_ [Note: Updates to this blog post are in bold, and please read the comments following the blog post for more information. Thank you.]

I’m very pleased to hear that Rootstech has reconsidered their decision of not allowing book vendors to exhibit at Rootstech 2012. While this is their conference and they certainly have every right to design it in the way that they want, I think this is an excellent decision. And here’s why:

• Not only are you missing out on direct revenue from booth rentals, all indirect revenue realized from the vendors is lost as well, and not just for the conference itself but for the local businesses.
• Genealogy-based books can be technologically based and printed books make a perfect bridge for the non-tech genealogists to cross over into the tech world. It’s a familiar medium.
• Some book publishers have electronic books. Those who do not electronically publish could possibly learn why they should be doing so. [And I fully believe they should.]
• As far as the arts and crafts vendors are concerned, I know I couldn’t do my heritage arts and crafts without technology, and I’m sure prospective arts and crafts vendors are the same way. Further, I use technology to share with my readers how to make the heritage crafts. [However, I don’t know if they’re being invited or not as some of the book vendors are.]
• Any successful conference in any industry knows its target demographics. After all, this is basic salesmanship. In order to get the target conference-goer to come to the conference, you must be offering something that they want, which in this case is education and exhibits. I think your target demographics have spoken up this past weekend to let you know what kind of exhibits they are not only wanting but expecting.
• In this tough economy, most conference-goers are having to make difficult choices as to how to spend their allotted genealogy money. Many can only afford one major conference. When making this decision, they will have to make tough choices between conferences that don’t welcome technology and a conference like Rootstech that is choosing to concentrate on technology as it pertains to genealogy. Both conference models are fine, but you must understand that there are consequences to every action, positive or negative. Further, I believe the main complaint at genealogy conferences is the lack of technology [education as well as the acceptance of the usage of technology]– not that there was too much genealogy. [Is there such a thing?] The need in our genealogy community is an acceptance of both genealogy and technology.

So, thank you Rootstech for listening and being flexible with your plans. Many are very grateful.

Social Media
However, I have been surprised by the lack of usage of social media for the promotion of Rootstech 2012. As far as I can tell, there have been only 4 main ways that have been used to advertise this conference:

• The official Rootstech 2012 conference site at Rootstech.familysearch.org/ .
• The official Rootstech Facebook page.
• The official Rootstech Bloggers.
• The media disk handed out at the FGS2011 Geneabloggers reception hosted by FamilySearch.org.

I am not an Official Rootstech blogger, but I have blogged and promoted Rootstech on Twitter as well as placed the Rootstech media banners on my site.

However, blogs and a Facebook page are just two social media platforms out of many that can be used to promote a conference. Now, I know that several of the official bloggers have and use twitter accounts, but that is not a complete social media plan.

I cannot express enough how useful Twitter can be in this kind of promotion, and it has been ignored. The last time I checked the Rootstech Facebook page, there were 1040 Likes. That’s a low number for a conference that had over 3000 attendees last year and with less than 2 months left before the start of the next conference. I only ‘liked’ the page recently simply because I don’t spend much time on Facebook. I don’t prefer it. The majority of my social networking occurs on Twitter, and I’ve recently have been engaging on Google Plus.

I have, at the time of this writing, 3973 followers on Twitter and I follow 4361 Tweeters. Most are genealogy-related, but not all. I also network heavily with mom bloggers, authors, writers, self-published authors, and tech-related tweeters. Some have even expressed an interest in genealogy at times. All are heavily into technology to complete the work that they do. It makes a fantastic demographic to target for a conference such as Rootstech

And I’ve only shared with you my stats. There are others with very high stats on Twitter that could be leveraged to assist Rootstech in their marketing endeavors. All who have varied followers based upon different interests.

Below is what I had expected in terms of social media for a conference such as Rootstech:

• Having a dedicated social media person or a coordinated group of persons to manage all social media accounts at all times so that questions and concerns can be addressed immediately as is expected in social media. Because of social media, we live in a '24/7' type of world now.
  
