Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Tired of FEAST or FAMINE Sales? by @MallaHaridat

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

Are you tired of “feast and famine” sales in your event planning business?  I’ve got just the strategy for you to find ways to market your current events and land new clients – in the midst of keeping track of ALL of the details and operations!!

The brainstorm: A friend emailed me recently to promote an upcoming event where she is the featured speaker.  Unlike most of her events, it was open to the public.   I thought it was a smart strategy for her to invite her email list to share in her presentation and potentially land some new clients.

Now if you are thinking – I missed it.  What’s so special about that?  No worries.  Her marketing was very subtle – but I would argue powerful in keeping her company name top of mind.

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Event Tech of the Week: @BusyEvent

Friday, September 7th, 2012

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!

Today, we’re talking about GoMobile.Pro

Your Name: David Schenberg – Principal and Co-Founder
Company / Tool Name: BusyEvent’s gomobile.pro
Website: http://www.BusyEvent.com
Twitter: @BusyEvent
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BusyEvent

What is the “problem” that your tool seeks to solve?
After 20 years of designing and managing mall tours, comedy tours, air shows, expos and trade shows, the founders of BusyEvent have rolled with just about every flavor of technology along the way. But no matter what the technology, the goal has always been the same: How to create a return for the money spent. So while people argue over a return on investment we’ve discovered over the years that by tracking what people actually do and report on it, we create something called a Return on Action. And we’ve trademarked the name and a process mixing technology solutions we create, some we general contract along with customized services to ID qualified opportunities from the mounds of data flowing out of live events. So as technology evolves and shiny objects come and go, we remain committed to delivering high-quality information about how people learn, communicate and connect around live events.

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Event Tech of the Week: @IMLWorldwide

Friday, August 24th, 2012

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!

Today, we’re talking about IML Worldwide

Your name: Susan Abrams
Company/Tool Name: IML Worldwide/IML Connector
Website: www.imlworldwide.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/imlworldwide or @imlworldwide
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/imlworldwide/

What is the “problem” that your tool seeks to solve?
How to measure and prove ROI from your meeting or conference.

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4 Steps to Create a Social Media Landing Page in Under 5 Minutes

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

As a business owner, I spend a LOT of time on Facebook and Twitter – always trying to meet new people and find ways of engaging on a deeper level with old friends. One of my big goals for these interactions is to use them like a funnel to lead to our website and get people to understand what it is that we do as a company. Directing traffic to your website can be as simple as a link from your blog or gallery, but a social media landing page is a great way to keep the “feel” of social media while still getting them on your site. It also helps you track how many people come to your site as a direct result of your social media channels. I set up my landing page in about 5 minutes and here is what you need to do.

1. Create a new page on your website that is not on the navigation. In other words, you don’t want people to be able to get there from your homepage. In WordPress, I do this by using the Exclude Pages Plugin.

2. Start your page with a friendly welcome to your readers – beginning with acknowledging that they clicked on a link from your Facebook or Twitter account (or others!). Then, introduce them to some of the most important resources on your website. I share my PHILOSOPHY page and my BLOG. This is also a great place to ask people to sign up for your mailing list.

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Event Tech of the Week: @GoPlanana

Friday, August 3rd, 2012

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!

Today, we’re talking about Planana

PlananaYour name: Anna Sergeeva, Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Company/Tool Name: Planana
Website: http://planana.com
Twitter: @goplanana
Facebook: http://facebook.com/goplanana

What is the “problem” that your tool seeks to solve?
We’ve found that most event organizers struggle to sell out their events. This problem occurs largely because traditional marketing strategies like paid advertisements and email blasts are no longer effective. People hear about events through their friends; people attend events with their friends. That’s why we build Planana – to help event organizers leverage social media to promote and sell out their events.

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Our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter Culture & Its Impact On Your Events

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

Last weekend, I opted to lounge on the couch and watch some good ol’ TV. With such a busy schedule, it’s not often that I get to just hang out on the couch without a laptop in front of me working away. I landed on Jim Gaffigan‘s new special – Mr. Universe – a hysterical commentary on our society. At one point, he mentioned this obsession we have with taking pictures of everything in life and sharing it virally on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Where we used to enjoy experiences, we simply capture them now using all forms of technology. He was making a good point, but I made a note of this cultural difference. Yesterday, I saw someone post this picture that I’ve shared here on the blog. “You should post an Instagram photo of your Facebook page to let everyone know what you are doing. And to make it look vintage”. With all the joking about this topic, I realized that there are a lot of people out there who really don’t get this phenomenon, or who even see it as a bad thing. It got me thinking.

