Social Media and Digital Amplification

In recent weeks I have spoken at a number of industry events about the power of Experiential marketing in todays pressured economy. Aligned to these presentations i have been expressing the importance of brands embracing social media to amplify experiences and events.

current Sledge clients are embracing this with the use of Twitter and Face Book to support both internal events as well as consumer experiences. I was surprised this week to see many audience members at Event UK surprised that i encouraged corporates to use social media to engage their staff and enhance interaction and communication through a variety of social media channels.

So I have been doing a little more digging around and have enclosed some content below that should prove the value of social media channels, its should also become clear that in these times of restricted budgets these channels help to stretch the budget and spread the word.

In addition, here are a few tips around Twitter.

How to embrace Twitter and use this social media phenomenan to enhance your live events

1. Use Twitter to survey your niche audience… You can pose questions about site selection, content, speakers or other details about your event. A great way for immediate feedback prior to setting up event or feedback after the event.

2. Use Twitter for Hub of Info Updates… this will help create buzz and excitement around your event.

3. Create a chat around your event or topics around your event… This again creates buzz and excitement and can help grow the number of people who know about your event. Use the #, set up a time and have preset questions that you can ask. It will allow your attendees to give you feedback but even better is that it will get them to interact.

4. Promote on every signage, website, email etc… what the Twitter Handle is and the #hashtag.

At the event


1. Have the attendees tweet about the event… Have screens throughout the event showing a live stream of what the attendees are saying. It will be fun and engaging for attendees.

2. Use it as a way to ask questions to the speakers… This can be done by attendees at the event and ones who could not make the event.

3. Use it as an “info central”… for any updates, changes to the event to keep attendees informed up to the second.

4. Organize a TweetUp mixer around the event… This can be before the event, at the event or after the event. Embrace the tweeple.

Now get out there and use Twitter for your events.

Lets take it a step farther and talk about how to use it to increase exposure, attendance, and engagement at your events… Twitter’s power shines in promoting events. Why, because it is a communication tool and enhances word of mouth. It is an easy way to share before the event, during the event and between attendees.

There are several things we need to do to begin our sharing.

1. The first thing we need to do is determine our audience… Who are you targeting? Who is your unique audience? How are they going to find this info? Who in that group has a huge influence in your target group and can help you spread your message?

2. Create a # Hashtag… which we learned earlier is a way to aggregate info about a topic, which is basically a keyword that ties everything together. I have several but I am the head of Atlanta Bloggers and we use the #atlblog – so everybody that communicates about the event uses that # so that you can search for it and see all the conversation that surrounds the events.

3. Do a search on Twitter http://search.twitter.com (I prefer the advanced search so I can search by area) for certain keywords that may encompass and surround your niche market. Type in keywords and see what people in your niche are talking about. Who they are and follow them. Engage them and let them know about your event.

4. If the event is big enough and ongoing. An option may be to think about creating its own Twitter Handle.

5. Get your current network and followers to RT(forward) and share the invitation with their followers. Give them a discount code to share with their group. It gets them involved but also added value to their network.