SocialMedia.org Member Meetings
SocialMedia.org had a radical idea for what a conference could be for a social media manager: no vendors, no agencies, invite only, big brands only – and it’s all confidential.
We spent our budget on interesting venues, good food, and staff who really knew their stuff. Instead of big guest speakers or flashy productions, we had short, TED Talk-style presentations led by our members, followed by all-day, small group discussions.
For our team, that left a big responsibility for storytelling. The copy I wrote had to explain how the event worked while also building trust, community, and a feeling of being a VIP among your VIP peers.
Landing page copy
A very copy-heavy event site
The strategy for these pages was to answer every single question about our unique meetings, to flood the reader with the sheer number of big brands that would be there, and to create FOMO.
Yes, it’s copy-heavy by design. Yes, I advocated to cut it.
Site copy, blog posts
A blog for creating community
But the trust you have to build for events like theses starts with introducing your community. Over the years, I interviewed hundreds of social media leaders at big brands to get their insights on the challenges they faced, their hopes for the future, and how they got to their position.
Direct mail, event decks, print
We built a sense of community in other ways as well, by mailing unique swag ahead of the event to give our social members something to tweet about. We also printed collectable booklets, and designed slide decks with group photos from every past meeting to create a sense of camaraderie that felt like summer camp.
They ate it up.
Email marketing, newsletters, print materials, signage
For a confidential event, a lot of this copy is gone with the wind.
But as a copywriter, my job was more than just promotion. At these Member Meetings, my role included listening in on their conversations, taking notes, and coming back with insights for our SocialMedia.org moderators and community managers.
With SocialMedia.org I learned to empathize with people who couldn’t be further from my personal career path. I learned to talk shop with big fish and to tell their stories to their peers.