To often social media is looked at as solely as marketing and business development tool for growing your exposure among those who have never, ever, heard of a product. It is seen as an avenue that will cut down the all the noise and bring in the new.

The same ideas have been applied to meetings, and tradeshows with many organizations these tools in an effort to boost the attendance from new prospects.

However, if that is all Social Media is being used for then a major benefit is being missed.

The greatest power of Social Media technologies lies in the ability to increase your current communities interaction with your product and service. It is a tool for increasing that engagement and increasing incremental spend and use. If you were to grow the value of each of your current customers by 10%, what would that mean for your business and event?

Social Media has the ability to grow your current customers infatuation with your product by providing information that is valuable. The more valuable they find your information, the more likely they are to use your product or service. And all events are essentially a product and a service. Get it?

As you increase their engagement, you are working to elevate their level of fandom. The more they love you, and see value in your product, the more likely there are to recommend you to their friends, family, co-workers and strangers in the line at the grocery store. Word of Mouth is still the best and cheapest for of marketing available and this is an incredible tool for harnessing that form of marketing.

Work to engage your core community: Give these users and fans information of value and you will see a return. Spend your time thinking of how you can get your database to subscribe to your blog and then link to you through Facebook and Twitter. Think about what information would provide the biggest benefit, or even better, ask your customers. Make them feel as if they are a part of the process and let them know how much they mean to you.

Create a plan: The most under-utilized strategy of a business launching a Social Media Strategy is the initial announcement to their current database. An announcement that explains what the current customers can expect from the interaction and invites them to become a part of your success. It’s a great time to ask for feedback and let your core group of consumers know that you welcome their ideas and input.

Spend some time before you launch this and identify the core topics you are going to be discussing. Make this a focus point of this announcement and make sure it is clear what you can be counted on to share. This will help you more easily create content and will help your customer understand when they should turn to you.

Create Measurement: As your new Social Media Community grows, you need to know how and why. You need to understand what is influencing the growth so that you can be flexible and course correct along the way. Identify your top users and work with them to become even greater fans. Be sure and thank all of the community for their input and do so often.

It’s not an easy road and it will not yield immediate results. if you do see them…..count your blessings and be thankful. You are one of the lucky few. Social Media is not a quick fix, it’s a long term strategy and a commitment to your customers to make their lives better and easier. Approach it with a full heart and a focus on giving back and you will increase your business.

What do you think?

Are you unsure what do with social media? You’re not alone. Many meeting professionals  feel overwhelmed by the idea of establishing a presence in the social media world.

Social Media Marketing is on the tip of everyones tongue these days. Most though are unsure how to use these new mediums and struggle with understanding where to get started.

Fortunately, it’s easier than you think.

Meeting professionals that want to increase engagement, share excitement and better execute their events need to adapt and incorporate social media opportunities into their event strategies.

Social media marketing is being used to find and engage new attendees, provide core details and customer support, understand the needs/wants of attendees and  increase brand awareness and publicity. However, one of the greatest advantages of using social media is it’s ability to bring together loyal fans and let them share their stories.

Here are 5 quick tips to help you get started.

Listen

Search for your company and key words that relate to your specific kind of events on social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to see what attendees and the public at large like and dislike. You can learn a huge amount by just listening to the comments people share. If you are going to jump into the conversation, remember to do so with an inquisitive tone. Like a cocktail party, the hard sell does not work here. Be positive and let attendees know you are listening.

Poke Around

Check out other events and your competition before beginning your own social media campaign. Look for elements that speak to you. Maybe it’s a style of writing or simply the way they designed their profiles. See what they are doing and how they are doing it. If it works for them, it could work for you!

Be Open

Approach online conversations about your events in an open manner and then engage your attendees in conversations with full disclosure. Let them behind the curtain and you will have an opportunity to engage them in a conversation that rarely happens. They become raving fans by feeling as if they are a greater part of the event. Ask what they think about the event, you might be surprised by the responses and ideas.What they are looking for are details, exceptional service and real‐life connections.

Share

Start creating your social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and with a blog. Then create links for these platforms on your Web site’s homepage, in your signature block and even on your business card. Initially you will have to do the legwork in building your community. As you explore the Social Media space, look for opportunities to comment and give back. When you do, include your Twitter Username, or a link your blog or Facebook. This helps people to track back and be introduced to your presence.

