Socialize your next event - New Tools for the Event Marketer

You've finally convinced your client to integrate social media into their current campaigns. You've maybe even convinced your client to use social media to promote one of the events they have produced. You've done your job- congrats! But perhaps that was the old way of social media event marketing. Yes, I said old.

It's difficult to keep up with the barrage of new social tools in the event planner's arsenal, but some are definitely worth exploring. According to EMI Research, social media tools and events go hand-in-hand, as they help drive the human experience offline with the use of technology (EMI Research, 2010). Here, we take a look at a few that can turn a humdrum client event into a connected client event.

BumeBox

Bumebox allows the event marketer to tap into real-time social media by allowing brands to schedule special promotional events for a specific period of time. Any posted content interaction that occurs during the event is immediately posted on the brand website - a much more simplier, streamlined process than collecting Twitter hashtags, posting links to Youtube (media is actually displayed). Event goers can comment, vote and engage in real-time.

DJTXT

While good music is essential to any soiree, it's pretty difficult to please everyone. DJTXT gives everyone a chance to play DJ by uploading a playlist and allowing your party-goers to text "like" or "dislike" to change the song selection, or upload song requests into the queue. Now, how fun and interactive is that?

Mobile Barcodes

Marketers love using mobile barcodes in direct mail, retails, and events are no exception. Placing mobile barcodes on site at an event connects the experiential with the mobile- and allows you as the event marketer to capture valuable data, or influence behaviors (purchase, brand interactions, etc.).

These are just some of the tools that an event marketer can use to create a seamless, cross-channel event that blends the boundaries between brand and consumer engagement.

It's Harder to Be Kind than Clever in Business + Life

Starting your own business is rife with uncertainty, fear, doubt, pain, sometimes, even a little regret. But what's most painful is the decision not to follow your passion for fear of failure.

Having started a business in vain some time ago, I go through daily mental conversations that go something like this:

Are you crazy? You're going to do this again? - Yes.

You're smart, you can do this, right? - Yes

Ok, let's do this. Ok, wait, hold on. Ok, now I'm ready.

It can be mentally exhaustive to go through this, but I feel it is necessary reality check. See, when I started my first consultancy, I was armed with my cleverness and ego - not much else. And after a few years of ups and downs, missteps and burned bridges, I've learned that it takes more to run a business. A lot more. Including hefty doses of integrity.

Why do I bring this up? Because during one of my midnight web crawls (yes I do those, and no, not those kind of web crawls), I came across a TED video of Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com speaking at a Princeton graduation. His 18-minute speech was dripping with paternal anecdotes, but the main point was this: "Dont regret trying and failing. Take the less safe path. What matters in the end are your choices, your kindness". He goes on to explain that it requires a lot more mental and emotional acumen to walk the path of passion and integrity.

I hold this lesson very near to my heart as I set out to conquer the world of marketing and advertising, not wanting to make the same unbalanced decisions again.

Jeff Bezos: What Matters More Than Talent, TED

The Results Are In - Social TV is a Hit

By now, it's no secret - TV is driving social. Need more proof? For example, "Glee" viewers dutifully tweet their favorite bits of dialogue right into their Twitter streams, or a specific team would trend on Twotter because it was doing great (or sucking) in the game being broadcast at that verymoment on ESPN. More recent examples are The X Factor, The Voice and now, Dexter. Yes, TV is in fact driving our social (media) engagement in real-time.

According to Mark Ghuneim of Wiredset, "Social TV could not be heating up more. Because engagement is really starting to map to currency." The networks that "get it," he added, "are using the social graph tomeasure the effectiveness of their marketing spend, for real-time audience research to understand the demographics of their viewers, to be smarter about how production dollars are spentand what content will resonate. And especially to demonstrate to advertisers the value of the network off the network."

GetGlue seems to be the entertainment social network du jour, so if you're still having a hard time grasping just how powerful the intersection of entertainment content and social media can be, take a look at the following stats:

GetGlue

GetGlue, which launched in June of last year. It is slated as

a social network for entertainment , I would take this

a step further and call it a

gamified social network, meaning that it allows its

members to earn virtual badges and points once they

check-in and consume media.

• This past August, the networkhit a high of 11.5 million check-ins, driven by partnerships with big broadcast and cable networks from ABC and Fox to Showtime and HBO. (The summer's most popular show on GetGlue was "True Blood" with 490,787 total check-ins.)
• GetGlue users seem most excited about publicly declaring their devotion to returning shows like CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," whichhas been experiencing a ratings surge in its fifth season; it has won its night (Thursday) each of its first two weeks back in prime time with freshepisodes.

Dummenco, S. Showtime's 'Dexter' is Totally Killing It In GetGlue. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/trending-topics/showtime-s-dexter-totally-killing-getglue/230196/ on October 16, 2011.