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How to organize a conference in 2014

Posted on by Brian Lee

Hosting a conference in today’s modern times can seem daunting, but with ample planning and attention to simple details, you can succeed in organizing, marketing and executing your event.

While your main form of promotion for the conference may be brochures, mailers and social media, consider creating a standalone website, which allows you to tailor the site to the event theme and thus strengthen branding. If it is a recurring event, keep the site active year round and post updates and news. A standalone event website can also increase your SEO, especially if you provide a banner or links to the event site on your main web page.

For registration, use an online registration tool such as Eventbrite, which provides easy ticket and event management. The built-in analytics allow you to track which promotional efforts are directing the most traffic to the registration site. For day-of registration, use a tool such as Square, which can be connected to any smartphone or tablet to take credit card payments. Have an attendee list ready, which can be provided by Eventbrite, and make name badges using Eventbrite’s name badge tool. Bring a label maker so you can print name tags on the spot for those who register at the door (and so they don’t have to use handwritten name tags).

One crucial aspect of both the promotion and execution stages of your conference is creating a hashtag to represent your conference – something easy to remember and type. This will allow attendees as well as people not at the conference to follow along and virtually connect with one another. It will also help your event to be searchable and visible on social media platforms, creating a simple way to share updates and track feedback and opinions on the conference. Throughout the conference, remind people through signage and slides to use the conference’s hashtag with their tweets, Facebook posts and other social media updates. Set up a scrolling screen to display tweets with the conference hashtag.

At the conference, make sure you have free (and fast!) Wi-Fi. Your Wi-Fi should be designed to accommodate the maximum device load at any given time; plan for each attendee to bring at least two devices (laptop and smartphone). With this number in mind, you may want to set up more than one network depending on the number of attendees. Think one high-quality network for every 150-200 attendees. You also need to make sure you have plenty of power strips – line them up at every table and have extras ready for the attendees who need to charge up their devices during sessions or workshops. This may seem like a small detail, but the convenience of charging will make a huge difference to attendees.

One final thing to keep in mind is a follow-up survey or evaluation. Platforms such as Survey Monkey allow users to easily set up and send out an email survey to lists or groups of people. Use these surveys to get feedback from your attendees on what they liked or didn’t like, what they learned and things they would change. Listening to feedback and implementing changes can add to your success for your next conference.

The next level of social media interaction

Posted on by Brian Lee

Customer interaction through social media platforms gives users a greater sense of connection with the company. Whether it be through social media contests, answering questions or a simple shout-out, people thrive for these types of social interactions. According to a recent study by the market-research firm Ipsos, 52 percent of consumers are motivated to stay connected with a brand by contests.

Taco Bell’s recent ‘Breakfast Phone’ campaign is a great example. The fast food chain sent 1,000 highly influential Twitter users “Breakfast Phones” (see photos and a story) to utilize in Taco Bell’s social media contests. The Samsung T404G phones received calls and text messages that gave directions for the next social media challenge for a chance to win prizes.

These social media challenges were a way for Taco Bell to start promoting its new breakfast menu on Twitter.  The influencers in turn spread the word and generated a lot of buzz on social media hyping up the new menu.

Challenges included answering a question, posting a picture, sharing a Taco Bell related meme, etc. on social networks using the companies-related hashtags.  For every challenge, a select few phone holders were selected to win prizes.

Taco Bell truly engaged with their social media followers to make the contest fun and personal.  The selected phone users were consistantly being involved in the Taco Bell brand, which made them fans of the whole campaign.

Social Media Contests for Marketing

  1. Know What’s Popular. The type of social media contests that work well are the ones that are constantly changing.  Do your research and then tailor your contest accordingly.
  2. Stick to Your Guns. Will this campaign benefit your brand? If the answer is yes, it is important to know what your brand is aiming to achieve from the contest.  Don’t get lost in the end goal you set at the beginning of the process.
  3. Research Your Social Media Influencers. Taco Bell didn’t just pick 1,000 random Twitter users, it strategically chose 1,000 Twitter users who have a big following. Why target 10,000 people when you can target 10 people who each have 1,000 followers?

The Secret’s Out – the New Social Media App

Posted on by Brian Lee

Instagram shows your whole network how much fun you’re having. Twitter announces your thoughts or whereabouts to your followers. Facebook shows your “likes” and highlights to all your friends. But what if we took away the name attached to your information – what if there was an app that simply allowed you to speak your mind, anonymously? The newest social media app does just that.

Rightly named “Secret” takes a different approach to sharing. Instead of posting updates with your name attached, this app allows you to publish your stories “semi-anonymously,” meaning your name is not included but the post only goes to your contact’s feeds. Your contacts can see that one of their friends posted it – just not which friend it was. The main idea is to get people to be more “real” online.

Founders of the app, Chrys Bader and David Byttow, believe that anonymity may be the answer to making that happen. Under a thin layer of anonymity, they think people will be more likely to share what’s on their mind.

The app also has a feature that allows your thoughts to spread. When your friends “love” a secret, it will appear on the newsfeeds of their friends, and so on. In this way, the secrets that many people identify with could end up spreading far and wide.

The idea of the secrets spreading is interesting. If this gains popularity, it could be a subtle tool for social media marketers to post secrets pertaining to their demographic, their products or their services and monitor how far it spreads and how many people contribute to the spreading.

Of course, with anonymity comes a risk of misuse. The creators are working to prevent this app from being shut down like other anonymous apps before it. The app is designed to be a safe place for thoughts, and the “semi-anonymous” nature is intended to provide a buffer from the app getting out of control.

Using Secret for Marketing

There are several things your brand can do to avoid misusing this app. Avoid mentioning individuals and competitors and do not promote any potentially inappropriate or harmful secrets. Though the app is anonymous, your email address and phone number are attached to your account. Maintaining integrity is always your priority, so do not promote or post anything that you would not post with your name attached.

Rather, to use the app successfully, you can post facts, tips or anecdotes related to the interests of your demographic or to your product. Keep a watch on how far the “secret” spreads and use this information to gauge your public’s interest. This app has powerful potential, and it will be intriguing to see how useful – or harmful – it can be.