Social media expertise coming to Cd'A

COEUR d’ALENE — What does Coeur d’Alene have in common with Accra, Ghana; Sao Paolo, Brazil; Santa Domingo, Chile; Fairfax, Va., and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia? Sept. 10-12, all these cities will play host to Social Media Week conferences.

The local event takes place at the Best Western Plus Coeur d’Alene Inn and will feature around 30 speakers covering subjects related to digital marketing. Among them are Tom O’Keefe, founder of Tully’s coffee speaking about branding; Andrea Vahl, author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies, Kjerstin Bell, who will cover social media for entrepreneurs, Chris Rubio of Rubio Long-Snapping, and Dr. Dan Manson from Cal Poly Pomona speaking on cybersecurity in social media.

The local conference’s sponsor is Hagadone Digital.

Hagadone Digital COO Doug Schust will speak at the event. He said conference participants will gain “a good solid understanding of what is needed to participate socially in online business today,” from starting up to sophisticated strategies. Mastering social media is especially important for individual entrepreneurs, whose main challenge is finding the time to invest in reaching customers, Schust said.

Schust said the great thing about social media is that “you earn the right to compete,” you don’t pay for it. “Social media is the only level playing ground in digital media today,” he said.

Schust started a social media company in 2007. He said social media has evolved differently from how most predicted it would and that it is “accelerating faster than most people think it is.”

Shelley Webb accidentally became a social media expert after creating a blog for caregivers while she took care of her father. Ten years later, she is a brand ambassador for O, The Oprah Magazine, as well as other companies. She recruited Social Media Week to hold a conference in Coeur d’Alene. Webb said though social media is important for local businesses, not many know how to effectively use it.

“I’ve noticed that many business owners still don’t know the proper way to use the social platforms,” she said. “For instance, it is against terms of service for businesses to use their personal profile as a business name and yet I still receive ‘friend requests’ from profiles with names such as Smitty’s Hardware and H&H Home Health Care. These businesses are at risk of having their profiles deleted by Facebook and with that, all their hard work.

“I also hear from many business owners who feel that since their kids or their sister’s nephew’s best friend spends so much time on Facebook and Instagram that they can easily manage their business accounts for them. Sure they can post photos and memes, but do they know anything about the insights, analytics, or the proper hashtags to use? Usually not. That’s why business owners get frustrated and feel that social media doesn’t work. It works very well when you know how to use it.”

Social media changes daily, said Webb, but business owners can avoid overwhelm with the lessons learned at Social Media Week. Webb said Social Media Week attendees “can learn how best to use Facebook marketing, the power of proper branding, how to choose the right content to share on social media, how brands can work with influencers, how to become an influencer, how to choose the right platform for their business, how to master Instagram, what to know about cybersecurity, why social media doesn’t work (or does it?), how brands are using social for good,” and more. Schust guaranteed participants would “come away with a whole new thought process about how to engage in the digital world — not just social media.”

According to the SMW website socialmediaweek.org, its conferences draw audiences that are two-thirds female, mainly aged 21-35 and hold some level of seniority in their companies. Half of the conferences’ 75,000 attendees worldwide work in marketing, communications, and media.

Webb said she plans for Coeur d’Alene to host a Social Media Week conference annually. Doing so will rank Coeur d’Alene among worldwide centers of social media prowess including New York, Nairobi, London, Milan, Zurich, and Toronto.

Schust said the North Idaho region had lagged behind mainstream America in accepting social media and digital media, but now we’re seeing an evolution in local attitudes.

“The Innovation Collective arena brought a little bit of excitement and pride into the tech community of Coeur d’Alene,” he said.

“Coeur d’Alene is becoming increasingly well-known for innovation, technology and local business growth,” Webb said. “Social media goes right along with that. We want to be a city that supports its local business owners with education, information, networking opportunities and partnerships.”

To learn more, go to smwcda.com or facebook.com/SMWCoeurdalene.