Last week's Minexpo in Las Vegas was an astounding success. Although Clear Creek Digital was only in attendance for one very long day, I was overwhelmed by the diverse crowd, the exemplary staging of each booth and the incredible access to product and decision makers at the event. Kudos to National Mining Association for the hard work they went through to host such an event.
We attended Minexpo as part networking opportunity and part case study. On the networking side, no other event in the mining industry offers such a broad array of mining companies, vendors, engineers and media to shake hands with. I had incredible conversations of discovery with companies like Mineware, Caterpillar Global Mining and CIM. We were even given the opportunity to go Facebook Live with Caterpillar that day! And since we were in Vegas, the event couldn't have concluded without an actually wedding on top of a haul truck!
But as I mentioned, we were also working on a case study to see exactly how our own content from Minexpo would hold up in one day. So here are some numbers for you to analyze and think about. I'll summarize the analysis at the end.
We tweeted 14 times throughout the day of September 26. The number of engagements on that day rose 118% with over 1400 impressions. Now our brand isn't a global household name (we're trying to build a business here), but for what we are that is something to grin about.
I knew the event would present the classic opportunity to produce some mining porn. Big trucks? Check! New technology? Check! Stuff most people don't see everyday? All the checks! So I knew Instagram would be a great avenue for this study. We posted on Instagram more than 20 times during the day. This content increased our daily engagement by 273%! Using the hashtag #minexpo2016 was our best asset in our content. When we look at the data, every other follower we have on Instagram received an impression of our content. This was great data for us.
If you look and LIKE the Clear Creek Digital Facebook page, you will notice we do not have a lot of followers. To be honest, I'm ok with that because I decided months ago that I don't want to put a whole lot of energy behind growing our Facebook page. It's a nice place to share content, but we would rather spend more time blogging, Tweeting, Instagramming and networking with you folks first. So, what I'm about to share with you is skewed. I posted one series of photos and videos from Minexpo on Facebook which was basically a regurgitation from Instagram content. From that post and because a few more people engaged with the content, our total impressions exploded to 8,667%. It was about the closest thing to going Facebook viral we've ever witnessed.
SNAPCHAT
We used Snapchat a lot that day. It was a lot of fun and a few more followers were gained. If you use Snapchat, you know data is almost nonexistent. It is strictly a branding opportunity. If you do not use Snapchat and you were at Minexpo, you really missed out on a great opportunity. For all those young mining engineers between the ages of 18 and 32 (who are most likely on Snapchat), they were running the Minexpo Snapchat show.
SUMMARY
This was simply a small glimpse into the bigger landscape of the mining industry to utilize the digital space. These numbers, from one small agency, show there is an incredible opportunity to engage with the online audience through effective content and engaging visuals. We found people are genuinely interested in the equipment, the mining process and the people. Its up to us, the mining community, the deliver on this. Lucky for you, we're here to help you along the way.