• Growing the Facebook Page’s ‘Likes’ number. The whole point of having a Facebook page is so that people can like, and or follow, the page thus creating a community. Once this is done, the entity who runs the page would have access, and or influence, to this community for both direct marketing purposes as well as for creating excitement over the reason the page was created in the first place. In this case, of course, that’s Rootstech 2012. This is a great place to foster discussions on genealogy and technology. Getting people to think about it will get a certain percentage of them to register and go to the conference. Engagement is key, and of course, if your Facebook page fans share the page, then some of the work is being done for you.
• Creating a Twitter account and growing the follow/follower numbers and engaging other tweeters to create a sense of community so that they will willingly retweet your tweets. To be successful at Twitter, an organization has to not only broadcast its message [in this case the Rootstech conference] but engage other tweeters in short discussions. Because this conference is centered around both genealogy and technology, you’re in luck because both topics have a big following on Twitter. How can this be helpful in marketing Rootstech? After all, doesn’t everyone who has a Twitter account also have a Facebook account? No, not always, and even if the tweeter does have both accounts, they may prefer one over the other. Also, tweets can easily be categorized by topics, giving a unique ability to tweeters to target very specific interests and groups. All of these Twitter qualities can be used effectively for growing excitement, anticipation, and interest in a conference like Rootstech. How? Well, let’s say the social media person for Rootstech tweets something informational with a link to the Rootstech site to its 1689 followers [Update: This was and is a fictional number. Rootstech does have a Twitter account with only 20 followers.], and I happen to be on Twitter, and because I follow them, I see it, and decide to tweet it to my 3973 followers. Let’s say for this example that I had one follower who retweeted my Rootstech retweet, and this follower themselves had 2567 followers. Now, the single Rootstech informational tweet with a link back to the website that was tweeted by the dedicated Tweeter for Rootstech, has, with 2 more clicks, touched 8229 tweeters, and has moved 2 people to the action of retweeting. With these numbers, odds are, a certain percentage of these 8229 tweeters will retweet the informational tweet with a link to the Rootstech site, a certain percentage will be moved to the action of clicking on the link, and, of course, a certain amount will be moved to the desired action of registering for the Rootstech conference. This is why Twitter is a very effective social network. [Sorry for the math word problem. What was I thinking?]
  

[Update: Rootstech does have a Twitter account, @RootsTechConf. However, it only has 20 followers (I just started following them), has no tweets, does not follow any tweeters, and has no lists. In addition, I could not find a link on the Rootstech website to the Twitter account. So, please, follow them.]

• While creating a Google Plus page is a newer ability on a newer social network, a certain percentage of people prefer Google Plus over Facebook and Twitter. It provides a place to foster longer discussions. In my experience on Google Plus, many genealogy technology discussions are taking place over there that a conference like Rootstech should be, at the very least, monitoring [and it may very well already be]. Goals here should be to increase numbers of circles and numbers of followers in circles and engaging these followers in lively discussions of genealogy and technology. Moreover, with the Hangout video chat capability that is available on Google Plus, many of these discussions could be taking place using this technology and involving some of the scheduled speakers or Rootstech organizers all year long.
• Creating a dedicated YouTube channel for Rootstech would be extremely helpful. While there are 4 taped presentations on video from last year’s conference parked on Brightcove.com, this platform isn’t a social network like YouTube, and because YouTube is owned by Google, YouTube videos naturally find themselves at the top of search results.  These 4 videos [and any other others that can be used for marketing purposes] should be on YouTube on a Rootstech YouTube channel. While there are many videos about Rootstech that were made by conference attendees last year on YouTube, when a person goes to YouTube and searches for Rootstech [or searches for it in Google],the Rootstech YouTube channel should come up first in the search results. This provides uniformity in the marketing of the brand that you have so diligently created. The social media aspects of YouTube cannot be ignored either and must be monitored. Engagement with followers and the goals of increasing followers, friending, and subscribing must be made, met, and exceeded for a technology-based conference such as Rootstech.
• A blog is definitely an effective social media tool, and I think it’s excellent that Rootstech has Official Bloggers for this conference. However, I think it’s essential that Rootstech have its own blog. Using Official Bloggers is an excellent way to get the word out to each of the Official Blogger’s readers, but what about those readers who don’t read their blogs? Rootstech should be creating and controlling their brand by using a blog format. I think a perfect example of a conference using a blog is FGS. These were simple posts all in one place in a technological format that many feel comfortable with reading where they could go to find updates on the conference. Blogs are like websites, and if a person doesn’t use Facebook or Google Plus, these conference-goers or potential conference-goers need and expect a conference on technology to have a blog. It’s also a great place for conference press releases and fostering community through the comments part of the blog.
  
