Event Marketing and Event Promotions

A Killer Social Media Promotion Strategy for Your Event

Two HUGE reasons why people don’t show up to your event are either because they’re not interested or they don’t know about your event. Hence, the problem could be either market research or event promotion. In my opinion, it’s far easier to “get away with” an event promotion problem. Here’s why . . . No event organizer has enough money to change people’s minds.

Let me give you an example that’s close to my heart. If someone doesn’t like the band Van Halen, I don’t have enough advertising budget to change people’s minds. The same applied to event organizers. That’s why knowing the wants, needs, and desire of your event attendees is crucially important. If you create an event that people REALLY want to attend, it becomes much easier to sell advance sale tickets and pack your event.

Using Social Media to Promote Your Event
Enter into the equation social media. Social media allows you the ability to quickly interact with a target market. It doesn’t matter if you’re using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or a Blog. Just remember to use the social media channel most conducive to your audience. Each target market is a little different.

Listen, Don't Shout!
Think of social media as your opportunity to interactively engage your target market. Too many event promoters and organizers use social media to SHOUT at their target market. Don’t do that! The most successful event marketers leverage social media as a listening platform. I strongly encourage you to do the same. If you listen to your target market, you're better apt to serve them. In return, they're more likely to do business with you.

Engage in Interactive Social Media Marketing
An easy to implement social media event strategy is to ask questions and collect feedback. You can accomplish this through Facebook wall posts, Tweets, or a simple survey. The questions shouldn't be leading -  e.g. "You don't like this right?" vesus "What do you think about this?" Instead of multiple choice, I encourage you to use comment fields. You'll get much better feedback. Your questions can be as simple as asking people, “How can we improve the event?” or “What didn’t you like about the event?” I promise you that you’ll get some amazing (and actionable) feedback!

From on an advertising and promotions standpoint, you can use the feedback to crank up the effectiveness of your event marketing. The best advertisements get the read to think, "This person truly understands me!"

Here are some additional resources for DIY online event surveys:

• Two Amazingly Powerful Event Survey Questions
• Create a Better Event with Patron Feedback
• Leading People to Provide Event Feedback
• A Negative Question to Create a Better Event
• A Great Event Survey Question - When Disaster Strikes

Objectivity is Crucial!
Just keep in mind - If you’re going to ask questions of potential event attendees or customers, you need to stay objective! The ultimate event experience is built around your event attendee’s ego. It’s imperative that you, as an event organizer or promoter, keep your ego in check. The best event promoters take their egos out of the equation. Never assume you know better than your event prospects or attendees. When in doubt, ask them what they want!

Here are some additional social media resources you can use to market your event:

• Do You Make These Social Media Mistakes with Your Event?
• Measuring Your Social Media Event Promotion Efforts
• How to Leverage Facebook and Your Event Marketing
• Beware of the "Social Media" Event SMACKDOWN!
• Social Media, Your Event Marketing, and "Insider Info" . . .
• Social Media Comments and Your Event
• The Downside of Promoting Your Event with Social Media

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

 

Do You Make These Social Media Mistakes with Your Event?

Yesterday, I made a brief stop at my local Barnes & Noble to check out Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, “The Thank You Economy.” Gary is one of my favorite social media experts. I give him a ton of credit because his wisdom comes from experience, NOT just book smarts. These days the Internet is full of “marketing experts” and “Internet gurus” who are great at regurgitating info, but when it REALLY matters - can’t deliver results. I digress . . .

During a quick scan of the “The Thank You Economy,” there was a series of bullet points that jumped out at me. The bullet points addressed mistakes that companies make with their social media efforts.

Gary Vaynerchuk’s - Biggest Mistakes Companies Make with Social Media:

•    Using tactics instead of strategy
•    Using it exclusively to put out fires
•    Using it to brag
•    Using it as a press release
•    Exclusively re-tweeting other people’s material rather than creating your own original content
•    Using it to push products
•    Expecting immediate results

Source: Vaynerchuk, Gary. The Thank You Economy, p. 288.

The mistakes listed above should be viewed from a “fundamentals” standpoint. Thus, it doesn’t matter if you are an event promoter or business owner. The fundamental stay the same.

Tactics versus Strategy
Gary’s first point on “tactics instead of strategy” is one of the single biggest mistakes event promoters commit. Too many event organizer and promoters think social media can be a quick fix to their event marketing problems. As with other forms of marketing, you shouldn’t use social media as a promotional tool just because, “everyone else is doing it.” Make sure you have a long term plan with specific and measurable goals.

Measure & Interact
Your Social media strategy should drive a combination of traffic, leads, and ticket sales through your event web site. Because it’s the web, almost every action a person takes can be tracked. (Just make sure you disclose tracking to users and have a good privacy policy in place.) If you aren’t using social media to drive traffic, leads, or sales, use it as a communication tool . . . Conduct surveys and get feedback on your event or ideas for your event. One of social media’s biggest strengths is the ability for participants to interact.

Be Very Transparent Regarding Your Event
On Gary’s point regarding bragging . . . It’s imperative that you be very transparent with event details. Don’t post information that isn’t accurate! Case and point – attendance numbers . . . Some event organizers grossly overinflated their attendance numbers. Those exaggerated numbers are then passed along to the public and media. With social media, your attendees can call you out and sometimes on your own Facebook or Twitter page. If you’re transparent with event information, you should have any problems.

As an event organizer or event promoter are you making any of the mistakes listed above? Take a look at each of Gary’s points objectively, it could make a huge difference in promoting your event with social media.

Here are additional articles on using social media to promote your event:

• Measuring Your Social Media Event Promotion Efforts
• How to Leverage Facebook and Your Event Marketing
• Beware of the "Social Media" Event SMACKDOWN!
• Social Media, Your Event Marketing, and "Insider Info" . . .
• Social Media Comments and Your Event
• The Downside of Promoting Your Event with Social Media

The Downside of Promoting Your Event with Social Media

For all the things that can be done with social media, there is one significant downside . . . once you start you cannot stop. My intention here isn't to dissuade you, but make you aware of what's needed to promote your event with social media. In today's information hungry world you can't afford to stop producing high quality content. People expect information and your competition will pray upon any passivity. Watch the video below. It expounds some very important points on social media marketing.

Is Social Media Overated? (A Great Debate!)


Take the time to look at how Gary Vaynerchuk (from the video above) engages his target markets with social media. He "crushes" out great content on a regular basis at both WineLibrary.com and GaryVaynerchuk.com. The key to Gary's success is working "his face off!" He tries his best to respond to every email or Twitter comment he receives. That level of commitment and interaction is a big reason who Gary has 850,000+ Twitter followers and 58,000+ "Likes" on his Facebook page. It take hard work and long term commitment!

In my own experience, I see a direct correlation between publishing content, traffic, and leads. If I don't post content on a regular basis, my traffic and leads go down. In some cases the decrease is pretty significant. Search engines love HTML content. If you don't give the search engines what they want, they could drop you down a few spots. 

Think Long Term
If you're going to use social media to promote your event, look at your strategy from a long term perspective.  Don't start up any social media marketing, unless you are willing to commit long term. Gone are the days when you could just post content a few times a month. People expect good information on a regular basis. In social media you need to interact with your target market . . . listen to what they are saying and carry on a meaningful conversation.

The Bottom Line
What's the bottom line to this rant? If you're going to use social media to promote your event, "fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the long haul!" In order to thrive in social media landscape, you need to constantly bang out relevant content that your target market cares about. Are you ready to do what it takes? If not, not a problem! There are countless other ways to promote your event online.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• How Long Before Social Media Advertising Gets Too Noisy?
• Event Marketing with Social Media and Email
• Social Media, Social Networking, and Event Promotion
• Web 2.0, Social Media, and Event Promotion
• Event Marketing: Do You have an Online Champion for Your Event?
• Online Comments About Your Event

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

 

Measuring Your Social Media Event Promotion Efforts

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, "What exactly am I getting from my social media efforts?" As with any marketing endeavor, you should always measure for a specific result. You cannot afford to confuse activity with productivity.

