Website Launched For Water, Sports & Travel Festival

WSTFest.com Provides Valuable Information on Festival Details Including Exhibitor List, Schedule and More

 

DEMA has launched the website for the highly anticipated 2013 Water, Sports & Travel Festival which will take place April 26-28, 2013 in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The Festival encompasses a series of events for water sports enthusiasts interested in an active lifestyle and participating in water-based sports. By bringing together many water sports disciplines – whether on the water, in the water or over the water – the Festival hopes to encourage future consumer growth and interest in these areas. The WSTFest website provides exhibitors with a wealth of information on the Festival, including updated exhibitor listings, schedule details and more. Visit the website to learn more.

 

The WSTFest website makes it easy for companies from all water sports activities  to participate in the Festival including water sports retailers, manufacturers, clubs/organizations, recreational diving retailers and travel destinations. The Festival is a great way to showcase the latest products/gear to potential new customers, recruit new buyers or inspire visitors with an active lifestyle message, thus increasing the growth and interest in these sports and lifestyles. Included on the website is information to help those interested in participating learn more and get involved with the Festival:

 

EXHIBITORS can find information on exhibit space, a Festival floor plan, listing of other exhibitors and manage their own account.

 

A SCHEDULE OF EVENTS is listed with both pre-Show and Show attractions and activities. The activities scheduled cover a wide range of interests including contests, in-water demonstrations, DiveCaching activities, live music, a lion fish round up and cook-off, demonstrations/shows and much more.

 

MEDIA CONTACTS can find press releases concerning the Festival and the designated contact for all press-related questions.

 

HOTEL INFORMATION and rates are listed along with other nearby options.

 

Additional information aimed directly at Festival Attendees will be integrated into the site as the Festival approaches. Exhibitors and Attendees are encouraged to connect with the Festival on Facebook and Twitter.

 

DEMA will continue to provide information on the Water, Sports & Travel Festival to the entire industry as plans unfold via the DEMA website, Festival website, weekly DEMAILs, social media sites, DEMA blog and other outlets. 

 

The Water, Sports & Travel Festival is presented by DEMA in partnership with the Association of Wind & Water Sports Industries (AWSI), American Canoe Association (ACA), Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, Handicapped Scuba Association (HSA), Kite World Magazine, South Florida Underwater Photography Society (SFUPS) and X-Ray Magazine.

How I (Accidentally) Accessed a Former Employer’s Twitter Account Without Their Password

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

I wanted to share a recent experience with you all in hopes that it might shed some light on the importance of managing your accounts and protecting your social media identity.

I don’t know about you, but between my personal and work logins, I have far too many username/password combinations in my head to keep them all straight. I was recently trying to log into my personal Twitter account, but since I haven’t been logged in for quite some time, I was having a difficult time remembering the correct login combination. So I proceeded with the “forgot username and password” process.

What happened next literally left my mouth dropped. I had the option to enter in my phone number as a way of gaining access to the account that was associated with that phone number. Immediately thereafter, I received a text that included a code to help me log back in. At this point I had just assumed this was my personal Twitter that it was helping me log into – but I was never asked to verify any of the account information….Before I realized it, I found myself staring at a Twitter account dashboard that wasn’t mine. In fact, it was worse: I had inadvertently logged into a former employer’s Twitter account – all without ever entering the current username and password!!!


– JAW DROP – How is that possible?! Here’s how:

It looks like the new social media manager at the former employer had gone in and updated the account with all her new information and I would assume she changed the password as well.

HOWEVER, what she failed to do was check out the MOBILE tab under the Settings tab. If she had, she would have seen my phone number was still listed as the phone that could access the account and Tweet on behalf of the account.

Lucky for them, I am not a disgruntled ex-employee out for revenge. Had I been, I could have done some SERIOUS damage to their online reputation and relationships. Instead, I quickly deleted my information from the account and signed out.

Please, please, please – make sure you are keeping a close eye on all of your accounts. I would suggest it as good practice to change passwords whenever someone leaves the company and had access to ANY account. And be sure to go through ALL the account settings to be absolutely sure they have been completely removed.

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Other recent posts by Rachelle:

• DS12 – What a Show! 
• Instagram, Hashtags and First DEMA Show…OH MY!
• Well Isn’t That Pinteresting….
• Tweet, Tweet…Anybody there?
• Twitter Me This…
• How to Gauge the Success of your Facebook Page
• Searching for a Perfect Social Media Plan

DS12 – What a Show!

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

The past month has been a complete whirlwind. Having attended my very first DEMA Show, I am even more impressed with the professionalism of the Diving Industry! What a fun, intelligent, passionate and welcoming group of people! I met so many incredible individuals and can’t wait to see you all again in Florida for DEMA Show 2013!

Being this was my first Show, I quite honestly didn’t know what to expect. One of the Show features I was most excited about was the opportunity to attend educational seminars and learn from experts of their field. Being the social media fiend that I am, I was eager to attend Evolving Social Media Realities: What You Need to Know with Jason Heller, CEO, Agiliti. He was such an engaging speaker and had so many great ideas; I couldn’t help but take feverish notes so I could share some of them with all of you!

Facebook & Exposure
Did you know that only 15% of your followers ever actually see the content your business or brand page posts? Much of this is due to a complicated algorithm that determines who sees what. The whole thing is -quite honestly- beyond my understanding, but there are apps and programs that can help make it easy for those of us that “don’t do numbers.” Jason spoke about EdgeRank Checker, which is described on their website as “an algorithm that ranks objects in the Facebook News Feed. Pages with high EdgeRank Scores will be more likely to show up in the news feed, than Pages with low EdgeRank Scores.”

With EdgeRank Checker’s free plan, you have access to information like your EdgeRank score, the best average day of the week, worst average day of the week and more. And of course the paid PRO plan has even more insightful data for you to refer to like post grading, industry report, best day + best time + best keyword, and more.

With this sort of information you can leverage your content and maximize your Facebook exposure by ensuring you are posting during the ideal time, on the best days of the week, and using content and keywords that are most likely to drive engagement.

Be sure to check out EdgeRank Checker to see how the free or PRO plans can help you maximize your Facebook efforts!

Track Your Brand

Curious to know what people are saying about you, your business, or brand online? Socialmention* is a great, FREE tool that can help you do just that! You can even use it to see what people are saying about your competition. ;)

How Are My Tweets Doing?

I love Jason’s suggestion for a program that can help track your Twitter analytics: Crowdbooster provides you information on your retweets, impressions, replies, follower growth, influential followers, top retweeters, mentions, and more. What I appreciate is that you can switch between displaying information in table or graph form. Being a visual learner, I love the information being provided in a graph so I can quickly see how our Tweets are doing.

After setting up my account, Crowdbooster sent me an email informing me of the 3 best times to schedule tweets for today. LOVE IT!

Give some of these programs a peak and see if they would be a good fit for you and your social media efforts. The added work can certainly pay off as you start to see increased engagement.

And if you know of any other good resources, please share them here!

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Other recent posts by Rachelle:

• Instagram, Hashtags and First DEMA Show…OH MY!
• Well Isn’t That Pinteresting….
• Tweet, Tweet…Anybody there?
• Twitter Me This…
• How to Gauge the Success of your Facebook Page
• Searching for a Perfect Social Media Plan