• LinkedIn is a professional social networking site where many genealogists and technologists network, and this is why Rootstech should have a presence there as well. Again, Rootstech should be controlling its brand on major social media networks. Here discussions can be fostered as well. In fact, there are many discussions occurring on LinkedIn already about genealogy and technology. At the very least, Rootstech should be monitoring them, but the goal should be to be driving those discussions. While there are several in my LinkedIn network that have added Rootstech2012 as an event, I did not see an official Rootstech 2012 Group started over there, but perhaps I missed it.
  
• Foursquare is a social networking app that has been used in the past at conferences for facilitating networking. Here are some websites that discuss the ins and outs of using it at conferences: How To: Use Foursquare for a Conference (or an exhibit booth) and How Foursquare Rocks Conferences.
• Shhmooze is a social networking app designed for conferences and here’s a 3 part series written by Shhmooze on their blog about their app.

[Note: Of course, Foursquare and/or Shhmooze –they can be used together- would be promoted on the Rootstech blog and other social media outlets. Everyone would need to learn how they'd be used and how to use them.]

Using social media effectively can really boost a conference’s attendance and brand, and it also allows a conference to show its potential conference-goers and the conference-goers that it does have a handle on the topic of the actual conference. By using social media technology, Rootstech can increase its attendance and popularity as well as send out the message that it knows how to combine genealogy and technology successfully. Social media would also allow Rootstech to efficiently monitor its brand and deal with any public relations matters that may come up before they get out of hand.

What do y'all think? Did I miss any important social networks? Did I miss Rootstech on a social network? Let me know in comments below. And if I've missed something, please let me know.

I'm still going to Rootstech 2012. Hello?!? Technology and genealogy? That's what I do. [Of course, I read books about technology and I use technology to make my heritage arts and crafts. And then I tell you all about it on that new fangled technology call social media.]

~Caroline

My Dad did business old-school style. When he had a salesman come into the office to pitch him something, they had better have packed a lunch because they were going to be there for a while. My Dad was all about relationship-building. I was privy to a few of those meetings. They always started on the personal stuff then gradually went into the economy and politics, then went into my Dad's industry, then his business in particular. Only after they had talked about everything else did they finally discuss why they were there and what they were trying to sell to my Dad. It was truly an art form.

And it's alive and well today. Every once and a while you'll see it in face-to-face business, but it's prevalent online in social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, etc. And only those who truly understand the art form of relationship-building are using social media wisely and successfully. Social media is all about relationship-building. Sure, there are plenty of businesses using it incorrectly by treating social media as a type of billboard for their company, and there are plenty of people using social media who aren't doing business at all, or so they think.

In the real world, all other factors aside, is the salesman who hasn't built a relationship with a potential customer, [who maybe has only sent a letter and a business card to a potential customer], more influential than the salesman who has taken the extra steps that involve time and money to build a relationship with the potential customer? Not generally. People do business with people they know, and social media provides a simple, fast and effective way for people to influence others.

Now this influence may be for business reasons, or it may be that as a consumer, I like this product and service, and I think you, my followers, ought to try it. In other words, I might not be involved in the "receiving end" of the sales process of that product and service, but I think it's great, and I think you might like it too. Either for business or personal reasons, I have influence over my followers or connections that I have made through social media.

