Social Media for Events
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social media for events The Most Comprehensive Book about Social Media & Events Preface “We will never use Twitter job to make sense of these incredible tools, that hashtags in events.” can surely make your event better if properly addressed. The conversation was getting heated in that on- line community in 2008. I was strongly support- ing the use of social media at events and criticism Why This Book was mounting. Matters Several professionals were vigorously arguing Social media is mostly about content. The growth that social media were just a fad. Probably geek of social in the past few years has been accompa- events would have used it but not mainstream nied by an incredible amount of content about it. meetings, conferences, festivals, trade shows. While there are surely great books, ebooks, blog That was the main point coming across. posts and reports to read about the subject, it is also easy to find terrible attempts, which sadly Fast forward to 2014, 32% of respondents to our represent the majority. survey of more than 1300 qualified event profes- sionals say that they use social media in all their Another widespread problem is that most advice events. Yes, you read that correctly. about social media is about B2C environments. The market offers very few valid attempts to Disregard the how’s and why’s we got to this in- make sense of the B2B market, almost non exist- credible number, the fact is that social media are ent when it gets to the event industry. here to stay. They have quickly become a strong asset in marketing, selling and supporting events. Well, that is going to change. This book will give you a full picture of how you can use social media The fact that social media are extremely popular if you work with events. With a twist. does not translate into proper use of the tool. Confusion seems to be a dominant feeling among While in fact most books are the result of the those who turn to social media for their market- writer’s intuition, the next chapters are a direct ing, customer service, PR, research efforts. response to what you, dear event professional, want to learn more about. Hence why we embarked in the incredibly tough social media for events 2 o preface We asked for the opinion of 1,500 event profes- sionals, we qualified more than 1,300 of them. We learnt how they use social media, what are the pain points and what should be ignored. That became the backbone of our work. Do not expect some wishy washy, kumbaya or su- perficial overview of social media for events. We are here to give you the most targeted piece of work written about the subject. Content you can trust and refer to for the next few years, specifi- cally tailored for the event industry. If I whet your appetite for knowledge, let us show you what’s on the menu. social media for events 3 o How This Book is Structured We kept the structure of this book as easy as pos- approach to avoid blunders and succeed regard- sible to reflect different stages of social media less of the size or budget of your event. maturity. Depending on your experience with so- cial media you could skip to the part that matters Part III is a brief overview of tactics. Tactics are most to your business or event now. mainly driven by the selection process and your objectives. We will give you some inspiration for We strongly recommend starting from Part I as pre, during and post show activities you could there is incredible value in reviewing the funda- implement. mentals, even if briefly. Part IV looks at advanced social media topics Research. This book starts with the pubblication such as social advertising, stimulating social of an unprecedented amount of research into engagement via event mobile apps, and social the use of social media for events. This section media at tradeshows. will present the zeitgeist of how social media are currently used in the industry. Part V is the most visual part of this book with our Social Media Cards, infographic style over- Part I of the book is dedicated to establishing views of the major social networks and how sound reasons why you are embarking on a social event professionals could use them for different media project. It gives you advice to get the man- purposes. agement on board and to create a strong busi- ness case to use social media at your event. Most sections also offer case studies of world renowned and local events, spanning from con- Part II includes the most significant chapters for ferences, to tradeshows, to music festivals. every social media practitioner. We will cover strategy in great detail, suggesting the