Posts Tagged ‘event marketing’

Beginners Guide to Social Media

December 22nd, 2009

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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.

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Posted in How To's, social media

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How To Build and Promote a LinkedIn Event

November 25th, 2009

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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!

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Posted in Event Management, How To's, New Technology

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What’s the big deal with PhoCusWright?

November 18th, 2009

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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.

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Posted in Event Management, New Technology

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Tomorrow’s Tools

November 11th, 2009

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

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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?

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Posted in Event Management, New Technology, Uncategorized, social media

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