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How often does a corporate social team get the opportunity to manage hundreds of thousands of mentions across social media, millions of live stream viewers, a music festival, and one of the most talked-about technology CEOs on the planet all in the same week? Once a year these all come together for the Salesforce social team during Dreamforce. This small-but-mighty team gets it done and has fun every step of the way.
Check out their six steps for social success at the largest software conference in the world.
The team works together for months in advance to plan the editorial calendar, the engagement strategy, the hashtags they'll use, and where the team will be deployed during Dreamforce to live tweet events as they happen.
“When you get a chance to peek behind the Dreamforce curtain, you realize the incredible level of effort and dedication that goes into executing social for the world’s largest software conference. #DF17 is more than an event, it’s a movement that requires your top strategic skills, creative dexterity, and analytical capacity. It is literally impossible to pull off solo. Success requires collaboration across the entire organization which makes for 1,000's of inspiring moments throughout the weeks leading up to Dreamforce. Being dependent on others means tapping into a deep level of trust and reliability. It’s teamwork that makes the Dream(force) work,” said Madison Slinker, Social Media Marketing Manager.
Part of that teamwork comes into play with a “divide and conquer” strategy to manage the workload. “To help with social monitoring, we recruit a team of employee volunteers to help us manage the volume of social conversations at Dreamforce. Social Studio makes it easy to escalate or route questions.” The next step, Lauren Kemp, Social Media Marketing Manager, continues, is to train these Social Ambassadors. “I train them on our social voice and our best practices for responding. Our employee volunteers love getting an insider’s view of what being on the social team is like! We also train them on how to use Social Studio, one of my personal favorite Salesforce products.” Thanks to Social Studio's cloud-based platform and mobile app, the team is able to see what’s going on across all Dreamforce social conversations and respond as needed, no matter where they are.
In addition to this group of Social Ambassadors, they collaborate with employees and teams across the entire company. “All of Salesforce comes together to make Dreamforce happen. It’s amazing to be a part of a company working together to execute on the vision. For social, it means we’re working with teams across nearly every aspect of the company to share blog posts, videos, promote sessions, live tweet key moments, and more,” said Sabrina Barekzai, Senior Specialist, Social and Content Marketing for Strategic Events.
In order to make sure the team responds to the most critical content first, they have a predefined strategy to categorize and respond to the different types of mentions that occur. The categories are: those that need immediate response, those that need a response (but non-urgently), and, those that don’t require a response. As Lauren mentioned above, mentions and messages are sorted via Social Studio and routed to the team most qualified to respond. Beyond that, the team actively looks for opportunities to surprise and delight their audience with personalized responses, special graphics, and related content.
Responding in the right way at the right time as well as thinking about what content attendees or viewers might be interested in builds trust with the community. Holly Ha, Social Media and Community Manager, said, “Our goal is to be there for our community and make sure they trust us. This means posting a variety of content ranging from quick social posts, such as reminding attendees about an upcoming keynote, to those that drive them towards an e-book download with additional content we think they’d appreciate.”
“While we're there to ensure that our attendees are having a great time, we know our audience includes people who aren't physically at the event, so we work hard to create content that shares the excitement happening on the ground — from live streams, to fun Snapchat or Instagram stories, to photos of all the big moments,” said Tiffany Hsu, Sr. Manager of Social Marketing.
For those that aren’t able to make it to San Francisco to be a part of Dreamforce in-person, Salesforce LIVE is a window to what's happening at Dreamforce and other Salesforce events. Millions of people around the world tune in to see livestreams of top keynotes like Marc Benioff’s opening keynote, Dreampitch, product keynotes, and more (to see the full Salesforce LIVE schedule, click here).
“The Salesforce LIVE team works incredibly hard to give everyone access to Dreamforce learnings — not just on-the-ground attendees. We partner closely with the video team to make sure that we are amplifying those moments on social. Even across the globe, you can participate in the #DF17 social conversation, and we want to hear from all of our Trailblazers!” said Marissa Kraines, Director of Social and Content Marketing for Strategic Events.
But Dreamforce is more than just keynotes, sessions, and an amazing concert, it’s a celebration of the entire Salesforce community — the customers, the employees, and the partners who use Salesforce across the globe. “The Salesforce community is unique – our customers have truly created a sense of community and are learning from each other every day. We like to be right there with them, engaging, offering encouragement, and joining in on the fun.” adds Tiffany. “Dreamforce isn't merely a conference, we like to call it a 'family reunion' for the Salesforce Ohana — and that’s the spirit you’ll find in the social interactions. We are here to help answer questions and provide the best possible experience for the event. But we're also here to share in their excitement and celebrate with them!”
Even though Dreamforce ends on Thursday, November 9, the social team's efforts don't stop when the doors close. The weeks after the event will be filled with recaps, “Dreamforce Moments," and other retrospective posts. “Dreamforce is always a great way to reconnect with our community,” Tiffany explains. “We always come out of the event with a plethora of photos, content, and inspiration for what's next.”
For the social team at Salesforce, leveraging technology to help others make the most of the Dreamforce experience and promote learning and fun is all in a day’s work.
To join the conversation at #DF17 pop over to 5 Tips for Getting Social at Dreamforce.
To see more inspiring Trailblazer stories, click here.
Are you inspired to be bold and make something great happen in your world? No matter where you are on your path to success, share your experience with the hashtag #MyTrailblazerStory on social. The Trailblazer community is waiting for you!
