Tag Archives: social media

Why Event Management Might Not Be as Good as It Used to Be

event-management-success-O'C&K

If you live here in Dublin, Ireland it seems like every day there is a conference / seminar / expo that will cater to your every need. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great for the Irish economy and long may it continue. My experience of some smaller events though is that the event management experience is just not there. At times, it feels like the organisers are creating events purely for commercial return rather than with a focus on the content, the attendee and their return-on-experience.

I attended the extremely well-managed Irish Sponsorship Summit recently at which I enjoyed my experience through being intellectually stimulated and practically inspired. It made me think in general about event management and whether it is changing with the times.

I firmly believe that successful event management must be based on two things – a) the Founder’s rationale for the event and b) being focused on the attendee experience.

Here is a short story of what I mean of (a) above.

Alex Gibson, an ex-colleague of mine, has a passion for all things related to Augmented Reality. Unfortunately, there was no event that he could attend here in Ireland, where he could mingle with others of that ilk. So, guess what? Yep, he founded an Augmented Realty Conference in 2014.

Alex did it for a genuine reason – he wanted to provide a platform for showcasing and debating the business case for the emerging technologies of Augmented Reality. This year he has added a Virtual Reality dimension to the conference and expo and is attracting some serious speakers as a result of his authenticity and personal touch – see here ARVR INNOVATE

With regard to (b) above I believe that there are some basic questions that must be answered if your event is to be truly attendee focused.

  • Who is your target audience?
  • Is your founding rationale relevant to the audience?
  • How and where is that audience educated, informed or entertained usually?
  • Does the event footprint (activity timeframe) suit your target audience?
  • Are the planned logistics user-friendly?
  • Can you deliver a wow factor for your audience (will you need to outsource)?
  • What results will you measure?

Attendees’ expectation of events is sky high, these days, and reinforced by all things digital. As I believe that the role of the event manager is changing, I thought it might be worthwhile to suggest some of the tools, channels and tricks that I have come across. I have split them into those for use before, during and after an event. Hopefully some of them will help people involved in any aspect of event management.

Create Event Awareness even Before You Start Formal Marketing

We would suggest that 6 weeks is the minimum time to execute a good marketing plan.  Even before that, however, you can start creating awareness, for the event.

One of the first things to do is to create a website / microsite / landing page for the event. Make sure however that you have a strong call-to-action (CTA) on all online descriptions of the event e.g. click a link to sign-up.

A second step would be to create a simple flyer for the event. Once done it can be re-purposed for use online e.g. website, social media, blog etc.

A third step is to determine how people will pay for attending (registration). One method is to use EventBrite which can be embedded on your site and the info shared on social media.

Finally, I would develop a contacts list which would include previous attendees (if not a new event), influencers (use followerwonk) and industry leaders. Use a tool like MailChimp to engage your list using topics like date-in-the-diary; registration is open; special features, guests or to ask them to share the email with their colleagues.

Other awareness ideas would include:

  • using a twitter chat session, google hangout or Blab to start the conversation
  • preparing a short video showing your speakers (YouTube, Vimeo, Vine)
  • creating a contest to increase online share-ability (rafflecopter, promosimple)
  • asking your speakers to post on their own social networks
  • developing a hashtag for the event and posting it often and everywhere

Times have changed from the modest press release strategy of spraying and praying. Using social media to avoid spending unnecessary money on promotion is very do-able, no matter what size your event is.

Here are some tools that might be helpful to you as an event manager:

  • Before using a #hashtag as mentioned above, check it out first using tools such as Hashtagify or Tagboard.
  • Use click to tweet on emails, tweets, blogs etc. (as we have above)
  • Schedule a series of informative tweets using e.g. Buffer, Hootsuite or Drumup
  • Use twitter lists to send messages to your twitter contacts with large followers (I mentioned the followerwonk tool above)
  • Create a Facebook page and pin your event flyer to the top – all posts should have a CTA
  • Use Facebook Exchange (also known as FBX ad targeting)
  • Post details to your Google+ pages, and circles if appropriate
  • Create a Google+ Event to discuss the event content
  • Create a survey on e.g. surveymonkey or a poll on Twitter
  • Use your LinkedIn account to raise awareness amongst your friends / colleagues

