I was recently at the Perfect Business Summit in Las Vegas, NV - a conference designed to provide resources and inspiration to entrepreneurs and I heard a talk by Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com. Many of you probably know that he is extremely talented and has revolutionized customer service, but do you know just how revolutionary he really is? In his talk, he suggested that corporations do just what I mentioned - shift some or all of your advertising dollars into an investment in your clients. Once you make your existing clients happy, there's very little need to market your business after all.

Here are some other ways that you can "market" without spending a dime or drafting an ad!

Care About Your Clients
Sounds simple, but a note to say hello or a thank you letter for a purchase goes a long way. I know you're busy, but oversimplifying the Thank You process can be detrimental to your business. Don't send cards printed by your assistant with a stamp of your signature on the bottom. Take the time to care about your clients.

Read More at InPlymouth.Com

Since 2003, Liz has produced fundraisers, conferences, networking events, meetings, and special occasions designed specifically according to the tastes, concerns, and desires of her clients. Liz King deals in details: she learns all about her client and the nature of the event they’d like to have, and then tightly manages every logistical detail to make the event run smoothly. As an industry professional, Liz has always had an eye for the exciting trend changes in the event planning business. She maintains a constant presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media networks to promote events and collaborate with other event professionals.
Liz King Events Website
Email: liz@lizkingevents.com
Liz King Events on Facebook
Liz King Events on Twitter

Joshua Gaynor - Social Media Startup

Spend a few minutes with Josh and you will learn about websites and new technology developments you never heard of. Then, go home and look it all up and you will be AMAZED! Josh knows the top news in tech and social media because of his genuine interests - he reads more articles and tries more technologies than most of us could dream of! Who better then to help you set up your social media accounts and direct you to resources to help you master them for your business!?

Josh Gaynor on Twitter
Josh Gaynor on LinkedIn

Patrick Smith - Social Media Startup

Idea man. Relationship builder. Meeting people & making things happen. Promoting social good via social media. Love NYC nightlife, good liquor and Chinese food. Patrick will be available in the lounge to help those of you who are interested in social media, but don’t know how to get started! He’ll walk you through setup of a Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook account and give you some tips for makingrelationships happen using social networking!

Patrick Smith on Twitter
Patrick Smith on LinkedIn

Malla Haridat - Branding Your Business Using Social Media

Malla Haridat, the Founder and Chief Executive, is a nationally recognized expert in the specialized field of entrepreneurship education and has trained over 1,000 students. She has traveled extensively throughout the United States working in partnership with companies developing creative solutions for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. A dynamic thinker, strategist, and speaker, Malla, now works with awide variety of organizations applying her creative talents to the challenges of business transformation. Malla has made significant advances in marketing her business through the use of social media and will be at BizBash to help you apply similar principles to yours!

Malla Haridat Website
Malla Haridat on Twitter

Lindsey Rosenthal - Branding Your Business Using Social Media

Lindsey is an experienced fundraising event specialist with proven success for nonprofit organizations and associations in strategy and special event development.She is the founder and principal of Events For Good, which incorporates events into long-term fundraising strategy, aligns corporate social responsibility with a company's goals, and creates unique and customized event experiences. Lindsey is also one of the founders and organizers of EventCamp East Coast, a peer conference for people who are directly involved in the planning of corporate and association meetings and conferences focusing on experimentation and innovation in the event industry. Got questions about using social media to promote your brand? Find Lindsey in the lounge and ask away! She's full of great tips and lots of ideas to get you started!

Lindsey Rosenthal Website
Lindsey Rosenthal on Twitter
Lindsey Rosenthal on LinkedIn
Lindsey Rosenthal on Facebook

Cameron Toth - Integrating Social Media into Your Events

Cameron is an event professional and works with youth in Harlem as part of the College and Career Preparatory Institute. Cameron has used social media to promote CCPI and his personal brand and will be on hand at the social media lounge to talk about how to do the same for your events! Spend some time with Cameron to get tips that you can implement at your next event. 

Cameron Toth Website
Cameron Toth on Twitter

Alex Yepes - Integrating Social Media into Your Events

Event professional and Managing Director of the Small Business Development Center run through Columbia University and New York State, Alex has made huge strides in event management and the integration of social media in events. Check him out in the lounge and write down all his tips and ideas. It will make all the difference in your next social media integrated event!

Alex Yepes on Twitter

Christina Coster - Roaming Tweeter

Christina Coster is an award winning special event and conference planner born, raised, and based in New York City. She is the founder of EventCamp(@Eventcamp) and blogs on EventCoup.com. Christina is a social media enthusiast, loves all things tech (although the feeling is not always mutual), and is an avid Mets fan. You can connect with her on Twitter at @Mizcity, on LinkedIn, or find her on the nearest Volleyball court. You'll find Christina in all the sessions and all over the expo floor tweeting about all the activities of the day!

Christina Coster on Twitter

Leslie Richin - Roaming Tweeter

Founder, Low Maintenance PR. freelance journalist, publicist, social media strategistand event planner. Leslie specializes in organizing and publicizing special events related to fashion, art, film, music, social media, new business/product launch, charity & fundraising. Leslie will be working with Christina to capture the event via Twitter and Facebook.

Leslie Richin Website
Leslie Richin on Twitter

Andres & Kim Valenzuela - Event Photographers

Andres Valenzuela Photography specializes in wedding and children's documentary photography. We're a husband and wife team based out of the NY metro area. We love relationship building with our couples and families as we believe it is the best way to capture who they are in the most natural and candid way possible. Catch Andres and Kim roaming the event and capturing photos of all the fun!
Andres Valenzuela Photography Website
Email: andres@andresvalenzuela.com
Andres Valenzuela on Facebook
Andres Valenzuela on Twitter

Mat Swajkos and Erin Leigh - TwitPicBooth

Mat Szwajkos specializes in celebrity portrait and fashion photography. He received his BFA from Pratt Institute in 2001. In 2005 Mat began his freelance career and started building lasting relationships with actors, musicians and fashion designers.
His clients include: InStyle, The Discovery Network, Ford Motors, Red Bull, Mr. Youth, Steven Alan, Muscle and Fitness, The Daily, MTV, TV Land, AOL, Lilly Pharmaceuticals, Victoria’s Secret, Tribeca Film Festival, Robert Verdi, Atlantic Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Yamaha and The Food Network.

Raised in Seattle, Erin studied fine art photography at RIT. Her first internship with the Associated Press in Jerusalem cemented her love for photojournalism and storytelling. As a NY-based freelance photographer, she spends her free time between assignments traveling, studying trapeze and spending time with her awesome photographer husband.
Erin Wigger Photography Website

Ed Wagaba – TwitVids

If you’re looking for someone engaging and fun, Ed is the man! Ed has worked with several organizations on the administrative, operational and social networking components of their company and is trying out his new interest – video - at the BizBash Expo! Ed will be roaming around the event to capture all the fun times and all your takeaways on video! We’ll post videos to our YouTube channel so you can relive the event until next year!
Ed Wagaba on Twitter

Visit the TwitPic Booth!

The TwitPic Photobooth is so much more than a regular ol' photobooth. It's a get-the-party-started factory as well as a brand marketing machine! Guests are photographed and the pictures are transmitted directly to Twitter and other social media sites using the event hashtag and the guests' Twitter handles. The pictures go viral as the event is happening. This allows the event to be tracked across Twitter, Facebook and other social sites. Instead of just the one impression from a normal photobooth, these images continue to have a shelf life well beyond the event as profile pics or posted on Facebook walls.
For more info, watch a quick video.

Win Prizes!

$500 Grosh Backdrops Rental!

For over 75 years, Grosh Backdrops has been supplying event planners with top quality backdrops and drapery from an unmatched selection. With the largest scenic rental inventory in the special events industry, Grosh Backdrops and Drapery is sure to have the perfect backdrop to compliment your next event!

Grosh Backdrops Website
Grosh Backdrops Twitter
Lindsay Fultz Twitter
Grosh Backdrops on YouTube
Grosh Backdrops on Facebook

One Ticket to EventCamp!

One of the most innovative forums for event planners to learn and test new concepts, EventCamp is the place to be! Win one ticket (excluding airfare and accommodations) to EventCamp Chicago and visit their booth (314) at the Expo for more details!
EventCamp Website

Gift Cards for Charity!

Win one of several gift cards through Charity Choice – a perfect way to add an element of good into any event! Test it out and give to the charity of your choice! Stay tuned to Twitter to see how you can win at the event.
Charity Choice Website 

Starbucks Gift Cards!

Who doesn’t love Starbucks? You’ll have the chance to win a gift card to one of their stores throughout the day so stay tuned!!

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh!  

Good customer service and company culture are two of the main components of a successful business and Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, is one of the leading authorities on these subjects. Win a copy of his book at the event and take the time to implement his concepts for business success!

Why You Need an Online Presence
If you are a student that is connected across all three channels that is great as you will already be creating some differentiation for yourself. You will have an edge on your class mates.

A number of recruitment consultants use LinkedIn to find candidates and in the many LinkedIn Groups you can find job opportunities. Many employers use Face book and Linked In as background sources for information on people – so my advice is to be aware of what you are posting on the sites (same advice applies to Twitter). Twitter has a huge amount of information on all sorts of subjects which can only benefit your knowledge level. So my advice is simply this – get connected across all three channels as a minimum. If you have created and are writing your own blog then that is great as well. Now you are really motoring.

Are You LinkedIn?
If you use the LinkedIn facility to put your academic qualifications/professional standing on line then that can only be useful for you. Additionally it will force you to structure your thoughts in what you want to say so the exercise will help you prepare your CV. If you already have a CV then you can use much of that information for LinkedIn.

Many event and business professionals have put their profiles on Linked In and are using the site to find out about their potential business partners/competitors and generally keep up to date with what’s going on.

LinkedIn Groups
There are some LinkedIn Groups that are open to everyone (clearly you need to have a Linked In profile first) so you could join them and keep up to date with the latest topics being discussed. Some Groups will be better than others so you will just need to find which are going to work most effectively for you.

You can adjust the settings so that you only receive Group messages on a daily or weekly basis which helps you decide when you want to see the messages that come from the groups.

Tweet Tweet
Twitter is another great way of connecting with people and finding out what the latest thoughts/issues are. This is not to be missed. People on Twitter post such a wealth of useful information you would be missing out not to be involved. Yes there are some people that post trivia but the choice is always yours as to who you follow and how you want to use this.

When I first started I just created an account and then observed how it all worked. I found this approach really worked for me. My advice to you would be to keep an eye on a group called #eventprofs - You really will not be disappointed. This is one engaged on line community that is creating the curve and is full of friendly and supportive people. The amount of useful information you will pick up will be significant (I promise). Not sure how to get started then just have a look at the following guides –

Getting Started with Twitter for your Business

http://www.planetplanit.co.uk/eventiq-articles.asp?
category=Websites+Social+Networking+and+Technology&serialnumber=144

http://www.planetplanit.co.uk/eventiq-articles.asp?
category=Websites+Social+Networking+and+Technology&serialnumber=145

Yes I know that these articles have a business focus but they cover all the key points that you need to get going. So now you know how to set up an account but what about the etiquette? I have highlighted a video which explains what I think is a really good approach and will help you. For the Etiquette of Twitter you can check out this great video.

Summary 
As with all our previous posts this virtual activity will require some time investment from you but again the long term benefits will be worth it. Whilst you can be networking and connecting face to face there is also great importance of having a virtual presence. When you have the virtual presence be sure to include the contact
information within your business cards/e mails/letterhead or else you are missing an opportunity.

Top Tips

• Set some time aside on a regular basis for your virtual (professional) activity
• Dust off or create your CV – This will be a big help for the LinkedIn profile
• Have a look at any LinkedIn Groups that may benefit you and join them
• Read the Planet Planit Twitter Guides and then take a leap and create your own account
• Have a look at the #eventprofs community on Twitter and join the conversation when you feel ready
• Remember to only post information that you are happy to put into the public view
• Follow @planetplanitbiz and keep up to date

_______________________________

About Paul Cook
Paul Cook, Managing Director of Planet Planit, is passionate about the events and production industries. He is keen to raise the importance and awareness of effective planning across the industry. Paul already runs a successful business providing insurance for special events Clarity Event Insurance and is recognised as a leading figure in the events industry. Paul is International Development & Student Programme Director for Meeting Professionals International UK and Ireland Chapter, (MPI) the leading professional development and networking body for the events industry, having already served a term as President during 2007/08. He is also currently serving on the Chapter Advisory Council of MPI’s global body.

In 2008 he was voted Number 15 in the Power 50 of people making their mark in the events industry by Haymarket’s industry leading publication – Conference and Incentive Travel.Paul frequently guest lectures at Universities and Trade Shows. He has also written for a number of trade journals and his opinions are frequently published by online magazines

Today, my suggestion is Lewis Howes. I met Lewis in-person yesterday at the Perfect Business Summit and attended his session on advanced social media marketing. I learned a lot and want to share his knowledge with my fellow event professionals. Lewis wrote the book on LinkedIn and is also involved with sportsnetworker.com. Want a LinkedIn tip that Lewis shared? After you post a status update on LinkedIn, click the "Share Again" button and you can also send that update to up to 50 groups that you are a part of. This is an easy way to share very important information with a lot of people. Of course, be careful that you don't over-use this tip!! 

Read more about how to do this.

