This is the first post were Team DigcitSummitUK details how and where suppliers might expect to get a return on investment if they support some of the Connected Educators who are looking to set sail on the DigCit Ship in January.
Schoolology's Anthony Doyle, Director of Sales UK, had 0 followers on Twitter just over a week ago... today he has 300 followers and a reach of just under 1.5 million accounts.
Ships Log
While working on my startup plans and pitching in to help Education Scotland with their Digital Learning consultation, I've also been keeping an eye out for opportunities with innovative EdTech companies... but there are not many opportunities and I've still been in transition from sales to Community Management.
I notice on LinkedIn that Schoolology is hiring sales people in the UK, it's finally happened! Innovative US EdTech is making it's way over the the UK... I fill out the application form and send my CV etc off.
When all the EdTech incubators starting sprouting up I noticed that these companies were doing things differently and educators were expecting a different kind of engagement. With no community management jobs in Scotland and few EdTech companies, I've been reskilling on a voluntary basis.
Anthony Doyle (Director of Sales UK) invited me to connect on LinkedIn... Aye, aye thinks I, that could be a promising development.
Anthony asks if we could have a skype call on Friday 27th November for a chat, I ascertain if this has got anything to do with my job application or as a new connection on LinkedIn and to discuss my research in Scotland and/or the UK Digital Citizenship Summit.
The reason I ask this is because this is the end of week 1 of #DigCitSummit and I'm feeling a little woosy from being so tired.
Technology fails me twice, Skype isn't working as I've got a bad connection, and my old Blackberry isn't up for chatting today (It has off days like that).
What a Sails Guy!
I race home to have a chat with Anthony and it's one of those rambling chats about some of my faviourite topics. Anthony is in sales but he's also spent 15 years in UK Further Education colleges where he innovated on a number of projects.
Like many he found the pace of change slow and eventually jumped ship to join the world of Tech companies where he sold in a way that the best companies do, through co-creation and collaboration.
New toTwitter... But Not Anymore!
After the call Anthony gave me a mention on Twitter and he had no followers. Interesting thought I... Maybe #DigCitSummitUK could use this to show that there would be a Return on Investment to any companies that supported US Educators and speakers to attend the event.
Today Anthony has 300 followers... But guess what? As of today he has a reach of 1,472,464 people. That's impressive! Anthony Doyle's Twitter Followers (27th Nov - 8th Dec)
Reach Vs Hard to Reach Vs Marketing Gimmick
Now this could easily be nothing more than a "We'll get you 5,000 followers marketing gimmick" if it was not for two very important points;
1) Schoolology has been included in #DigCitSummitUK's list of companies that speakers would be happy to represent while they are in the UK and Marialice Curran and Jesse Lubinsky both included the company on the list.
Furthermore Marialice was one of Schoolology's early ambassadors when the company was starting out.
2) This is Anthony's target market, these are the people he would like to engage and connect with to discuss his product and any new developments with.
#DigCitSummitUK Reach & ROI
So getting Anthony a following of 300 connected educators in just over a week has made it easier for him to connect with his target audience. This could save on marketing budget and the "cost per customer acquisition" and any savings here could be re-diverted into covering the costs for a connected educator to go to the event.
This is not to suggest that Schoolology do this... I saw this as an opportunity for a case study in one area of how supporting the #DigCitSummitUK Crew could provide an ROI.
Now Anthony has been an absolute star since he started pitching in with this event... I wonder if we can all pull together to get him up to 500 by the end of the day? ;)
This is one example of many... more like it to follow.
If you are on this#DigCitSummitUK's list please feel free to get in touch and we'll let you know more while we continue to get organised.
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