Great post with lots of good tips. For those that are not ready to handle everything themselves, there is now a service that helps bureaus and event planners enhance their speakers' live in-person speech through digital products.
Great article and thanks for mentioning Anyvite! You touched on a lot of great points. One other point that I would add is to reach out to bloggers who typically write about topics relating to your event and see if they're interested in doing an interview and writing a post.
Thanks again!
Samora
· 7 months ago
excellent info.expansive!the kind of social media expertise this article promises one can attain is a profoundly altruistic gesture!much much much respect and thanks!
gsmaverick
· 7 months ago
Great article. The web and social media tools are making it easier and easier to attract an audience for your events and to co-ordinate them.
Freerangemom
· 7 months ago
Good over view of using Twitter for events. You can also hold your event completely on Twitter. @linkedinexpert @marismith and I invite you to join us on May 20th to do just that. You can read more about the "Tweet-In" here... http://provientmarketing.com/blog/2009/04/the-t... The post not only talks about the specific event, but gives a run down of how to plan and make a successful twitter event.
I hope you'll join us at 5 pacific/8 eastern to share what on-line events have worked for you.
DD Ganguly
· 7 months ago
Great article! The event could be an online event and for web conferencing needs one might want to consider Dimdim.
Ben, great tips. I'm in the middle of an online event happening today that I've helped to organize and promote, and I can certainly back up what you say here.
Quick tip: Remember the coffee table. Most people have a table or a shelf in their home that has something (or a set of things on it) that guests quickly get curious about, which leads to conversation that can strengthen relationships. The online world is the same way. For each event, come up with one or more "objects of adoration" that people can share and discuss - a video, a collection of photos, a URL, an article, etc. - and focus the welcoming/sign-up process around getting them to notice and talk about those objects.
Andrew
· 7 months ago
Good insight...I have been using tweetdeck for both face-twitter. Very helpful!
Server Support
· 7 months ago
Very nice stuff. Great article and thanks for very nice information! Here you mentioned a lot of great points. Now everyone can easily promote their events by social media sites.
Thanks
Matt Anderson
· 7 months ago
Great post.
For planning events I have found that basecamp and skype are low cost and fantastic for keeping everyone on the same page.
Twitter is great for building hype over latest speakers etc and increasing buzz.
I found that at our last event for Connecting Bristol that I live video stream of the event worked really well as we had over 250 people watch the event live remotely. http://www.connectingbristol.org/2009/03/31/nex...
If you can't afford the technology an edited video of the day (split into speaker slots) posted on vimeo or YouTube works a treat and extends your audience.
Twitter is a must and a screen in the break out room between speakers allows everyone to discuss Twitter feedback and questions.....Word of warning you need to keep an eye on this for any mischief making :-)
Facebook pages are great if there is an established community but Twitter is definitely needed to spread word of mouse.
Pramit Singh
· 7 months ago
Users can share and discuss on Bighow Events, for free
Mike Sobol
· 7 months ago
Thanks for the great outline, Ben. Best practices in social media are evolving rapidly and clear outlines such as this one are helpful to all of us working in this arena. I especially like the reminder about leveraging the event after it's done. Classic PR advice, but important to remember nonetheless.
I also suggest engaging would-be attendees with a survey about their preferences using Survey Monkey. It needn't have a big impact on changing what you plan, but it gets people bought in when they feel they contribute, and it may just give you an insight or two that really helps your event shine. Then survey them again after it's over to reinforce the great feelings that you created and build a stronger following for next time.
Georg Krueger
· 7 months ago
thx. very helpful article!!!
@JaniceAtShuttle
· 7 months ago
Awesome tips =D
"Twitter and Facebook should be your primary promotional tools..." Agree w/ @keaneiscool
We're also using YouTube/Flickr to supplement. AND we have some great contests around the corner.
We're working with the studios and possibly having a limited-edition PC wrapped in a movie theme!
Stephanie
· 7 months ago
I really that social media is the way to go to promote anything; your business, your band, your art your "anything". Sites like facebook and Twitter are very much the way to go. What about TalnetTrove.com? Anyone ever heard of that?-- Its a social networking site geared for aspiring artists of any all genres. Its where I listen to most of my music now-a-days. I love their radio station on iTunes.
Viveka von Rosen
· 7 months ago
And don't forget LinkedIn - especially for business events. There are several ways you can post your event. Through the updater (just like twitter or facebook, through their "events" application which will not only post generally but can be sent to 50 connections (at a time). And then using the group discussion to announce a relevant (underline relevant) event can also be useful.
For this an more tips on LinkedIn, follow me @LinkedInExpert or check out my blog www.linkedinexpert.com
Claudio J. Lacayo
· 7 months ago
I don't believe Meetup.com was mentioned - but, this allows for locales w/ similar interests to join a group in their area. I came across a LUG (Linux user group) in Miami - has event management, announcements, etc.