In the meantime, Connect with Lewis:

Website

Twitter

1. The event hashtag has been established by an attendee.
The event communication needs to be managed by the staff. The planners need to decide how they want their members to communicate (realizing that Twitter is not the only option) and make this very public information. If attendees are left to create their own channels, this is not a good sign! That being said, there is some value to jumping in on a conversation already created as an event planner and helping to encourage conversation. The double bad sign? When an attendee has created a way for folks to communicate and no one from the planning staff has even noticed!

2. The event Twitter stream is filled with self promotion.
If you are going to list "Follow Us on Twitter" as a part of your marketing, you should ensure that there is good content for your attendees on that list. Link to speakers, sponsors, and planners. Share related articles. Do something to connect the attendees. Do something more than just marketing the event over and over. Give people a way to connect!

3. Attendee lists are impossible to find as are Twitter handles of the speakers, sponsors and promoters.
While some events keep this information private, there are ways to integrate attendee-specific information on your event website. The savvy conference attendee is doing their homework before the event - trying to connect with other people who will be there in advance. By not listing contact information, or at least a list of names, you are making their job much more difficult.

We'll be tweeting about the expo and running lots of contests and I'd love to put together some gift bags for attendees to help highlight the community. If you have anything you'd like to include in the gift bags or prizes you'd like me to raffle off, please let me know. I think we're looking at 3500+ attendees and I'd like to highlight our community in any way possible. Please let me know if you have any ideas!

Register using code BBNYTWEET10 before 9/27/10 to receive 15% off registration! Also, please let me know your Twitter handle so we can connect before the event!

http://www.bizbashnewyorkexpo.com/index.cfm

This week, there's no better person to start with than Jenise Fryatt. Jenise has been an #eventprofs friend, guest blogger on my site and facilitator of relationships for the past year or so. It's been so great getting to know her a bit and seeing the impact she has had on the community. I've had the opportunity to write several guest blogs for her over the course of the last year and it has been nothing short of amazing. Enjoy!!

Connect with Jenise

http://www.twitter.com/JeniseFryatt
http://www.icon-presentations.com/blog/
Vote for her Sound n Sight blog in the #Eventprofs blog awards!
http://www.ready2spark.com/2010/08/eventprofs-blog-awards-nominees-announced.html

Question #1: What exactly is it about social media that is attractive to people like hotel customers? Why have you been successful tying social media into attraction of new or repeat customers?

The "social" aspect of Social Media is extremely relevant in any consumer goods or services company, and even more so with travelers. The hospitality industry is all about experiences, a traveler in a new city needs a bed to sleep in, but it's the service from the likes of a Marriott or a Hilton that separates them from Mom & Pop Motel XYZ. Building on that idea from an industry perspective, from a consumer perspective having that great experience then leads to even more social interactions as the travelers return home and share those experiences.

These days that means Social Media: users updating their Facebook status gushing about the great time they had on a vacation, posting pictures to Facebook or Flickr, and writing reviews on sites like TripAdvisor. From the 25 billion pieces of content posted on Facebook each month (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics) to "over 35 million trusted traveler reviews & opinions" on TripAdvisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com/ homepage), people are interested in sharing freely on the new Social Web. This is the reason why we have been successful in using Social Media to directly speak to the customer, travelers want to connect with a real person even if it's online. It's having that local insider's connection before they even get to their vacation destination who talks to them on their preferred contact medium, which frequently is social media. Focus on the individual as you remember the "social" in Social Media, savvy users these days don't want to speak to a machine, they want to use Social Media as a direct access to a real live person. Respond back to comments and create new posts using a natural, conversational tone to let your personality shine through and let the readers know that they are indeed talking to a real person and making a connection.

Question #2: What incentives or suggestions do you use to attract those who are reluctant to use social media to get involved and online?

The rise of the celebrity Twitter account has helped us get new users to "buy-in" to the idea of Social Media. Our new "Princess of Tweets," Sarah, was a little hesitant at first. She understood the successes we were having with the unexpected delights and making a connection with guests, so she saw the power of Social Media. To get her to fully onboard and understand more closely the dynamics of Twitter (RTs, Follow Friday, etc.) we set her up with a private Twitter list of her favorite celebrities that are on Twitter. By following that column on her Hootsuite deck, their was a reason for her to be interested in checking twitter and keeping up with how the entire system works. Replace movie celebrities with anyone from NASCAR drivers, Basketball stars, or of course the early adopter Technology pundits and I believe you will find their is something for everyone on Social Media. Have someone just follow their favorite people and ask questions about what RT means, or the proper way to RT for example. Use this as a learning process while also showing them case studies of where you (or others) have had success in the Social Media arena.

