Social Media Seminar Win!
3/11/2010 10:45:55 AM

By Andrea Slesinski, Media Relations Specialist

I’ve been in the professional world for just shy of four years and in that time I’ve attended more than 100 webinars, workshops, trainings, seminars and roundtables about a variety of topics. As you might expect, these workshops can range from awesome and enlightening to, well, not so awesome and enlightening. You never quite know what you’re in for when you sign up for one.

The vast majority of seminars, workshops and the like that I’ve attended in the last year have focused on social media, a booming area of our industry that many of us (myself included) believe is here to stay. While it’s an exciting area, many of my PR cohorts here in Columbus and beyond have agreed that it’s become overkill at times, so I’ve become somewhat cynical when I hear about ANOTHER social media discussion or training session.

In the spirit of transparency, when I heard about the Columbus American Marketing Association’s Social Media Special Interest Group (or Social Media SIG), I thought, ANOTHER workshop on social media? But I gave it a try and was REALLY impressed with what I found.

The meeting was set up in roundtable format, with each table dedicated to a different aspect of social media in the business world. Attendees selected two table discussions to join throughout the morning, focusing on applicable topics like how to make Facebook work for small business, the real ROI of Twitter, and how to start engaging consumers rather than just talking at them.

Small groups were given 20-25 minutes to discuss several key questions and issues. The guided, informal discussions were so interesting, both of my groups found that we could have talked for double the time, if not more! The intimate setting was non-threatening and had some real business-building potential; I met several contacts that I’m going to follow up with to chat about how we could potentially work together in the future.

To close, kudos to the Columbus chapter of the American Marketing Association for spearheading a different, memorable kind of social media seminar: in the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, "I’ll be back!"