Archive for the ‘Branding’ Category

How Do you Reach High Level Executives? by @MallaHaridat

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

Getting face time with senior level executives is a key part of building your business, but it’s not always easy.

You have to capture their interest in the midst of other pressing issues on their plate.  And that, of course, doesn’t take into account the other vendors who are also pitching to them.

And even if you are able to rise through the noise and get heard – their time is limited.  How do you pare your pitch down so that it’s meaningful and you are remembered the next time that they need an event planner.

So how does an event planner do it?

I’ll share three strategies that have helped me reach the higher ups and those with power to hire your company

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What You Need to Know About Facebook Brand Timelines For Your Events Business

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

Facebook Brand Timeline

Well, they have done it again – Facebook is making upgrades/changes to their site and all of us brand page owners are left to make the most of the new layouts. In case you haven’t heard, Facebook is now switching brands over to the new timeline format. This means some big changes to all that hard work you’ve put into designing your page. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Add a Cover Photo
You now have the chance to add a cover photo to your Facebook page. This is a great way to catch attention when your fans come to your page for the first time. A few tips – keep it clean and not too text heavy. Be creative. The photo needs to be 851x315px and follow the following Facebook guidelines:

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Quit marketing at me! by @projectmaven

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

We all get marketed to, all the time. Can you feel it? You do know that all of your moves on Facebook, Amazon, Spotify, The Washington Post – they’re all being tracked. If you actively use any social media tools, your thoughts, tastes and preferences have all gone into one central database where a custom marketing strategy is being created just for you.

Don’t you feel special?

Marketing

If you are conducting any kind of business, you are always looking to locate your market, find your audience, your clients – the pool of available resources that will fund your continued existence. The stakes are high! You may have a great product, but if you can’t connect it to the right people, you will not thrive or profit.

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The Social Formula + Pinterest by @la_suazo

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

Gone are the times of jumpstarting a business and maybe networking along the way if you have time. These are the times that without that network…the next guy HAS your business; no need to kick start the business if you aren’t going to have any customers right?

At this point most know the formula for starting your social presence, personal brand or business:

alexSuazo socialformula

You really don’t even need a website anymore which is the best part of it. Wasn’t that the big obstacle for a lot of non-tech people back in the day? How do I buy my domain? HTML? CSS? “I need a designer!” Screw it all, because you can do it all yourself now with hosted blogs on WordPress or Tumblr. Link up your photos from Flickr, link your videos from YT, include widgets for fans to LIKE you on FB, tweet you on TW, share to and connect with you on LinkedIn, Stumble, Digg, Reddit etc.

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Our Role as Event Planners: How to Raise the Bar on Your New Client’s Events

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

Raise the BarWorking with a new client is a very exciting process. We get the chance to learn about how they have organized their events in the past and what has been successful. Usually at the point when they’re bringing in an event planner, there are some things that are not working as well. This is when our role becomes more about business and marketing strategy then about the actual events sometimes. For me, this is one of the most exciting parts of the event planning process. For some, however, this becomes very daunting. So, I thought I would share some tips on how we can help our clients be more successful not only with their events, but with their business as a whole.

Help them understand the tie between events and their clients.
I’m surprised how many companies and organizations host events for the sake of having them. As the planner I think it is our role to get them to start thinking about how they could be using the events to cultivate relationships with their target market.

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4 Signs Your Social Media Consultant Is Taking Advantage Of You

Monday, February 20th, 2012

Kids at ComputerThe more businesses move towards a social media presence, the more they reach out to consultants for help. As with any new trend, “consultants” pop up like the weasels in some carnival game and the clients go around trying to whack them away. While there are many great social media consultants out there, there are more who are simply taking advantage of the fact that you don’t have time and they have logged on to Twitter before. Here are a few signs that the social media consultant you hired isn’t the right man/woman for the job.

They forgot to talk to you about strategy.
As with any marketing campaign, a social media presence must be rooted in strategy. Companies find success by doing more than pushing out content. It really does matter what content you share, how you share it, when you share it and how all of that ties into your organizations goals and mission. If you aren’t having regular conversations about all of this, you are getting bamboozled!

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#Eventprofs Chat: Tips & Best Practices: Event Promotion 2/2/12

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

#eventprofs chatJoin us this Thursday, February 2, from 12-1pm EST for our chat on the Social Media Promotion. Here are the topics we’ll discuss. Please feel free to add your own ideas as well:

  • What are the pros and cons of social networks in promoting events? Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and more.
  • What is your experience with event discounts? When to offer? How much?
  • What other methods do you use to get people to sign up for your events? Or, even better, to sign up early?

Not sure how to join us? It’s pretty simple! Just go to tweetchat.com and sign in with your Twitter username and password. Then, enter the #eventprofs hashtag at the top. I’ll be the moderator so you can look out for my comments and questions. Then, all you have to do is respond! It’s that simple!

Don’t Just Tweet – Consider the HOW and WHY

Monday, January 30th, 2012

TweetI spent the weekend at Social Media Weekend here in New York and realized that there are still so many people with questions about Twitter. So, I thought I would share this guide to getting started. Before we get started, however, I want to share that I am a firm believer that Twitter isn’t for everyone. Before you dive in, consider the following things to see if it might be the right social network for your business.

Twitter success requires total buy-in.
I don’t see Twitter as a marketing tool so you need to make sure that you are really interested and open to seeing what happens. If you’re getting on Twitter just because everyone else tells you too, you aren’t likely to be successful.

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Finding new Clients by @MallaHaridat

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

SalesOne of the first things I often want to know from my consulting clients is how they get business.  In other words, how does your business go from nothing to a lead to the final sale?

It’s one of the biggest challenges when you first start a business because often you want to spend time doing what you love.  For most event planners, I’m sure it’s the time you spend with the clients planning, designing and running the event.  Finding the clients may not rank high on your list of loves.

So how do you increase the number of clients you work with?

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Leveraging PR For Your Events Business

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

I Love PRRecently, I had the unique chance to listen to a panel of PR, marketing, and advertising executives. It was a great opportunity to take an inside look at what the PR and marketing world deals with behind closed doors. As a small business owner, I started thinking about how I market my business and what I might be doing wrong, or what I could be doing better. 

One of the interesting things that the panelists talked about was the difference between PR and marketing. According to them, PR is really about creating a story and sharing news about a company in a way that allows people to emotionally connect to a brand. It’s all about using free tools to capture people’s emotions. Marketing, on the other hand, is much more about paid advertisements.

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