It is awesome that I have the chance to attend Dreamforce 11, the world’s largest tech conference with 45,000 registered attendees, with my new Radian6 colleagues. But what has been even more amazing is watching the Salesforce.com and Radian6 Community teams in action.

At this conference, we keep hearing about the importance of incorporating Radian6′s social DNA into Salesforce.com. This is the first step in Salesforce.com becoming a social enterprise, so they can help their customers create a roadmap to do the same. And while many people think of Radian6 as a social media monitoring platform, the community engagement functionality of it is pretty critical to social media success.

Watching our onsite team practice what we preach is a sight to be seen. I sat in the social media command center, overlooking the trade show floor, while Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff gave his keynote address. In addition to the in-person attendees, it was estimated that 35,000 people were watching this event streaming online. Radian6 mentions started popping up throughout the keynote, but once the Radian6 demo started, the community team’s dashboards were flooded with mentions. The calm and professional way our team dealt with this event got me thinking how their approach to this real-time event applies to any large marketing event.

Common Understanding of the Goal

With any marketing campaign, especially one that involves a significant number of tactics, it’s important that everyone work toward the same goal. In this Radian6 example, the high volume of chatter did not change how the Community team approached any single post. All engagement had a consistent company voice. The job was not solely to move things along as quickly as possible. These are the types of things that can get cloudy if you don’t understand both the tactic goals and the strategic goals, and how they relate.

Preparation Cannot Be Underestimated

With most situations that marketing teams encounter, even ones of huge importance like a being part of trade show keynote or a product launch, there is plenty of time to prepare. Plans are written with strategy, goals, tactics, and metrics of success included. The one category that is frequently left out of these plans is the process. What are the roles of each team member during the launch? Do other company members have roles? Is the sales team ready to respond to their customers? Are there any messages or links that can be written or collected beforehand?

Our Community team is familiar with a series of steps to take with every online mention. The macros, a set of tasks that can be accomplished with one click, are already set up and are second nature to them. This makes a high pressure situation easier. They do what they know, but faster and more often. Their experience and preparation allows them to scale their speed without a loss in quality. Anything that can be done ahead of time that makes it easier to approach the event is worth considering.

Ongoing Communication is Critical

As communicators, we understand that communication is key to accomplishing anything. If you don’t tell your customers or online followers about your new products or services, how are they going to know about them? The same is true within a marketing team. Communicate the goals at the start, so everyone is pulling in the same direction. Communicate throughout the organization, so everyone is informed. Keep the lines of communication open throughout the campaign or event and constantly review what is going on, in case changes need to be made. Communicating lets you iterate faster to make sure you meet your objectives.

This was one place where our Community team really demonstrated their star quality. Everyone had their roles and were keeping up. Things got busier and there were questions between team members offering to help. And not just once, but every few minutes. You got that one? Everything still okay?

Everyone is on the Same Team

The above example from our Community team would not have gone as smoothly if they did not work as a team. They are called a team and they act like a team. Do whatever it takes for your marketing group to feel like a team. Every group has natural leaders and natural followers, but the sense that they are working towards a common goal and succeeding as a team goes a long way to getting them to act that way.

While this is a real-time example where everything is happening fast, the next time you have to create a marketing plan, think about these ideas so you can improve both your execution and your results.

What are some pointers you recommend during a high-volume moment for your brand? Is this worked into your strategy? Share your thoughts!

Tags: Community, dreamforce 2011