Daily Check up

So…..you’ve done the legwork, got the whole thing set up, now spend 30 minutes per‐day updating each platform. The key is to focus on sharing information, links, images and whatever else you can. The goal is to keep it all focused on content that is VALUABLE to your attendees. Be sure to keep your content fresh and look for opportunities to interact with your attendees.

Beyond that, it’s important to spend time learning each day. Spend a few minutes and search the web for articles about Social Media Marketing. Add the blogs of Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuck, Michael McCurry, Jeff Hurt and Lara McCulloch-Carter to your favorites. And if you are still not sure about where to look for guidance on what constitutes good social media, turn to the experts and keep listening until you are comfortable diving in yourself.

Traditional marketing is crazy aggressive when you think about it. Rather than focusing on information that enriches the lives of others, marketers generally choose methods that interrupt your flow of thought and aim to imprint their message on your psyche. Doesn’t sound like fun to me.

In contrast, you have the idea of content marketing.

Let’ start with the basics….what exactly is Content marketing. I consider it a term that widely describes all marketing genre’s, formats and modalities that involve sharing content as a means of engaging current and potential consumer bases. Or, any form of marketing in which you decide to use valuable information as a means of gaining fans and attendee’s.

As you embrace content marketing as a means of growing interest in you event, you need to realize that you are essentially shifting your focus to delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to definite and prospective attendees. It’s important to understand this point because it can radically change how you approach your communication with your attendees and vendors.

Think about it for a minute……go ahead……take a full minute. I’ll wait.

If you are focused on sharing information, content that is valuable to your attendees, exciting, engaging and different…..where will you get it from? What does it look like? How will you determine what information is valuable?

These questions are only beginning. From there you begin to question every piece of promotional material with a question of value. You begin to ask what the attendee is getting from that piece. How is it making their experience better?

And those are great questions that radically change how you and your attendees interact.

The benefit with content marketing is rooted in the benefits of retaining reader attention, improving loyalty and building excitement. All through the act of engagement.

The idea of sharing your content as a means of persuading decision-making is what drives event professionals to look for information that was deemed “too valuable” to share for free and……well……share it for free. It’s the act of sharing that builds trust.

So let’s discuss the nuts and bolts.

What does content Marketing look like for the event professional.

There are a multitude of mediums and within each medium you are likely to be sharing the same content. Remember though that your audience interacts with each in a different way and expects a different style of communication from each medium.

For example:

• Social Media: Brilliant tools from Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn all allow you to broadcast your message quickly and easily. The tone is often more casual and information is shared in short bursts. Your content should be short or focused on links to websites or blogs.
• E-newsletters: These have developed a reputation for being a gateway resource to deeper information that often lives on a website. Use your newsletters to share links and teaser info that provides enough knowledge to make them want more.
• PDF Downloads and White papers: Good for explaining benefits and in depth concepts that may be of added value. The content within these should be very thorough and focused on solving problems.
• Video: Wonderful for building engagement. Get your speakers or leaders to record short videos before an event and for growing engagement after an event.
• Webinars: Like video, a webinar is a great way to engage with your audience. A webinar provides an emotional connection to the information we might normally deliver in the written word with a greater ability to share images and tutorials. You can add music, movement and the sound of a human voice. Be sure that you stay focused on concise presentation so that your viewers don’t drift.

The purpose of the information shared is not to spout the virtues of your  own products or services, but to inform your customers and prospects about key industry issues, trends and exciting announcements. And yes………sometimes these bursts of information do involve your products.

The major motivation of a content marketer is the belief that educating your customer results in recognition as a thought leader and industry expert.

Information builds Trust.

What do you think?

Photo courtesy: http://www.urban-ninja.com.za

One of the great joys of our business is the development of new technologies that transform and enhance the landscape of our industry. The development of FaceTime was one such technology.

From it’s inception for our own use at the Elite Meetings Alliance through the most recent IT&ME, we have seen it change the way that suppliers and buyers interact. It has provided a space for more open communication and more effective use of time. The key qualities that technology has promised.

What spurred this post though was recent letter we received praising the system.

“We had a great experience with using the Elite Meetings International (EMI) FaceTime appointment scheduling technology at the 2009 Motivation Show and plan to continue its use in the 2010 Hosted Buyer Program next October”, said Pete Erickson, Managing Director of The Motivation Show (IT&ME).

