Day 1 at the Social Media Summit: Social Media Best Practices for Communicators conference has been a real learning experience. What's really intrigued me about this year's agenda and general buzz among conference attendees, is the amount of focus around mobile strategies. It's interesting to watch how quickly the social media, the gamification, and the mobile technology landscapes are changing as smartphones continue to rise in popularity.
In my opinion, it's how we use smartphone and social media technology that will make a difference in the success of marketing in the future. It's time to embrace mobile as a main vehicle in our social media and traditional marketing strategies. Here is an example of an innovative way to accomplish this initiative and connect more directly with customers, partners, and peers.
Our Global Events organization, with the great technology expertise of DoubleDutch , created a first of its kind hybrid mobile app called Cisco Events mobile app. As different Cisco proprietary and third-party activities take place, they are included in the mobile app. Participants only have to download the free app one time and can use it year-round.
And as part of the larger Cisco marketing communications best practices, the mobile app and social media efforts integrate into the overall program goals, traditional marketing channels, and centralized online websites or communities.
This week at the conference, attendees have been able to network with others, participate in built in gaming and geo-tagging "check ins", and reference agenda and program details, all within the app. This ability to combine gamification, geo-tagging, social media, networking, and traditional event activities all into a mobile format is quickly becoming a best practice approach at Cisco. And it has taken the attendee experience to a new level, in essence, creating a mobile community between the company and its participants.
We are thrilled to see the interest by Cisco teams, customers, and partners and look forward to expanding this mobile community. For more information on the Cisco Events mobile app, contact Elizabeth Houston and keep up with new games @CiscoEvents. And to download the Cisco Events mobile app directly from your iPhone, look for "Cisco Events" app in the Apple App store or if using Androids, Blackberries, and Windows 7, access the app through your web browser by going to bit.ly/CiscoEvents.
**Available for iPhone 3Gs and above, Blackberries with 6 OS and HTML 5, Androids 2.0 and above with HTML 5, and Windows 7 with HTML 5.