The Social Media Tools Week is an interesting event not only because it shows the latest social media tools and it's application but interesting in its setup and social media based event marketing.

Event Structure
So far close to 2,000 attendees from 16 different time zones around the world registered. The event is an all online event and structured in a way that sessions running in the morning on the US west coast can be attended by people in Europe while it is late afternoon there. Other sessions running in the late afternoon on the west coast can be attended by people from Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, China and Japan.

Event Marketing
The Social Media Tools Week was only promoted by word of mouth. No advertising no mail shots - but only the social media way of doing things. Participants tweeted about it, told friends and colleagues and the news went around the globe. So far registrations are from 18 different countries and five continents. The Social Media Tools Week is a testimony for the "recommendation based buying process". Consumers and corporate buyers alike are no longer "attracted" by advertising, mail shots or cold calls. Instead recommendations is a key factor in the decision process. Over 100 attendees are from one company - not by promotion but people communicated to others who THEY think this event may be relevant.

Now - there may be the argument "but if you would advertise you would have even more attendees". Well, we certainly don't know. More so we wouldn't be able to do that - instead this way we were able to pull off a global event with a zero budget marketing effort.

Attendee Structure
Another interesting aspect of the social media based "event marketing" is the attendee structure. While there are about 100 or so "insider" - the people we see in the space all the time, the majority however are business managers and executives. The most mentioned interest is to know where and how to start. 53% of the registrations are from Fortune 500 companies, 24% are from small business owners and mangers, 14% are consultants, agencies etc. 9% we couldn't identify. The recommendation chain shows that social media based recommendations lead to more relevant people than the old way or marketing.

Success
Much more important than the number of attendees is the fact that people found ways to recommend this event to others. If 80% of purchase decisions are based on recommendations - social media is the No.1 platform for recommendations. Businesses need to learn how to use and leverage this new platform in a customer engaging way to thrive and lead their company into this new economy. Success to us is customer advocacy - measurable by the number of recommendations.

Axel
xeesm.com/AxelS

P.S.
you may still register at:
Social Media Tools Week
(OK blogging is part of it - but not by "Register today and you get... blah blah blah for FREEEEEEE" ;-)