correct social media for events 4 o ad table of contents pg. 2 PREFACE pg. 4 HOW IS THIS BOOK STRUCTURED pg. 7 RESEARCH pg. 7 The data pg. 15 PART I: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM pg. 17 Is Social Media Good For Your Event? pg. 20 The New Value of Social Media for Events pg. 23 How To Convince Your Boss: Debunking Social Media Myths pg. 25 Setting up the Rules: Creating a Social Media Policy pg. 27 PART II: SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY pg. 28 The Time and Money Dilemma pg. 29 A Working Solution: Incremental Innovation pg. 30 Know Your Objectives pg. 33 Process Mapping pg. 35 Create a Content Plan pg. 37 Case study: Make Content Work for Your Event: ReFRESHing pg. 39 Hashtag: The Holy Grail of Your Content Plan pg. 42 Case study: Creating Engagement via Social Media. A Hashtag Story pg. 47 Social Network Selection pg. 49 Choosing Your Team & Process - by Cathy Key pg. 55 Creating a Listening Center: Social Media Monitoring - by Cathy Key pg. 61 Social Media Measurement and ROI - by Cathy Key pg. 67 PART III: TACTICS pg. 68 Before Your Event - by Julius Solaris and Cathy Key pg. 75 Case Study: A Pre-Event Social Plan: Ocoee Founders’ Day Festival pg. 77 During the Event - by Cathy Key pg. 81 Case Study: Making Your Event Visible: IMEXlive pg. 84 After the Event - by Cathy Key pg. 85 10 Mistakes Events Make on Social Media and How to Fix Them pg. 89 PART IV: ADVANCED SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT AND SPECIFIC USES pg. 90 Social Advertising pg. 95 Social Media for TradeShows - by Tracie Browne pg. 106 Case study: Making an Impact as an Exhibitor, Meet Mr Holland pg. 108 Using Event Mobile Apps to Stimulate Social Media Engagement pg. 111 PART V: SOCIAL MEDIA CARDS pg. 113 Facebook pg. 114 Twitter pg. 115 Youtube pg. 116 LinkedIn pg. 117 Google+ pg. 118 Blog pg. 119 Pinterest pg. 120 Instagram pg. 121 Slideshare pg. 122 Tumblr social media for events 6 o Research This research was conducted in August 2014 in substantial writeup because the need of guidance the Event Planning and Management Group, an in the industry is at an all time high. A staggering online community of 220,000 event profession- 52% of respondents pointed out that they need als. help with figuring out how to use social media effectively. This is one of the biggest challenges in We qualified respondents by eliminating aca- social media. demics, students and suppliers. Subsequently we disqualified those planning no events.This was to These two stats signal that while there is growing make sure that only those with direct experience interest and adoption, confusion is still the domi- could reply to the survey. Disqualified partici- nant feeling. The need for clarity skyrockets if we pants could not reenter as IP addresses were account that 46% of respondents have someone automatically blacklisted for inclusion. dedicated to social media. Justifying a resource investment is a pressing business issue and the Out of the 1559 respondents, 1335 were quali- need for a clearer business case for social media fied event professionals. The largest majority be- is evident. ing event/meeting planners, followed by special event planners and independent consultants and Talking about business, probably the most shock- event planning agencies. ing stat of them all is in regards to measurement. 54% of respondents do not measure their social media effort. We believe there is no more time The data to waste. One of the most surprising piece of information Here are the complete results of the research. we obtained from the survey is that 32% of the The book will consistently refer to these num- respondents use social media for all their events. bers and respond to the most pressing issues. This is an incredible figure that reinforces the importance of the topic for the industry. We decided to combine the report and a more back social media for events 7 o the research 1. What title describes you best? Response Response Percent Total Event or Meeting Planner 43.90% 586 Special Event Planner 15.13% 202 Independent Event Consultant 13.26% 177 Supplier 13.18% 176 Event Planning Agency 7.12% 95 Student 5.17% 69 answered 1335 Academia 2.25% 30 skipped 0 2. How many events do you organize every year? Response Response Percent Total 5 - 15 31.67% 336 1 - 5 25.73% 273 15 -50 24.22% 257 More than 50 16.31% 173 0 2.07% 22 answered 1061 skipped 274 back social media for events 8 o the research 3. How many of the events you plan use social media? Response Response Percent Total All of them 32.34% 336 None 17.42% 181 5% 15.50% 161 50% 13.28% 138 25% 12.61% 131 answered 1039 75% 8.85% 92 skipped 296 4.