“As we expand our Hosted Buyer Program in 2010, it’s critical that we provide a streamlined technology tool for helping buyers and exhibitors manage their appointments at showtime. FaceTime makes the process of requesting, confirming and managing appointments in real time as simple as possible. And the additional features for printing schedules and receiving alerts makes FaceTime the most effective appointment planning tool available today.”

Like a proud parent we shared the praise among the team and in the process discovered a pretty interesting fact.

We were helping to build the case for Face to Face meetings by providing a technology that makes them more effective. By enhancing the process by which people meet and helping them to be better prepared, we were justifying and fortifying the belief that it is important to meet with those you do business with.

In todays economy, everyone should be tighter with their dollars and more focused on results. We must also not lose sight that business is personal and that trust is still a foundation to successful partnerships.

By embracing technologies that help us effectively manage our time and resources, we are proactively taking charge of the situation, building a better network and defining the future of meetings and events.

Thanks for letting us be a part of that.

If you want to learn more about Elite Meetings, SpeedRFP, FaceTime and all that we offer, check out the Elite Meetings website at www.elitemeetings.com.

When asked about FourSquare, Dennis Crowley (a founding member), described it by saying “What we wanted to do is turn life into a video game. You should be rewarded for going out more times than your friends, and hanging out with new people and going to new restaurants and going to new bars–just experiencing things that you wouldn’t normally do.”

Having just read that statement, you’re probably now wondering. “Why should I adopt a social video game to promote my hotel and restaurant?”.

I say, why not?

If the medium is attracting new users, promoting venues, providing additional exposure, free and gaining momentum….why wouldn’t you want to to be involved.

Four Square is one of the newest and fastest growing Social Networks available today. It was recently featured on the front page of the New York Times, but my favorite article came from the New York Observer back in March. Both provide excellent background on the technology and concept.

It is at once a city guide for explorers and a game that drives locals to fight for their favorite establishments. However, it is the adoption by travelers who are looking for insights that should peak your interest.

It is described as a social experiment, grass roots marketing and real life video game to name a few descriptives. But remains to be largely an untapped market by the hospitality industry…outside of the bar scene. Funnily, it greatest success will most likely lie in our willingness to adopt it as a tool for promotion.

Which is why I’d like to present five reasons you should adopt a FourSquare strategy today.

• It’s easy to set up – this may seem simple, but in age of overcomplicated technology, simplicity is the key to success. Log on to FourSquare, set up an account, search for your hotel/restaurants and add them if they are not there. For Bonus points, add some fun tips that make you sound exciting and engaging!

• Supports Special Offers vs. Advertising - Once you have your hotel/restaurants loaded, contact FourSquare about setting up promotions. In todays world of non stop advertising, the vast majority of us are turned off by traditional messages. FourSquare battles that with promotions that are directed at those who check in to locations in your area,Potentially drawing business away from your competitors.

• Supports a sense of Fanaticism – A key aspect of FourSquare is the ability to own a location you frequent often. From a business traveller to a meeting planner, or a barfly to a restauranteur, all have the ability to become the mayor of their favorite location by checking in there more often than the next. A simple search of Twitter will show the growing fanaticism people are feeling over their mayorship.

• Crosses multiple Social Platforms easily - This is not only important for time, but also exposure and search-ability. FourSquare links with Twitter and Facebook, prompting users to update their networks with their latest activity. This provides maximum exposure for your hotel and amenities.

• it’s interactive - By offering promotions, sharing tips and recommendations you are creating a conversation with your most loyal guests who are using the platform. You are also opening yourself to a new selection of potential customers. I regularly use the program when I travel to source restaurants, pubs and hotels. Since the program links to Yelp and Google maps, I can also look outside of the tips users have left and get additional information. FourSquare targets locations within a close proximity and gives me a better insight into what the location offers. If someone is proud enough to own it….well, thats gotta say somethin!

As technology and social mediums continue to grow and evolve it will remain important for the hospitality industry to look for ways to adopt new technologies. We should not be standing by and waiting for them to come to us. The survivors will discover the ways to help the technology adapt to us.

What do you think?

LinkedIn is the “Go To” network for today’s professionals. It provides a solid platform for networking and endless possibilities for business development. With over 50 Million members it has passed the infancy stage breezed through puberty and is now into it’s life as a young adult.

