other, they need to be put into a planning strategy. So that's where we do focus on social media, a lot of our content will be platform specific or social media content specific. But we then have other topics that are relevant this year is kind of overall theme is focused on customer experience, and delivering great customer feeling, customer journey, customer experience being online, which is what we most of us can do, but also thinking about how can you improve the current or foreign experience and the future of flight experience. And then we have couple sessions are looking at marketing automation and looking at building lists. Because no matter how much I left social media, I still know that built using social media purely it's building a house on a rented land algorithm can change, someone can hack your account, this can go wrong and out of nowhere where you're with nothing. So we do put a lot of emphasis on having your own website, having your own CRM, having your own mailing list and using social media to drive these other kind of communities that you have a bigger feel of ownership and if something happens, you have something that is actually own and you can then still connect with your community and customers and prospects.

Peter Sumpton I'm so I'm so glad you said that. So I've got the way I explained that is. And this comes down to the old Olden upin, and the merge if you like. And, you know, everybody likes a bit of merge as long as you're not paying for it. And so I always explain it, in terms of that isn't really going to move somebody to purchase very much. But it's just 1% of what you should be doing. And if you have 99, or the 1%, that's a huge shift. So a pen alone with your logo on isn't going to shift people that much, but it's more brand awareness. And in the grand scheme of things, if you're doing other elements, including merchandise, that's a bigger proposition than just the one channel or the one piece of merchandise, which is exactly what your say, saying in terms of just having social media alone is precarious, because that changes. So you know, you have to really think of your strategy, which is, which is really cool. So this year is about customer experience, then. So let's just shift it towards social for this moment in time. And what kind of thing should we be looking at on social to generate a better customer experience them.

Lenka Koppova So first things first, it's about being aware where on social media you're active, where you have accounts, if they have been used, if they not been used, then why you have them and just do a little bit of an audit to actually be aware where your customers might come across you. And if they come across you There is everything working if they learned and your Facebook page and send you a message will use it and he will be able to respond if not put processes in place to either close on account or make sure that it's very clear to people that you know, this is not your active platform to go and delete direct messages here and there email recall you never will be my first advice is just making sure that you look at all the potential windows and doors where people can kind of run away and mess on. So it's just about for me with social media, it is about not selling all the time. Even though Yes, we use social media marketing to promote the customer experience is all about them. It's about providing them with value, building relationships, connecting with them, helping them serving them, finding the pain that your customers and prospects have, and how you can use social media and content and social media to help them and providing value without actually being just buy from me selling or no one has signed up to LinkedIn or Facebook or especially places like Instagram, to be bombarded by ads and be sold to we're coming to social media to connect to get updates and get news to be entertained, to be hired. We're not coming there to see advertising. So it will see advertising, then it needs to serve us it needs to help us with whatever it is that we need to need to be interesting. It needs to be engaging. And it needs to be helpful.

Peter Sumpton Yeah, absolutely. And it was interesting for me when you see maybe something that is on the surface dry and a bit dull and boring. And people think that, well, there's nothing we can say that is of interest, you know, we do whatever it might be. And I'm not I'm not picking on any industry here. But for example, we do insurance. So what the hell can we say? It's just it's boring, everybody has to have it. But you know, they don't really want it, we're just asking for their money. So they, whatever it might be, but even even that you look at, you know, compare the near car and go compare and all that kind of stuff. And it's most that's got nothing to do with insurance. So similar thing on social for small, medium, or large companies that it's not just about what you do, it's, it's about that brand and that culture and and pushing something to people that they will resonate with your audience like, like you were saying they're absolutely superb. Do you think that when people start to use different social platforms, there's that worry that they chase that new shiny thing? And are you a fan of just focusing on one platform at a time? Or would you say have a healthy mix? Or what's your what's your take on that?

Lenka Koppova Yeah, I'm definitely suggesting people to be aware of trying to be everywhere and spreading themselves too thinly, especially audience in the community and working with where it's people who tend to do their own marketing. They don't have a big marketing team. They don't have too much time to do very really limited resources. So my suggestion always is pick one or two. Priority platforms, platforms where you know, did your target customers are, but also the platforms that you would enjoy. You know, using, there's no point of picking a platform that someone suggested because of demographic research, it's being said that it's more like most likely to have your target customers there. But you are just dreading and hating the user interface the way it works. We're on board ahead, you love being on Instagram, and you love doing stories and you love talking to people. And even though maybe Instagram is not the number one platform that you would expect your customers to be, still can work perfectly. And you still have these days, all the platforms have pretty balanced, you know, demographics, you know, all sorts of people on all sorts of bathrooms, I don't think it's like, very demanding to say like, only Instagram will work for your own Twitter will refer. But I would say pick one platform or two that you enjoy, and that you really can see yourself spending time on creating content for and in engaging with people on

Peter Sumpton is probably something that you can resonate with. And that's that's FOMO. What would you say to somebody that that is, and again, is probably reiterating what you said, but what would you say to somebody that is say, focus on Instagram, and they're getting engagement there, and I was worried I'm missing out on Facebook, or I'm worried I'm missing out on LinkedIn, you know, what would you What do you advise them, like test the water or stay stay true to what you know,

Lenka Koppova I would always say if you want to experiment, you can dedicate like 10% of your time to experiment and keep an eye on other platforms. I'm not saying that you should not be on all channels, you can have profiles and keep them kind of maintain on all the channels and really on deep dive on one platform. But I would say yeah, try to really appreciate the platform that you're using. Because especially like now, but it's been a trend in social media, social media networks are changing so fast. Even I can't keep up with all the new tools, new updates, new features, new days on all the channels. And this is my business, I can't imagine how you know, anyone who has a business whose focus is fotografie, flowers, consultants, anything else and doing marketing and social media marketing is just 10 20% of their time and how they can stay on top of all the new Instagram stories, reels, guides, HGTV live all the stickers, all the algorithm changes all the things and really be able to use and leverage the platform properly. Like today, I discovered in LinkedIn has a newsletter feature. Never heard of it before. All this is pretty cool. But again, LinkedIn is not my number one platform. That's why I don't know these things. But if I was, I would hope that I know about it. And I've considered it for my strategy.

Peter Sumpton Doing I mean, LinkedIn is probably my main platform, and that I love it. But it can be as frustrating as hell because like exactly what you said they release things. And they only release it to a certain amount of people. And then that gets around the world. And it's like, why the hell Haven't we got this and it's only select month people and all that kind of stuff, which is hugely frustrating. But I don't get that feel from all the platforms that they really do that. You know, I feel that they're much more we've tested it and pretty much everyone can have it or am I missing something there? Is that the case on all of them?

Lenka Koppova There's still box I think other

platforms do it less today, once they decide to launch something they tested in couple countries and India launches globally. But like for example, I have five client Instagram accounts. On three of them. I have a new app layout on the rest of them. I have rails on my personal like create a business account I don't have rails feels the same with Facebook. Like I didn't have a new Facebook layout. It's never been switched to me I don't have the option to switch I'm like you don't like me Why? Why me? Why my personal account why my business like a why all my clients do have it and I can use it for them, but I cannot use it for myself. So I think LinkedIn is a worst. Twitter is also really bad in announcing new features. There tend to hide lots of the features to be like we've released something, but only if you know then you will know what otherwise you will not know like media studio is one of the best hidden features of Twitter and pretty much no one knows that it exists. It's like the best way for