(reprinted from College of Association Marketing February, 2010 newsletter) by: Mitch Arnowitz
Using social media is vital to your marketing plans today, especially for increasing attendance at your association’s events. Here are some tips for success.
You need good information about potential event attendees, which means knowing whom to reach. Create a strategy and define goals and metrics. Then, hunt for people who are passionate about and likely to be interested in your event. Some of our best promotional efforts have come from out-of-the-box thinking—we pick up unlikely “rocks” on the Internet to find those whom others respect, and our research landscape includes social networking sites along with e-mail lists, web forums, user groups, e-newsletters, online communities, niche websites and individuals, along with a human search engine, conversation tracker and e-mail list finder.
Your message must include a clear, concise value proposition. For it to get delivered, you have to find real people to send it to—that’s why we don’t send to sales@, info@ or pres@ e-mail addresses. If you build relationships on a one-to-one basis, you get great contact information! We use syndicated calendars to spread the word, and make it easy to pass along information by supplying a sample newsletter or blog post.
Program execution includes personalizing all communications, and visiting blogs and other marketing vehicles before reaching out. Best practices include asking publishers to pass the word along. Be transparent: Identify yourself in outbound communications, and follow up promptly.
We use Google Docs for organizing, sharing information and streamlining the process. We track activities and report on progress with free tools like Google Alerts and targeted sites for comments, reach, trending and blogs, and an RSS reader.
A successful social-media campaign has all communication components in sync—there really are no shortcuts to delivering awareness, excitement, attendees and ROI. Have fun with it and, above all, be social!