How FOMO Helped Boost Atomicon’s Success – Volume 1 Chapter 15

I remember the first conference I went to after Twitter had become popular that didn’t have a hashtag.

Back then I was an obsessive tweeter. I just didn’t know how to connect my joy with the others in the room and amplify it beyond without a tag. It seemed such a missed opportunity.

Conferences and events without tags are rare now but could businesses be making a similar mistake by not taking social media reach and FOMO creation, as this week’s superhero calls it, as seriously as they should?

Find out in this episode of the Digital Marketing Superhero’s Club.

Superhero Tips – Are You Afraid Of Google Analytics

When I asked my Facebook group what topic they’d like to cover this month online marketing measurement came right at the bottom of the poll responses.

I love nothing more than a delve into my Google Analytics, or any analytics really. It’s a place where you can get lost for hours if you aren’t careful.

But not everyone shares my love of stats.

I’m going attempt to persuade you to look, a regular look at your stats.

Why?

If you aren’t measuring, you’ll never know what is working and what isn’t. You can guess but you’ll never really know.

And if you don’t know, you will do lots of stuff you don’t need to, that doesn’t deliver your business goals.

I think it’s the fear of finding out that something is a waste of time that keeps people from looking.

So today, if you are up for it, I will talk you through some of the reports you should look at in Google Analytics and what that can tell you about the campaigns you run.

1. Are you reaching the right people?

I love looking at the how many people visit my site. Don’t you? That top line figure can make you feel smug but it doesn’t tell you who those visitors are? Are we reaching the right people?

If you are a blogger like me, you’ll know that a chunk of traffic comes from people or places that have no interest in what you do and who rarely become customers.

To find out how many people you are reaching within your target market click on Audience and then Demographics on the left-hand side of the screen.

Here you’ll get a breakdown of your audience by; Demographics, Interests, Geo, Behaviour, Technology and Mobile.

Are you reaching the people you want to?

If not, what can you do to target your site and content more accurately towards your target market?

2. Are they taking action?

Website visitors are great but as businesses, you need those visitors to take action on your site. Will they purchase, subscribe to your email list or a fill an enquiry form on your site?

To find out when people take action set up goals. You can read more on how to do that here or watch the video below.

VIDEO

Pair this with UTM tracking and you’ll be able to see exactly where the goal conversions come from, this gives you a better idea of what networks you need to focus on for leads and sales.

3. What social networks are driving traffic?

Talking of which social networks are working best for you, the social report in Google Analytics can tell you which ones are driving the most traffic.

You’ll find this report under Acquisition/Social/Network Referrals.

Traffic isn’t the only benefit of a social networks but it’s a sign that you are doing something right. If you delve deeper into this report, you’ll find out which pages on your site social media visitors are looking at and who they are.

To find this information click ‘Secondary Dimension’ tab at the top of the report.

4. What content is driving conversions?

The sad thing for business bloggers is that it’s not always the post that drives the most traffic that works best for your business.

Of course, there is value in having high-ranking posts, they will get more inbound links which will have a positive effect on your rankings across your whole site.

But it’s also important to know which posts are getting the most goal completions.

If you find the answer to that you will know which posts to promote the most for more leads and sales.

Find out in the Landing Pages report under Behaviour/Acquisition/Landing Pages

Scroll to the right to see goal completions and click on the header of that column to sort by pages with most goal completions.

That’s just a taster of what you can find using Google Analytics.

It can be scary logging in to find this information. What if the information you find doesn’t tell you what you want? What if it says you are wasting your time?

Even if it does, it will also tell you it’s time to stop with your current campaign and move onto something new that will drive your business goals and make sales.

Superpower of the week – Block Yourself From Analytics

One of the problems with Google Analytics is that it records your own visits to your website.

You can tell it to ignore your IP but that doesn’t always work. Depending on your internet provider your IP can change each time you reset the connection. If you are travelling and connecting to a different network you’ll have a different IP address.

Block yourself from Analytics is a Chrome browser extension that will block your browser from Analytics reports. It’s quick to install and once enabled it will always block your visits from that browser.

Superhero Interview – May King Tsang

FOMO Creator and Social Media Correspondent May King Tsang
made her debut at #ATOMICON19:

Andrew and Pete’s sell-out conference. Her role was to Live Tweet, and broadcast live on Facebook and Instagram all from her smartphone!

She’s been Live Tweeting professionally for many years helping conferences, festivals and workshops trend with their hashtags in Australia and the UK.

May King continues to help conferences around the world with her FOMO prowess and in 2019 has already been hired to FOMO Create and Social Correspond at a Music Festival, Social Media Conferences, Masterclasses and Workshops so far.

