Scotland On Tour

A strategy for social media events promotion by Inner EarDigital Audience Development

Social Media Platforms

For events campaigns, you can seed content on platforms like these:

• YouTube (video)• Audioboo (audio soundbites)• Mixcloud (preview mix)• Spotify (playlists)• Flickr (promotional photos and flyers)• Issuu (event programme)

Social Networks

Content can be shared on social networks like these:

• Twitter (@mentions and #hashtags)• Facebook (fan page and events)

Twitter Tips

• Engage in conversation with other users by @mentioning them, asking questions, and answering others, replying to people and retweeting good tweets. Start by interacting with friends and similar organisations.

• Have something good to say. People will follow you and retweet you if you've got something to say in which they are interested. Be sociable, be interesting, be friendly, be human.

• Use #hashtags. Look for a combination of original tags which relate specifically to your activity (such as #eventname) and more general ones that other people are already using.

• Start following people you want to target. Do location based searches to find them, or follow people who are following other Twitterers in the same scene. When someone is followed, they will be notified and often check you out. If they like what they see, they'll follow you back.

• Keep an eye on what other people are saying and doing every now and again. Copy what works, ignore what doesn't.

• Finally, make sure your profile is complete with image, biog, link to blog, site, FB page, etc. and custom background to make you look like you're taking Twitter seriously, otherwise hardcore users won't engage with you.

Facebook Tips• Engage with your fans and friends on Facebook by setting challenges and

games that get them thinking about your event in advance. Stimulate the conversation. Again, be sociable, be friendly, be interesting, be human.

• Post content that you think would be of interest to the fanbase you have. It needn't be directly related to your organisation but things that would appeal to the same audience. Video, audio, image and written word pieces curated by the organisation and posted on the FB fan page will increase interest and activity on the page. Therefore increasing the conversation.

• Ask your fanbase questions and suggest things that they may be interested in like similar events. They will, in turn, trust you as a source of information as well as for the events you're responsible for.

• Become a fan of other similar organisations, both in the UK and further afield. See what they are doing well and doing badly and act accordingly with your own online presence. Also, have conversations with these bodies and forge relationships with them, as well as with individuals.

• Create your events on Facebook and invite all your fans to attend. In the event details you can insert links for tickets, further info and any related content you create or curate.

Social Media Tools

To syndicate content, and help realise your campaign, you can utilise these tools:

• Eventbrite (invites and ticket sales)• PayPal (ecommerce)• Google Maps (location)• Google Calendar (scheduling)• Posterous (blog)• Twitterfeed/Ping.fm (linking services)• Cotweet/Tweetdeck (sharing the workload)• Twtqpon (offer ticket offers through Twitter)

Online Promotion Strategy

• Define the Campaign• Create and collate content• Host content on your blog• Setup statistics and measurement tools• Schedule post publication• Seed content on social media platforms• Syndicate across services using connecting tools• Share through social networks• Start conversations with social media engagement• Sell tickets• Document the event• Use content to reward audience• Continue the conversation• Analyse effectiveness and plan your next event

Online Promotion Strategy

• Define the Campaign• Create and collate content• Host content on your blog• Setup statistics and measurement tools• Schedule post publication• Seed content on social media platforms• Syndicate across services using connecting tools• Share through social networks• Start conversations with social media engagement• Sell tickets• Document the event• Use content to reward audience• Continue the conversation• Analyse effectiveness and plan your next event

Sell Tickets

• Ticket sales can be promoted using social media• Combining a service like twtqpon with conversation starters

in Twitter and Facebook can encourage people to promote the event for you

• Use a unique #hashtag as your promotional code• Use content to promote ticket coupon code• Consider what keywords and trackable links you will use• Use content and communication to channel sales

Further Information

• http://www.innerear.co.uko dougal@innerear.co.uko andy@innerear.co.uk

• http://www.delicious.com/innerear• http://www.slideshare.net/innerear• http://www.issuu.com/innerear• http://www.vimeo.com/innereartv• http://www.facebook.com/innerearuk• LinkedIn: search in groups for Inner Ear• Twitter: @innerearuk