15 Social Media Secrets To a Successful Event.

Once upon a time, I envied my event planner buddies. They were perpetually zipping off to Beijing or Paris, snoozing on Egyptian cotton sheets at ritzy hotels and despite a few cases of Spock-ear from wearing those geeky headsets, the event life was good.

Now, thanks to an expanding list of contrary forces, from AIG’s zillion-dollar tomato-basil facials to the R-word and even the emergence of webinar technology plus the unconference trend, planning an event is now rife with boobytraps. Like its sister industry — PR — there’s a growing divide between ‘traditional’ event planning and neo-event planning.

You can guess where I’m going with this.  Social Media.

Anyone planning an event, conference, party, trade show or group gathering is plain loco to resist  tapping into the  social media tools and technologies now available. In fact,  if you only use half of my list below, you’ll still greatly increase the odds of running a successful event — and even better, you may also win points for cost-efficiency and even carbon-offsetting, to say nothing of cool.  That goes double if your event is targeting Millennial/Echo Boomers.

Here’s my list:

• Your first priority should be setting up event tags. You’ll be using these tags across multiple social media platforms from Flickr to Twitter. Think of a tag as a simple category name. Attendees can categorize their posts, photos and videos with the event tag(s) you create.

 

• Post your event with event planning sites such as Upcoming, Eventful and if appropriate, Meetup.com, evite.com and pingg.com.  Pingg has a feature called SurroundSend, which lets you send invitations via SMS (text) message.  Note: Be vigilant about privacy issues. Without opt-in, this can backfire bigtime.

 

• Use Facebook for events as well — but don’t try to project attendance from the numbers of Facebookers who check Attending on the page. Most Facebookers are exposed to dozens of events per week, many of them online-only events. Often there is initial enthusiasm and even acceptance. This doesn’t mean they’ll actually show up.

 

• If the company or organization doesn’t already have its own website, use Ning to create one and promote your event from your new site.

 

• Use Google Maps to direct people to your event. Set up carpooling as well and post links to public transportion schedules and fares.

 

• Set up Flickr tags and inform your participants so they can use them when posting their own event pictures.

 

• If appropriate, recruit bloggers to Live Blog the event. And always contact influential bloggers in advance with event information.

 

• Set up a YouTube channel for videos of your event.

 

• Many events are using live video tools like Ustream.tv which lets you broadcast and chat online with a global audience. It’s completely free, all it takes is a camera and Internet connection

 

• Go beyond traditional wire services by tapping into the neo-PR world of Pitchengine.com.
  Founded by social media pioneer Jason Kintzler, PitchEngine is shaking up the PR industry by making it possible for PR pros, brands, and agencies to build and share digital, social media releases with their contacts for free.

 

• If yours is a Social Good type of event, add this new cause related widget, Reply For All. Replyforall offers an application (currently only for Gmail and Yahoo! mail) that allows users to raise money for their causes of choice by embedding a brand-sponsored message into their e-signature.

 

• Twitter is one of the best event tools ever. Set up a hashtag (example: #yourevent) so that tweeters may follow the event tweets or even coordinate a Tweet-up. By placing the # symbol before a word, phrase, or abbreviation, it creates a mini-search engine phrase that can be looked up and followed on Twitter. Not only is this a powerful tool for organizing tweets about your events but it also may boost your SEO. 

 

• Ask your speakers or presenters to use hashtags. When I am the speaker at events I invite the audience to tweet in real time using the hashtag created specifically for the event. Or if the event is a Lab360, brandstorming workshop or other Guru of New event, I suggest that ‘tweeple’ tweet #guruofnew.

 

• Use Twitpic or Twiddeo to tweet pictures or video links of the event. Invite key influencers to tweet event info prior to the event.   Twitpic lets you share photos on Twitter.  Twiddeo is a powerful but simple service that let’s you Twitter updates with Video. Upload from the web, your cameraphone and record from your webcam.

 

• Is there an event- relevant iPhone app?  Even if there isn’t ‘an app for that’ specific industry or topic, there may be one for the city where the event is being held, or a food/wine/travel info app.

Meet Skout, the Social Networking Community for Kids’ Products.