Event Management Tips and Timesavers

Let’s say that you have planned your event perfectly, you have a full house and now you want to ensure their participation expectations are met –

During the Event

  • -Assign people to live post / retweet attendees ‘handles’ during the event
  • -Use a platform like sli.do for audience participation
  • -Use tools like Catchbox, Crowdmic and Cloudmic for audience interaction
  • -Encourage social media interaction using the event hashtag
  • -Provide proforma posts / info on speakers for attendees during the event
  • -Facilitate interaction between attendees and sponsors
  • -Use a screen to reflect live tweeting during the event such as Tweetwallpro or a social media wall
  • -Connect a video to a large screen for live streaming
  • -Use QR codes for mystery freebies

After the Event

  • -Post photos / videos on the event Facebook page and tag people known
  • -Distribute feedback forms by email to all attendees
  • -Write summary blog post and share on social media channels
  • -Share presentations on Slideshare
  • -Upload event videos to YouTube

Conclusion

It is imperative that attendees at an event are totally immersed in a unique experience by being educated, entertained of informed in a novel way. Otherwise they will not be repeat customers or maybe worse – won’t recommend it to others.

Either way, the role of event management is changing. An event manager / planner now must become a co-ordinator of experiences. Attendees want a more immersive experience through one-to-one interaction and sponsors want more than just signage and brand awareness.

With the technology readily available and the right mind-set, there is no reason why event management can’t be better than it used to be.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today” – Aidan & Jim.

 Would you like us to notify you, by email, when we publish new content? If so, just let us know by clicking here. Of course, we can always meet face-to-face, just leave your details here and we might grab a coffee, cheers. Jim – O’C&K

 

Fortunately,There is No Cheating in a Content Marketing Strategy

black-hat-content-marketing-strategy

Those of us in the business world have definitely heard of it, and everybody, at some stage has been exposed to it. A content marketing strategy can include the use of video, social media, blogs, podcasts, email newsletters, white papers, SEO and landing pages, to mention a few.

The idea is that you provide informative posts for your audience so that they talk about you or share your content. As a result of this inbound attraction, (rather than outbound messaging), you become much more customer-centric than traditional methods and are favoured over competitors.

Easy right? Well no, because of the balancing act between a) being able to provide something useful for free, b) building trust and c) not overselling. And no one is saying that this is easy.

There are many prospective clients that we meet who want to ‘have’ a content marketing strategy in its narrowest form e.g. social media. Unfortunately, rarely will one form of content suit a marketing strategy and sometimes it might only be a mindset that needs to change. Look at it this way, if the real goal of marketing is to advance your business, surely all your marketing activity should be contributing to that goal.

Is Your Content Just Writing?

If content marketing is not facilitating the achievement of a business goal – then it is just writing. The only caveat is that it doesn’t become a constant irritant by way of a sales pitch. Fortunately with regard to selling, there is no cheating in a content marketing strategy because the very people you want to attract, will ignore a sales pitch. It might be argued that native advertising is content marketing, but that’s a discussion for another post.

Whatever way you look at it, a basic human trait is that we are constantly trading amongst ourselves. This may not be a financial transaction but basically, doesn’t everyone want to sell something to everyone else, even themselves? (e.g. personal branding).

So, if you decide that your business is going to develop a content marketing strategy, and you know it shouldn’t be used as a sales tool – that’s fine but bear in mind, it should, at least, market something.

Well, if it’s not just writing – what is content marketing? We believe, it is creating and/or sharing relevant and useful content for a specific audience. The long term goal is that you instill a sense of value and grow trust amongst a community of people, with a view to building a mutually beneficial relationship.

Should a business write their own content?

We have written in previous blog posts about how business success is built on a foundation of strong relationships. We’ve also previously suggested that relationships can only be successful if there is a two-way exchange of relevant value (in whatever form), manifested in suitable communication.

Your content, therefore, needs to be professional and solve a problem that your audience cares about – or, at least, is somewhat entertaining. Each piece of content you supply should really make them feel good in that it rewards your audience for consuming it.

Of course, it is easy for a CEO to say ‘let’s have a content marketing strategy’ and the minions start a blog and set up a few social media accounts. However, without a well thought-out strategy this will only result in tears.

