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Leveraging

Social and

Digital

Media to

Promote

Your Event

2012 An event is by nature a social affair. Individuals go to connect, interact and share

with their peers. People join social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook and

Linkedin to connect and interact and share. Given their similar natures, it makes

sense to use social media to help in planning, promoting and generating a buzz for

any event you’re hosting.

Sarah Houlihan @sara_houlihan

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You don’t have to wait until the day of your event to create a buzz—it can start at the registration

stage. Use an affordable solution such as Eventbrite or a similar site to help you. Services such as

Eventbrite let your attendees share the event with their networks as they register, you don’t have to be

an IT guru to use it and it also you to manage bookings, print badges and delegate lists all in the one

place. Not only that; but the extra links from social networking sites will boost your website’s page rank –

which is always a plus.

"Eventbrite is proving that there is a market for online event planning for small and medium sized events such as

yoga classes, fundraisers and music performances." Oliver Chiang Forbes

If you’re familiar with Twitter, which you should be, (if not we need to talk!), you will

understand the power and meaning of the HASHTAG. Utilising the power of Twitter

Hashtags in synchronization with an event is a no-brainer. Encouraging dialogue

with the # is an excellent way to build buzz around an event. However, many brands

leave it too late or don’t promote the hashtag at all. It’s important to assign what the

event hashtag will be and stick to the 1hashtag as early on in the course as possible – take for example

#coachella2013- is already trending on Twitter. You don’t want two or three variations getting coined

as it will be much harder to follow conversation threads. You will need the hashtag in advance across

all channels; website, blog, registration forms , EventBrite, Facebook Page, Email, on Google Plus.

Hashtags are not only imperative for social

media engagement relating to your event – they

also act as search engine indicators that go

beyond Twitter.

At the event, plan to promote the hashtag

repeatedly (this applies to your Twitter handle as

well): in signage, in printed programs, from the

stage and also in live tweeting by a designated Tweeter from the Events team. Your objective is

to get every tweet about your event to contain your hashtag. The hashtag will aggregate all Twitter

conversation around the event. Why not even have live visible Tweet stream on screen at the event

which will allow attendees to see all those online who are interacting with the event in a virtual way,

while enticing them to join in on the online conversation as well. Check out www.visibletweets.com

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Make sure to follow and connect with not only confirmed stakeholders, sponsors and speakers but

also prospective attendees and influencers on Twitter. For example - If you are holding the event in the

Burlington Hotel, connect with them. They have 1001 followers, so a tweet from them mentioning your

event is very useful. To increase your own followership, it is essential to start following and engaging with

companies and INFLUENCERS. At the event why not get attendees to write down their Twitter

handles so you can follow them then and there!

Another point ALWAYS worth noting is the importance of engaging with your followers in

conversation and avoiding posting boring repetitive tweets and spam like links directing followers to

Facebook (THIS GOES WITHOUT SAYING!) Not only do passionate Tweeters see this as a nuisance but it

may also cause people to unfollow you. Remember to be social and conversational, it’s called social

media for a reason!

Ask your followers to share your event or retweet (RT) one of your tweets to their networks in return

for a small award – whether it be 10% off the Ticket or something similar, pre event contests like these

will get people talking at a small cost.

The Online Marketing Summit 2012

<<offering a chance to win a trip to San Diego by sharing their event

The Linkedin Events tool is an application which has recently received a total

overhaul. When you add the application to your Linkedin Page and create your event

it will be searchable and recommended to people in your industry, network and

geographic location. You can also invite specific connections to your event.

When attendees click the ‘I’m attending’ button, it will show up as a status on their own

Linkedin Profile and activity feed to their respective connections – a great way to gain

free promotion and create a buzz.

Another great feature about the tool is that it will showcase the

‘attendees you may want to meet’!

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Encourage attendees to promote the event. Stating something like ‘please help us spread the word’

can go a long way in social media marketing efforts

Upload a PDF version of the event brochure into your Box.net files (Box.net is another application you

should add to your Linkedin page) and direct your attendees to it.

Another idea for Linkedin would be to develop a Linkedin Ad. Most companies neglect social media

advertisement but seeing that your targeting professionals there is simply no better way to win

mindshare and micro-target professionals.

Every single post you put out there to promote the event should have life, be

engaging, ask questions, highlight fans and be enthusiastic. Continuous, new, fresh

content is required on Facebook to grow the community and create a buzz. One of

the main pitfalls people make on Facebook business pages is focusing too much on

direct sales and promotions. Use the 80/20 rule – only 20% of posts for self-promotion

purposes.