The knowledge of any one person's influence over another can be very valuable to those who are selling products and services. Ever since the first ads on radio back in the late 1920's and early 1930's in the United States, businesses have known this. Ads were intentionally made to target homemakers, or the women of the households. I mean, why target a man of the household while trying to advertise inventions like the washer machine that lessened the workload in the home? If you don't think a wife doesn't have influence over her husband in this situation, think again. Also, the woman of the household had friends and neighbors who she had influence over as well. If you don't think that after they finished complaining about their husbands over cups of coffee around the kitchen table that they didn't talk about that new washing machine that they finally got their husband to buy, think again.

Women of the households have always had influence over the purchases for their homes and the appliances in them, and advertisers understood that then as they do now.

And though there are quite a few companies who provide a way to measure a person's influence, none have marketed themselves as well as the company Klout. Additionally, Klout has a different business model than any of the other companies. The other companies that I've looked at utilize freemium business models and not all of them measure the same exact thing. Also, none of them are able to measure accurately a particular person's influence over people. None of them. Not even Klout. Klout does a better job at marketing themselves, but they also have a different business model. Instead of having those of us who utilize social media for our own personal and business reasons pay for additional analytic and metric services, they first built up a following from Twitter then gradually added other social media sites. Using an algorithm they measured analytics and metrics for free, called it influence, assigned each of us an arbitrary number between 1 and 100, and marketed the heck out of it. Once they built up their own clout with social media users, they marketed their influence measurement information to companies and advertisers. It's a great idea. Companies offer promotional items, or perks, to those who are influential in topics that are related to their business through Klout, and Klout charges the companies for that information. The company's hope in this advertising gamble is that the influencer who receives the perk will tweet at least once about it. Thus influencing their followers to buy the product or service. It's not any different than a blogger accepting an item from a company or vendor to review, except there is a middle man making money off the both of us. Word of mouth advertising works. We're just not sitting around the kitchen table anymore discussing it. We're online using social media to discuss it.

However, since the algorithm was created for just Twitter, as they added other social media platforms, the arbitrary number assigned by Klout to indicate a particular person's influence was not accurately portraying a person's influence across all the social media platforms that they gradually added over time. So they updated the algorithm, causing the numbers to change and to mostly go down, which admittedly can look bad. And I'm sure they did more algorithm-tweaking. However, it's an arbitrary number, and it's a number that does not accurately portray any one person's influence over another all by itself. And this is why:

• Klout can only measure my analytics and metrics for Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, Instagram, Tumbler, Blogger, Wordpress, Last.fm, and Flicker. And that's only if I use those social media platforms and connect them to Klout [Except for Twitter. It's a default.].
• Klout does not measure my 2 business blogs. They're hosted by Weebly. That's a huge part of my influence over others in my social media realm. [You're here reading, aren't you?] I use Google Analytics, Feedburner, and the comments section of my blogs to measure those.
  
• Klout does not measure my newsletter campaigns. I use internal analytics and Google analytics to measure those campaigns.
• Klout does not even accurately measure my influence on Twitter in that there are many in my industry who are not social media savvy. They don't know they should retweet content that they like to their followers. Heck, they just want to find long-lost cousins and that's the extent of their social media game plan. Therefore, my amplification is way off compared to my reach. It looks like I'm just collecting names and not building relationships. I beg to differ. Klout assumes that everyone on social media knows how to use it. Assumptions are bad.
• Klout does not measure my Direct Message conversations with other tweeters.
  
• Klout does not measure when I go to conferences and socialize and network offline with people I normally network with online.
• Klout does not measure each and every time I hand out a business card to someone.
• Klout does not measure when I talk to someone about what I do in my business.
• Klout does not measure my email discussions with others.
• Klout does not measure my private discussions with others on Facebook.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. Klout does not measure everything that determines my online influence with others using social media, and it never will.

