Posts Tagged: eblast

Event / Event planning / Facebook / internet marketing / Social Media / Social Media Optimization / Twitter — 1 Comment
2
May 12

Time Line Event Planning Using Social Media

Whether you need to work with organizers, generate buzz, or share post-party photos, social media should be a primary tool for event planning. With the power to share comes the ability to spread the word, increase awareness, and accomplish your goals.

 

Step1: PLAN

As with any event, the first step is to plan. This goes beyond the simple logistics – it’s about locations, agendas, and the people that will help you make it happen. Whether you’re inviting people over for a small BBQ or you’re planning a bigger event, you need to plan it right.

Step2: ORGANIZING & INVITING

This is different than promotion. Invite key guests, speakers, family, and whoever else is important to the success of your gathering, conference, or party.

• Facebook:
Invite people. Create a public event and invite everyone that has “liked” your page. Not only will this give people the logistics of when and where the event will be held, but this Facebook function includes a “wall” where people can post updates. This allows you to create a dialog and converse with donors. It also empowers supporters to invite other people to attend the event with them.
Share photos. In the days preceding the event, post photos of decorations, raffle prizes or any other items you think would entice people to join you at the event. Furthermore, you can also encourage attendees to take photos during the event and tag your agency in the post.
Update your status. This seems like simple advice, but Facebook is only a powerful social networking tool if you use it. Don’t forget to let people know what’s going on and consistently update the status on your page.

• Twitter:
Create a hashtag. A hashtag is found at the end of a tweet and is a phrase with a pound sign at the front of it. Why is this important? Hashtags make searching Twitter easier. Creating a hashtag is as simple as typing, nothing special needs to happen. Twitter will just highlight the hashtag and link all tweets that contain it. By creating a hashtag for your event, you can easily see what people are saying about it. Also, if you get enough people to tweet with your hashtag, it may become a “trending topic” and show up on the twitter homepage.
And as with Facebook, share photos of decorations, raffle prizes or any other items you think would encourage people to join you at the event. You need to connect with people that will attend the event.

• E-mail:
Use e-blast, newsletter to invite people.
Share the link to the event page (Facebook and website) from your e-mail signature line.

• Website Event:
Create an event badge and post it on your website home page. People can embed it in their blog sidebars or on their websites. Share the link to your landing page using a custom URL.

• Blog:
Use your blog to announce the event.
Create a special blog for big events.

Step3: PROMOTION

• Use Twitter. Live tweet during the event, connect with people.
• Encourage people to share how they feel about the event. Encourage them to “tweet” and “retweet” them and respond to their tweets.
• Use Facebook. Live stream, sharing pictures, memorable moments.
• E-Mail. Remind people just few days before the event
• Listen to your audience. Do people at the event complain about a specific speaker, the food or a lack of responsiveness? Ask for people’s feedback.

Step4: POST-EVENT

Contrary to what people think, the event is not over when everyone leaves. There’s still more to do to make sure the event leaves a great impression, especially if you intend to have future events or even an annual one.
• Thank the people who attended the event and all your fans on Facebook, Twitter and website/blog.
• Send a summary e-mail to all attendees with pictures. Send people to the Facebook page and your website that hosts that embedded content. The landing page should include calls to action to register for future events.
• Set up a survey form to capture evaluations from attendees. Google Documents supports simple forms at no charge. Publish the best comments as validation of the quality of your content. Here’s a simple form I use to gather feedback on my presentations. It took 10 minutes to set up.
• Continue to use the Twitter account and the Facebook page for updates and exchange with fans.

 

Have you used social media to promote or plan your event in the past? What do you think is the most useful tool?

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Share
internet marketing / Social Media / Social Media Optimization — 3 Comments
8
Feb 11

Email Marketing- Here to Stay!

We drive the importance of social media an awful lot. Well because it is important and becoming necessary in just about every industry! Although this “buzz word” seems like just that, a buzz word, it truly isn’t. I think you all are getting the idea that in order to drive success in this market, social media networking is imperative.Email Marketing

Even with social media taking over the way we communicate, email still remains a primary source of communication and is equally important as social media in the digital age. Back to the basics- email dates back all the way to the mid-60′s. However, it wasnt until the late-80′s/early 90′s that the general public caught on and began utilizing the new medium. Electronic mail is a natural and perhaps inevitable use of networked communication technology that developed along with the evolution of the internet. Businesses quickly figured out this was a great way to reach customers. It was also less expensive than mailing out advertisements to homes. By 1995 the number of email advertisements sent out that year was more than the number sent out by regular mail. Businesses spend a great deal of money creating email marketing campaigns that won’t be confused with spam.

Email marketing is the newest version of direct marketing. Instead of using the postal system- the traditional direct marketing tool- most of the businesses today opt for sending mass emails to consumers with information of merchandises. Email marketing  is a tool for building relationships with both existing and potential customers and has proven to be more cost effective. The Process of direct email marketing is as follows:

  1. Generate Traffic for your website,
  2. Encourage Visitors to sign up for newsletter, etc…
  3. Create and sending promotional email or newsletter,
  4. Genetare sales or more traffic to your website

Now, this being said, there are some rules and guidelines we want you to be aware of to follow in order for email to successfully accomplish these goals.

  • You want to grab your audience’s attention while being concise, frequent, and visable. The subject line must be eye -catching and interesting; simplicty is the key.
  • Make it obvious why your sending your message and make it relevant to the consumer. Genreate a plan. Who you will target? Which segments of an industry will be more likely to positively respond to your message? For example, some areas of an email blast may require small changes based on the various consumers you are trying to reach.
  • Like social media, you must be very careful of how you approach the audience, along with the information you approach them with. You want to lure in your audience with humor, stats, facts, discounts etc…But be careful not to be too forward or overload them with a “sales pitch.”
  • Be conscious of the day and time in which you are sending your emails. You do not want to send out an email marketing campaign at 9:00am. People first arriving to work and checking their emails are more likely to trash anything that may seem irrelevant. But, after lunch perhaps, when everyone is settling in after break, they will be more likely to filter through and read intriguing emails.
  • Track your results. There are many ways via the internet to track your open rate (Campaign Monitor is one  for example). These types of programs will give you the open rate, the click through rate, bounce rate, and how many remain unopened. This will give you a better idea of what is deemed interesting by your audience and what campaigns to continue with.campaigns and direct marketing

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Share