There’s a reason to celebrate every day. January 19th is popcorn day. The middle child gets 24 hours of attention on August 12th. Bat Appreciation is celebrated on April 17th. And there is even a day devoted to Waffle Irons on June 29th.
Embarrassingly enough, we’ve all probably created content around at least one of these made-up holidays at one point in our advertising careers. So it’s only natural that June 30th is set aside to celebrate social media!
Social Media Day was created by Mashable in 2010 as a way to recognize the digital revolution and every year thousands of people organize events across the globe to celebrate it. This year, the Smith Brothers Agency partnered with the Pittsburgh chapters of Ad Fed and PRSA to establish and celebrate Social Media Day in the Steel City.
Our agency hosted the event in our own Left Field meeting space where guests sipped beer from local favorite East End Brewing and tasted the new “When Pigs Fly” sandwich from almost-famous Primanti Bros!
To make the party official, we worked with Mayor Bill Peduto’s office to proclaim June 30th as Social Media Day. Katie O’Malley from the Mayor’s press office was on hand to read the proclamation!
Constantine James from Twitter kicked off the event by discussing trends and presenting a number of case studies highlighting how media, television and companies are using the platform. For a full recap of Constantine’s discussion, check out Kaitlyn’s blog post.
Keeping the focus of the night on the awesome things Pittsburghers are doing on social media, our event brought together a variety of speakers from media, small businesses, non-profits, retail and food.
Highlights from the speakers can be best captured in tweets from the night!
https://twitter.com/cynthiacloskey/status/483736494683979776
https://twitter.com/consjames/status/483737369225359360
https://twitter.com/PBT_Melissa/status/483736798506385408
https://twitter.com/omalley1212/status/483747041898536960
https://twitter.com/productivityllc/status/483745826758729729
https://twitter.com/shanananaheyhey/status/483744403563888640
https://twitter.com/SFederoff_Trib/status/483741388300091392
https://twitter.com/PBT_Michele/status/483738824573333504
https://twitter.com/SocialKimLy/status/483748459628228608
https://twitter.com/consjames/status/483747250749722624
With a room full of socially active guests, it’s not a surprise that #SMDayPGH was trending in Pittsburgh for more than five hours! Additionally, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review both published recaps of the event.
After the event, food trucks from the Franktuary and Oh My Grill were waiting outside and a networking after party was held at Beer Market. Guests were able to mix, mingle, take #groupies and exchange Twitter handles while listening to music from Smith Brothers’ very own Steve Pearson!
https://twitter.com/LMForester/status/483776242735669248
We look forward to hosting another event in 2015!
