Social networking played a big part at the recent American Marketing Group global conference held in Boca Raton, Florida last month. American Marketing Group, the parent company of travel brands including Acclaim Meetings, The Affluent Traveler Collection, TRAVELSAVERS, Well-Being Travel and Travel Market Report, used twitter to enhance the conference for attendees and to extend its reach far beyond the confines of the physical meeting. In addition, the company launched a site to enable agents to continue to network even after the conference.

Kim Acevedo

Twitter played a big part at the AMG conference, said Kim Acevedo, American Marketing Group’s director of e-Marketing.  “We set up a tweet ticker box on our conference control center and followed several staff members who were present at the conference along with people who were presenting seminars to keep all of our agents in the loop on what was happening in real time at the conference.”

“We were able to post photos, videos and press releases,” Acevedo noted. “The tweet ticker was good since agents didn’t have to ‘follow’ us. All they needed to do was enter the control center. We had status updates along with reactions towards seminars as well. I also tweeted for some “sneak peek” items to watch for and we also followed independent agents during the conference,” she explained.

The Twitter feed kept agents unable to attend the conference in the loop, said Acevedo.  “Our conference control center was extremely successful. Agents twittered about the conference and we were able to post those to the Tweet ticker. Many agents that couldn’t go to the conference inquired about our updates and announcements, which they found online. Our pages received hundreds of hits each day of the conference and even days afterwards.”

When asked if other conferences should follow suit, Acevedo was adamant. “Absolutely! Social media is a new way to personally reach out to your consumers. The only thing that is required is your time and management.”

Keeping the Conversation Going

The conference also marked the launch of Agent Connect, providing a way for the 3,000+ AMG member agencies to continue to exchange ideas and communicate.

Nicole Mazza

“Many of our agencies have asked for a way to network easily with their peers around the world,” said Nicole Mazza, chief marketing officer for TRAVELSAVERS, NEST, and The Affluent Traveler Collection. “This internal online social media center increases the sharing of best practices across our organization and leverages the many hidden talents of our agents.”

“Agent Connect is similar to Facebook but much more secure and much more private,” said Kim Acevedo, AMG’s director of E-Marketing. “We have built one community with several private groups to enable all American Marketing Group agents to network. Agents can post questions, comments and get exclusive incentives from their private groups. They can also answer personal fun questions and post photos. So it’s not all about just work. Agent Connect is an amazing tool that allows us to work the agents personally. Social media is such a driving force, and by adding this feature it’s really keeping the agents on the forefront of all technology,” she said.