Without a doubt, social media is the fastest growing way to promote your meeting or event with attendees and potential attendees. The key is to keep the fire going once the invitations are sent out and use a little social savvy to make the search engines work in your favor.
Jay Baer, Social Media Guru and Author, has identified several steps to promote your meeting via this channel. Below are some of his suggestions along with a few of my own insights about ways create buzz.
5 Ways to Broadcast and Engage
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Create an Events Page and Make Multiple People Administrators of it.
If you look at social, there are three free sights that can help your event rank:
Facebook: With this platform you can make multiple people administrators, of which I would highly recommend. This allows your event to gain virality and since Facebook is still the largest social channel, never discount its applicability to promote your function.
Google+: This site has a limited number of invitations you can send, but again because it is Google, I would recommend you use it. Invitees can share the invite to their community and 1+ it which helps send a good social signal.
EventBrite: Allows you to create an event for free and promote it on your social channels. However, if you are charging for your event, they will take a 7.15% handling fee on each ticket sold.
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Integrate Hashtags into all your Promotions.
Whether you understand them or not, hashtags are becoming the new search tool for all things social. When event planning, you want two hashtags: one for your organization and one for the event. I would recommend that you put them side-by-side and use them on every post.
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Engage your Potential Attendees Early and Often.
Whether it is before, during or after your event, post something every business day about your function. This training of your attendees to look at social every day, can help make your interactive presentations come to life on iPad or laptop rentals at the meeting. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Crowdsource content
Ask questions
Take polls before and during the event
Post photos and videos
Post blog posts and ask for guest blogging (ideal for speakers and sponsors)
Promote press releases
Show a list of attendees -
Live Stream Video on Second Screens and Video Walls.
If you have remote attendees, a large event or meeting participants that need to step out of the meeting often, live streaming makes a whole lot of sense. Streaming the event to their mobile device and a large video wall rental unit can keep attendees engaged in the content. Just remember to check your event WiFi solutions which may need some tweaking before your meeting.
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Extend the Life of Your Conference through Technology.
Push videos, photos and presentations to your website, SlideShare or other social channels. Put the event and organization hashtags on the footer of each presentation.
Call SmartSource Rentals at 800.888.8686! They have the experience and knowledge to manage your total technology needs!