Does this make Klout bad? No. I think they have a great business model. I wish I had thought of it. They don't measure everything, but they do measure something. Just what exactly that is, I'm not sure. I have to guess. They're not revealing that, but a little more transparency would be nice. However, there are a few things I think they need to reconsider. From the beginning, I have never liked the popups that harass me when I immediately navigate to their site. I don't need a popup telling me my score has gone down or up, for Pete's sake. The number is big enough on the site. I'm not that blind yet.

I also don't like the popup telling me I'm influential over someone else. I already know that. Duh. You got the information from me. Don't worry, Klout. When I'm offered a perk, I let everyone know on Twitter that I earned one, I let everyone know when I receive it in the mail, and then I let everyone know if I liked it or not. I do my part in your business model. It's the least I could do for the free perk (which by the way wasn't free because my time equals money).

I also don't think Klout really thought out the Facebook integration very well either. Yes, many people use Facebook for business, but many use it for personal reasons as well. Yes, we have influence over those people, but I don't necessarily want to involve my family in my business [which is ironic because my business is family history]. I read on another site how one mother was faced with a popup of a picture of her son and it read that Klout thinks she was influential over her teenaged son. Well, duh. And? That number would, I would imagine, go up or down depending on the hour. In fact, just because a mother interacts with her son or daughter [or any other family member for that matter] on Facebook does not mean she has influence over them online that would benefit a company's business model or goals. In my humble opinion, the Facebook integration is extremely flawed. Trust me, I'm not going to be able to get my teenaged daughter to buy a subscription to a genealogy database site. And what about the security issues? Aren't those being violated? Anyone can look me up in Klout, and if Klout determines that I'm extremely influential over my minor daughter just because I've communicated with her on Facebook to get her butt home to clean her room, means that anyone can see her bright and shiny face on my Klout account. Hear me loud and clear, Klout. This Mama Bear doesn't like that.

I also don't like how everyone who has a social media account that is measured by Klout is automatically opted into Klout. Klout has enough clout [Hee-hee.] and a good enough business model to get the word out through social media. They need to drink their own Kool-aid. As mentioned above, I send out the marketing love when I tweet about a perk, and I do it every time I give +k to someone. Klout should use its influence to gain more potential influencers instead of using a default method. That's not very transparent. It's shady. Klout should use its own clout.

And this is where my business model and Klout's business model diverge. The analytics and metrics they provide is good enough for them to convince advertisers to advertise through them. However, their analytics and metrics aren't good enough for me to run my business and make branding decisions through them solely.

All in all, measuring my influence in social media isn't any other person's or organization's responsibility. It's mine. From the beginning I've used 3 other companies that measure my social media analytics and metrics. Not any of them are perfect on their own including Klout, but together with all the other ways I measure how I'm doing, I can get a more accurate picture of my social media influence. Will I continue to use Klout? Yes. I like free stuff, and I like connecting with companies and promoting their stuff as long as everything is on the up and up. It's a transaction that I willingly enter into because I want to. Plus? My kids aren't allowed to use Facebook. I text them when they need to get their butts home to clean their rooms.  I'm influential like that. But it's between me and my kids, you know?

Moreover, topics such as social media for your genealogy-related business or organization will be just one of the things I cover on my up and coming blog BloggingGenealogy.com. Currently, I'm building up a mailing list for it so that when I actually start sharing content with my readers, I already have some committed readers to my blog. In the meantime, I'm building relationships through social media using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, YouTube, Foursquare, my blogs, and anything else I can think of.

Will you join me? You can sign up for the BloggingGenealogy.com mailing list on its website. It's for genealogy bloggers, for genealogical and historical societies, and for professional genealogists who want to market themselves online.

And you can join the mailing list for this blog, For Your Family Story, to get weekly updates about this blog and  it includes genie-techie news, reviews, giveaways, and more. Just scroll up and enter in your email address in the top right hand corner of the screen, or enter it below.

