Event Planners Embracing Social Media and Event Apps

It’s no secret social media has made a lasting imprint on the events industry – it’s become one of the dominant marketing methodologies for any event or meeting planner as an individual or as part of a bigger firm. Here are five tips for marketing events via social media and/or to improve the perceived value of your event with your attendees.

5 tips for marketing events via social media:

1. Let Freedom Ring at your Event:

Embrace social media as your attendees certainly have – don’t try and fight the momentum by corralling your attendees too much. Build in social sharing for and with your attendees and enable this by making sure your event is “social ready”. With a Twitter video screen in the front of the room (if large event) coupled with specific hashtags for the actual event. Also encourage attendees to and let them post on your Faceobook wall from your event app to drive more meaningful engagement. Don’t restrict social media “attendance” at your event, promote it!

2. Staff for Social Media During an Event:

One of the challenges for your firm or you as an individual event planner is social media marketing. Make sure you have sufficient time or staffing to manage your social media marketing needed during an event. This need of course is accelerated greatly by the actual size of your event and attendance. Getting a mobile conference app can help your efforts coordinated. Along with that you or your staff should be managing an active Twitter feed during and event. Make sure you respond to questions or comments via your Facebook page. Along with that upload images and videos to your Pinterest page on a daily basis. And, the more dynamic your attendees the greater are the chance to make your event a sure success.

3. Leverage Facebook as an Marketing Platform

Facebook is a powerful marketing platform for advertising an event (great built in targeting by location, demographics and much more), as a two way communications platform (comments, likes and shares) during an actual event. Don’t forget to include a share function for your attendees after they pay for your event. It can be use as a gentle reminder to help to drive incremental visibility via their network of friends and connections. Don’t muck up your sharing an event with prizes or other inducements. Keep it light in terms of a share request: “thanks for supporting our event – please share if you want to underscore your enthusiasm….”

4. Social media engagament:

Great Event Marketing with Social Media is about Engagement not Broadcasting. Use a event planning app and assign teams to marketing activities. How many Twitter accounts have we all seen that are just an endless promotion of a brand or event? Too many in most cases. Remember that effective event marketing via social media is not marketing per sea unless it’s “educational” – the best marketing is no marketing!. Meaning, engage with your attendees and offer resources that they will share via their own connections. By, engagement, we mean responding back to Tweets or comments via your Facebook page and building rapport with your audience by doing so.

5. Be Event Apps ready:

Make sure you are using a mobile event app for your next event – your attendees are starting to expect this capability, driven in part by smartphone usage at and during events, the increased time pressures on event attendees to be more efficient before, during and after an event and the increased reliance on social media as an “always on” communications channel for sharing and engaging. Also, many of your peer firms and individuals are now relying on an event app to drive a competitive advantage in the marketplace – don’t be left out of the mix.