SOURCE: BrightTALK
December 15, 2008 14:23 ET
brighttalk.com's Conversational Marketing Contest Puts Social Media Experts to the Test
Contest Winner Ecademy Attracts the Largest Webcast Audience Using Social Networking, Twitter and Blogging
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - December 15, 2008) - More than 1,500 business professionals
attended November's online Conversational Marketing Summit hosted by
BrightTALK™, one of the early pioneers of business webcasting.
Presenters at the summit put their skills to the test, competing to attract
the greatest number of viewers using social media tools. The winner was
Penny Power, co-founder of Ecademy, the only online community for business
owners with 500,000 users in 230 countries. Power's webcast shared insights
into how to turn strangers into friends and friends into customers using
social networking. Mobile marketing, blogging and search marketing were
also popular topics at the summit. All Conversational Marketing Summit
presentations are available for on-demand viewing at http://bit.ly/9jDn.
The success of Ecademy's webcast on social networking is a real-life
example of the strength of social networks. Penny Power signed up to
present only two days before the summit took place, after reading about it
in a business-to-business publication. Power reached about 5,000 people
with invitations to her webcast by twittering, blogging and reaching out
through her Ecademy network. Within days, hundreds of business
professionals attended her webcast titled "Understanding Social Networks
for Your Business."
Power explains how she became the most popular speaker of the summit using
one of the strategies discussed in her brighttalk.com webcast, "Community
is about building depth in your network. Don't use it just to throw around
your business cards, use it as a way to have conversations. When you enter
a new community, don't prejudge. Try to form as many real relationships as
you can."
Ecademy plans to continue using brighttalk.com for webcasting in the
future. "I plan to use it much more next year. I know that a lot of people
don't want to travel during these times, because the minute they step out
of the door, it's costing them money," said Power. "We will use
brighttalk.com to connect with new members as well as to engage with our
existing network." Forty-two percent of her webcast viewers said they would
like to attend monthly webcasts to stay abreast of developments in social
networking.
The Conversational Marketing Summit is one of many online summits
BrightTALK has hosted since the launch of brighttalk.com in September.
Thousands of experts and business professionals from various industries
have been interacting via live webcasts on the platform. Because certain
topics were in especially high demand, BrightTALK began to organize live
webcasting events (summits) around particular themes. All summits are
available at no charge at www.brighttalk.com. Links to any webcast can be
embedded into websites and blogs using the BrightTALK™ player. For
information on how to embed a player or to participate in future summits,
contact Morgan Cantrell (415-955-0553, mcantrell (at) brighttalk.com).
About BrightTALK
Founded in 2002, BrightTALK™ is one of the early pioneers of business
webcasting. BrightTALK was established to help enterprises employ rich
media live over the Internet. Its services include video and audio
webcasting and online conferences. Its customer base includes financial
companies such as American Express, J.P. Morgan, Barclays, and Credit
Suisse; technology companies like CA, IBM, Oracle, and Symantec; media
companies such as Haymarket, Reed Elsevier and Incisive Media; and
influential associations like ISACA, (ISC)2 and ITSMF.