May King is also a lover of tea, and you’ll mainly find her tweeting with her teapuns at @maykingtea.

Amanda Webb:

This week’s superhero is super, super, it’s May King Tsang. She’s going to talk to us today about something really interesting she does, and when she did it for one of the best conferences I’ve ever been to.

Welcome to the show, May King.

May King Tsang:

Hello. Hey, Amanda. How are you doing?

Amanda Webb:

I’m great. I’m excited to have you on, because I think what you’re going to talk about today is the sort of thing we’ve not talked about before, and it’s the sort of thing that a lot of people don’t realize how important it is. So, tell us about the campaign you’re going to share.

May King Tsang:

Okay. Well, I’m going to be talking about Andrew & Pete’s conference called Atomicon 19. We created a FOMO creating marketing campaign, and that’s what I’m going to be talking about today.

Amanda Webb:

Tell me what is a FOMO marketing campaign? What is FOMO? I know, but people may see it bandied around the web and go, “What even is that?”

May King Tsang:

Well, it’s fun to say. FOMO stands for fear of missing out. It’s actually a controversial word, in fact. I got into a really healthy heated discussion with somebody about how she felt that FOMO could almost create a negative impact, and I said to her, “Well, are you trying to put me out of a job?” She said, “No, what you do is absolutely amazing, because you bring joy to social media, to the point where you want to be involved.”

That’s what I do. So, the enjoyment and party atmosphere of the conference doesn’t have to be confined to four walls. That’s what I do, I try and create that party atmosphere and extend it beyond the four walls onto Twitter, onto Facebook, onto Instagram, with the sole intention of encouraging people to book onto their next course if they missed it.

So for Andrew & Pete, it was their first conference, and like you said, it was one of the best conferences ever. They know that they’re going to have an even bigger conference next year.

How do we get bums on seats? You hire a social media correspondent and FOMO creator like me, and create that party atmosphere, and put that out onto social media. That was the campaign that I was a part of, which was incredible.

Amanda Webb:

How did you do that? I saw you running around on the day, but what was your actual process then of getting the word out about what was going on?

Sometimes when you're at a conference, it's really lonely, isn't it? Sometimes being in business can feel like the loneliest place in the planetClick To Tweet

May King Tsang:

Well, Andrew & Pete did a lot of great work to begin with, because, you know, sometimes when you’re at a conference, it’s really lonely, isn’t it? Sometimes being in business can feel like the loneliest place in the planet, but it doesn’t need to be. Andrew & Pete did very well in their Facebook group of all the attendees, they encouraged people to introduce themselves to each other.

This was my first opportunity to introduce myself as a social media correspondent and FOMO creator. When I introduced myself, I said, “Please come along and say hello, and if you would like a bit of free publicity for your business, please come and find me and I will interview you, and also ask you about your thoughts about the conference as well.”

By asking people, “Would you like a bit of free publicity?” Well, of course they do, right? Of course they do. If you say to them, “Can you give me a testimonial?” Then people might look like bunny in headlights and think, “Oh, well, no, because I’m on video, and I haven’t got my PR manager. I don’t know what to say, and I’ll fall over my words.” But if you say, “Would you like a bit of free publicity?” Of course.

So, at the conference, people were queuing up to be interviewed by me, because they wanted free publicity. Of course they did. Then when I asked them who it is they are, what they do. Once we’ve got the publicity a little bit out of the way, then I was able to ask them the key question which is, “What was your biggest takeaway from Atomicon?”

This is a great natural testimonial for Atomicon, which then people will see. When they see these testimonials, how amazing the conference was, then people will book onto the conference.

Now Andrew & Pete also hired me, because they know I am a professional live tweeter, and you can create FOMO at your conference by constantly talking about the conference, and that’s what happened on the day.

I was listening to the speakers, I was tweeting about them, on Andrew & Pete’s account. I tweeted so much, Twitter thought I was a robot and blocked me. So then I had to move over onto May King Tea’s account, which is my own Twitter account, then I carried on tweeting there. Then I think it was about a half hour I was able to go back onto Andrew & Pete’s account and carry on tweeting there.

So, with Andrew & Pete then, the conference is on the same day as International Women’s Day, and we’ve got it trending throughout the whole UK. That was because a lot of the audience are social media savvy, we encourage them to tweet.

We managed to reach over 20 million people on the day of the Atomicon conference.Click To Tweet

Andrew & Pete said at the beginning the hashtag is Atomicon19, they also asked me to give them a prize to the best tweet that day. So that encouraged people to tweet as well. Then there were a few people who tweeted and said, “What is this Atomicon19?” So then it gave us the opportunity to talk about it.

