Social Media Marketing Tools for Event Planners – Part 3: Twitter & Facebook
Social Media Marketing Tools for Event Planners: Blogs, Twitter & Facebook…
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Summary: This is part 3 of Event Coup's three part guide to social media marketing basics for event planners. Ready to share your blog on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites? We'll cover the basics and show you exactly how to do it, step-by-step, with videos and detailed instructions.
Sharing your Event Planning Blog on Twitter & Facebook
Social Media Marketing Tools for Event Planners: Blogs, Twitter & Facebook is the 3rd part of a 3 part series to help event planners implement their social media marketing strategy. Event Coup has a lot of advanced content about social media. This series has been focusing on the basics. The list of resources we cover in this article won't be exhaustive as the purpose of this series is to cut through the noise and help you get started quickly and easily.
In order to use the tools we'll be discussing, it's important for you to have handy:
a shortened version of your URL (if you're going to update your status on LinkedIn or manually tweet about your most recent blog update)
the full URL and a summary for each of the blog entries you're ready to share
your RSS Feed URL
If you're not where to get these, we covered this information in parts 1 and 2. If you haven't read parts 1 and 2 or if you need a refresher, you can access them here:
Twitter, the most well known, real time micro-blogging platform, is becoming increasingly useful for business. With just 140 characters, business owners can stay in touch with customers, share relevant articles, give product and service information, and get the word out about blog updates. As business people lead increasingly fast paced lives, focused and targeted tweets can be a highly effective method of capturing short attention spans and communicating key information about your business.
Getting Started on Twitter
If you're not on Twitter, here is a short tutorial for setting up your Twitter profile:
Adding Twitter to Your LinkedIn Profile
Recently, LinkedIn upgraded its functionality. You can now:
list the URL for your Twitter ID directly in your profile
tweet your network updates by selecting the Twitter button and clicking on "Share" whenever you want to tweet a new update. The first time you do this, LinkedIn will sync your profile with Twitter.
You can decide if you want to tweet your LinkedIn network updates (recommended) or if you want update your network update on LinkedIn every time you tweet.
Twitblogs: When 140 Characters Just Aren't Enough
Twitblogs is the perfect Twitter companion. Once you’ve created your Twitter profile, you can use your Twitter ID and password to log into twitterfeed.com in a new browser.
Register, create an account and login.
Click on the "dashboard" link if you aren't already at the dashboard.
Click on "Create new Feed"
Enter a short name for your feed.
Paste your RSS ULR into the "RSS Feed URL" field
Always click on "tess rss feed" to make sure that you have no typos
Customizing your Twitterfeed
Click on advanced settings
Select your update frequency for your feed - this will determine how often Twitterfeed checks for updates. Vary the frequency so that all of your feeds don't tweet at the same time.
Under post content select "Include Title".
Make sure that "Post Link" is selected and use the default URL shortner bit.ly so that you can get click through statistics whenever you log in
Select a couple of prefixes and suffixes. For event planning tweets, consider using the hash tags #eventprofs and #linkevents (If you aren't familiar with hashtags [#], scroll down and you'll be able to access a video tutorial at the end of this section.)
Then, click "continue to step 2".
Selecting a Service: Twitter
In the "Publishing to" list, select Twitter
Click on the list to authenticate your Twitter account. Select allow.
Click on create service
Click on "All done"
You're all set. From now on, whenever you update your blog, Twitterfeed will tweet the title of the blog entry, a shortened URL and any suffixes that you selected. To add other blogs or share articles from a publication that is relevant to event planning, use the same steps that you used to create your first Twitterfeed.
Remember to follow Twitterfeed on Twitter - @twfeed.
Next Steps for Using Twitter for Event Planners
After you've set up your Twitter account and registered with a number of sites that will automatically tweet your blog updates, it would probably be helpful to get an assessment of how your use of Twitter is progressing and suggestions for improvement. An excellent site that will help you do this is:
Twitter.grader.com
You can even arrange for Twitter.grader.com to send you a weekly report to help you track your progress.
If you would like more information about how event planning professionals can use Twitter, here are some other extremely useful resources:
Review of Twitter Basics & Some Advanced Content
Hash tags are bookmarks. They make it possible for people searching for tweets about specific topics to find it easily in Twitter. You can create a hashtag for a specific events, share it with participants and include it in all tweets related to this event.
This video provides a tutorial about Hash Tag Basics:
#eventprofs
#eventprofs is the hash tag for a thriving commmunity of progressive event planning professionals that connect on Twitter share ideas, debate topics and collaborate. The eventprofs wiki has full instructions and details for participation. The #eventprofs "hashtag group" on Twitter has online chats twice per week. You can follow this group @eventprofs on Twitter http://twitter.com/eventprofs.
Facebook for Business
At one time, many dismissed Facebook primarily of interest to teenagers, college students and companies targeting those demographics in their marketing. The face of Facebook has changed dramatically and more and more companies are creating Facebook profiles and using Facebook to connect with existing and potential customers. (That is one of the reasons that I always advise clients to pay attention to what’s hot among teenagers and college students. Young people tend to be early adopters and they will often provide clues about marketing trends and tools. If you don’t have a teenager, beg, borrow or steal one.)
At the time of writing, the insidefacebook.com directory listed 21,655 companies with Facebook profiles. Without leaving the first part of the A’s, some of the organizations listed on Facebook include AT&T, Abbot Laborotories, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. Your event planning company can no longer afford NOT to be on Facebook.
Getting Started on Facebook
If you haven’t created your Facebook profile yet, go to facebook.com and register. This interactive video will show you the basics for getting started and building profile.
As you build your Facebook profile, it's important to manage your content by removing what you don't need and getting more content that is relevant.
Sharing Blog on Facebook
Sharing Your Blog on Facebook with Networked Blogs:
Networked Blogs is a powerful application for sharing you blog on Facebook. All you have to do is go to networkedblogs.com when you are logged into Facebook.
Networked Blogs Basics
Click on the "Register a New Blog" link.
Enter the blog name.
Enter your blog URL (not RSS).
Enter your 3 most important keywords in the "Topics" fields.
In the description field, enter a brief, keyword rich synopsis about your blog.
Click "next".
Publishing Your Blog to Your Facebook Profile
After you click on next, you will see a summary with details about your blog.
Click on Feed Settings - add your RSS Feed URL
When prompted, select "allow" so that Newtowrked Blogs can share information about your blog on Facebook
Every time you post a new blog entry, it will appear in Networked Blogs and on your Facebook profile. Your Facebook profile will also list all the blogs you write in the lower left corner of your Facebook profile.
Here is more information about Networked Blogs:
This article has focused on how to share your blog on Facebook. If you would like more advanced content about using Facebook for event planning, here are some resources:
This brings us to the end of our 3 part series about basic of social media marketing strategies for event planners. This series was intended to be a tutorial to point you in the right direction and help you get your website, blog, and LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook profiles set up quickly and easily. If you have any questions, please post them in "Comments". Subscribe to Event Coup so that you will receive immediate notificaiton about advanced social media content for event planners.
Photo Credit:Anne HelmondPermalink
Social Media Marketing Tools for Event Planners: Blogs, Twitter & Facebook is the 3rd part of a 3 part series to help event planners implement their social media marketing strategy. Event Coup has a lot of advanced content about social media. This series has been focusing on the basics. The list of resources we cover in this article won't be exhaustive as the purpose of this series is to cut through the noise and help you get started quickly and easily.
In order to use the tools we'll be discussing, it's important for you to have handy: