The Downside of Promoting Your Event with Social Media
Why You Need to Ask Difficult Event Survey Questions

Do You Make These Social Media Mistakes with Your Event?

Thank_You_Economy 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.

Here are 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:

Comments

Roman Jakubowycz

Eugene,

Great summary and great points.

One more thing to remember.

Social Media can attract new customers and help sell.

But it's most valuable when keeping current customers or clients close to you.

Giving them every opportunity and reason not to wander off to someone else.

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