Earlier this month, Ad 2 San Diego hosted the Ad 2 National Mid-Year Retreat at The Dana on Mission Bay. The event had over 40 Ad 2 members from chapters all over the US which was a great experience for a new member such as myself.

As the Social Media chair on the Communications Committee for Ad2SD, I was eager to meet other Ad 2 members that shared my position to exchange ideas on two specific areas: (1) how we could better promote our Ad 2 events and (2) encourage other professionals in our areas to join our events.

During our break out session, I learned that other chapters were taking advantage of Facebook and Twitter to promote their events like us. However,  I was suprised to learn that other chapter didn’t promote events on their site as often as  we did (i.e. Event Announcement, Event Summary, Photos, etc.) but after sharing our success stories with other members, I’m confident that that will change in the future.

Below are a few key take aways that I learned from the other Social Media chairs:

1. Leverage your Ad 2 newsletters and forward them to interested co-workers.

2. Edit your Facebook invites to invite members and fans that are local.

3. Twitter can help find local sponsors for your Ad 2 events (i.e. happy hours at bard, printing needs, etc.).

4. Stream events online if possible and post on video sites such as Ustream.tv, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

The key take aways listed above are definitely actions items that the Communications committee are going to roll out this year. Aside from learning new best practices for social media, I started realize that Ad 2 isn’t just for folks involved in online marketing — it’s for young professionals that are passionate about all avenues of advertising (i.e. print, television, online, etc.). Overall, mid year retreat was a great experience and I’m definitely looking forward to attending next year’s mid year retreat.

Before I head out, check out the Ustream video highlighting our Toga Catwalk.