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Friday June 29^th, 2012 marked the third annual Social Media Day OC, which was hosted by the Orange County Register in Santa Ana, California.  Social Media Day was originally started back in June of 2010 by the social media and technology website, Mashable. Last years Social Media Day OC brought in a whopping 900 visitors, this year not so much. With most of the attendees crammed into the presentation room, it felt as though it was dead on the outside. Last year the building was bustling, completely filled with people. So much so that there was limited amount of floor space for people to sit in let alone a chair. There was also live streams on all the monitors so that those who couldn’t fit into the presentation room would be able to follow along. This year was not the same case. As you can see from the photos it wasn’t booming with the expected crowds from last years event. Why is this? Could be from a lack of marketing of the event or a lack of interest in it as last years event seemed kind of dull and focused too much on the basics of social media. Who knows!? The lack of crowds though didn’t take from the speakers that presented. This year’s event brought back speakers from last year and added a few new ones for a fresh look at social media and its benefits to building your business or brand. Below is a list of those who presented as well as a recap on some of the most notable and worthwhile presentations. 

Speakers at Social Media Day

This years Social Media Day included a plethora of Orange County’s Social Media Superstars giving 15 min presentations on subjects they love and or specialize in. A few of the top Speakers at this years event, included:

Brian Elliot (@bryanelliott)

Cory O’Connor (@coryOConnor)

Ted Nguyen (@tednguyen)

Justin Moore-Brown (@bigheadasian)

Kevin Sabian (@ksablan)

Mel Aclaro (@melaclaro)

This year, the day was split into two sections.
The first half was for social media beginners and covered the basics and trends of what is going on in the social media world. While the second half was for those who are advanced in the social media game and covered advanced topics within the industry.

The Most Notable Presentations

The day started out with our Social Media Referee, giving us a breakdown on the format of the speakers and how the dreaded, overtime whistle works. The Referee was there to make sure that all speakers stuck to their 15 min time slot and that they didn’t go over. Once the referee stands up from his chair, you better believe you have 2 minutes left before that whistle comes into play. For the most part, the speakers were good with time. Only a few times did the ref have to stand up and let people know time was dwindling.

Setting Social Goals For Your Business

The presentations started off with our first presenter, Justin Moore-Brown, Lead Graphic Designer at Bonfire. Justin’s presentation was about Setting Social Goals For Your Business. The key things to take away from Justin’s Presentation are:

#1 Setting Numbers you can control.

“Don’t wait for people to RT you or reach out to you. Instead you be the one to reach out. Set your own number of people you will RT or Mention a day and stick to it.”

#2 Pick one or two platforms and focus on strategy

“Every platform has its own strategy and not all platforms will benefit your business goals. Focus on the ones you know and the ones that will have the best growth potential for your business.”

#3 Set a Goal to Manage your Time on Social Media Effectively and Productively

“Post things in the morning, at lunch, and in the evening. This will help with the dreaded time waste that social media brings to the table. Instead of “Worry Clicking” the Internet all day long to see if someone RTed or commented on your post, let your content marinate on the internet for a little bit and then you can come back and engage throughout the day while making sure you are getting the other things you really need to get done, finished.

#4 Automation

“To most in the industry, automation is a No-No, but when you have so much content that you just can’t seem to fit in one day, its better to schedule it out to the next day and so on. Remember that automation doesn’t always have to be a bad thing, as long as you are not completely relying on automation tools to post all of your content all of the time.

Incorporating Social Media Worldwide

One of the most interesting presentations in my eyes was that of Cory O’Conner, Advertising Professor at Chapman University’s Dodge School of Film and Media Arts. Cory’s presentation was based on Incorporating Social Media Worldwide, and his experiences teaching abroad in Singapore. Cory touched upon the growth that social media has had around the world, most notably Twitter.  For his class abroad, he used Twitter as a virtual gathering place and highlighted the benefits of twitter as a communication tool. By creating a Twitter list, Cory was able to have a custom feed of just the students in his class as well as be able to push out information to them all using this list. By setting up a hashtag for the class, students were able to follow along with the class conversations. Cory also made sure that all of his students knew that he wouldn’t be answer emails or phone calls, but instead required his students to ask their questions on Twitter with the classes hashtag, so that everyone was able to see. Since most of them would have the same questions. This provided the class with an open forum for discussion.

Cory also went on to describe Twitter as:

- A friendly environment

- A chance for collaborative learning

-  A good resource for people to look back on and not a replacement for face-to-face communication.

- A place where you can address customers personally by their first name in addition to their Twitter handle

- A Forum for expressing genuine gratitude and praise

Use Your Iphone To Broadcast Video

The last Presentation that stuck out the most, and was the most fun to watch was that by Ted Nguyen. Between the crowd commenting on how Social Media Day OC was trending on Twitter, to everyone in the crowd dancing to ‘Call me maybe‘, this presentation was a memorable one.  Crowd dancing to ‘Call Me Maybe!?’ Yes, that’s exactly what happened and I have the VIDEO to prove it!

The basis of Ted Nguyen’s presentation, was Using Your Iphone To Broadcast Video.  Ted talked about how video is the new way of the future. People will soon turn to video blogs more so then written ones in the future. With the advancement of technology, and the development of applications such as Social Cam, it is now so easy to capture and broadcast live what is going on so that others around the globe can see it.

The main points to take away from this were:

-Video is the new photo now!

- Everybody is a media company x 2!

- “Social Cam is going to be the next big thing. The Next Instagram!”

- “If it didn’t happen online, It didn’t happen at all!”

- Know before you go. (Make sure the audio is great, people need to hear you!)

Food Trucks

As always, the parking lot was filled with the top Gourmet Food Trucks from around Orange County. All of the fan favorites were there including the Viking Truck, Chomp Chomp Nation, A Bite Truck, Meringue Bake Shop, ZZ Truck (Sizzlers Food Truck), and the Wienerschnitzel Wiener Wagon!

By far the fan favorite was Bacon Mania. As you can see in the photos this truck had the longest line and quite the selection of goodies covered in cheese and BACON! I had a chance myself to grab one of their Bacon and Cheese sandwiches! Besides it being a ‘heart-attack-on-a-plate’, It was delicious! I highly recommend you follow them online to find out where they are going to be next, and make it a priority to try some of their Bacon stuffed cuisine.