Marketing

5 Social Media Infographics You MUST Read

April 11, 2012 by Kari Rippetoe

Who doesn’t love an infographic? We sure do! And there are lots of them out there – but not all of them provide information you can take away and use. These are 5 social media infographics we think present truly useful information – whether you’re kick-starting social media efforts or looking to improve your current social media program.

Social Media Advertising Reaching New Heights: If running ads on social networks like Facebook is something you’re considering, this infographic provides some helpful guidance on the current landscape and how valuable social media ads are to marketers.

Pinterest Deconstructed for eTailers and Content Marketers: Pinterest is the 3rd most popular social network on the web at the moment, and this infographic gives you the “who, what, where & when” to help you utilize Pinterest effectively.

How to Train Employees to Handle Social Media: According to this infographic, 48% of senior financial executives (apparently the industry used for this survey) feel that “social media will be an important component of corporate marketing efforts going forward.” So how can you train your employees to handle these efforts in the most effective way possible? This is an excellent how-to infographic.

7 Reasons to Embrace Online Culture: We have a saying here at Tuvel: Social media isn’t just Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – it’s all about being social. It’s not enough to just be on social media, your brand must be social to survive and benefit. This infographic gives 7 reasons why.

Email Marketing + Social Media: We have another saying here at Tuvel: It’s not one thing you do, it’s everything you do. So if you’re not integrating social media and social sharing into your email campaigns, you’re missing out on some big marketing benefits.

What are the most useful social media infographics you’ve seen?

HOW TO: Effectively Use Pinterest for Events

February 27, 2012 by Kari Rippetoe

Hi, I’m Kari, and I’m a Pinterest addict.

I was wary about it at first (“Ugh, not another social network!”), but after using it for a few months, I totally see what the attraction is and why it’s driving more traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. People love pictures, and Pinterest capitalizes on that.

Brands are slowly beginning to pick up on this popularity and leveraging it as part of their social media marketing efforts. And events are no different. They have a unique opportunity to further engage attendees and convey information through a more visual medium. A picture paints a thousand words, and events can tell an engaging story on Pinterest.

Here are 5 tips to help you get started on Pinterest to promote your event:

Make your pins visually compelling. On Pinterest, visual rules the day. This is what makes Pinterest so popular – images that compel users to learn more. Take an inventory of photos you have that will be of visual appeal, such as speaker photos, venue photos, infographics, and even videos (yep, you can pin those too!).

Create well-organized & relevant boards. Because Pinterest gives users the option to follow a person (and all of their boards) or just individual boards created by a person, it’s important to plan your boards to appeal to different interests your attendees will have. For example, if you offer several tracks of conference sessions, consider creating a board for each track that includes photos of speakers. Have photos from last year’s show? Create a special board to share them.

Categorize your boards properly. Apart from just browsing through the pins of the people they’re following, Pinterest users like to browse through Pinterest categories to find new things from people they don’t follow, so make sure you categorize your boards appropriately. You can only add a board to one category, so make it count! Think about where your attendees would go to find the information you’re providing, depending on what kind of content your event offers.

Include descriptions with keywords. As I started using Pinterest more, I quickly realized that simply pinning a photo with a description like “Love this!” or “Yum!” wouldn’t give it proper context or exposure. The description not only tells others what they’re looking at and why you pinned it, but helps your pins to get found. If someone searches for a specific keyword on Pinterest, pins containing that keyword come up in results – so you don’t want to miss that opportunity! Think of it like SEO for Pinterest.

Mix it up, don’t just broadcast. The same rules of social media engagement apply here as they do on any other social network. Don’t just broadcast your own content on Pinterest, but mix it up with relevant content from other sources. Look for what others are pinning related to your event or event topics. One idea is to create a Speakers board and pin articles or posts from your speakers about what they’ll be talking about at your event (that include an image). Note: there has been some recent controversy regarding whether content shared by users on Pinterest violates copyright (there are lots of articles out there about this, but here are a few). While there hasn’t been a definitive ruling on this yet, it’s best to remain on the safe side and pin content that you either own, or have permission to pin (i.e. you’ve been given direct permission, such as from your speakers or partners, or the website clearly allows anyone to pin their content on Pinterest).