So on that day we managed to reach over, let’s do my math, over 17, 18, 19, 20, 20 million people that day. So, that was by Andrew & Pete’s account, my account, some of the speakers who attended and some of the speakers’ friends, like the sponsors, for example, and a lot of the attendees as well.

So it was an incredible, incredible, campaign where collectively we were tweeting. I was interviewing, getting the excitement going, and encouraging people to actually talk about Atomicon, but not in a salesy, buy your tickets next year, you know? Get your tickets now, you know, sale over in two minutes, you know?

It was just about reporting, that’s the social media corresponding bit that I did, just reporting what the speakers were talking about, and what was amazing about it. That is what a FOMO creator does.

Amanda Webb:

It wasn’t just text updates, was it? You were doing a lot of video stuff as well.

May King Tsang:

That’s right. Yeah, you have to mix it up on social media. Even though I am amazing at tweeting, it would be boring if I just did tweets all the time. So yes, I did some photographs, I did some videos, I did some live videos, I did some native videos, and I pushed them on different platforms. We also did Instagram Stories too.

So the day before at the pre-party, I’m sure you’ll remember Cilla Black, won’t you?

Amanda Webb:

Yes

May King Tsang:

Yes. Some of your readers may be too young to remember Cilla. But I went up to the speakers, and I said, “In the words of our Graham, what is your name and what do you do?” It made them giggle, and in making them giggle, they told me what it is they did. Then I said, “Oh, what are you going to be talking about tomorrow?” So it just makes it a bit more interesting than, “What is your talk at Atomicon going to be about tomorrow?” Just makes it a bit more fun.

We really wanted that fun and party atmosphere on social media so that people think, “Oh my gosh, this is the best party ever, I want an invite to that party next year.”

Amanda Webb:

You know what I think’s kind of clever? I like that you were interviewing attendees, and they were promoting their business. Even though at the beginning you’d be going, “Oh, surely you’re just going to get a load of boring people promoting their business.” It’s going to resonate with people, because if they can identify themselves as being similar to that person that you’ve interviewed, then they’re going to go, “Oh, well, this conference is for people like me.” So it’s not just the takeaway at the end that is your testimonial, it is the people that are attending, they’re not all social media geeks, which there were a lot of social media geeks.

May King Tsang:

Yeah, yeah.

Amanda Webb:

…but people from other businesses too. So, I think that’s really powerful. Then of course you’re tapping into their audiences as well, because they’re going to share, aren’t they? They’re going to share-

May King Tsang:

Absolutely. Actually, that’s a very good point, I never thought of it like that before. So I think I might use that in my next podcast interview, actually. Yes, it does, it very subtly tells the world that this conference is for, not just for social media geeks, it is actually for small business owners like me and you, absolutely.

I think that’s really important, because I think that, as a small business owner, we want to put all of our money back into the business once we’ve earned it. The next stage is to invest in ourselves by going to these conferences and learning from experts, and maybe finding people to outsource to. A conference is an incredible place to do networking.

So, you know, one of the biggest fears that conference organisers have, when I’m tweeting, is that, “Well, you’re just going to give away all the information.” You know, I’ll say to them, “Well, I’m good at tweeting, but I’m not that good. I’m not going to be able to give away everything, right?” Of course, we humans, we love to network, we love to meet face-to-face.

That’s where the crux of the business is done. I got quite a lot of leads as a result of me FOMO creating that day. So if I wasn’t physically at the event, I would never have met those people, and they wouldn’t have approached me, talked to me, and get onto those discussions.

That’s the other thing. So when you’re giving away all this free information about the speakers onto social media, you’re not giving away the meeting of people, the networking, the possible collaborations that’s happening.

Amanda Webb:

In fact, more of … I’m going through the social media marketing world videos, and I think, almost … I would always go to speakers at events.

May King Tsang:

Of course.

Amanda Webb:

But, I think you do learn more when you’re sitting at home afterwards watching the videos, and actually you could spend a lot more time networking at events than that. I suppose that’s the opportunity you have when people have a virtual ticket, you are going to miss out on one of the most important parts.

May King Tsang:

Absolutely. Because actually, I was going to support one of my friends who was speaking, and in the end, I just needed to sit down, because I had had really bad jet lag, I hadn’t slept, and I thought, “You know, I’ve been walking on my feet all day, I’ll just sit down.” This lady just sat next to me, and I was about to go, and then I thought, “No, I’ll go and talk to her.” We got into a really good conversation, and she’s got conference in Miami. I said, “Oh hi, my name’s May King Tea.” She said, “Oh, I’ve seen you tweeting.”

