It seems events are a central part of Social Media, which has its roots in Social Networking. We are talking about the PHYSICAL, in-person interaction between individuals, particularly at live events.
As such, the major Social Media platforms either have direct support for events or they are used to support the promotion of events and even activities AT events.
In this multi-part series, we examine some techniques for maximizing exposure for your event on Social Media. We highlight our just-completed 2010 8th Annual Integrated Alliances’ Denver Holiday Party (Nov 30, 2010) as the real world example; because real world is better than theory.
The series will cover some strategies, techniques and explore some simple, yet amazingly powerful extras along the ways – Super Tips.
We will explore all of the major platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Meetup.com, YouTube and Blogs) and what they offer to help you promote and manage events and to manage invaluable follow-up after events.
PART I
First, you must use care and consider scope. What actions happen first is VERY important as you spread the word and try to avoid making mistakes, some of which cannot be corrected.
On the scope side, this series is not designed to teach event planning, although these cutting edge practices from the front lines will be of a lot of interest to event planners and even to event attendees.
We start with this information given – date, time, location, cost, descriptive text, pictures, links. See the event information for the real world case study – the 2010 8th Annual Integrated Alliances’ Denver Holiday Party.
Super Tip #1 - Promote the event using an easy to remember, nice looking Domain Name (URL). There are many reasons for this. You will want to forward but NOT mask the domain if your target is using a payment button such as Paypal.
- The vanity URL looks good in text and in print. You can’t click on a flier (i.e., www.DenverHolidayParty.com).
- The vanity URL replaces ugly URL strings with something attractive that reinforces your brand and makes it easy for people to remember (i.e., www.DenverHolidayParty.com).
- It gives you the flexibility to redirect it to any place you like (e.g. Landing Page, Primary Registration Site, Backup Registration Site, Event Closed Screen, Post-event site).
In our case, we used 2 such domains – DenverHolidayParty.com and SocialNetParty.com. In fact, after the event, each is now redirected to the pictures on Metromix, taken by photographer Howie Grapek. Metromix is a division of Colorado’s #1 TV channel 9News.
Super Tip #2 - If you want others to promote your event, make it easy for them. Create a simple 1 page flier and host it on the web, like on your web site or blog site. You can update it as the events shapes up and interested parties can always get the latest version to download. It works with tip #1 as well. We still have our promotional flier for the event up at SocialNetEvents.com; check it out.
And then check back for Part II and Part III coming soon! Get more tips and insider real-world strategies for using Social Media to promote and support your events and improve your business outlook.
Related Story
The LinkedIn Rockstars, Mike O’Neil & Lori Ruff, recently recorded a 60-minute Webinar entitled Event Networking with Social Media. Learn to find events, work events properly and follow up after events using Social Media like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs. The recording is available for free playback.
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