Have you used Pinterest for an event like a conference or tradeshow? What tips would you offer?

Leveraging Social Media Partnerships for Your Event

January 26, 2012 by Kari Rippetoe

As we’ve worked with more and more events over the last couple of years, we’ve come to realize the importance of building lasting relationships that provide promotional value to everyone involved. Don’t get me wrong, everything we do is about building lasting and valuable relationships through social media with people who can help spread the word. But we’ve taken that a step further with our event clients by building cross-promotional partnerships on their behalf – what we call Social Media Partnerships.

What are Social Media Partnerships and how can they be valuable to your event? They provide a way for you to team up with a company or organization to create mutually-beneficial social media marketing opportunities. Many events (like conferences and trade shows) have sponsors and media partners who help promote the event to their audiences in a variety of ways – such as banners, offers and promotions, and coverage. By adding a Social Media Partnership level, you can create additional opportunities for promotion of your event through social media channels – not just Twitter or Facebook, but via groups, blogs, forums, newsletters and online communities. There’s incredible potential in Social Media Partnerships to reach hundreds or even thousands of prospective attendees through partner networks.

What to look for in a Social Media Partner:

Relevance: Look for blogs, online communities, or associations with the most potential to reach your audience. Conduct research for those discussing or championing topics covered at your event.
Reach: Vet prospective partners based on how many of the right people they’re reaching. Find out how many newsletter subscribers, blog readers, group members and social network followers they have (Twitter, Facebook, etc).
Opportunity: Identify as many different opportunities a partner can offer to promote your event. Can they write a blog post, tweet, post to their Facebook page, or run a banner? How about including a mention in their next newsletter or podcast?

How can you leverage Social Media Partnerships for your event?

A Social Media Partnership is about building a mutually-beneficial relationship with the partnering company or organization, while getting as much promotional value as possible from the partnership. We work with our event clients to put together an agreement that outlines exactly what both sides will be providing and receiving. If you already have a trade and barter agreement for other marketing and media partnerships, it will provide a good template for a Social Media Partnership agreement. The main difference, however, will be the inclusion of social media promotion and exposure.

Here are a few strategies you can use:

Co-branding opportunities: Offer logo exposure on your event website and in onsite printed materials (such as show programs and signage) as a Social Media Partner, while your Partner runs a banner or logo on their website. A high-profile, credible Partner will lend brand equity to your event and raise its profile through their endorsement. You can also give your Partners exposure through your Facebook page, or even by adding their videos to your event’s YouTube playlist.
Exclusive offers and discounts: Remember, a Partnership will need to provide value to the Partner and to their readers or members. For instance, you could give them an exclusive discount code to offer their communities online.
Contests and promotions: Provide a free pass to your event for your Partner to give away through a contest on their website or via Twitter. Here’s a great example of a giveaway held on CodeBetter, an online community for web developers and programmers. Through a partnership with our client, Visual Studio Live!, they gave away a pass to attend a conference and even chipped in money for travel expenses!
Social capital: Leverage your Partner’s social networks by asking for tweets, posts on their Facebook page, or through their LinkedIn group (if they have one). Provide them with tweets and trackable links they can use (like a campaign tracking URL to your website shortened through a service like Bitly).
Email communications: Ask for a mention for your event in your Partner’s next newsletter before the event, or even for a dedicated promotional email sent to their list (where you agree to provide them with the HTML content).
Coverage: Provide your Partner with a press pass to attend your event and cover it for their blog or publication. This will result in even more exposure both during and after your event!
Onsite advertising opportunities: If it’s appropriate for your Partner and space is available, offer a small booth space to them so they can get in front of your attendees. Another option may be to provide them space in the press room for their marketing materials.

Do you currently leverage social media relationships for event partnerships? If so, how? Tell us how it’s working for you!