using social media to market your events
DESCRIPTION
Social media is a great tool to add to your marketing arsenal. One of its most powerful uses is to get traction for your online and in-person events. Join us for this webinar to talk about using free and paid social media tools to reach your future attendees AND make sure they show up! Targeting people by likes, interests, and geographic location has never been easier.TRANSCRIPT
How to Use Social Media to Market Your Events
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sepblog/3542294246/
Who we are
Hall Internet MarketingPortland, MaineIn business over 12 years@hall_web
Amanda O’BrienVP of Marketing@amanda_pants
Events
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chokola/1229450683/
Why Use Social Media?
• Promote your event with your network
• Viral nature of social media
• Cheap
• Easy to update in-house
• Tools in place, don’t reinvent the wheel
• Extend the life of your events – before, during and after
Social Media
More…Blog posts about social mediaTop 10 Tips You Need to Know About Using Twitter for BusinessComing Up With New Content - Blogs, Whitepapers, Social MediaCreating a Social Media Plan for Your Business
Butts in seats – real or virtualHow did your last event go?More sponsorsMore buzz
Everything Starts with Goals
Photo credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiemann/1521876735/
Do your research
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/view/142745616/
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kheelcenter/5279081507/
Who do you want at your event?
Where are those people?
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stoneysteiner/6035325308/
Why should they care about your event?
Appeal to your target audienceWhat will they learn?Address pain points
Let them know it is worth their valuable time
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/3153035648/
Make it easyall of it
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deestea/127837586/
Let them know earlyLet them know early
Not there yet? Send a save the dateNot there yet? Send a save the date
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiredwitch/3772518889/
Let them know last minute!
Photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/juditk/4481269246/
Make it shareable
Social media share promptsShareable link (bit.ly)Ask for people to share
Can you reward them for passing it along?
Photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/66309414@N04/6291497204/
Post regular updates
• What is regular?What is regular?• People don’t see everything you postPeople don’t see everything you post• People don’t like spamPeople don’t like spam• 80/2080/20• Same the same thing but differentSame the same thing but different
• Limited seats• Only 24 hours left
Urgency Sells
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edkohler/484322226/
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosauraochoa/3939487692/
TwitterAccount or Hashtag | Search locally or by topic | Please RT
• Hashtags and blog about what a hashtag is
• WTHashtag
• Display tweets at your event
• http://visibletweets.com/
• Dangers in that
• Manage how your event is going
• Set up Twitter lists
• Attendees
• Speakers
• Mix in with other content
Photo credit:http://www.searchenginejournal.com/facebook-android-phone-buffy/36870/
Facebook Events and Ads• Easy to set up• Events
– Invite people– Share information– Have registration?– Easily shareable
• Ads– Inexpensive– Target by interests– Target by location– Age– Income– Job title– …
LinkedIn• Update status• Groups• Answers• Events
Blog• Before
– Tease the event– Announce speakers and content
• During– Live blogging
• After– Recap post– Posts questions from the event– Post slides with short description– Tell them how to find out about next one
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/2965186113/
Email MarketingDedicated list just for events
ToolsEventbright
GoToWebinar
Livestream
Flickr
Local chamber
Local event listings
Webinar listings
Event Marketing Sites
• Make it easier with existing tools
• Eventbright
• 123signup.com
• Eventful
• Meetup
Payment processingEmbed tickets on your site
Print badgesStatistics
During eventDuring eventFoursquare/Gowalla
Promote hashtag
Post pics
Photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/batmoo/3734837951/
Post event – extend the life of your event
Photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/revstan/4378933476/
• Post slides – Slideshare• Recordings• Clips• Blog• Promote next event
Recap
Photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashevillein/4233288271/
• Social Media and Events were made to work together• Take online offline • Set goals• Decide who you are trying to reach• Let people know early and late• Make it easy to find, register and share• Know your audience and how much is too much• Use social media sites and tools to help• Get more before, during and after
Want to know more?
• Hall Vision Blog: http://www.hallme.com/blog/• Email: [email protected]• Twitter: @hall_web and @amanda_pants• More upcoming webinars:
– Getting Started with Facebook Ads– More Google+ for Businesses