WARNING: Sometimes business owners should not be allowed to write their own content. Despite the arguments that they would know their clients the best – here are seven reasons why they should be convinced to leave it to the experts:

  1. They can write content but doing so for online purposes is a different challenge
  2. They can’t write – sometimes even people who are great conversationalists just can’t write
  3. They find it difficult to write about themselves and is usually faster when done by a third party
  4. They won’t always have the time – e.g. the cobbler’s kids, not having shoes
  5. They might not have the skills for social media distribution or SEO.
  6. They don’t understand the significance of original content
  7. They are afraid to trust a third party and waste money by micro-managing.

In many respects, implementing a content marketing strategy can be likened to attending a networking event.

Bear with us here.

Think about it, both involve telling stories about how value can be exchanged, in an interesting way. Both require being in the right place at the right time and having good listening skills. And usually, a ‘once off’ meeting is rarely enough.

Tips and Timesavers.

Admittedly, content marketing has become a buzzword in marketing but, as alluded to above, it is not an easy task. Ideally, for it to work it should be part of a long-term business strategy. Here is a great chart from Curata that outlines approaches which may help you with your content strategy:

curata-content-marketing-strategy

  • Appoint or employ someone to create content from within the business
  • Encourage staff members, outside of the marketing department, to contribute content
  • Outsource externally to an expert agency
  • Obtain stories from ‘happy’ customers and build content communities
  • Some media companies license content that you can brand as your own
  • Curate content from experts and share with your own community (linked to the original source)

Conclusion.

The objective of using well-written and relevant content in your marketing activity is to build trust, credibility, and engagement. The trouble is, that these may also be objectives of  your competitors.

So here are some thoughts to remember – develop concrete content objectives (thought leadership/information/driving traffic etc.), do research on your competitors (audiences/keywords etc.), ensure that your content plan fits in with your overall marketing objectives and always track your progress (engagement rather than ‘likes’).

Sometimes the challenge is simply to adjust your mindset.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today” – Aidan & Jim.

 Would you like us to notify you, by email when we publish new content? If so, just let us know by clicking here. Of course, we can always meet face-to-face, just leave your details here and we might grab a coffee, cheers. Jim – O’C&K

 

10 Brand Questions To Ask Yourself About Your Online Community.

online community - O'C&K

Now that most businesses realise the importance of being online, they need to look at the next step – building an online community.

Google is getting closer and closer to favouring those users who are committed to connecting and engaging in a genuine way. Therefore, this would be an obvious direction for the business community to follow.

A move in this direction would mean that business owners are beginning to understand that pursuing online vanity metrics is a complete waste of time.

Yes, there are still companies that buy followers / friends / likes for bragging rights or that are misled by ‘gurus’ but even they are now questioning such an investment of resources. Furthermore, unfortunately, some still believe that a simple online presence can achieve some nebulous marketing goal.

In our opinion, a social network is just that – social. If brands want to be part of an online community they can, of course, join one but preferably, they should strive to build one. One that is relevant to their business and one in which they are willing to participate in an authentic way.

That is, a business must add something of value to its community. If they don’t focus on the number metrics, they will have the time to concentrate on the people who matter – people, such as existing customers, natural prospects, suppliers and staff. In other words – human beings that are relevant to your business and not spambots, fake accounts or click-farms.

For instance, this might sound intensive, but each morning we check (using Nutshellmail) our twitter account’s new followers, for humans. If they are, and they ‘fit’ with our engagement strategy then we follow back.

Our objective is to build a relevant community that educates and/or entertains each other. We want to get to a stage where we have a relationship with other industry influencers and not just treat them like professional assets.

So I guess what we’re saying is that collecting followers for the numbers is a waste of your precious time. Ideally, amongst your online community there will be a sharing of favours and advice. This will only happen if people in the community trust each other, almost as friends would.

Of course not everyone online wants to be your best friend but at least you should be in that frame of mind when engaging with them. Accordingly, ‘selling’ into the community, for instance, is definitely a no-go area – for us anyway.

Earn online community respect by being a good listener.