I think, in some ways, this trend is actually really important. 30 years ago, all we had to rely on was our memory. And, if you’re like me, that’s not something you can really rely on. With all the new forms of technology, we can actually capture photos (that look pretty cool) and share the experience with people who can’t physically join us. When we tweet, we can share little bits of information and experiences that can be shared widely. I’ve started many fun friendships based on little things I’ve tweeted that “no one cares about”.

And, finally, as an event planner, I have to make a tie to what this means for our events.

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Branding is for Cows by JennG_

Friday, July 6th, 2012

haitiMeeting planners’ are in the relationship business. Their ultimate goal is making connections. They create face-to-face experiences. They use social media to what seems like the nth degree. Yet somehow, the efforts can all fall flat if relationships are purely transactional.

“Branding is for cows; stories are for people.”

I saw the above quote in the background of pictures for, ironically, a branding conference that took place last year. The same day I read in a blog about email marketing: “Keep in mind that a one-way relationship isn’t really a relationship at all. It’s exploitation.”

If we’re only pushing out information, begging people to register, or spending time creating and marketing an image for our conference, are we really making a difference?

I’ve posted hundreds of pictures from our conferences on Facebook and received great interaction and comments. But this morning I posted seven pictures of children in Haiti receiving stuffed animals made by participants at Collaborate Marketplace, and there was instant response.

We all joked about the statistics that show social media posts of babies and puppies get the most attention. The pictures might not be as relevant as the strategy articles we share or as helpful to your career as the conferences we cover in feature stories, but they did convey the power and message of our conference: The meetings you plan, the programming you stress over, and the numbers you crunch make a difference when you connect emotionally and meaningfully with people.

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SPAM – A lot! by @ProjectMaven

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

By now we all know that old scam email where someone from Nigeria informs you that you have a huge settlement waiting for you, and if you just send them some basic identifying information, oh, and pay the shipping and handling fee, they’ll send you the payment. There are a few variations on the theme, but the basic idea is the same. It’s an obvious ploy to swindle you out of your own money.

Well there are a few types of SPAM I’ve been noticing lately that seem to be going around the internet more often, and I wonder how many of us are actually falling for them, or better yet, how we’re warning each other about them…

There’s that tweet where a colleague writes to you, usually by DM, “Someone is saying really nasty things about you,” and then there’s a link to click on… please, don’t tell me you’re clicking on that link! Again, the language may be a variation, such as, “You seen what this person is saying about you… terrible things,” but the point is the same. You click on that link (always shortened, by the way, to mask its true location) and you will land on a site containing malware, Trojans (not the good kind), or some other info-stealing virus.

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Event Tech of the Week: @OneLobby

Friday, April 20th, 2012

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!

Today, we’re talking about One Lobby

Your name: Jordan Smith
Company/Tool Name:
OneLobby
Website: 
OneLobby.ca
Twitter:
@onelobby
Facebook: 
www.facebook.com/onelobby

What is the “problem” that your tool seeks to solve?
OneLobby strongly believes that networking determines the success of an event. For many, networking is hard to do and is time consuming. We also recognize that conference planners are under increased pressure to deliver a greater return in exchange for sponsor investment.

Event Tech of the Week: @Mediasite

Friday, April 13th, 2012

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!

Today, we’re talking about Mediasite

Your name: Erica St. Angel
Company/Tool Name: Mediasite Events by Sonic Foundry
Website: http://events.sonicfoundry.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/mediasite @Mediasite
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mediasite

What is the “problem” that your tool seeks to solve?
Two key issues:
1. Not everyone who wants to be at your event can be there.
2. People who are there may want to watch again when they get home, or watch a track they may have missed, or share what they experienced with other colleagues.
While we believe strongly in the power of face to face meetings and events, budget constraints and travel restrictions sometimes make it difficult for many people who want to be onsite to get there.

We provide webcasting services to create hybrid events, virtual conferences and online meetings, so now the remote audience can also join in, get the information they need and further that relationship with your organization and your brand.

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