While some shows were just learning how to use Twitter last year, Salesforce.com, a cloud computing solutions provider, was leveraging Twitter and other social media platforms to meet marketing goals for Dreamforce, the company’s annual conference for users, developers and partners. By integrating social media into its marketing strategy and attaching specific goals to its use of social media, Salesforce.com, working with experiential marketing firm George P. Johnson, didn’t just generate a lot of online attention; it also increased attendance at Dreamforce from 9,500 in 2008 to 19,000 in 2009.

Held in San Francisco for three days in November, Dreamforce 2009 was the company’s largest event yet, thanks to organizers’ decision to include social media as part of an integrated marketing strategy from the beginning of the planning cycle. “This year was all about testing,” says Jane Hynes, Vice President of Corporate Communications for Salesforce.com. “We wanted to assess the impact of social media on our marketing goals.”

Those marketing goals included disseminating information, driving registration, building and maintaining awareness of the conference’s offerings, communicating news announcements during the conference and helping attendees to connect with each other and with Salesforce.com. And organizers found a way to reach those goals with an integrated social media approach that included Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs like TechCrunch.

In the weeks leading up to Dreamforce, organizers built excitement for the event and helped drive registration through various forms of social media. On Facebook, Dreamforce organizers staged a contest encouraging fans to post user-generated videos explaining why they deserved to attend the event. The contest videos, posted on Dreamforce’s YouTube channel, generated more than 26,000 views, and the winning entrants received free registration to the event.

In addition to posting about Dreamforce to the company’s existing Twitter feed, @salesforce, conference organizers also created a separate feed, @Dreamforce, which offered daily contests, real-time updates, special announcements and tips for how attendees could maximize the event. Salesforce.com added more than 700 new followers to its existing Twitter feed, and the new handle built a following of more than 1,000.

To integrate the entire campaign, organizers connected the Dreamforce Facebook page and the event’s Twitter account, “so we could post once and distribute across both networks,” Hynes says. They integrated Facebook Fanbox into the Dreamforce Web site to allow for realtime updates and to generate buzz and used the company’s LinkedIn Alumni Group to broadcast Dreamforce news and promos.

During the conference, the social media offensive continued. Organizers continued to reach out to those who were not on site by posting videos and other content on Facebook and live micro-blogging via Twitter. On the first day of Dreamforce, the event’s hashtag, #df09, was a trending topic, Twitter’s term for the most tweetedabout topics on any given day. During the first two days of the event, approximately 11,000 tweets included #df09.

On site, organizers equipped the press room with screens that showed up-tothe- minute tweets from conference attendees “so the media could more easily identify relevant topics of discussion and find customers, partners and other users to chat with,” Hynes says. “Additionally, we had a large screen in our keynote hall that broadcast #df09-tagged tweets to the audience before the start of the presentation.”

While organizers were prepared with plenty of printed schedules, news releases and other information for all attendees on site, it was a challenge to ensure that everyone had up-to-date information at all times, with 19,000 registrants spread out across the Moscone Center for three days. “By using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media channels as we did, we were able to guarantee a one-stop information shop for the entire conference, making things easier on attendees as well as on us as organizers of the event,” Hynes says. “Moreover, we were able to create conversations across the conference and foster collaboration among our user base that might not have otherwise happened.”

Thanks to social media, the impact of the conference didn’t stop when the show was over. Live videos from the conference were posted on Facebook, and within one week after the conference, all session content was posted to Salesforce.com’s YouTube channel. Three weeks after the conference ended, the Breakout Sessions had received more than 20,100 views, the General Sessions had received more than 16,600 views, and a video introducing Salesforce.com’s newest product, Chatter, had received more than 20,200 views.

While the results were significant, the impact on the event budget was not. “We didn’t allocate specific budget to social media during the event,” Hynes says. “Many of our social media ideas required people versus money, so the budget impact was extremely low.”

The Dreamforce team identified the social media networks it wanted to pursue and assigned a specific individual to handle each of the various projects, making sure each team member had clear direction and ownership. “What made everything work well was this clear ownership and strong integration with our other marketing efforts,” Hynes says.

Salesforce.com’s Strategy

GOAL: To utilize social media to help meet conference marketing goals such as disseminating information, building and maintaining awareness of the conference’s offerings and news announcements, and connecting attendees with the corporation and each other.

STRATEGY: Implement an integrated social media strategy, assigning team members to employ various social media channels including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

RESULTS: Through conference marketing, Salesforce.com achieved a significant following on Twitter and Facebook, and thousands of views on YouTube and TechCrunch. Attendance at the event increased from 9,500 to 19,000.