Last year, I got to attend Bristol inbound marketing company Noisy Little Monkey’s (NLM) conference Digital Gaggle (which you can read about here) and I have been excited to go to it again ever since. Obviously with the pandemic, events have had to change like everything else has. So, whilst I was going to it from the comfort of my own bedroom/study space rather than down to the Watershed Cinema, it was still an excellent half-day webinar.
The event took place digitally on an online events platform called Hopin that had multiple interactive areas where you could move in and out of rooms. These were Stage (where each of the actual talks took place), Sessions (where Breakout sessions happened), Networking (an area where you could have randomised 5 minute chats with other attendees) and Expo (where the sponsors were doing various 1:1s and offers).
In my opinion, I loved Stage and liked the Session room but did not have any time in the end to go to Networking. I also think that, if another virtual version were to happen, trialling other platforms to host on and doing a mixture of live streaming and pre-recorded might make it even better. However, the fact that there was a Chat area was REALLY useful. I had bought a Important Goose ticket which meant I had access to more areas but didn't get the goody bag.
Welcome
The session began at 9am with NLM’s co-founder Jon Payne and Events and Marketing Manager Claire Dibben introducing the event to an absolute banging backing track (though I cannot remember what the music actually was). They asked attendees to comment and ask questions in the chat section throughout the day, particularly the word ‘honk’.
Why HONK? Well, the logo for the event is a goose and it was a way for us all to say how much we loved something or give thanks to the speakers and hosts without much attention needed. I will be honking at everything and everyone from now on (the fact that there is not yet a goose emoji is an abomination).
Talk 1
How to Build Links That Drive Brand by Carrie Rose from Rise at Seven
The first online talk of the morning, Carrie Rose’s session was all about how to create campaigns that people see, links people click on and read and getting more customers to search for a brand or keyword. It was public relations but at a very humanised level which I really liked. Carrie’s speed of speech made for a fun talk and the fact that we were listening to her talk about butt plugs and porn before ten in the morning made us all act like we were innocent giggling school children again.
My main takeaways from this session were that search is a result but is also an important way for brands to up their awareness and coverage. I learnt a new term, Domain Authority which is a metric used to measure the quality of a website based on their backlink profile, and that SEO and linkage is just as important as content and branding. It seems quite technical and I don’t think I’ll be going into SEO any time soon, but it was a great talk.
Talk 2
How to Grow Your Business Online by Jaye Cowle from Launch Online
It won’t be a surprise to anyone that we have probably seen and experienced ten whole years of change within the last six to eight months of 2020 in the online world. Jaye Cowle talked us through the online trends that have occurred due to the pandemic, the enormous way that consumer behaviour has changed and how businesses can be prepared for the new year. Her main points were that online behaviours have become habitual and the decision making process is now a complete mess.
This was a talk that I got a little involvement out of; when she mentioned a resource and someone asked what the resource was during the Q&A section, I answered with what it was (only because I was taking notes). Katie Roberts from NLM then commented back that I was ‘the queen of learning’ which I will now be asking everyone to call me from now on. Anyway, the resource is the Decoding Decisions paper from Google (which you can read here) that shows six biases that we all have when making decisions about what we search for and buy on the internet.
Breakout Session 1
Social Media with Natasha Baldwin and Izzy Green from Noisy Little Monkey
After a short fifteen minute break away from the screen, we moved into the Session area where you had a choice of three breakout sessions. As previously noted and you may know, social media is a major part of what I do and want to do long term so was the obvious pick of the bunch. As Tash and Izzy knew that those who were in the session were already quite knowledgeable on content creation, we instead looked at algorithms and how to engage with brands. It was such a lovely, more informal Q&A session - Natasha Baldwin and Izzy Green were both stars!
Talk 3
How to Make AR Work for You by Richard Norton and Kerry Harrison from Tiny Giant
Although a really interesting presentation, this was in the end my least favourite out of all of the talks given during this Digital Gaggle event. I think this was partly due to the breakout session slightly overrunning, but also because of my limited knowledge on augmented reality. It did make me think about getting back on Snapchat though which I haven’t used in ages and I think you can create filters on Canva so may try that out. It wasn’t my favourite but I did like the topic and thought Richard Norton and Kerry Harrison were really cool people.
Talk 4
A Marketer’s Guide to Digital Accessibility by Jon Gibbins from Dotjay Ltd
This was the online presentation that I was most looking forward to before the event had even begun. Though a disabled/neurodiverse person myself, even I learnt a lot at this talk – particularly that emojis need to be used sparingly and how important it is to capitalise each word in a hashtag or username. Jon Gibbins also went through how important image and video ALT Text (alternative descriptions) are and what to do for certain social channels.
There were also a LOT or resources which I’ve gone through and saved for future use which I think will be really useful. I also found it really intriguing that businesses don’t set out to be inaccessible – I guess it’s another unconscious bias, yet accessibility is a human need and it does not take much to bring it in. I’m very much now going to think more about and act on how to make my own content more accessible. Thanks Jon!
Talk 5
How Individual Personal Branding Brings Team Wins by Crystal Carter from Optix Solutions
I’d seen Crystal Carter talk earlier in the year at another NLM webinar (they’ve been doing occasional online sessions during the year as a series called ‘Business as Unusual’) and therefore knew that Crystal’s talk was going to be good. Though I already have set up my own personal brand, it was good to learn how I could leverage it within the companies I work for in the future. It was also nice to know that the things I’m doing now will be of use long term. Also, Crystal had this great thing on her slides – a graphic of the main people on Twitter that she engages with – it’s from a company called Chirpty and I did one myself (see my Twitter for it but I've also put it below).
Breakout Session 2
From Blank to Bank with t&s creative communications
We then went back to the Sessions area where there were another three breakout sessions to choose from and I decided to go to this one on creativity and briefs. It was interesting but I felt like it was more for those who were more experienced. It was an interesting session though and introduced me to what t&s creative communications do as an agency.
Talk 6
What’s Next in Social Media by Drew Benvie from Battenhall
Given that I saw Drew Benvie speak at TedxBristol this time last year (you can read my LinkedIn post about that here), it felt very apt for Drew to be the last speaker of the afternoon and this event itself. Drew highlighted what he and his company Battenhall think are going to be the top four trends for 2021 – Deep Impact, Corporate Social Authority (CSA), Games and Community Comeback. The idea that we’ve had decade worth of change in the space of weeks and months was repeated. Two main takeaways were how authenticity was key and a new resource for me – Battenhall’s daily WhatsApp message newsletter. Drew, again, was amazing.
Final Thoughts
And, so, my second Digital Gaggle experience came to an end. There were post-event sessions (cocktail making and yoga) but I had work to do so couldn’t go to them and didn’t have the tools to do them either. Though I’ve said what I thought about the platform the event was run on and each of the sessions, I really enjoyed doing Digital Gaggle virtually. I’m looking forward to attending the next one, whether in real life or again online, in the not too distant future!
Again, as I’ve said already to them but will say here, a massive HONK to all the speakers for their talks and to everyone at NLM for doing such a fantastic job of turning what is a great real event into a fab online extravaganza. If you were there as well, let me know what your thoughts were, and if not, then I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post.
Beth x