BMW Group Germany used Walls.io to enhance a 500-people event they organised. We had a little chat with Fabian Bayer from BMW Group to find out more about how exactly they used a Walls.io live social media feed during the “BMW Working Out Loud Conference” (#BMWWOLCON).
Working Out Loud is an initiative started by John Stepper and first adopted at the BMW Group by Ilona Libal, Andreas Schorn and Jasper-John Wendenburg a few years ago. The aim of the grassroot movement is to improve the quality of work by encouraging people to share work in progress with a relevant community. The idea is to get input from and collaborate with the community, as well as learn from each other’s processes and solutions.
BMW Group Germany used the Walls.io event subscription to set up a social media wall for the “BMW Working Out Loud Conference” (#BMWWOLCON).
We talked to Fabian Bayer, Digital Specialist at the BMW Group Germany to find out what the event entailed and how BMW Group used the hashtag to add a little something to the event.
Fabian Bayer
Digital Specialist at the BMW Group Germany
What is Working Out Loud and why did BMW Group decide to take part in it?
Working Out Loud is a simple method for building relationships and achieving a goal within twelve weeks. It’s based on five core values: Relationships, Generosity, Visible Work, Purposeful Discovery, Growth Mindset.
These goals nicely match the core values of BMW Group: Trust, Appreciation, Transparency, Responsibility and Openness. Consequently, taking part in Working Out Loud was a clear choice for BMW Group.
We first participated in Working Out Loud in 2015, and the initiative has only grown in our company since then.
What does Working Out Loud look like at the BMW Group?
This first event was held on November 2, 2017, at the BMW Group IT Center in Munich. John Stepper, the author of the book Working Out Loud was a keynote speaker at the event.
We got great feedback for the event, so we decided to expand our plans for the next event on February 7, 2018, and set up a social media wall using Walls.io.
We used the name “BMW Working Out Loud Conference” for the event and set up the hashtag #BMWWOLCon.
Around 500 people attended the event and we encouraged everyone to use the hashtag throughout the day, which included talks, as well as a workshop at the end.
We showed the wall on a big screen on stage after each moderation part, in the break, and during the workshop as well. It was really great because people could always see what was happening on social media.
How did you motivate people to use the hashtag? How did you promote it before and during the event?
We didn’t do any promotion before the event but instead simply encouraged people to use the hashtag by projecting the wall on stage whenever I was moderating.
Actually, we don’t usually allow people to take photos and post them to social media during BMW Group events, but we were able to make an exception for this one. So when I kicked-off the event, I specifically told the attendees that it was okay to take pictures and post them on Twitter and Instagram with our hashtag #BMWWOLCON.
Fortunately, moderation wasn’t necessary. Everyone was really excited about seeing the live social media feed change with every post and we all had a lot of fun.
Walls. io has advanced moderation features which give you full control over what shows up on your social media wall and what doesn’t.
We really liked how easy it was to set up a social wall with Walls.io. We went for the event subscription, so I only did a trial run one day before our event and it was really easy. I just connected our Twitter and Instagram accounts and defined our hashtag #BMWWOLCON in the sources. And that was it — incredibly easy.
Needless to say that we loved the setup. Thank you, BMW Group and a BIG thanks to Fabian Bayer!