Lots of Updates with Zero Results
Recently, the topic of social media effectiveness came up with a Canadian event organizer. The event committee is fortunate enough to have a volunteer to manage their social media promotion strategy. Their Twitter and Facebook accounts are currently being updated on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. For all the hard work being done, a look at Google Analytics for the last 30 days shows no referring traffic from Twitter or Facebook. Some people might argue that social media is all about goodwill and branding. Unfortunately it's difficult to directly tie branding and goodwill to something substantive.

Get Results First, Then Invest More Time
Everyday more event organizers jump on the social media bandwagon. They treat it like it’s a magic event promotion bullet that will solve all their marketing challenges. That simply isn’t the case. Your social media strategy should be viewed as part of your overall event promotion strategy.  The amount you engage in social media should be directly proportionate to its return on investment.  In short, don’t invest more time and money into an activity that doesn’t bring you a desired result.

Bringing Them Back to Your Site
If you want to measure the effectiveness of your social media marketing, insert links into your social media posts that bring people back to your event website.  You can announce event performers or ticket discounts. This is known as a web centric marketing approach.  Then, take a look at what your incoming social media traffic is doing on your web site. Are they purchasing tickets or signing up for your e-mail list?  Your web stats will give you an answer.  At the simplest level, measure for traffic, leads, and ticket sales.

Diversify Your Post Links
Not every post on Facebook and Twitter needs to lead back to your web site.  Your focus should be on delivering high quality content. If you get people good content, they’ll note who passed it along to them.

Social Media as a Market Research Tool
Another way to use social media is as a market research tool. Post a question to your followers or friends and allow them to answer.  Note the response you get. In doing so, your social media efforts become form of interactive marketing. You're much more likely to get attendees to your event if you take into account attendee wants, needs, and desires.

Here are additional articles on using social media to promote your event:

• How to Leverage Facebook and Your Event Marketing
• Using Twitter for Your Event Marketing
• Beware of the "Social Media" Event SMACKDOWN!
• Social Media, Your Event Marketing, and "Insider Info" . . .
• How Long Before Social Media Advertising Gets Too Noisy?
• Social Media Comments and Your Event

 

How to Leverage Facebook and Your Event Marketing

If you’re using Facebook to market your event there are a few important things to understand. First off - like any marketing or advertising medium, Facebook has both positives and negatives. Disclaimer: I’m NOT on the crazy train that thinks Facebook can instantly fix every event marketing challenge. But, I do firmly believe Facebook is here to stay. Thus, event organizers should understand how to use it to their advantage.

Facebook versus Google
These days there seems to be a ton of press attention on the Google versus Facebook War for World Internet Domination. What you need to understand is how the two services differ from one another . . .

The Google Search
Google is like a consumer research tool. People using Google tend to be looking for specific information and their efforts focused on a set of keywords.  It’s pretty simple, you enter a search phrase, "outdoor events Rochester" and Google generates results. After the results are presented, you click on the most interesting relevant link. Obviously if you're an event organizer, you want you listings to be ranked high and appealing to click on. How people find information on Facebook is different methodology.

The Facebook Game
Facebook is much more of a leisure environment . . . people check wall and status updates, look at pictures from friends, message, etc. Let's be honest, most people don't sign on to Facebook to be productive. Facebook's foundation is built upon massive amounts of user content (pictures, videos, posts). That's what makes it so attractive. Who wouldn't want to see what their friends are up to?

But there is a downside to Facebook’s super media rich environment. Humans can only process so much information at one time. Even with a dedicated event page on Facebook, you're still competing against all the other social noise. On Facebook, it is very easy to be avalanched with too much information.  That distraction ultimately dilutes your event marketing efforts.

My strong suggestion is to leverage your Facebook presence to push people to your event web site. Why get people to click off Facebook? Because when people get to your event web site, you’re in control of their attention.

Social Media Conversations
Facebook offers a great way to carry on a conversation with your target market. It’s embodies the essence of social media. Use commenting to promote interactive event marketing . . . You post on your event and then people can comment. Facebook’s post and comment feature is also great way to conduct market research. If you’re thinking of trying something new or different with your event, you can post it and let people give feedback. Use the conversation feature to your advantage.