With so many members it only makes sense to use it as a platform for driving attendance to your event and cementing buy in from those who had already planned on attending. By engaging you attendees in a network they are already actively engaged in, you have a unique opportunity to virally spread the details of your event and drive excitement.

Here’s how to do it.

Start by by building an event

1. On the left side of your home screen in is a menu bar. Towards the bottom of that menu bar you will see a link for “Applications”. Click that link, find the events app and load it to your profile.
2. Now open up the events application and find the tab at the top of the screen that says “add an event”. Click it!!
3. You’ll next be presented with a form screen where you can fill out all of your details. One of the details ask if you are the organizer of the event. If you are…..great! If you’re not….also great. You do not need to be the organizer to publicize the event.
4. Choose to add more details….always! By adding more details you have an opportunity to tell the full story of the event. Be sure to create a compelling description of the event and why people should attend. Give this section the time it deserves. Trust me….it’s worth it!
5. Preview before you publish. You should always double check your work to make sure you manage the first impression. There is nothing worst than misspelling the word “the”.
6. Is it all good? Great! Now publish it.

Now you can start promoting.

1. The first screen after you publish will give you three options for promoting. The first option is notify your network, which is done automatically.
2. I definitely recommend option 2 as well which is to share the event with you contacts. However, it’s up to you an largely depends on the nature of your meeting/event. You can pick and choose who exactly is notified and essentially you are sending them a private message with an invite.
3. Option 3 is advertising and again, depends on your event. As a rule of thumb, advertising is not necessary and you have a better chance of growing your attendance organically. However, there are specific times where you may want to target a specific audience that you are not connected to and advertising may be beneficial.
4. Find Groups that are associated with your event and create a discussion around your event. Share details and a compelling reason for people to attend. By communicating within a group your are further extending the exposure of your event and targeting an a specific arena of LinkedIn.
5. About a week after you have created the event, post a Status update reminding your network of the event and sharing a benefit of attending. I recommend doing this every couple of weeks leading up tot he event and highlighting a different benefit each time.
6. Every event has a dedicated URL that you can broadcast via email, Twitter, Facebook or any other way you choose. This is a great way to bring in new members to your event and should be used whenever possible.

Providing exposure for your event on LinkedIn is definitely a critical component to bringing your meeting/event into the world of new media. In the end, using LinkedIn as an additional tool for your promotion will help to further engage your attendees and provide a platform for creating further excitement.

An additional strategy you may want to consider would be the creation of a specific group for the attendees. Within a private group you have the opportunity to share a wide variety of information that will create engagement.

Good luck and happy promoting!

Such an amazing week at The PhoCusWright Conference! We met some amazing new friends and got some fantastic feedback on SpeedRFP.

Here’s a quick re-cap!

Our buddy Stephen Joyce (@stephenjoyce) wrote a blog post for “Tnooz” and picked SpeedRFP as his sleeper product of the conference. He was quite impressed by SpeedRFP’s ability to create such a common sense solution for an overly complex and tedious task. Check it out here.

Scot Gillespie writes a blog on Travel sourcing and procurement. He also found SpeedRFp to be an exciting concept and you can read his thoughts here.

Twitter was a major conduit for information and perspective at The PhoCusWright Conference as well. We discovered some great new sources ourselves in the travel industry. When you have a moment we highly suggest you check out the following innovators. They are consistently discussing cutting edge changes and have some great products themselves.

Bloggers

@genequinn

@kevinlukemay

@etravelproject

@torrenegra

Travel Professionals

@lynnerosie

@carolmusy

@ValynP

@GoApril

Travel Products

@UpTake

@OpenTravel

@zipsetgo

@SEKeener

Lastly, while we did not take home coveted trophy this year…..we will be back!

OK, in case you can’t tell…..we’re pretty excited about being asked to participate in the Travel Innovation Summit @ The PhoCusWright Conference. It’s kind of a big deal!

But many of you may be asking…..why?

The Summit and Conference showcase the travel industry’s hottest, most innovative Web and mobile-based solutions. An elite group of innovators are invited, Start-up and seasoned companies from around the world, to demonstrate tools, products and sites that significantly impact how travelers research, plan, purchase, organize and memorialize their trips.

All innovators are screened and selected by PhoCusWright’s team of experienced analysts to showcase true market-changing technology. Four finalists are selected by the live audience and one will be named The PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit Winner.