Sometimes, all people want from you is to be a good listener, particularly if you are providing a service support online. This is also important for brands that use online platforms for customer service. If you are neither of these, always show your gratitude for a share, a mention, a comment or even a like. These are the people that are interested in what you have to say and maybe in your brand.

Once you have committed to the mindset that building an online community takes time and effort you can start thinking about growing it. Commence by leveraging people you know, blogs you like, existing communities – they are the ‘early wins’. Thereafter there are many ways to research your target community.

Using #hashtags for your keywords / industry will show you who and what is topical and being shared. There are also message boards, lists, forums etc. A good point to remember is that there will be existing rules / etiquette already established in most of these forums.  Platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn (groups), twitter lists, Google+ circles, YouTube and Pinterest boards will all have ‘a way’ of participating.

Spend a little time observing the various traits and personalities before stomping in trying to take over the conversation. Think of it like attending a party that you haven’t been formally invited to. You’d dress up and bring a bottle of wine – wouldn’t you?

All we’re saying here is to care about and have respect for, the community you want to join / build. In the above party analogy, the other partygoers will probably know each other and are usually distrustful of strangers, at first. They have accepted the invitation to be there because they want to be there.

3 points to remember when identifying your online community.

Who are you and what type of community do you want to build?

– ask yourself what business you’re in, what are your values, what value do you offer and why should people care?

Be clear on your business goals.

– understand what online tools you need to use to help you achieve your business objectives. It may be SEO, content marketing, social media, PPC or a combination of many tools.

Where does your target audience live online?

– research the top social media platforms, Facebook (pages), Google (topics), LinkedIn (groups), Twitter (http://followerwonk.com), Blogs (http://buzzsumo.com)

A summary of the above is to remember that your purpose online is to provide value. If you want to advertise online use the appropriate tools to do so. But at the end of the day, be the kind of community member that you’re looking for: knowledgeable, generous and engaged.

Tips and Timesavers.

We have mentioned some ways of researching where your target audience is living online such as social media digging, sifting through blogs, searching forums etc. However we think that there are 10 questions that you need to ask yourself about your online community in the first instance:

  1. What specific industry will you be concentrating on?
  2. What are the basic demographics of your online audience?
  3. Are your competitors active online?
  4. Are you aware of the influencers in your industry?
  5. Are you a member of any existing online/offline associations/groups?
  6. Why would it right for your brand to be on this platform?
  7. Do you attend offline networking events?
  8. Do you have RSS feeds to existing blogs / articles?
  9. Are you personally active online?
  10. What would be the key metrics for your brand on this platform?

Conclusion.

Building an online community is a really good idea for any business. The trick is to avoid thinking of it as a social network for your brand. Ultimately, such networks should be a distribution channel for relevant customer content. With regard to measurement, success should be determined by the level of engagement by community members and not the actual number of members.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today” – Aidan & Jim.

 Would you like us to notify you, by email when we publish new content? If so, just let us know by clicking here. Of course, we can always meet face-to-face, just leave your details here and we might grab a coffee, cheers.   Jim – O’C&K

Why Getting to Know Your Audience is The Secret Ingredient to Effective Marketing.

audience-ingredients-peas in a pod

Change is inevitable but effective marketing is the same as it was 100 years ago. Of course tools, trends and attitudes might have altered but what has not changed, is the need for a business to know its audience. Why? Because, if you don’t – how can you communicate with them?

We can discuss aspirations, online campaigns, social media, lead generation tools or even outsourcing all we want. But none of them matters unless your communication is focused on an audience that may buy from you. You need to know where they work, where they communicate, where they play, what they like/dislike – ultimately you need to know who they are.

A lot of businesses skip this ‘getting to know you’ stage and end up using a scatter-gun approach to communication. Because let’s face it – it is easier. But, just like life in general – easier does not necessarily mean better.

Also, if you’re just spraying a message and praying that it hits your audience, you’re not getting the best return on your activity. Instead, if you put effort into forums, research, listening to feedback, monitoring online conversations etc. you can then build a relevant message.

It’s not just you – your audience has changed also.

Ah yes – back in the good old days we could all sit back and let word-of-mouth do its thing. Customers would come through the door based on a window display, press ads and lack of competition. Now the competition is everywhere and the ads have gone online – so has the window display. When, not so long ago knowing your audience was a competitive advantage, now it is the norm for survival.