Leverage Facebook and Your Event Web Site
Here’s a suggestion to bridge your Facebook presence with your event web site. When you post about your event on your wall, make sure to include a link back to your event web site.  You can write something like, “We just announced the performer line for this year’s show, Check it out – LINK TO PAGE.” Do you need to include a link with every post? No. Your overall focus should be on posting quality content.

Remember, you need to grab people’s attention and give them a good reason to click! What’s even better is if you create a post with a link and get people to “Like” it and leave positive comments. That gives people even more reason to click through. At that point you're in much better control of the user's attention.

The Ability to Track
Another advantage of using Facebook wall post links to your site is the ability to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. A quick look at your web stats will tell you how much traffic you’re getting from Facebook. If you have goals setup you can also track back how many signups or ticket purchases Facebook is creating.

There are several other ways to promote you event on Facebook, but the principles are nearly universal. Your marketing efforts on Facebook (or any social media) should be based on building a relationship with your target market . . . Find out what they want and give it to them. Regardless of technology, the principles and fundamentals never change.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• How Long Before Social Media Advertising Gets Too Noisy?
• Event Marketing with Social Media and Email
• Social Media, Social Networking, and Event Promotion
• Web 2.0, Social Media, and Event Promotion
• Event Marketing: Do You have an Online Champion for Your Event?
• Online Comments About Your Event

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

 

Beware of the "Social Media" Event SMACKDOWN!

Social Media in Event Marketing is a double edged sword . . . It can be either a tremendous event promotion asset or a potential public relations disaster.

Here's a tenet to follow when it comes to social media and your event marketing . . . Be very honest with the online information regarding you event! It doesn’t matter if the information is on your own event web site, Facebook, Twitter, or a newspaper interview. People are keeping an eye on you. Let me give you a specific example I found online a few month ago . . .  It revolves around a post-event article in a local newspaper.

From Good to Bad Press
In the article, the event organizer of a music festival claimed that a few thousand people showed up to their event.  I believe they said 3,000 to 4,000 attendees. The online newspaper article included a comment box section. Comment boxes are essentially another form of social media and they are pretty frequent on today’s news web sites.

Unfortunately the comment box told a different story regarding the reported attendance . . . Actual event attendees posted comments calling the event organizer out! One person said, “They’re lucky if there was 750 people, NO WAY there was a few thousand!” Other comments, while not as harsh, basically said the same thing. Because of the comments, the event organizer appears to be dishonest.

Here’s the problem - the event organizer PROBABLY estimated a very high number of attendees – Yet, they were called out by their own (supposed) attendees. Could the people who posted the negative comments regarding attendance numbers been shills? Possibly! But, the reader doesn’t know that! More importantly, NOBODY came to the event organizers defense in the comment section.

The end result - what started as free publicity, turns into bad press. 

Here’s the lesson to be learned - In today’s social media world, you MUST BE completely transparent and honest with the public. Little white lies can turn into a publicity nightmare. Social media information takes only seconds to get around the globe. You can't afford to be dishonest online."

Here are some additional event marketing and promotion resources:

• Using Twitter for Your Event Marketing . . .
• Event Marketing with Social Media and Email
• Search Engine Optimization and Your Event Marketing
• Event Search Marketing and Your Description Tag
• Online Comments About Your Event
• Event Marketing: Do You have an Online Champion for Your Event?

 

 

Social Media, Your Event Marketing, and "Insider Info" . . .

During a recent coaching call someone asked, "Can I use social media sites to broadcast Insider Information regarding my event?" The simple answer is, "Yeah, absolutely!" But, the more important question is, "Do you want to?" Consider the following . . .

Insider Info, Social Media, and Email Marketing
To me "Insider Information" is exactly as it reads "Insider" - hence it should be kept confidential.  Better yet, think of "Insider Info" as a secret. As you know, most people want to know a secret. You can use that "Wanna Know a Secret?" frame to your advantage . . . especially when it comes to list building. If you were to broadcast "Insider Info" on your Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter accounts - is the info really privileged anymore? Personally I don't think so. Because emails are a one-on-one communication form, things are inherently confidential.