Much of my world seems to be busily working on kids’ products, divining and designing everything from eco-adorable clothes to online games, websites, books, photography and more. So I was excited to discover a social network designed specifically for these uber-creative folks –designers, makers, vendors and others involved in children’s clothing and accessories.

Based in New Zealand, Skout Trade Fair is an online community that aims to help those in the children’s products industry find each other and connect. The founders have built in some admirable features which are likely to keep everybody honorable, supportive and industry-focused: membership on the site is by invitation only, and only members can view its content. Participants can also lose their membership for engaging in unethical practices. (Yay!) Once granted membership, though, participants can jump right in and join business forums, connect with other members, list events, upload photos of their work, join groups and contribute to blogs.

Guru’s Note: I was quickly admitted to the membership — but they did put me through my paces by asking a couple of on-point questions.

And good news on the technology front: Skout is built using the uber-customizable Ning platform — which is swiftly emerging as one of the most useful social networking tools available.

Thanks, as always, to springwise.

Does Spreading The Retail Gloom Help Us or Hurt Us?

I have very mixed feelings about an email I received from a friend early this evening.

On one hand, I appreciate the warning. I appreciate the sentiment about celebrating the holidays with family and friends, not bling and things.

But the business person in me can’t help but think that these email blasts only spread the gloom-and-doom that’s already keeping us out of the stores. Yes, we absolutely should slip the Visa cards into a drawer and head toward the mall bearing cash — a new study says 22.8% of us plan to, up from last year — or use our debit cards, like 41.5% plan to do. A return (even if possible) to the bloated excess of the boom-boom years doesn’t work either. But some of us believe firmly that innovation and new opportunities can emerge even in these highly unsettling times. These gloom and doom emails are a viral megaphone that threaten to to drown out our never-say-die American spirit.

Interestingly, the mood on the newer Social Media is much perkier. Tweeters tend to get het-up and pesky but try to share positives; bloggers get mad but share link love; Facebookers are tribal, joining groups, events, causes and status-donations. MySpacers are busy pitching their music while Ning’ers are simply passionate about their own thing. New Social Media is very different than the traditional old media world of email. Socialyzers are in-the-know junkies, wanting to be au courante 24/7. We feel our power (check my post on MotrinGate) and wield it deftly and swiftly. We’re passionately participating in this participatory media — not merely passing iffy information along as in the days of legendary email from Bill Gates, NPR, Disney, etc. If nothing else, Socialyzers want to believe we are in control; that crowdsourcing matters. After all, didn’t we just elect a new President? Traditional emailers are simply passing along the gloom-and-doom with scant hope of effecting change.

Hope and heart live on Social Media sites. Even in 140 characters life is bubbling up.

Here’s the email:

Wow, interesting times. I love gift cards but…maybe not this year.
Personally, it’s a good year to celebrate our family and friends.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
XXOO ~ Stores that informed the Security Exchange of closing plans between October 2008 and January 2009. PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

Circuit City stores… most recent (? how many)

Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide are to be shuttered

Lane Bryant,, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150 store
nationwide

Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January

Cache will close all stores

Talbots closing down all stores

J. Jill closing all stores

GAP closing 85 stores

Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January

Wickes Furniture closing down

Levitz closing down remaining stores

Bombay closing remaining stores

Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January.

Whitehall closing all stores

Piercing Pagoda closing all stores

Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.

Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
Guru’s Correction: I am thrilled to correct this — as Home Depot is one of my hang-outs. I’ve heard from them and this is very old news dating back to May.

Macys to close 9 stores after January

Linens and Things closing all stores

Movie Galley Closing all stores

Pacific Sunware closing stores

Pep Boys Closing 33 stores

Sprint/ Nextel closing 133 stores

JC Penney closing a number of stores after January

Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.

Wilson Leather closing down all stores

Sharper Image closing down all stores

K B Toys closing 356 stores

Loews to close down some stores

Dillard’s to close some stores.

Guru’s Note: I have not verified this information. It’s too depressing. I’d rather hang out at the Apple Store with the Nano Chromatix and drool over the juicy colors.

Here’s the update on store closings from Snopes.com.