Amanda Webb:

Yeah.

May King Tsang:

Which was incredible, and then she said, “I’d really like to talk to you about you tweeting for my conference.” Now if I would have gone to support my friend, I wouldn’t have had that conversation with her, and now I’m under discussions with her as to whether we can work together at this conference in Miami, which is incredible.

So I apologised to my friend, but he was okay, and he’ll be even better if I get this job too. I can listen to his talk afterwards anyway, like you said.

Amanda Webb:

Yeah, exactly. Okay, just if I was a business, and I was having an event, and obviously the best thing I could do would be to hire you. If I couldn’t hire you, how should I approach creating a bit of FOMO?

May King Tsang:

You need to have a dedicated person to do social media. Don’t do the social media on your own by yourself on that day. Now, the reason why I say that, is because you’ve got a conference to organise or a workshop to organise, and things will go wrong. Unfortunately, it just happens like that, doesn’t it? So, sometimes, you know, maybe your microphone isn’t working or your slides aren’t working, or, you know, lunch is delayed, whatever. So you have to, you know, look after operations.

If you are looking after operations, you won’t have time to create social media. That’s why you need a dedicated person. So if you have someone on your team who is good at social media, and I don’t mean just taking photos, like just getting set up for my conference, that’s boring. You need someone who’s got a bit of personality, who can tweet really, really, quickly, who can think on their feet, to think the next thing you can talk about at your conference. You need to do something a bit different.

If you are looking after operations, you won't have time to create social media. That's why you need a dedicated person.Click To Tweet

Tweeting and reporting on your workshop is, you know, is good, but there’s lots of other things that you can do as well. Like I said, interviewees with attendees, or, you know, pictures of the conference booklet that you’ve got. But something a bit more different, you know? So, find someone dedicated to do that. If you can’t hire me, there are plenty of people who are great at social media, not as good as me, because I’m the best, but there are a few people … sorry, what was that?

Amanda Webb:

That’s why you’re on my show, of course.

May King Tsang:

Yeah, that’s right. Exactly right. But there are a few people who, you know, who are good at tweeting, good at photographs, good at Instagram Stories. I’m getting better at stories, but I say, I’m definitely not the best. You know, maybe you need to hire someone who’s dedicated to that, perhaps, whilst, you know, you hire me to do tweeting. I can do both, and I will be doing both for a conference this week, actually.

But, you know, if you can’t hire me, or I’m not available, then there are definitely my friends who I can recommend who will do just as a good a job for you. But definitely find someone dedicated to do it for you, you need to hire that person to do your social media.

Amanda Webb:

Okay, good advice. I’ve got two questions left-

Quickly, because we’re almost out of time. When you go to a conference, do they give you a set of guidelines that they want you to follow? Do they tell you they need this many tweets, or this many visuals? Do they give you that information in advance? Was that something you’d recommend people do?

May King Tsang:

Yeah, that’s a great question. So, Andrew & Pete know my work, and they gave me free rein to do whatever I wanted to do, because their headspace was making sure that the conference is running smoothly, and I like that. But there is another conference that I’m doing later on in the year, she knows my work as well, but she knows her audience, and she knows specifically what she wants.

So, she’s given me a list of things that she wants me to do. Actually what is quite nice, is that she said to me, “You are my priority. So if I’m talking to somebody, and you want me to go Facebook Live, go and interrupt me, and get me interviewed.” So that was quite nice as well. So, she has given me a list of how many tweets she wants, what kind of tweets she wants, she’s giving me the presentations. So I can work with both, either give me free rein and I’ll do an amazing job, or give me a structure, and I will obey your structure and do a lot more as well.

I like both. I like to keep people happy, whatever works for them.

Amanda Webb:

Great. My final question is where can we find you online?

May King Tsang:

Well, you’ll find me on Twitter. So that’s M-A-Y K-I-N-G T-E-A. I’m starting to be a bit more active on LinkedIn as well, so May King Tsang. You will see a lot of my LinkedIn articles about FOMO. So if you’ve got a workshop coming up, or a masterclass, or a big conference, and you want some practical tips on how to get FOMO for your business, or for your workshop, then go along and ask me there or read the articles.

Please send me private messages. I don’t mind, because I want your conference to be a success, I want your workshop to be a success. If I can help you by answering your questions, I certainly can. So LinkedIn or Twitter.

Amanda Webb:

That’s brilliant. Thanks for joining us, May King. You really are a superhero. Welcome to the club.

May King Tsang:

Phew, that’s me flying off without a Superman.

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