Day Two – Disney Social Media Moms Celebration

Day two of Disney Social Media Moms Celebration started off with my getting lost. How is that possible for a Disney Fanatic like me? Since we didn’t stay at the Poly, I needed transportation to EPCOT and my husband thought it best to drive me and my scooter there himself. I asked him to drive me to the Poly, but nope.

He dropped me off and I learned that EPCOT wasn’t opened yet, not even to us. I found a CM, who tried to get me on one of the shuttles – a van – but to no avail as they are not handicap ready. Another CM came along and brought me to the transportation office in the back of EPCOT, where I was then brought to to a bus for employees. It went behind the magic. When I was dropped off I had no clue where to go especially with my scooter. More help from nice CM’s. I got to the American Adventure Pavilion but I felt discombobulated, enough so that I introduced myself to 2 people at my table and totally forgot who they were right after. I didn’t even introduce myself to the others. I was too busy trying to calm down, get something to eat, take my meds and try to take photos and notes because Guy Kawaski @GuyKawaski was going to be speaking.

Let’s say that I don’t have any photos from that morning, but I was able to get some notes from Guy’s talk about Twitter, “How To Use Twitter As A Marketing Weapon”:

This topic sounded a bit threatening to me at first. A product review writer and mom blogger and a marketing weapon – do they go together?  I realized that I could pick and choose some of the tactics that work for him.

• Use Twitter Search – Use it to monitor your brand (yourself) and to prospect (via Advance Search)
• Use Twitter To Market Your Blog – automatically tweet your blog feeds
• Don’t Be Afraid of Twitter – Even though it’s a free service, use it to your advantage.
• Tweet Interesting Feeds To Gain More Followers – Tweet feeds like Mashable, your own Alltop page, Stumble Upon pages, etc.
• Create a Site with Banner Ads To Tweet – Summarize interesting stories on this site, add links to main source and tweet that feed.
• UFM! – Unfollow Me! If you don’t like what Guy is tweeting, unfollow him. He wants us to feel that powerful too.
• Retweet Often – Use a service that will retweet your feeds, or regular tweets in 10 hour intervals so they reach different time zones. He suggested about 4 retweets.

Next it was on to the World Showplace for the Celebrate Volunteers Event:

• Disney volunteer families from every state were invited to attend and join in on the festivities.
• Tom Staggs, Chairman of the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts was the host, introducted by Kermit the Frog!
• We got to see the largest structure of canned food, according to the Guiness Book of World Records, unveiled from behind a curtain of balloons. You can watch the event on video by Disney.
• Learned about Give A Day, Get A Disney Day – volunteering for a day and getting a day at Disney World.
• Ty Pennington came on stage to announce the unveiling with his famous megaphone handed to him by Mickey Mouse. “Raise those balloons!”
• We all were given the opportunity to volunteer by planting trees, loading the cans in to boxes or other things we were capable of. Disney Channel TV Stars, Allstar Weekend and other surprise guests took part too.
• The canned food, structure made up about 7o,000 meals that will be sent to various food banks.

Spending time with Disney Stars:

• The Disney Channel TV Stars hung around after the event for interviews, autographs and photos. They were very polite and knowledgeable about the Volunteer Event.
• Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato showed up and were whisked away before I could get a photo of them. It was still exciting and Sammi was thrilled just to be near them.

Lunch at Le Cellier:

• We decided to stop for a quick lunch at Canada’a Le Cellier and it did not disappoint. The Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup was a meal in itself especially with the bread sticks. It helped to warm us up too.

Back to The Room To Rest – I needed a nap to be able to enjoy the nights events.

Evening Celebration at EPCOT Future World:

• I’ve seen these types of events before, but now I was part of one! A roped off area only by invite.
• Food by Robert Irvine, of Dinner Impossible, made that day with the help of volunteer Disney chefs. Delicious!
• Heaters by the tables to keep us warm, hand warmers provided and fun lights to wear around our necks that flashed or lit up our way, or my food.
• Surprise concert by Allstar Weekend and Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato. Too good to be true! Visits from the Disney Channel TV stars again.

More photos on my Facebook page and my Flickr Photo Stream. Lots more!

Although tickets for the conference were purchased, I and my family received meals, park tickets, etc. at a great discount. We also received gifts, opportunities to attend events not open to the general public and to take part in contests to win prizes all from the Disney Company. I was not asked to write about my experience or share the information.