What Is a Social Media Butterfly? And Why Would You Want One at Your Conference?
I love social media. I love studying it, experimenting with it, figuring out what humans respond to. And, probably most of all, I love the humans on the other side of it.
So somewhere along the way, I became what I call a Social Media Butterfly.
When I attend a conference, I don't just show up, give my speech, shake a few hands, and leave. I'm usually wandering around talking to vendors, interviewing speakers, meeting attendees, filming something behind the scenes, finding something hilarious in the exhibit hall, and introducing myself to people I have absolutely no business knowing yet.
And then I share the experience.
Increasingly, conferences have hired me not only to speak, but to bring that part of what I do with me. The Social Media Butterfly is now an add-on to my speaking work: bring me to your event, and you're not only getting Angela the speaker. You're getting Angela in the hallways, at the booths, behind the scenes, and online helping people experience what's happening in the room.
What Actually Works on Social Media?
I've spent years creating content through Open Bedroom Doors®, including the award-winning Open Bedroom Doors show and podcast. Along the way, I've watched the way people consume content change.
The polished, perfect, corporate version of social media isn't necessarily what makes people stop anymore.
People want humans.
And three things keep showing up in the content that gets people's attention:
Humor.
Controversy.
Experience.
Not controversy as in, "Let's burn the internet down today." I'm still a licensed professional. I enjoy having a career.
I'm talking about the kind of controversy that happens when you're willing to step slightly outside your industry's comfort zone and say something real.
Humor: Tell the Truth and Make Me Laugh
Good humor almost always has a little truth hiding underneath it.
That's something I discovered very quickly when I started combining humor with sexual health. Sex is uncomfortable for a lot of people. It's taboo. It's personal. It's loaded with shame, expectations, fear, and approximately 8,000 opportunities for awkwardness.
Then I started making it funny.
Suddenly, people could talk about it.
My humor is intentionally playful and kind, but humor lowers people's guard. It gives us permission to look at something uncomfortable without immediately becoming defensive.
I've carried that same approach into business.
I'll compare sales to dating. I'll talk about your podcast being the first date. I'll point out the strange things humans do when we're trying to sell something, lead someone, network, or look professional.
We're laughing, but we're also learning something about ourselves.
And at conferences, humor gives people something else: a reason to participate.
If there's something interesting happening in the exhibit hall, I want to try it. If a vendor has something unusual, I want to know what it does. If somebody has a great story, I want to hear it.
That's much more interesting social media than another photograph of a podium.
Controversy Doesn't Have to Mean a Train Wreck
When businesses hear "controversy," I think they sometimes imagine somebody grabbing their phone at midnight and destroying the company's reputation before breakfast.
Please don't do that.
Business-appropriate controversy can simply mean being willing to show up as a real person.
If everybody in your industry is perfectly polished, being honest can be controversial.
Pointing out a blind spot can be controversial.
Saying, "Here's something our field isn't doing very well," can be controversial.
Admitting, "I don't know yet," can be controversial.
Showing up awkward can be controversial.
Letting people see that you're learning instead of pretending you're the world's foremost authority on everything can be controversial.
Sometimes the bravest thing a professional can do online is stop performing professionalism long enough to actually communicate.
I don't have to work particularly hard at this one. I'm a sex therapist walking into business conferences.
There's your controversy.
But I'm respectful of the rooms I'm invited into. I don't need to shock people to get their attention. Instead, I bring an unusual lens. I take things I've learned from relationships, sexual health, systems, and human behavior and ask what they can teach us about leadership, sales, trust, communication, and business.
Different enough to make you curious. Safe enough that you'll stay for the conversation.
Experience: Don't Tell Me About the Conference. Show Me.
This may be my favorite part.
People don't just want information anymore. They want to know:
What does it feel like to be there?
That's where the Social Media Butterfly really comes alive.
Years ago, I was at a resort where people wore necklaces with different names or roles on them. Someone gave me one that said Mayor.
I asked him why.
He said something along the lines of, "Because you know everyone, and you know their stories."
I have never forgotten that.
Apparently, I'm the mayor now.
Bring me to your conference, and I'm going to become the mayor of your conference.
I genuinely want to meet everyone. I want to talk to the person running the organization. I want to meet the vendors. I want to hear from the attendees. I want to know why someone flew across the country to be there. I want to discover the weird booth everyone keeps talking about. I want to know what somebody learned in the session before mine.
And yes, some of those moments become fantastic social media.
But that's almost a side effect.
I genuinely love people's stories.
Every person I meet teaches me something about how humans work. Those conversations inform my work in business, relationships, leadership, and sexual health because my job, at its core, is helping humans understand one another and making complicated human behavior easier to understand.
Social media simply gives me a way to bring everybody else into those conversations.
So...What Is a Social Media Butterfly?
A Social Media Butterfly is part speaker, part social butterfly, part interviewer, part content creator, and apparently part small-town mayor.
When you bring me to your conference, I don't want to simply talk at your audience.
I want to become part of the experience.
I can interview conference leaders. Talk with vendors and sponsors. Capture behind-the-scenes moments. Meet attendees. Highlight interesting experiences. Create playful social content. Help tell the story of what's happening beyond the stage.
And ultimately, I want someone watching from home to think:
"Wait. Why am I not at this conference?"
That's the goal.
Your conference already has stories happening everywhere. The Social Media Butterfly goes out and finds them.
The Social Media Butterfly Experience is available as an add-on to my speaking engagements. If you're bringing me into the room anyway, you might as well let me become the mayor.
Learn more about bringing Angela to your next conference:
Business → https://www.openbedroomdoors.com/speaking
Angela Skurtu brings the Social Media Butterfly Experience!