Building Your Email List
Tempting your web site visitors with the ability to become an "Insider" is a great way to drive email sign-ups and build your list. There is no doubt that social media is a very important tool for promoting and marketing your event. In my humble opinion, email marketing is one of the BEST forms of sending out insider (sensitive) information regarding your event. List marketing (done correctly) is also an amazing way of generating advance ticket sales for your event.

"Insider Info" example . . .
In the air show world - people REALLY want a schedule of acts (who's flying & when). A schedule of acts is easy to classify as, insider information. Many air show web sites publicly publish the performer schedule. Yet, if they were to withhold the information from being published publicly, it could be considered "Insider Info." Each market place is a little different. The big question to ask, as it relates to your event, is . . . "Is there a juicy piece of information that my target market is dying to know?" That's your Insider information.

One Important Note
Please remember this - If you are sending "Insider Info" to your list - there is nothing stopping a subscriber from posting that information online. A few months ago a client sent a discount coupon code out to their subscriber list of over 8000 people. One person (there's always a troublemaker) decided to post that discount code on a large coupon site. As a result, thousands of people who weren't "Insiders" were able to see and use the discount code. Awesome, right? Not really . . . People who were Insiders didn't have a fair shot at the limited number of discount tickets, which eventually SOLD OUT. Hence, some of the Insiders felt scammed by one of their own. Always consider that your Insider Info could make it to the masses.

SMS (Text) Messaging
Another technology, aside from email, you might want to consider is SMS (text) messaging.  Because the information is delivered directly to the subscriber it can be considered privileged - hence "Insider." Right now, aside from the 160 character limit, the biggest limitation to SMS messaging is the cost.  Event at $0.02 per message, things can get expensive if you have a large list or send out multiple messages.

When it comes to using "Insider Info" to help market your event the information above should server as a good start.

Additional Resources:

• Event Marketing: Start Building Your List Early
• Automatically Generate Leads for Your Event Year Round
• Keeping Your Event List Engaged
• Don't Neglect Your Email List
• Event Marketing: Multiple Ways to Engage Your List
• Simple Customer List Building Suggestions
• Start Building Your List Early

 

Using Twitter for Your Event Marketing . . .

Last month I attended the International Council of Air Show's annual convention in Las Vegas. The convention is the air show industry's annual get together to share ideas and plan for the upcoming air show season. During the convention's marketing seminars there was significant discussion regarding social media. Seminar participants and presenters were jumping up and down expounding the marketing virtues of using social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. Here's my rub . . . when pressed, not one Twitter proponent in the could cite a bottom line result for all their efforts. Perhaps it's that I've been spending way too much time in the direct response world, or maybe I'm just getting jaded on all the social media hoopla . . .   But before you jump on the social media crazy train, take a moment to find out if social media is actually helping your event marketing efforts.

The Twitter Case Study
As a case study, here is my own Twitter experience.  WARNING: Shameless Self Promotion Ahead! Recently I broke the 1,000 Follower mark on Twitter. According to the UK Guardian, the average Twitter user has 126 followers. Source: Arthur, Charles, 29 June 2009, Guardian.co.uk. Since March of 2009, I spent about 10 minutes a day following people and posting updates and event marketing links to articles on my blog. A recent look at my Google Analytics account revealed that my all Twitter efforts drove a whopping 61 visitors to my web site. The only silver lining, if any, was that each visitor driven by a Twitter link spent over two and a half minutes on my site. Sorry Twitter Pundits . . . 30+ hours of effort for 61 visitors is a horrendous ROI. I'm not going to sit here and proclaim to be an Twitter Jedi Master, but I integrated expert advice and followed it consistently. I cringe to think what other people are getting in terms of their results.

Disclaimer: You should know that I'm not an anti social media guy. Yet, I am staunchly against smart people wasting time and money on "amazing" Internet technology that doesn't add one cent to their bottom line or help to promote an event. People get so focused on the technology, they forget about the fundamentals. 150 years ago, P.T. Barnum figured out a simple model promote almost any event. Since then, we've found a million different ways to screw it up. Regardless of the technology, never abandon sound marketing fundamentals. Check out "The Danger of Too Much Event Marketing Technology" for more insight.

