Top Takeaways from Disney SMMC on The Road NYC

Recently I attended Disney Social Media Moms Celebration On the Road in NYC, held at the New Amsterdam Theater. We had breakfast (so delish) and then headed up to the STAGE (it was cool).

We heard from Jamie Langdon, Disney Destinations Social Media. Jamie spoke about new things at the park, including Paint the Night, and some of the new promotional videos (including “Showing your Disney Side” videos. The key message being—it’s fun to bring your child (of any age) at Disney Parks.

She also spoke about the new show for Disney Cruise Lines, which is Tangled. They’ve added 3 new songs and I can’t wait to hear more about it!

We also heard from chief author/blogger of Disney Parks Blog – Jennifer Fickley-Baker. Jennifer gave us tips for how to get creative in writing. She recommended finding the story in your everyday situations. How you tell your story will make your content stand out amongst others. She also talked about brainstorming. She likes listing — have a idea and create 10-12 approaches to it. As for influencers, Disney likes to cultivate relationships online and bring then into the parks (ie. Meetups, special events). Disney Springs is coming soon, this is the remodeling of Downton Disney. Check out the video link from the Orlando Sentinel for more info.

Jennifer also spoke about how Disney celebrated their 1,000,000 fan on twitter. Instead of a graphic, they created a stop motion video. Creative, right?
She also mentioned how an experiment during a camping trip by two of her designers yielded this picture.

And it led to them doing it for several scenes in the park – including the one below.

Writing Takeaways

– Tell Real Stories – some content is wonderful because it’s true. Her example was of a little girl named Lane who was scared of the characters, so her mom made her fantastic costumes. Now the girl has her own following and people who ask for her.
– Sharpen your writer’s eye. Train your eyes to see the world as amazing.
-When you’re all out of words, take a break and have a conversation with someone. Be sure to laugh. Then go back and try again.

Victoria Lim, the Managing Editor of Walt Disney World Public Relations gave excellent tips on shooting video and pictures on the go. As someone who’s really trying to bring more video content into her site (have YOU Subscribed to my YouTube Channel? Go here https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMamaMavenBlog. )

Video Takeaways

– When shooting video on your mobile device, put into airplane mode first to avoid interuptions.
– Shoot horizontally
– Get a microphone (Amazon has a bunch that are reasonable)
– Magisto is a great program to quickly do a video – so easy!
-Be purposeful in shooting
-No MTV style shooting, unless it’s really necessary for the story. You don’t want to make your audience nauseous.

We also heard from Andrea and Amy from Babble. They spoke about best practices with sharing posts. On Babble they keep titles under 70 characters so they are better for sharing.

Social Media Takeaways

-Don’t do clickbait or vaguebooking..

-Sharables are hot

-Quotes over pictures are better for engagement

They also gave great tips for Pinterest and instagram.

Instagram is more brand play – it doesn’t drive to blogs. Use really beautiful photos.

Greg Joskin, who oversees and executes social media strategy for Disney Theatrical Group, spoke about how Disney’s live productions mixes one of the oldest forms of storytelling (musicals, plays) with newest forms of storytelling (snapchat, twitter). It’s about finding new stories in the SAME stories and engaging the right audience. Increase social mentions with positive sentiment and strengthen brand affinity through engagements across social media.

An example: Alladin’s Magic Lamp Selfie – stuck a lamp picture in the playbill. They want you to take this and do a selfie. This was hugely successful.

We also heard from Barby Segal of the Zeno Group (public relations). She spoke about becoming CEO of her company. She was inspiring and her takeaways were:

-“Don’t be satisfied with the Status quo. Not the behavior of someone who leads.

-“Fearless gives you the courage to turn heads, spark conversation. Be true to your own brand.”

-“Fearless is fuel.”

-“Train your fearless muscles.”

“Fearless is not recklessness.”

We also heard from Marissa Kraxberger, Vice President of Creative for Ivanka Trump.