We’re talking here about reacting to audience changes with your branding, going digital, being social and being smarter about your budget spend. It used to be that business owners (and some marketing professionals) used to wonder over the value of a website.

Look at where we are now – your audience ‘googles’ when it wants to search for something, on their smartphone. If your business does not show up when they do – you’re not even in the decision game.

Ok, let’s assume you have a web presence which provides information on you and your business. At this stage, everybody knows that the concept of ‘build it and they will come’ is a myth. This is because of SEO and social media. This post will not address the details of effective SEO but suffice to say, it is pointless having a website unless it is optimised for search engines and promoted on social media channels

Search engines rule the world and social media feeds them.

Search engines nowadays base their results on one thing – relevance. Quite rightly, they want to provide the best result for the searcher – their customer. Accordingly, the only way it can determine whether your business deserves to be made visible or not is by ‘crawling’ your website and social media activity for audience relevancy.

As such, therefore, social media channels themselves are secondary websites for brands. They also provide a direct means of customer engagement. The ultimate goal should be for your social media audience to do your marketing for you. So, just as you will have an SEO strategy in place for your website, you need to optimise your social media activity also.

These two activities have become the window display of yore. That is not to say that billboards, direct mail, radio, TV, press and promotional brochures etc. are not applicable. They absolutely are, and should be considered as part of a campaign mix, but only as based on your target audience.

How do you get a relevant audience online?

Whether it’s social media followers or blog subscribers, people will only be attracted to you if they see a value for their time spent engaging with you. Only these people will relish a true relationship. As a result, you needn’t be wasting your valuable time with others and ignoring an audience that might convert into clients. When building an audience it is important to find a common ground between their wants and your convictions.

For example, this O’C&K blog is generally written for three audiences – business owners, marketing managers and club / charity administrators. We focus it on providing readers with marketing tips and timesavers that might help them grow their organisation. This is aligned with our own business objectives of helping organisations be smarter about their marketing through outsourcing.

7 tips on growing your audience online.

Based on the saying “It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear”, here are some suggestions based on our own experience of building an audience:

  1. Share ideas that are educational, engaging or entertaining
  2. Speak the language of your intended audience
  3. Be consistent and credible
  4. Personalise and humanise the message
  5. Paint a vivid picture with your story
  6. Put it in context and make it relevant
  7. Make it easy for them to find you

Conclusion.

Growing your audience means doing the basics, well. Clearly understand who your service / product is for and know exactly where they hang out. Listen to what they say, think about your service, think about your competitors and even your industry, in general. Find out who influences them and when they become a client – treat them like kings and queens.

“We hope you have enjoyed our marketing tips and timesavers blog” – Aidan & Jim.

 Would you like us to notify you, by email when we publish new content? If so, just let us know by clicking here. Of course, we can always meet face-to-face, just leave your details here and we might grab a coffee, cheers.   Jim – O’C&K

Why wouldn’t you use social media in your marketing strategy?

social media like

13 tips for your social media campaign.

Recently I was discussing the enhancement of a brand’s visibility, with a client, and suggested that it would be appropriate for him to incorporate an element of social media as part of a marketing strategy.

The client intimated that he would prefer sticking with traditional media because he understood how it worked. It appeared that he distrusted the “new-fangled” social media and thought it would be a waste of time and his money.

He proffered some points to back up his preference. “Millions of people still watched TV as their source of information and entertainment, and a large proportion of them still listened to the radio”, he said. He asked that with that large reach, why wouldn’t he stick with the channels he had been using for years.

He continued to say that “people trusted TV / radio / press because items were researched and presented by professionals. As a result, people felt that they could rely on the information published”. Now he did agree that more and more people were using social media, but he thought that this was purely for connecting with family and friends and that not many people were using it as a reference for business.

He was on a roll at this stage, so he mentioned that most people can remember the great advertisements produced (a la Madmen), but not so any from social media. He sensed blood so he went for my jugular – from a business perspective, he said, “there’s no proof that social media sells, it can only be a short-lived message anyway and a lot of the time it’s just as intrusive as any other channel”.

Being online is not just a nice-to-have.