Just to be clear, though, there are 2 different mailing lists because each blog is targeting different people. Does this mean I have a marketing plan? Yes. Does this mean all my social media networking is fake? Nope. I just love getting to know people and exposing them to the idea of genealogy and family history, like an ambassador, of sorts. However, I have 2 kids to put through college. I'd like to do that by doing something that I'm passionate about, genealogy, through a means that I love, social networking. You know, relationship-building?  Like my Dad. [Only through a computer and the internet and with people all around the world.]

~Caroline

In this life of fast food, fast technology, instant information, and instant communication, is it any wonder that people expect the whole "comment leaving" experience on blogs to be easy? Simple? Fast? Instant?

I get it. You want my name. [And really? I want you to have my name.]

I get it. You want my email, but you promise not to publish it. [And really? Mine are plastered all over the internet for all and sunder to find so why I want to be so secretive, I'll never know. I'm already getting spam that's filtered straight into its very own folder.]

I get it. You'd like my website address. [And really? I SO want you to have it.]

But anything else? Is way too much. Also, I have a confession to make. Lately I've been bypassing comments on blogs if they have those Captcha puzzles on there. Maybe I'm too lazy. Or sometimes it's because I get it wrong and have to re-enter it. Several times. [That's annoying.] I know. I know. I'm too impatient. And I get where you're coming from as well. You don't want to be spammed in your comments, etc., etc.

But lately I've noticed a drop in comments on my blogs. And just between you, me & the gatepost, there are some days I wouldn't mind a spam comment or two. At least I'd know someone was reading what I'd written. [Maybe.] Seriously. Then I'd laugh. Shake my head. And hit the delete button. Easy-peasy and I got a good laugh. [And I'd probably tweet about it too.]

Also, most of the time I'm reading blog posts on my iPhone. Those Captcha thingies are too hard to do on there. But if you leave a question on your blog that I can answer or *gasp* we're related and I want to tell you all about it, it's a little difficult.

The point is that it's important to foster a community and to foster a discussion on your blog so that people want to come back. Again and again and again. And that's hard to do when your comments are closed awaiting for you to approve whatever your reader had to say about what you wrote. If someone does leave something inappropriate, you can delete it just as fast as you can approve it.

And Companies?
I've noticed more and more lately that companies and organizations are adding blogs to their sites, which is excellent. [Can you feel the 'but' coming on?]

BUT then they have comments turned off. *Big Sigh* and *SMH* Blogs are a part of the social media realm, and the whole point of social media is fostering a social network ~ communication ~ between their organization and their potential customers and current customers. Why? So that if they are in need of what they have to sell to them to solve their problem later on down the road, they remember the company or organization that helped them. And companies don't want to be remembered as not caring about what a reader had to say in response to a blog post. That is, if the reader remembers the company or organization at all.

Sometimes, I get the feeling that companies and organizations don't care what I think and that they don't want my input at all when they don't have comments open or if they make it really hard for me to sign up to leave a comment [i.e., 3 web pages to register in order to leave a comment and then it doesn't take me back to what I want to comment on. Seriously?]. What if I wanted to tell that company how great their product or service is and what an awesome impact it has had on my life? Don't they want to hear that? Don't they want other readers [potential customers] to hear that?

Blogs are not just a place for one-way communication from the company or organization to their readers, but a place to interact. They aren't just a place to post your press releases either. Sure, they can [and do] post press releases on their blogs, but it should be sandwiched in between blog posts that are fostering communication between the company and their readers. No one is going to check back into a blog to read press releases. [Well, almost no one.]

Your blog can be so much more than just a bulletin board. Don't waste it.

And? Make it easy and fast. I'm impatient. ;)

More about blogs for beginners to professionals coming soon on my blog BloggingGenealogy.com, where comments are open and welcomed. And where I invite you to subscribe to that blog's mailing list. [And you can sign up for this one, too, in the top right hand corner after scrolling up.]

Please feel free to leave comments here, there and everywhere. Really. Please.

~Caroline