Adopt Your Twitter Event Marketing Efforts Very Cautiously
It's important to remember that Twitter is still being adopted by the masses. Yes, a ton of people are joining Twitter, but it tends to be fairly young demographic. I'd argue less than 10% of your potential target is using Twitter, probably less than 5% on a regular basis. The air show industry is a prime example of only a tiny segment of your total target market using Twitter. What are you doing to engage the rest of your target market?

Think Before You Jump
Before you even setup a Twitter account, ask yourself . . . "Is enough of my target marketing using Twitter to warrant my investment in time, money, and effort?" If you are investing your efforts in to Twitter, make sure it's delivering you positive and measurable results. Keep your Tweets interesting and relevant to your event or business goals. Always make sure to use Google Analytics to see if your efforts are making a positive impact on your marketing efforts.

I'm still willing to find ways to leverage social media to better promote events and businesses. But at the moment I'm unwilling to say that using Twitter to market your event is a worthwhile investment. If you have a suggestion or great examples of using Twitter, please leave a comment to this post. I'm always open to insight and suggestions.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• How Long Before Social Media Advertising Gets Too Noisy?
• Event Marketing with Social Media and Email
• Social Media, Social Networking, and Event Promotion
• Web 2.0, Social Media, and Event Promotion
• Event Marketing: Do You have an Online Champion for Your Event?
• Online Comments About Your Event

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

How Long Before Social Media Gets Too Noisy?

This was originally published in 2009, but the main question still persists ... "is social media getting too noisy?"

The other day I went to lunch with my good friend Todd.  After lunch (and the ensuing food coma), we stumbled back to Todd’s office for a few minutes.  While at Todd’s office, I had him log into Facebook account to show some interesting photos from the weekend.  During our brief Facebook session the topic of “How many Facebook friends could one person possibly have?” was discussed.  I told Todd that I’ve seen some high Facebook friend numbers before - people with over a thousands friends. Yet Todd knows someone with the highest number of Facebook friends I’ve ever seen – 2,157 (April 2009)! After leaving Todd’s office, I had to ask myself “How many friends are too many friends?” The more friends you have on Facebook the more requests, status updates, and messages you’ll get on your account.  Don't forget all paid advertising getting thrown into the mix.

Isn’t a person eventually going to get to a point where they don't see your message because it's lost in the haze of information?

Task Saturation Can Be Fatal to Your Event
In the aviation world they call information overload, task saturation.  There are so many things going on at once that the pilot’s likelihood of missing critical information goes up significantly. Task saturation can be fatal in the aviation world.  I also think that task saturation can be fatal in the event promotion and marketing world. Social media has exploded in growth.  There’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogs, etc. and the list keeps growing.  I find it hard to believe that people can process that much information from so many services at one time. Take a moment to consider all the traditional advertising (television, print, radio) you’re bombarded with on a daily basis. Is your event marketing information getting lost in all the social media noise?

Stay Focused on the Most Effective Channels for Promotion
Instead of looking at how many social media channels you can use to promote or market your event, focus on the right social media channels to promote your event.  Line your marketing up accordingly with your target market’s demographic and psychographic profiles.  One social media service probably outperforms another for promoting your event. Do you know which one works best for your event?  You need good data to make smart businesses decisions. Do some simple testing and tracking to find what works best. At a minimum, install Google Analytics.

Drive Them to Your Web Site with Everything You Do
Yes, you can successfully use social media to build awareness of your event.  I’m not trying to knock the possibilities of social media. But I still believe that the single best place for promoting your event is a dedicated event web site.  Any other form of media (social included) should be focused on getting people back to your web site. The people who are on your web site are prequalified to be interested in your event. Plus, when you get people on your site, you control the message!

