The IIA managed to get a bumper crowd out last week to its Congress in the Crown Plaze Hotel in Santry.  This year the Congress was followed immediately by the awards which made it a long day but gave a much more opportunity for people to mix and network.

Colm Lyon from Realex Payments delivered the strongest of the morning sessions with a focus on leveraging the values of the organisation is solidifying the company’s strategy.  He also spoke about the need to engage staff in the process.  All things that people know but can get forgotten as companies look to an uncertain future.  Realex Payments has made great strides in intenationalising its reach and offer and has great visibility of what Irish companies are doing in other market places outside of Ireland.  They handle the transactions for their client’s offers which are delivered in other countries but managed from Ireland.  A much needed “can do” attitude. 

The afternoon sessions were all well attended and I participated in the Social Media Working Group one which was led by Brendan Hughes of FBD and moderated by Krishna De.  The session was structured to give participants a snap shot of what they could achieve in different social media by picking a company and building mini plans using Twitter, Blogs and Facebook/LinkedIn.

In building the session check sheets were developed for each that might be useful if you are looking at how you can leverage these different platforms.   The Twitter check lists is below.  New Twitter applications appear on an almost daily basis but its a handy beginning point.  It is structured to cover beginning, intermediate and advanced.  Let me know of ones I have ommitted.

Beginner. 

• Set up a Twitter account in company name.
• Find friends and potential contacts.
• Watch Tweeter feeds from others.
• Reply to relevant tweets.
• Tweet areas of interest.
• Search areas of interest through www.search.twitter.com

Intermediate.

• Design the backdrop for your twitter feed.
• Upload photo or avatar.
• Build an editorial calendar and research topics
• Build community by increasing following base
• Direct message new followers
• Engage in conversation by reply to tweets
• Actively monitor by installing www.Tweetdeck.com or www.monitter.com
• Post messages using www.tinyurl.com

Advanced

• Analyse activity with www.twission.com
• Post photos using www.twitpic.com
• Live Tweet at conference or event.
• Set up remote Twittering through SMS http://agtweet.com/or call www.twitterfone.com
• Integrate Twitter feed with Facebook and
• Actively monitor and respond to @replies
• Back up your tweets through www.tweetake.com
• Integrate with outlook with www.outtwit.com
• Track hot topics with www.twitt(url)ly.com or www.summize.com
• Upload video with www.tweetcube.com
• Filter your tweets through www.twittersnooze.com
• Track if you have been unfollowed through www.quitter.com
• Tweet to specific group www.grouptweet.com
• Retweet comments you see to share with your network

Some photos from the session are available here.