I agreed that traditional and social media were two different platforms but warned that they were becoming more mutually dependent every year. People (customers) increasingly wanted brands to be available to them wherever and whenever they wanted. Therefore, an online presence is a must-have, not a nice-to-have. The power has shifted to the consumer, I suggested, and if both platforms were incorporated into a marketing strategy it would provide the potential for better business results. Some of the benefits I highlighted were that using social media was less expensive (but not free), much more interactive, like word-of-mouth on steroids and can be specifically targeted. These are unique opportunities that traditional media cannot offer.

I did admit to him that, unfortunately, many businesses are persuaded to invest way too many resources in social media (sometimes a case of the shiny new tool syndrome). But, when used in a focused way, I continued, it makes marketing activity much more measurable and accountable.

You’ll be glad to know that we agreed to proceed with the setting up of a social media strategy (on a trial basis), and here are some of the questions we asked ourselves.

Get it right by asking yourself some pertinent questions.

Sometimes businesses use social media in their marketing because their competitors are doing so, which usually leads to unrealistic expectations and eventual disenchantment. The only way to decide whether social media fits into your marketing strategy is to ask yourself some pertinent questions. Such as:

  • Is your target audience using social media?
  • Have you established goals for your social media activity?
  • Have you the resources?
  • Can you define your social media strategy?
  • How are you going to measure the activity?

An overriding point to note here is that social media activity is a sub-set of marketing activity which, in itself, is a sub-set of business strategy. In this regard, a simple way of deciding on social media usage would be to ask yourself, a) looking back – would use social media in a campaign have improved the result and b) have we existing campaigns that social media could add value. Either way, here are some solutions to the questions posed above.

  • Target audience – ask your top customers, survey the rest, scope out competitors
  • Goal setting – improve brand recognition, grow brand loyalty / engagement, sales, thought leadership
  • Resources – review people, time, budget, buy-in, training, relevant content
  • Strategy – drive website traffic, distribution for blogs / newsletters, interaction with customers
  • Measurement – SEO, lead generation, engagement, conversion, sentiment, cost savings, sales

If you can answer all these questions in conjunction with your colleagues (and superiors), and use it where appropriate within an overall strategy, then maybe your social media activity won’t be a waste of valuable resources, as suggested by my client above. It’s about building trust. If customers engage your brand at many touch-points of their choosing, they are more than likely to favour you over brands they haven’t encountered, and, therefore, can’t trust.

Tips and Timesavers.

If you have decided to integrate social media into your marketing strategy – here are 13 tips and timesavers that may be of assistance.

  1. Write down a social media plan (what, why and how to optimise it)
  2. Seek out influencers from your industry (follow and engage with them and give back)
  3. Prefer content quality over quantity (should be educational, engaging or entertaining)
  4. Use original imagery (stock photos are not recommended and always check the license)
  5. Establish reader personas (solve their problems – here’s a fun tool I discovered this week)
  6. Add an insight if sharing other’s content (build thought authority)
  7. Establish a budget (management, tools, images, videos etc.)
  8. Repurpose existing content (or use customer generated content)
  9. Keep your eye out for new tools (often channels or tools are upgraded or replaced)
  10. Dabble in PPC (social advertising can be capped at a cost that suits your budget)
  11. Develop an editorial calendar (good for principles, not rigidity)
  12. Encourage buy-in (from all staff not just the C-Suite)
  13. Profiles should adhere to brand style-guides (bios, messages, images. tone, positioning)

 Conclusion.

The world of social media is constantly changing. It is because of this change that some unfounded, anecdotal evidence or myths spread about social media experiences. Let’s debunk some of them – people are reading your posts but they may not engage with them. Your blog post will not reveal trade secrets to the competitors and online activity will not constantly expose you to comments that might damage your reputation (unless you deserve it). One of my favourites is – more is better (vanity metrics) which is crazy stuff and finally, social media is free, which believe me, it is not.

“We hope you have enjoyed our marketing tips and timesavers blog” – Aidan & Jim.

Would you like to be notified by email when we publish new content? If so, just let us know by clicking here. Of course, we can always meet face-to-face, just leave your details here and we might grab a coffeet, cheers.   Jim – O’C&K