Social Media For Event Planning

Event Planning• When working in Public Relations, event planning is a crucial part of

your job, in order to get consumers interested in your company. It is social marketing for events. Events are important and out-compete regular ads, because events encourage face-to-face interaction that get people excited about your company including, and allow you to make connections with new vendors, costumers and sponsors. Press conferences are also very important for things such as crisis management, as people would most likely rather hear your claim in-person rather than a simple press release alone. It is important to know that the benefit gained from these types of events are only as successful as how you advertised them.

Social Media Social media is internet-based communication, used for both personal and professional purposes, in which information is published with the intent to be shared with other users. So we can see how social media would be assistive when advertising events.

• Remember that social media is Augment to your event planning skills, but not the core of it. Event planning still requires organization and time, but when it comes to marketing your event; social media is key in aiding event awareness. According to Clay Shirky in Cognitive Surplus, “Our social media tools aren’t an alternative to real life, they’re a part of it. In particular they are increasingly the coordinating tools for events in the real world.”

Connecting• When we network the most important asset we get is access to one

another. As the event planner you can use social media to connect with potential speakers for your event. You can find them based off of specifics like jobs, gender, age, education and more qualities that you are looking for in a speaker so that they might be most reputable for your message. You can connect with them, and share content like event description, pictures of location, and what type of audience you’d like them to be speaking to. • Finding one person using social media might be easy but how can we

find a group of people? It is most important to connect to your audience, because with out them your message doesn’t spread.

Diffusion of Innovation• Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated

through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. Diffusion is a special type of communication concerned with the spread of messages that are perceived as new ideas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFsbkub7Vuc Check out this video to better understand. • With social media the diffusion process speeds up profusely and word

of mouth becomes world of mouth.

Diffusion of Innovation With Event Planning• When we post about an event via social media • Our Innovators- might be our employees that we know are going to be attending

the event or friends that would likely share the post about your event. • Early adopters- The friends of Employees that have been exposed to the event by

the innovators. • Early majority- Early adopters would then share information that would be

diffused to a majority. • Late Majority- It is important to continue to post about your event up until the

minute it happens to ensure that even part of the late majority can get on board• Audience- your audience is made of up of one of these people so it is important

to use social media to spread your message as rapidly as you can.

I missed the train exhibition?

The laggers- Are the ones that missed the event but would have come if they had known.

Word of Mouth Goes World of Mouth• Social media helps eliminate

communication barriers because users can share your post verbatim from the source itself, and since it is in a digital format, it is less likely to be misunderstood or diluted over time. So your attendees won’t get the date or the time mixed up when relaying event details to other people.

Reach • Reach refers to the total number of people exposed to a medium

during a given period. • Facebook has 1.23 Billion monthly active users • Instagram has 500 million monthly active users • Twitter has 310 million monthly active users

Accessibility • With social media a number of

users have access to what you post. You can also have access to them via location.

Location• Digital networks allow a

location of the event to be accessible at the touch of the readers finger, • And allows you to reach

local audiences in order to appeal to the right• On hootsuite you can add a

location to stream hashtags in a specific area.

Cost

• Social media utilization when advertising events is significantly less expensive. You can create events on Facebook, post pictures on Instagram pertaining to your event and tweet about your event all for free.

Targeting the Right Audience• You can choose a narrow or

broad audience, depending on if you are looking for quality or quantity. An audience that's more narrowly defined might be better if you want a specific people at your event, however a more broad audience might be better for raising awareness of your event.

Creating Audience Awareness• Awareness is created by using all available channels at one’s disposal

like news media and even new media like the internet. By using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Websites, and Blogging all together you event attendance will certainly be maximized.

Post Often About Your Event• Reiterate your event

as often as possible up until the minute it starts to ensure that no one forgets or that you did not miss anyone in your potential reach.

Practicality of Social Media for Event Planning• Social media platforms give you trackable results about how many

people your message is reaching.

Connecting • With a public group guests can see who is going and after the event

connect with people or sponsors they may have met at the event.

Facebook• Once you have your fan page and likes from fans, you can create a

Facebook event, invite all your fans and encourage them to invite their networks of friends and family. Use status updates to announce details that will help generate excitement about the upcoming event. Get people involved on your Facebook wall by constantly posting about your event and asking and answering questions about the event.

Blogging • Blogging is an important platform that you can use to provide in-

depth information about your event like press releases, what the event is for, (i.e Cancer Research foundation) and how the guest can help if they attend.

Instagram• On Instagram you

can post pictures with a microblog of information to continue the growth of your event. This is a Instagram post for a graduation event that capital city was holding in May.

Twitter • Twitter is microblogging

where you can constantly share information about your event in 140 characters up until the minute it starts.

Hootsuite• The Hootlet gives social context to

your searches, allowing you to see relevant tweets when you’re searching the web. You can use the Hootlet to quickly share things from the web to multiple networks. Another key feature of the Hootlet is its ability to let you schedule messages to be posted at a later time. The third and most unique feature of the Hootlet is that it simplifies social sharing by providing context for your searches.

Hootsuite• HootSuite’s own shorteners, ow.ly or htly, allow you to track how

many people click on your links, and give you analytics. ht.ly includes a social bar that can be useful in amplifying your message by making it easy to retweet, submit the link to other social sites, and search Twitter. Ow.ly is a more light-weight option, giving you the basics of shortened, trackable links.

Getting Attendees More Engaged During the Event

The HootFeed on Hootsuite allows you to display a search stream of keywords or hashtags in real time. It is useful for if you want to showcase Tweets on the main stage, or have them on LCD screens scattered throughout your event. And provides additional features like adding a profanity filter so that inappropriate tweets do not show up on your screen.

Start using social media or you’re going to be a lagger!