> What's Your Opinion? - Leave a Comment on this Post

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

Here are some additional social media resources you can use to market your event:

• Do You Make These Social Media Mistakes with Your Event?
• A Killer Social Media Promotion Strategy for Your Event
• Measuring Your Social Media Event Promotion Efforts
• How to Leverage Facebook and Your Event Marketing
• Beware of the "Social Media" Event SMACKDOWN!
• Social Media, Your Event Marketing, and "Insider Info" . . .
• Social Media Comments and Your Event
• The Downside of Promoting Your Event with Social Media

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Social Media Comments and Your Event

Social Media can be a virtue or a vice for event organizers.  On the positive front, event organizers can interact with their target market like never before.  You can use target market interaction and feedback to build a better event.  On the negative side, social media can be used to leave disparaging comments about your event.  In some cases the comments might not be true or misrepresent your event.  Even worse, negative comments about your event can show up on web sites that you have no editorial control over. If comments appear on a popular web site (a local news agency web site) they will probably get indexed into the search engines. Today people are apt to read something online and take it as fact without checking the facts.

Below you will find some suggestions on dealing with social media comments regarding your event.

A Real World Example
Last week one of my clients held a big press release for their upcoming event. After the press conference the local media outlets published stories about the event.  One local news paper has a web site that allows you to comment on their news stories.  Because my client decided to change the format and location of their event, there were plenty of comments posted with the news story. The comments covered the whole spectrum from very positive to negative.  If you’re an event organizer it’s hard to ignore comments about your event.

Addressing Comments About Your Event
You don’t need to get stressed about negative comments. Here is a simple process for spinning negative comments about your event to your advantage.  Start by tracking down online comments about your event. You can easily do this using a Google Alert (Jenny B.). Google Alerts is free and allows you to leverage Google’s massive search capabilities. Collect all the comments about your event into a simple document. Organize the collected comments into positive and negative categories. Use your event web site to directly address some of the most prevalent comments. In most cases you can silence criticism by giving a straightforward answer to a comment or question. Consider addressing the most popular comments on a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page. You can even integrate the comments into your marketing. In most cases, it’s not worth your time replying to comments on other web sites. You’re better off addressing comments on your web site. 

Whenever you read a comment about your event, stop and ask yourself “How can I turn this into a positive?” Like the old adage goes, “Any publicity is good publicity.”  Find out ways to take the negative and spin it positive.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Event Marketing: Do You have an Online Champion for Your Event?
• Online Comments About Your Event
• Advertising and Marketing that Sells
• Providing Massive Value in Your Marketing and Advertising
• P.T. Barnum on Advertising
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Your Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Event Marketing with Social Media and Email

For today I’m going to bring my friend Ben back into the spotlight.  If you haven’t already, please read over “A Great Email Marketing Example.” Ben runs a web site called Fright-Rags.com. He sells horror t-shirts on his web site. Along with his web site, he has a home grown email list of very passionate fans. In my last post, I featured one of Ben’s counter intuitive email marketing strategies. Ben’s online strategies go well beyond just email marketing.  He also engages his target market with social media. The process involves leveraging his email list in tandem with his blog.  Here is a quick example. If Ben has a question about a product or idea he’s working on he writes a related blog post. After the post is live, he emails a blog post link to all his email subscribers. Ben’s latest blog post received over 185 user responses in less than 48 hours.  By leveraging his email list and his blog in tandem he creates an interactive experience for his users.  As a result, Ben’s sales continue to grow. You can incorporate the same strategy Ben uses with blogging and email to ensure your event is even more successful.

Start with An Email List and Blog
I’m working from the assumption that you already have an email list and a blog.  If you need email list management software, I recommend AWeber or 1Shoppingcart.com. On the blog side of the spectrum you can start with services like Typepad (Paid), Blogger (Free), or Wordpress (Free). I use Typepad for this blog. Some people might be a little tech-shy, but I assure you . . . If you can use Microsoft Word, you can easily manage a blog. Both Typepad and Wordpress have a big following and excellent online support.

The Blog Post Email Marketing Strategy
Start by posting something that would be perceived as intriguing to your target market. The post should include a call to action for the reader. Are there any aspects of your event that can benefit from target market input? Maybe you’re trying to choose between two artist to perform at your event.  You can also create surveys and features on a number of different things that apply to your event. Your goal should be to prompt user feedback. By interacting with your target market you’re also building interest and trust about your event without spending money on traditional advertising.