One way to engage Facebook Fans more is to try and involve them in the planning process by

asking them for suggestions on speakers, catering, themes and acts for the event. Conduct Simple

Polls before your event, I tend to use Poll Daddy and for Twitter, Twtpoll. Not only does this create

engagement and generate ideas (crowdsourcing) but also adds to the hype.

Multimedia is always compelling. I’ve always found managing Facebook Pages that ‘fans’ always

respond best to video footage and photos, so creating a montage of the previous year’s

event/testimonials from previous attendees /behind the scenes photos and sharing it across all your

social media channels is bound to drum up some hype. www.animoto.com software is a great video

creation platform and takes only minutes to prepare a video which you can instantly share across all

your social media platforms. If you have speakers at the event, upload footage of them and links to

their blogs. Small little touches like this will go a long way.

On the actual night of the event take as many photos as you can, and instantly publish them on Twitter

and Facebook (perhaps through a photosharing app like Instagram/Twitpic/Flicker/EyeEm/PicPlz) If you

have a photographer, give him/her a stack of Business cards that includes your social media URLs/QR

code and instructions to like the page and tag yourself. Why not even create a photo contest on

Facebook after the event – whoever uploads the best photo of the event on Facebook wins a prize.

You can quickly build a great unofficial photo record of the event, which you can use again in future

promotions and keeping the conversation alive after the event

With all of the new technology going around, it’s no real surprise that you can now live stream your

events on the internet and to mobile devices through Facebook. Adding a social media plug-in like

livestream.com on your Facebook Page means attendees who couldn’t make it or prospective

companies can view the event as its unfolds or on demand.

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Google+ Events are brand new, freshly announced at the

end of June 2012. It’s unique as an events-planning

solution in that it encourages activity before, during, and

after an event.

You can easily set up an event in the left sidebar of your

Google+ homepage. The extremely intuitive interface

helps you choose the look of the event, and the level of

information (ticket seller URL, YouTube URL, etc.) you want

to provide guests. Google+ Events can also be online

events only, either as a Hangouts, or as an “on-air” (public)

event. Event attendees can upload photos and videos

during the event if they have the Google+ mobile app and can also upload photos after the event

and attach them to the event. For attendees who accept invitations or decide to go, the event is

automatically added to their Google Calendar.

You can find out more about Google+ Events here.

Foursquare, a location-based social network that enables users with

to “check in” at venues can be used to increase engagement for

both public and private events. Using Foursquare is perfect for

increasing engagement and a novel way to generate hype.

Foursquare users can even connect their accounts to Facebook and

Twitter so that their check-ins or updates post on their other social

media profiles.

It is imperative to make your attendees aware that your event is on Foursquare and encourage them to

check into your event on Foursquare when they arrive. You can include this in their registration

confirmation, follow-up emails and even on social networks that your attendees use including Linkedin,

Twitter and Facebook. A great way to encourage them is to offer them an incentive or prize on the

night!

See more here: http://www.antleragency.com/how-to-use-foursquare-for-events/

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E-invites through Papaerless Post.com

I cannot rate this website enough. I recommend that any company/individual hosting a public or

personal event look at an e-invitations site like this. The great thing about Paperless Post is their sharable

cards option. There’s that ‘share’ word I harp on about so much!

A shareable card is a non-personalized version of the card you created on the site that you can post

wherever you would like, including email and via Twitter, Facebook, or you can copy the link to your

card and post it anywhere you’d like, including in your own Facebook Timeline.

The shareable version of your card is free (unlike the personalised invites via email you can also avail of)

because you lose some of the features of sending through email, including the personalized card and

our email template. Viewing the card doesn't require a registration; anyone who sees the link can click

to view the card. The only downfall is if a viewer wants to attend your event, they need to register and

create an account with Paperless Post. This is the only way the viewer can be stored your on Tracking

page as an attendee so that you know who is coming.

Anyone that replies that they are attending the event will be displayed as "Registered" in green on your

Tracking page. If you send personalized versions through email AND use the shareable version, you can

distinguish "Attending" vs "Registered." This way, you can see which guests replied using their

personalized card and which guests replied using the shared version.

Have a whole lot of media post event but don’t know what to do with it?? Try using

Storify.com -a social media storytelling platform- to collect Tweets, videos and photos

and embed them in your website or share them through social media.

If your event contains any sort of slides shows or presentations them why not post on Slideshare and ask

speakers to share their presentations. Making these sorts of materials available post event is not only

helpful for attendees who may need a recap, but also give those who couldn’t attend the chance to

see your event’s value and make them eager to register for the next opportunity.