Liz King Events is the leading social media meeting and event planning firm. Use social media and technology to better brand your organization, engage your attendees and increase efficiency.
In case you haven’t heard, the media landscape is changing … and that’s great news for small businesses.
But how do you take advantage of these changes to generate more publicity for your business?
I sat down with Dave Gerhardt, communications specialist at Constant Contact, to discuss some of the ways small businesses can best position themselves to generate more publicity for their brand.
Do you or someone you know suffer from Social Media Information Overload (SMIO)?
SMIO is caused by too much information about too many social media platforms and not enough information about why these platforms are right for your business.
It’s exhausting and for some, incredibly frustrating.
Luckily there’s a cure.
I sat down with Erica Ayotte, social media manager at Constant Contact, to talk about which sites are best for helping small businesses market their brand.
Watch this week’s Ask an Expert to see which of the top sites are best for your industry and learn how your business can experiment with new social media platforms to find out if they work for you.
Many event planners realize that one of the most daunting goals when creating an event is figuring out how to keep your attendees engaged AFTER the event. We want them to remain connected to the event brand so that they will buy tickets next year and have a stronger emotional tie to your brand. However, a long-term content strategy can be overwhelming for some planners. For others, it’s simply out of their scope.
Until now. I have a few ideas of how you can use social media to foster this year-round community.
BLOG
Posting content on a blog is one of the best ways to keep people engaged. Your community is always looking for education and it would be great if you can provide that to them more than once a year. You will need a long-term content strategy for this, but it is well worth the engagement. To make it a little easier on yourself, involve your community in the blog. Ask your speakers to write 1 post for you each quarter based on their topic and share that on the blog. As your attendees to guest post for you – either once or on a recurring basis. This helps to involve your community in the every day operations of your blog, includes them in the marketing strategy and also gives you quality content.
If I had to pick a responsible party, I’d blame Zumba and the Zombie Run. Because both of those things have forever changed what I’m willing to accept as a meeting designer, speaker and attendee.
Catching up on business reading last November, I stumbled upon an article about the worldwide exercise and business empire Zumba. By focusing on three words — freeing, electrifying, joy — they built an enthusiastic, hip-shaking army of brand evangelists and consumers.
Over the course of the past few years, we’ve seen an evolution in the way that our event attendees capture their experience. From Instagram to Pinterest to other social media tools, the attendees at our events have become more socially savvy and that has greatly contributed to how we capture information. In the past, we would hire a photographer and videographer and count on them to capture the events and images. But, that no longer needs to be the case. Of course, I always recommend working with your standard photographer and videographer, but it has become clear to me that a) those vendors need to be more social-savvy themselves; and b) there is also a huge opportunity to leverage the sharing nature of your attendees.
Take a look at your event from A-Z. From when an attendee walks in the door until they leave. What are they seeing that attracts them? After attending many events over the past few years, I realize that people will take pictures of anything. They will take pictures of your event regardless of how it looks, but you can be smart about the design of your event to facilitate better sharing. Rather than just let people take pictures of the name of the building where the event is being held, jazz it up and put your brand on it, too. Make it something that people want to take a picture of and, more importantly, want to share.
I know as an entrepreneur we often cringe at the word “FREE” when it comes to our business, but I’m going to share something that can be very powerful for your long term brand – give away your best stuff for FREE and watch how you can grow your brand as you position yourself as an expert.
Now let me clear up quickly what I mean by what you should give away for free. You are NOT giving away your services to manage an event for free.
Using mobile applications at events is becoming more and more common and the number of mobile app companies that are popping up is astounding. Certainly there is a huge need for connecting event attendees, sponsors, speakers and other participants at an event. However, as with any new technology, the more we jump into it, the more we realize there is a need for some strategic thought. Today, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts that you may want to consider before developing, integrating and training your staff on a new mobile app.
Mobile Ready Sites
Without a doubt, companies all over the world are working quickly to make sure that their websites are mobile friendly. Regardless of what mobile app developer you choose for your audience, you need to start with making sure that your website is responsive – meaning that it will look differently when accessed through the computer, mobile phones and tablet devices. With access to the Internet from a variety of devices, it’s important that your website responds appropriately and is easy to use regardless of how the end-user is accessing the site. Having a focus on this from the very beginning may in fact prevent you from needing an app that is specifically designed for single event. But, this is definitely a good place to start even if you’re going to develop your own app.
At BusyEvent, we are huge social media fans. It is pretty widely recognized that social media can add a lot opportunity to your events. For example, LinkedIn is great for networking and Facebook and Twitter can be great for promoting. But what about that one that many people consider dead, created by the internet giant Google?
Although Google+ didn’t take off and become the next social media must-have that many expected. It still has some great advantages that many people don’t use– and should.
1. How do clients search for Event Planners? — Google
This is probably hands down the biggest advantage Google+ can give to its users. Google+ pages that are updated more often actually show up higher than websites not connected to Google+. This means that when someone goes to Google and searches “Event Planner” they are first seeing the accounts which rate highest on Google– many of those rating higher because they are posting on their Google+ pages.
Also webpages that have been +1?ed (like being “liked” in Facebook terminology) will also rank higher.
I love, love, love all things events and technology. If you can’t tell by my tweets, Facebook posts and all my other social media interactions, I love to talk about events and the tools that help us do what we do better. In June 2011, I partnered with an organization called imbookin to bring you PlannerTech – an event technology showcase. This weekly blog series is going to help continue to expose you to new tools you need to be aware of as an event planner. Also, in case you missed it, PlannerTech could be coming soon to your area!
Your Name: Kyle Christian Steele, CEO and Co-founder
Company/Tool Name: Doccaster
Website: www.doccaster.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/doccaster
Facebook: www.facebook.com/doccaster
What is the “problem” that your tool seeks to solve?
A lack of access to organized and deep data analytics on the entire attendee and exhibitor/sponsor experience before, during and after the actual event.
A study conducted by the PCMA Education Foundation validated our industry observations and ground-level research regarding the lack of deep and well organized data analytics. During the study called “Scenarios for the Future Convention, Exhibits & Trade shows of 2016,” the following conclusion was made:
I am an Event Manager …
I have unlimited resources at my disposal. I always keep at least 10 meeting rooms under my desk. I can make any of my rooms larger or smaller, depending on your program needs. I will naturally remove any supporting pillars from your meeting space and will install windows in every room as needed.
Unfortunately the ‘ocean view’ is not scheduled to arrive until Day Two of the program for which I sincerely apologise; however, I will move the convention centre two feet to the left to accommodate your request by the end of Day One, although I realize the event is only next week.
