Utilizing social media at events such as fundraisers or expos is a no-brainer. Its versatility and potential to have significant impacts on impressions make it a great medium for an event of any size. After all, one of the core functions of a social network is the ability to share one's experience regarding an event. Also, social media allows campaign managers a high level view of the event’s overall reception, almost instantly.

This weekend, we’ll be able to witness just how large scale a company’s social media campaign can run, at one of America’s largest events.Over a hundred million people are expected to tune into this year's Super Bowl [between the New England Patriots and New York Giants]. Of these 100+ million folks, 60% will be online.  This, coupled with the fact that NBC is providing live, online streaming of the game, leads me to believe that this 60% will be watching their social streams and feeds along with the game.

Dubbed the “Second Screen Phenomenon,” advertisers and marketers are recognizing that there is an increasing amount of online usage at events. We humans obviously like to share our experiences, which explains why your social media feed might include many one-line, exclamatory reactions to a game on Sundays. I’m sure I’m not the first Twitter user to have trouble finding noteworthy content on Sunday nights due to the multiple, frequent, “Falcons! NOOO!” or, “Really? Fumble?” tweets.

Coca-Cola plans on tapping into this potential with their new campaign on CokePolarBowl.com.  Here’s a quick summary of what will be going on:

• The website, hosted on Facebook, will feature two polar bears, watching and reacting to the game live.
• Commercials spots throughout the game will direct the audience to the campaign site.
• The stream will also be available on Twitter, ESPN.com, and other ad placements throughout the web.
• The bears’ reactions, which will be shareable via Twitter and Facebook (i.e., retweeting a happy response from the bear that’s a Giants fan), will even be made for the commercials.

With this campaign, Coke will be cashing in on the potential for over 60 million unique impressions in one day. And that, my friend, is how you run a social media campaign.

For a complete rundown of the campaign, read Karlene Lukovitz’ report on Media Post here.

During this full-day summit, hosted by Microsoft Marketing Excellence, we heard many popular themes being repeated throughout the 20+ sessions. You can learn more about the summit here.

Here are the main points we saw being repeated:

·         Mobile is still very new and no one has perfected it.

·         Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and try new things in mobile.

·         When developing for mobile web or building applications, make sure whatever you're making is platform agnostic, and can be viewed on any smartphone device.

·         Mobile is the perfect platform to form a new kind of relationship with your customers by building tools to make their lives easier.

·         Main tools on the phone are being leveraged in new ways all the time: camera, gps, gyro, etc.

·         IT Pro’s are the number one users of smartphones and number one users of mobile browsers.

·         Mobile marketing and advertising is very inexpensive compared to traditional digital campaigns.

·         When planning your digital marketing initiatives, don’t think of mobile last, and don’t add it on last to campaigns—think about how mobile can be leveraged in a new way for a campaign.

·         Mobile marketing isn’t just for mobile browsers—it’s SMS and more.

·         Brainstorm ways to engage with your mobile audience daily, since a mobile device is the number one thing most people carry with them and pay attention to everyday.

·         Design specifically for mobile—don’t assume that building the same PC site will translate to mobile—pay attention to load times and screen sizes and resolution to get the best UI, UX.

·         When designing content to display to a mobile user, assume the user's time is limited, as mobile phones are used most often in short time chunks.

·         Also in regards to mobile website development, limit navigation and options—give the consumer exactly what you want them to see, right away, very few clicks.

·         Test and learn as you go, set KPI’s but allow for budget and time to test, test, test.

·         Explore options for integrating local results within mobile search and app results—much of mobile usage is to find information around the user's immediate location. 

Mobile is exciting and fresh--it's not emerging media anymore--use it and learn from it!

Watch conference sessions here.