Question #3: In terms of social media strategy, what is the one piece of advice you have learned that you were shocked about or initially resistant to?

If I had to boil it down to one piece, it's to think long term. Social Media does work, but unless you're really lucky you won't be an overnight sensation. I think we all thought people would be really interested in what we had to say just because we were using Social Media. If millions of people read what Ashton Kutcher had for lunch, then surely they want to hear about mine too! Of course this is a bit oversimplified (unless you're a celebrity already too!), but also speaks to being relevant and giving users a reason to read what you have to say. It takes time to build credibility and a following, so don't give up if you don't immediately see results even after 2 months. Celebrate the small success such as slowly increasing the number of readers to you blog, fans on your Facebook page, or followers on Twitter. Use these small milestones as roadmaps along the way to set concrete goals which you can show others in your organization, and keep setting new ones along with plans to get there.

A blog post to get read by 500 readers may be a realistic goal if your last one had 400 hits, so now how would you get those extra 100 readers? Should you submit the article to a news aggregator like Digg or Reddit? Again think long term and stick with it, crank out those blog posts or tweets on a consistent basis even if you think no one is hearing you. When you finally do break through, now you have a history that users can go back to read about. The great thing about the internet is that nothing is ever lost, the blog archives are still there to be read by users months later and to be indexed by the search engines. The final word is to circle back to my answer to your first question, which is to make everything personal. Treat your readers with respect and talk directly to them, not through the dry words of a corporate PR press release. We turned the corner when we stopped simply sending out PR press releases through our Social Media outlets and instead began engaging with our followers. 

Connect with Zachary Long

Fenglong Photo
Twitter

I recently wrote a post called "My Rant: Why Your Customer Service Is Killing Your Business" where I aired my grievances about David's Bridal and many other little shops that don't understand that value of responding to their clients. After posting, I received many inquiries from event professionals and friends wondering if David's Bridal contacted me in response to my post. I have not, to date, heard anything from them.

Now, I'm not a delusional person thinking that the world is tuned into my tweets, but it did signal to me that they are not monitoring their brand. So many organizations are so focused on branding their organization - working with designers to create style guides, creating strategies for their social media accounts - that they completely forget about the brand that is being determined for them without their consent. There is one aspect of your brand that you don't have much control over and means more to your clients than anything you can plan - the image that is determined by your clients themselves.

Continued on Icon Presentations Blog

On a recent Twitter chat, I had a brief conversation with someone who agreed with the former opinion. What he described was a person scheduling tweets that were comments about their day or opinions on topics. I had to agree, this sounded disingenuous. After all, tweets that share your experiences or opinions are assumed to be conversation starters. But if you aren't there when someone responds, it's kind of like leaving the lights on when no one's home. A fake out.

However, I fully admit to and advocate scheduling tweets that provide links to information. Not just for my own benefit as a time-management tool, but for the benefit of my followers. Scheduling tweets:

• keeps me from monopolizing the Twitter stream with back-to-back tweets
• allows me to establish a strong presence throughout the day by sharing one piece of information at a time
• allows me to gather the information and schedule it all at one sitting, freeing me up for other things including having conversations on social media
• allows me to reach different followers who are on at different times of the day
• helps ensure that I don't schedule more than one informational tweet per hour (the optimum ratio for getting retweeted, according to Dan Zarrella)

I use HootSuite to schedule my tweets. It also has other nifty little timesavers like a URL shortener and analytics so I can see which tweets got the most clicks. It also allows me to monitor lots of Twitter streams at once and I can use it to post status updates on and monitor other social media sites like Facebook and Linkedn.

Without an application like HootSuite, allowing me to manage my social media activities, I'm not sure I would even be on Twitter anymore. When you have so much information coming in, it's paramount that you avoid overload. And that goes for what you put out as well.

So that's where I stand on scheduling tweets. For posting links to information I think it's not only a great time-management tool, but it's also more considerate to your followers than flooding the Twitter stream with lots of tweets all at once.

For tweets that share your experiences or opinions, scheduling is not appropriate. It will only make you look like a poser - not a good reputation to establish.

Do you think scheduling tweets is a good or a bad idea? Why?

________________________

Jenise Fryatt is Co-Owner and Marketing Director of Icon Presentations , audio visual for events located in the Palm Springs area of Southern California. Her blog, Sound 'n Sight , offers information on the events industry with an audio visual and social media bent. She is married with two teenagers (one now attends college in Canada) and has a background that includes print & broadcast journalism, PR, theater production and acting. 

Connect with Jenise!

Icon Presentations
Icon Presentations Blog