5 Ways Social Media Can Make Your Event Live On

Deeper customer engagement is becoming uber important to building a successful marketing strategy, so it’s never too late to identify opportunities to integrate social media with our old friend - the event.

Today’s marketers may look with skepticism on what I like to call experiential marketing, but the reality is a successful (and unfortunately, an unsuccessful) event will leave a strong impression on your customers, donors and/or B2B partners alike.

The trouble is getting the most bangs for your buck. After all, events cost money and manpower – two commodities everyone is short on these days. But if you have the resources to pull off a meaningful event, here’s five ways you can use social media to make your message and content live beyond the big day.

1. Generate Customer Created Content. If you have enough lead time, solicit ideas from your online community asking them what they would like to see at your event and who they would like to hear from in your organization. Ask for their comments or post a short survey to capture qualitative info. Share the results back with them and run with a few winning ideas. Be sure to give credit for the feedback online and again at the event.
   
2. Build Programming Content Interest. Plan on featuring a keynote speaker? Work with him/her to create a dynamic pre-event message addressing your target audience. Use video or podcasting to record your message and broadcast via your social networks, or, consider conducting a live interview on Twitter.
   
3. Capture Event Testimonials. There’s nothing like having customers engaged in your brand on camera and in person. Ask the faithful for some perspective on how they engage in your product, service or cause. What makes them a fan? How has your brand helped them? Record. Edit. And Post. Be sure to get their permission in advance.
   
4. Recycle, Reuse and Repurpose Event Content. Have a plan in place to re-edit and post critical content immediately following the event. Focus on content that addresses the primary objectives of your event. This may include audio, video and photos. Be certain to tag that content and link it back to your Web site.
   
5. Don’t Forget About Offline. Take inventory of all related offline marketing efforts – including news coverage, collateral, event footage and photography, advertising and promotions. These are assets which can easily be brought into an online environment to generate pre- and post-event interest.

Finally, thank them. You may have planned for your event for six months, but your audience took three or four hours to engage in your message. Respect that by giving them the courtesy they deserve for their valuable attention.

Why Nonprofits (Still) Aren’t Using Social Media to Fundraise

Last Spring I had the opportunity to sit on a social media panel at the Phoenix Business Journal’s Annual Non-Profit Business Summit. After a strong Q&A from peers in the industry who were either eager to begin or expand on their own .org’s social media efforts, Jaime Casap of Google, proceeded to tell the lunchtime crowd of over 800 business professionals that Twitter was a just a “fad.” With the average age in the room pushing 45-50 years of age, Casap’s message was exactly what this crowd was waiting to hear. I left knowing that Phoenix nonprofit leaders had been handed a takeaway: online community building should be met with a certain degree of skepticism.

So, when UMASS / Dartmouth Center’s nonprofit social media usage study was summarized on online last week, I was relieved to learn that the nation’s nonprofit leaders have, in fact, taken bold moves to collectively leverage social media. It’s not hard to see why 89% (up from 75% the previous year) of charities studied in 2008 make use of social media. After all, social media represents the well-established offline community outreach efforts so indicative of nonprofit organizations. But what really jumped out to me was the revelation that 45% claim social media is “very important” to their fundraising strategy – flat and slightly down from the 46% claim recorded in 2007.

With all the numbers heading north, why then is social media not more critical to the fundraising efforts of organizations?

• Nonprofits stifle themselves when it comes to changing their fundraising strategies. And why should they? Most organizations have been raising money the same way for decades, if not centuries. Simply posting a Facebook Cause page won’t replace the work of resource development (not to mention that Cause pages don’t work). Rather, nonprofits need to integrate social media into their current fundraising efforts – using the combined efforts of development, community outreach and marketing to open a two-way dialog with donors.
• Because nonprofit structure tends to favor both political and information silos, donor data can be disparate resulting in both substandard and redundant communications. Last year my wife and I donated to an organization that sent the exact same “thank you” letter to each of us individually no less than three times. This certainly made us wonder where our dollars were going. Wouldn’t it have be easier (and cheaper) to find us online?
• Nonprofits need to centralize their donor communications so they’re left in the hands of the professionals. IT and data management staff are not communicators, nor are they incentivized to communicate with donors. Today’s donors demand two-way dialog. No other medium is suited to do this more effectively than social media. Nonprofits should consider taking note of companies who are successfully utilizing social media as a customer service engagement tool – this recipe can work for them too.

One thing is for certain: this economy is re-writing the rules for everyone. Nonprofits are no exception. Social media is playing an increasingly larger role in how organizations do business - including maintaining and fostering new revenue streams. Charities would be wise to catch-up and take inventory of their fundraising strategy, operations, culture and communications to identify opportunities for social media to support their financial goals.

Up the Flagpole: Selling Social Media Internally

Organizations are inherently schizophrenic when it comes to defining social media strategy. Either they’re enamored by the tools of the trade or paralyzed with the fear of implementing social media practices, training and policy in a manner that properly serves their organizations. Still others have decided to simply leave the job up to entry-level employees who may or may not work independently of the key communication stakeholders throughout the organization, resulting in half-baked tactics that lack bigger thinking focus.
Meanwhile, management shoulders the brunt of this activity (or inactivity) by reeling in renegade employee posts, asking IT to blow open access to social networks and convincing the powers that be that an organized social media approach is, in fact, a necessity for your product or service. If you fall into any of these categories, here are a few tips to consider when making your internal pitch:

• Social Media is Community Outreach. Every organization has goodwill ambassadors. People willing to press the flesh, forge new relations and act as the face of the organization. Empower the ambassadors in your organization with the tools of the trade because they’re the people worth training. (Most likely, they’ll be the audience to your pitchman as well.)
  
• Social Media is One Form of Media. You know what I hate? A Holy Grail mentality. I’m certain that when the first TV ad was placed, someone yelped, “The Death of Print!” The reality is 1/3 of the world isn’t even on social media. TV still remains a huge driver of mass advertising. Get real and sell in social media as the smart partner to your broader media mix. Allow it to complement and strengthen your marketing activities rather than revolutionize your entire approach.
  
• Social Media is Growing Exponentially. Social media’s explosive growth cannot go unrecognized by any organization using marketing to generate awareness and/or drive sales. Demonstrate the necessary facts and figures to the skeptics in your organization who, otherwise, may be unwilling to commit the time and resources necessary to play in this arena.
  
• Social Media is Discipline. I’ve made posts that I’d rather forget about. It’s hard when you have the freedom, access and tools to share as much information as you want. But resist that urge and stay focused on the business goal in front of you by being a disciplined steward of your message. Organize your approach in a way that will show your boss a well thought-out plan behind your brand’s social media messaging as well as how this type of activity works side-by-side with wider marketing efforts.

Unless your organization’s decision makers have been living under a rock, they will see the value of the medium. Your job is to present it as a business tool and not a gimmick.