Business Events Sydney Blog

This is our second post in the new series on 'How to use social media for business events'.

Part 2: Social media tools and techniques for promoting your event

In Part 1 of our series on using social media for business events we looked at tools for planning, organising and inviting key people to your event.

Today we’ll discuss social media strategies and sites you can use to promote your event and get buzz happening in the lead up. Including examples of how others have done it with great success.

Which social media sites to use?

The great thing about social media channels is that most are free to use. So it makes sense to take advantage of as many as possible. Of course, you don’t have time to waste, so focus on the ones where your potential delegates are likely to roam.

There are all kinds of communities on Facebook and Twitter. Plus for businesses, also see what’s going on at Ning and LinkedIn. And then set up your own community pages and join in the conversations.

Blogs are a great way to provide information about your event and interact with your audience. So consider setting up an event branded blog and encouraging feedback.

Make it easy for people to share your blog information on these social media sites. Provide valuable content and they’ll reward you as ambassadors.

A good blog event example is the BlogPotomac blog

Connect with your audience 

To get the promotional ball rolling, you need to get in touch with people you know that might be interested in your event. Invite potential delegates, speakers, colleagues, other event organisers, etc to be part of your event social media communities by promoting them on your website, emails and printed material.

To find new potential delegates, search the social media sites and get involved with conversations already going on. Ask questions, share ideas and find out what makes them tick. Then when they are comfortable with you, invite them to your page.

Spread the word on social media

Twitter and Facebook are great tools for getting the word out about your event.

Some tips for promoting your event on Facebook

• Set up a Facebook page rather than a group so people who “like’ you get a message on their page every time you update
• Brand your page professionally – it’s a reflection of you and your event
• Encourage members to comment and share their ideas and suggestions.
• Respond to their comments
• Announce speakers as you confirm them
• Post photos of your venue and speakers
• Make your posts sound like they come from you – people like personal in social media
• Link from your blog and to your twitter page

Some tips for promoting your event on Twitter

• Register your event name, or a shortened version, as your username (e.g. Lions2010)
• Use your event's official logo as your profile picture
• Tweet everything: planning meetings, speaker announcements, logistics notes
• Start conversations with others
• Ask people to retweet the most important information
• Have an event #hashtag and promote it to use in tweets– that way you can monitor what people are saying about your event and create content that’s fresh and relevant.

List on major social media event sites

If your conference is about technology, media, finance, healthcare, legal, biotech and many other business topics, add it to eventsydney.com a site that lists all things event. Upcoming by Yahoo lets you list events in any sector.

Real examples of social media being used to promote business events

A few examples of how social media sites have been used well to connect with potential event delegates and create excitement for people who are coming to your event:

• The Medical Tourism City community on Ning has discussions, forums and information leading up to their annual global event.
• LinkedIn has Q & A forums on planning events and lists of events by location and topic
• To promote the 2009 Annual Singapore Tattoo Show, the organisers set up a Facebook Tattoo Artistry group three months before the event. 3,000 people joined and this built excitement about meeting up at the event. They spread the word and over 15,000 people attended –way more than originally expected. 
• Given this success, they are doing it again in 2010 using a Facebook page rather than a group where people can also follow their favourite tattoo artists (the tattoo world’s version of key speakers) on their own linked pages.
• We couldn’t mention social media event success stories without Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign which motivated over 2 million social networking participants and 506,000 tweets, launched 200,000 offline events across the country, encouraged 6.5 million donations online worth $500 million, gained 13 million email addresses and had 50 million views on his YouTube channel.

Remember, social media is just that – social media. Promoting an event is not about hard selling. It’s about creating an environment that makes your audience feel as though they are an important part of an exciting business community and event.

In Part 3, we’ll look at ways to use social media during your business event.