How to Market Your Event With Social Media

Ever thought of marketing your own event? Well with Social Media you can. By following the guidelines below, you will see how effective the use of Social Media can be. First things first.

Social Media Monitoring

In the early stages of your marketing program it is important to set up a monitoring system. Social media monitoring will enable immediate and effective monitoring of your event and allow you to correspond with those that are commenting. Social media monitoring will enable you to continue to communicate with your potential viewers and critics. Let’s look at what we can monitor. Generally, this media monitoring is keyword based. The key here is to select the most appropriate keywords to monitor to achieve the best results. Some important keywords to follow are:

• Company Names
• Brand and Product Names
• The Names of The Executives
• Competitor Names
• Competitor Events
• Industry Keywords

Effective Tools to Enable Social Media Monitoring

To enable you to effectively monitor social media, a few exemplary tools are available. The Best Known Are Google Alerts: this is easily established and once you have chosen the keywords that you are targeting for your event, you can setup keyword searches to be sent via email alerts or via RSS reader so try and make good use of the Google Alerts The Twitter Advanced Search: is ideal to use with the Google RSS reader. Once setup, it’s as easy as subscribing to the feed and wait for the inbox to fill. Follow the link to Twitter Advanced Search Another tool from Twitter is Twazzup The above are all free Monitoring tools that can be easily used. Other Reputable Tools to Mention Are BuzzNumbers Lithium Radian6.

Social Networking Platforms

Let’s take a look at LinkedIn and go through some procedures to enable the best use of this versatile social media pllatform. LinkedIn Profiles is where you will be able to connect with others from your personal profile. LinkedIn will enable you to create Powerpoint presentations, to promote your event. Once you have successfully created the presentation of your event, you can add it to slideshare. Simply upload and add it to your profile. The YouTube channel is ideal to add videos to your profile. Previous events that you have recorded can be uploaded to your YouTube channel, then added to your profile using Google’s Presentation Application. Once all the work is done, it’s time to put it out there! Get those whom participated to promote the event in the same way, recommend and share the event by using the Share & Recommend facility. The use of LinkedIn Events is next on the agenda. As soon as your event is added to the events on LinkedIn, create an advertising campaign and invite up to 50 connections in your network to your event. Try to capture as many people to the event as possible and get them to share and recommend the event further. Create a group for each event and invite connections to join the group. The objective of this group is to create some information and questions in a discussion format. Use the groups key points that are related to your event and introduce them into other related LinkedIn groups. Try to create even more interest by introducing Polls and get members to respond.

The Art Of Following

This is an easy way to create a social media Mecca. People that have shown interest in your event are your target. You can find these people by using the Twitter search. Once you have your list of contacts, import them into a new Gmail account. Now go to your Twitter page, log in and import your list, and follow them, it’s as simple as that. The next step is to get the followers to retweet your tweets (status updates). Start by adding the # tag for all events that are related. The key is to generate a roll-on effect. When you tweet about people you create a bit of excitement or sometimes even hype which will prompt others to follow and retweet your messages. Ensure that you use the tweeting functionality with your registration system by using Twitter API. Each new person that registers will have the option of sending tweets to their list, using the checkbox facility. For example: “I just registered for Event Name 2011 on <DATE>. Are you coming? <link to registration page>”. Allow yourself to run polls on Twtpoll and ask plenty of questions to your followers. Make sure that you reply to the tweets that relate to your event. A fan page for your event is a must have and should be created to allow your fans to “like” your events page. Send invitations to friends. When friends accept the invitation, it will appear in their friends’ streams. Another fantastic promotional tool is called Foursquare. You can promote your event by clicking “Add this place”. Fill out and complete the entire form and Import contacts from the free Gmail account that you created earlier. Connect with your contacts on Foursquare. As we have done before, create an event, and then setup a special promotion so Foursquare users can collect it at the event.

Key Points About Social Media Marketing

• Use all the social media channels to your full advantage
• Create new sales using Social Media
• Create an image on Social Media that grows with enthusiasm
• Build relationships with other key people interested in your events

Closer To The Event

Try to generate buzz about the upcoming event by being active on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn regularly. Show some of the best presentations from previous events on your YouTube channel. In the lead-up to your event hold interviews with key speakers and promote them via e-mail newsletters, twitter and other social media methods.