Now, SpeedRFP has received initial support from Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which is integrating SpeedRFP on its www.StarwoodConventionCollection.com website. It has also received support from the Convention Industry Council’s (CIC) Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX), and from the meeting planning community. All things we are very proud of and excited about.

However, The PhoCusWright Conference and The Travel Innovation Summit represents the next big wave of innovation in the travel industry. They look for products that will have an actual impact on your business and we have a shot at being one of the final four!

Check out the press release here for more info on SpeedRFP, Elite Meetings and The PhoCusWright Conference.

We were about to find out. Word was delivered that we were chosen to present and we immediately began brainstorming. We filled whiteboard after whiteboard and had meeting after meeting about how to convey exactly what we were doing and why it was such a revolutionary idea for the meeting planners and hotel group sales people.

We’re happy to share the final presentation with you. We’re anxiously awaiting the results of the judging to find out who the finalists are for the Innovation of the Year award.

“You can’t expect to meet the challenges of today with yesterday’s tools and expect to be in business tomorrow.”

As Meeting and Event professionals it is easy to get caught up in the world that we know. We spend a great deal of time managing, or better yet, taming, the chaos of the group mind. The process of planning an event is time consuming and challenges us to be creative on a far larger level than many of the attendees ever realize. In many ways it makes perfect sense for us to continue to plan and execute our events the same way we have in the past.

Or we can challenge ourselves to learn something new and be involved in the future of our industry. It is possible for the two worlds of technology and face to face meetings to co-exist and it is our responsibility to find the ways to help our compatriots and our attendees to embrace the new media available. It is our job as meeting and event professionals to embrace new technologies and use them as tools for increasing engagement and excitement, which ultimately drives more interest to our face to face events.

This is the true power of New Media! It builds excitement and engages our attendees in ways we could never have imagined.

With that said, here are four specific arenas that all Meeting and Event professionals work in daily and small collection of tomorrows tools for each. I invite you to look into them further and see how you can involve them in your event planning and execution. You may be surprised by the benefits you experience.

Collaboration

GoogleWave: GoogleWave invites are becoming more prolific and will continue to grow as the “go to” tool for collaboration. It is “a personal communication and collaboration tool” that is a web based. It is designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging and social networking. It is the strong collaborative and real time focus that allows a user to share documents with a wider group of people. Imagine your brochures, lists and registration materials being created and developed live.

Box.net: Where Google wave is about creation, Box.net is about sharing. Putting all of your materials into some of your favorite Social Networking applications and making it easy to track what was downloaded, when and by whom. it further promotes environmentally friendly practices by making all your materials easy to access.

Sourcing

Elite Meetings.com: a one stop shop for those looking to find a high end property for their next meeting or event. The site is comprised of property descriptions for over a 1000 properties across North America. It provides an in depth look at the available properties, detailing the most commonly requested information on hotels and resorts.

SpeedRFP: Keep an eye out for this one. We’re building a better mousetrap and you can be sure this thing is going to revolutionize the electronic RFP process by making it easy to use and reliable.

Promotion

Video: YouTube, Vimeo and U-Stream are all great examples of mediums that you can use to share video. If a picture is worth a thousand words then video is easily worth a million. It captures the emotion and excitement of your event through the people that are involved. Get creative and use Video’s to drive new attendees and build excitement among those who are committed.

Blog: It’s free and very easy to set up. From Wordpress to TypePad or Blogger, you can use a blog to post content about the event and share updates with those who are involved. Post photos, provide tips, updates and whatever else you can imagine. It’s easy to draw people into your work and make them a part of the community when you are using a blog.

Engagement

Social Networks: There is no doubt that Social Networks are changing our industry at a break neck pace. Use Facebook, Twitter, linkedIn and i-Meet to create a feeling of community and deliver the content you have created on your blog and the videos your are broadcasting. These are quickly becoming the “go to” channels for updating attendees while at events because they are available to everyone via mobile devices. Look for the opportunities to build a basic platform and identify your standards of communication.

Live Feedback: Keep attendees engaged through the event by using live feedback tools like Twtpoll and Polldaddy. They provide instant feedback on sessions, speakers, dinner or whatever you decide to get feedback on. Again, they are easily accessed through social networks and provide unbiased feedback that you can use to refine your events.

Tomorrows Tools are available today and will continue to evolve. They are exciting, engaging and fun to use. It is up to us to bring these tools into our industry and look for the ways they can re-define what we do.

What do you think?