Email Your List
After your blog post is up, send your email subscribers the link.  As part of your email, include a call to action. Ask your subscribers to read your blog post and encourage them to leave a comment. It isn’t enough to just post a blog entry and expect people to take action. Each step in this process needs to include a call to action. People need to be carefully led through a process and you’re the leader.

Their Opinion
I guarantee that when you ask your target market for input you’ll discover something to benefit your event. Always keep the emphasis on the target market’s wants and desires. By doing so, you'll have a very successful event.

Collect Target Market Feedback
The last step is to collect user feedback and incorporate it into your event. By virtue of asking your target market’s opinion you’ll gain trust and credibility. People love giving their opinions. When you create an interactive buying experience for your target market they’re more likely to buy from you.

I’ll end where I started.  Check out the Fright-Rags web site and blog. I've included the links below. Even though your target market might not be horror fans, there are more than a few ideas you can collect from Ben’s web sites. Just remember, ideas are no good unless you put them into action.

• Fright-Rags Blog
• Fright-Rags Site

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Social Media, Social Networking, and Event Promotion
• Web 2.0, Social Media, and Event Promotion
• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• Don’t Be Afraid to Engage Your Prospect Repeatedly
• Keeping Your Event List Engaged
• Event Marketing: Multiple Ways to Engage Your List
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Social Media, Social Networking, and Event Promotion

Some Practical Social Media Advice
While digging around the Net, I found an interesting post on social media and event promotion. The article comes from Switzerland's Stephanie Booth. In "5 Lessons in Promoting Events Using Social Media," Stephanie writes about the trails and tribulations she experienced in promoting an event with social media. Her post is well worth the read. It will give you interesting insight and ideas for promoting your upcoming event with social media.

Strike a Balance
It's hard to miss the buzz about social media and event promotion. In "Web 2.0, Social Media, and Event Promotion" I advocate striking a balance between social media and the web centric style. I really think the core of any advertising and promotion boils down to making a meaningful connection with your prospect.  It doesn't matter if you use video, blogs, or the latest technology. If you can't send out a message that quickly connects with the individual reader, you’re up the creek.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• How to Get Them To Your Event
  
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training

Web 2.0, Social Media, and Event Promotion

Recently, I received a comment on Web 2.0 technologies as they pertain to event promotion. The comment questioned the need for a traditional web site in the Web 2.0 world.  It’s a pretty important question savvy event organizers need to examine. The first place to start is with a definition of Web 2.0.

What is Web 2.0?
The definition of web 2.0 is fairly enigmatic. If you ask a dozen different IT people for their definition, you’re probably going to get a dozen different answers. I like Tim O’Reilly’s simplified definition of Web 2.0:

“Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”

I think Web 2.0 technology offers a better way to deliver information to your target market. This includes technology like RSS feeds, blogs, and socialized media, just to name a few.
Both Yahoo and Google are leveraging various Web 2.0 and social media technologies. Yet, they don’t seem too quick to abandon their top tier web sites. They’re leveraging their market share with new technology.

Socialized Media
Socialized media includes technology and services like Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. Most people would classify social media as Web 2.0 technology. I believe social media is great and it has its’ purpose. But I don’t think social media can replace the benefit of having you own web site. Your own web site gives you a certain level of credibility and authority online.  It’s the one stop shop for people trying to find out more information about your event.

Find Your Balance
I advocate being balanced in approaching your marketing with technology. Web 2.0 technologies are beneficial to promoting and marketing one’s event. I think it’s fair more beneficial to leverage your traditional web site with web 2.0 technologies. You want to make your information easily available to those who are most interested, your target market. Different events will have different target markets.
Too many people focus on the bells and whistles of technology.  Focus on what’s useful to your target market, not what’s cool.

Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:

• Why Well Planned Events Fail
• How to Get Them To Your Event
  
• Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
• Turn Your Event Into an Experience
• Leveraging Your Sponsor's Digital Resources

• The Event Promotion System
  Get Free Event Promotion & Marketing Video Training