Nick Jasuja
· 7 months ago
I am surprised no one mentioned Pathable (http://pathable.com/ ). When it comes to conferences+social media, there is nothing quite as extraordinary as Pathable to gel everything together.
Greg Spero
· 7 months ago
Thanks for including the Chicago Convergence as an example in your article!! You can check out our fanpage at www.chicagofacebook.com
Dustin Nielson
· 6 months ago
If your looking for a cheap way to promote or sell tickets online you should checkout the Facebook application Viral Events. http://www.viralevents.net. Viral Events does NOT charge a per ticket transaction fee for selling tickets like most companies and offers some nice tools for promoting your event from within Facebook.
Daniel Fennessy
· 6 months ago
Very good tips here, some I will definitely look more in to.
I recently created my own Event (Music Festival) Community website using Ning. I'm currently using both Twitter & Facebook to promote the features of the site as well as individual upcoming festivals. Take a look & any feedback very welcome.
Festival Point.com- Latest music festival info, photos, videos, online community, forums & more. By festival-goers for festival-goers!
If you're looking to promote events (like you would inside Facebook or via Twitter), you should check out http://www.playster.org. You can add events directly into the search index and traffic gets sent to your site or blog.
Enjoy!
birkin
· 3 months ago
if we can Keep communicating with social media tools,more litter website will close down
Joshanderson
· 3 months ago
Those are very good tools, however, in many cases those platforms are used just to allow the team to review the same document together in real-time and "be on the same page". The recently launched free site http://www.showdocument.com does exactly that, quickly show documents to friends and colleagues. It allows web meeting and co-browsing on any document, user uploads a document and invites friends to view it with him live All the participants in the session see each others' drawing, highlights, etc.
Josh
benseb
· 2 months ago
Most of these websites are very US based and even if they exist in the UK their coverage is very bad. http://www.skiddle.com/ seems to do a good job over here in the UK with plenty of social features!
All Comments
It's called Speaker Interactive: http://speakerinteractive.com
Thanks again!
I hope you'll join us at 5 pacific/8 eastern to share what on-line events have worked for you.
Warm regards,
dd ganguly
CEO
www.dimdim.com
http://blog.pbworks.com/2009/04/29/plan-your-ne...
Quick tip: Remember the coffee table. Most people have a table or a shelf in their home that has something (or a set of things on it) that guests quickly get curious about, which leads to conversation that can strengthen relationships. The online world is the same way. For each event, come up with one or more "objects of adoration" that people can share and discuss - a video, a collection of photos, a URL, an article, etc. - and focus the welcoming/sign-up process around getting them to notice and talk about those objects.
Thanks
For planning events I have found that basecamp and skype are low cost and fantastic for keeping everyone on the same page.
Twitter is great for building hype over latest speakers etc and increasing buzz.
I found that at our last event for Connecting Bristol that I live video stream of the event worked really well as we had over 250 people watch the event live remotely. http://www.connectingbristol.org/2009/03/31/nex...
If you can't afford the technology an edited video of the day (split into speaker slots) posted on vimeo or YouTube works a treat and extends your audience.
Twitter is a must and a screen in the break out room between speakers allows everyone to discuss Twitter feedback and questions.....Word of warning you need to keep an eye on this for any mischief making :-)
Facebook pages are great if there is an established community but Twitter is definitely needed to spread word of mouse.
I also suggest engaging would-be attendees with a survey about their preferences using Survey Monkey. It needn't have a big impact on changing what you plan, but it gets people bought in when they feel they contribute, and it may just give you an insight or two that really helps your event shine. Then survey them again after it's over to reinforce the great feelings that you created and build a stronger following for next time.
"Twitter and Facebook should be your primary promotional tools..." Agree w/ @keaneiscool
We're also using YouTube/Flickr to supplement. AND we have some great contests around the corner.
We're working with the studios and possibly having a limited-edition PC wrapped in a movie theme!
For this an more tips on LinkedIn, follow me @LinkedInExpert or check out my blog www.linkedinexpert.com
I recently created my own Event (Music Festival) Community website using Ning. I'm currently using both Twitter & Facebook to promote the features of the site as well as individual upcoming festivals. Take a look & any feedback very welcome.
Festival Point.com- Latest music festival info, photos, videos, online community, forums & more. By festival-goers for festival-goers!
http://www.festival-point.com
Cheers
Dan
Enjoy!
The recently launched free site http://www.showdocument.com does exactly that, quickly show documents to friends and colleagues.
It allows web meeting and co-browsing on any document, user uploads a document and invites friends to view it with him live
All the participants in the session see each others' drawing, highlights, etc.
Josh