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Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

What Personal Touches Are You Doing To Increase Attendance At Your Conference or Events?

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

There are many ways to communicate with your potential conference attendees that it’s very easy for the information being communicated to be lost or forgotten because of the use of traditional communication methods. To separate your communications from the traditional ways, personalize the information. Incorporating personalized information into your communication efforts will help with increasing attendance at your conference. Encourage potential attendees to engage with the information they are receiving by using pURL’s, twitter, and facebook.

PURL’s
Personal URLs are perfect for potential attendees to interact with the marketing materials. For example, as you send out your save the date postcard, you can send along with it a PURL for the recipient to log on to. On their personal page, you can have them register early, fill out a questionnaire, or have them choose or suggest topics that they would like to have covered during the conference. By allowing the attendee to participate during the pre-conference stage, the conference value and attendance will increase.

Twitter
During the pre-conference stage, you can begin to setup #hashtags for your conference on Twitter. Invite possible attendees to follow your conference twitter account to receive instant updates about the conference and to begin conversations about what they would like to see at the conference and to start networking with other attendees.

Twitter can be used during the conference as well to let attendees provide their own personal views on subjects and to strike up hot topics throughout the conference. Have the speakers setup their own accounts so they can get involved with conversations through twitter.

For more information, check out our newsletter on Twittering your Annual Conference.

Facebook
Setting up a group on Facebook for your conference is a great tool. As you add friends to the group, you can gauge the potential for attendees at your conference. Utilizing the upcoming events tool, the group will be notified about key dates for the conference.

Check out this blog post about using Facebook for your organization.

Registration Offers
Who does not like a discount or special offer? Why not offer a discount for early registration using PURL’s? Provide special offers to your Facebook Fans who participate in discussions. Conduct contests through Twitter during the conference where you provide information or clues only seen through your Twitter updates. Providing more options for early registration and participation in pre and post conference sessions will encourage members to take advantage of the situation and in turn it will help with conference attendance and late registration because we know “it’s not just a trend, it’s a fact.”

By incorporating these personalization tools, you will help with the overall value of the conference, but more importantly it will help increase your attendance.

Tags: association members, associations, conference, Conference Marketing Plan, facebook, Increase Conference Attendance, Increase Member Retention, Marketing a Conference, member engagement, member feedback, member growth, member retention, Membership Marketing, Organizations, social media, social media tools, strategic thinking, Tools for Social Media, twitter, visual communicators
Posted in robbie | No Comments »

Tag! You’re it, Facebook!

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

For some time now Facebook users have been able to tag each other in photos, videos and notes. Well, now they can tag each other in their “What’s on your mind?” status updates.

“Um, so?” may be what’s on your mind right now, but status tagging is a great feature that can help your fans promote your Facebook Fan page. Facebook users update their status to let friends know all sorts of things about how they are doing, what they are doing, and things they like. Now, with status tagging they can reference who or what they are talking about.

For instance, when a Facebook user says they are going to volunteer with their favorite nonprofit, they can use the “@” symbol to reference that nonprofit’s Fan Page. Or, when a Facebook user just registered for an upcoming conference they can reference the association’s page or event. Those updates will show up in the news feeds of all their friends, and on the pages of the organizations they referenced.

Facebook posted instructions on how to tag friends and fan pages in status updates on their blog:

“Now, when you are writing a status update and want to add a friend’s name to something you are posting, just include the “@” symbol beforehand. As you type the name of what you would like to reference, a drop-down menu will appear that allows you to choose from your list of friends and other connections, including groups, events, applications and Pages. Soon, you’ll be able to tag friends from applications as well. The “@” symbol will not be displayed in the published status update or post after you’ve added your tags.”

Start testing the status tagging and see how it can enhance the connections with your friends and fans. It can be a useful tool for referencing other organizations or businesses you want to help promote on Facebook, as well.

Tags: facebook, social media, social media tools, Tools for Social Media
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Three Key Facebook Features Nonprofits Should Use

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Facebook’s popularity is still growing at exponential rate. Is your nonprofit taking advantage of this gold mine?

Here are three key features that can help your organization get the most out of Facebook:

Key Feature #1: Pages

Facebook has introduced Fan Pages for businesses and organizations, whereas, profiles are meant for individuals. From your Facebook Fan Page you can build community and increase communication with your members by posting updates, sharing pictures, blogging and interacting with your fans. It can also be helpful in recruiting volunteers, raising money and essential networking. It is free to set up a Facebook Fan Page. The only commitment your organization will have to make is one of committing time to create the page and keep it active.

Key Feature #2: Causes

Facebook has a diverse group of users who want to use their Facebook for various reasons. To help users get just what they want out of the social networking site, Facebook has allowed other companies (or web geeks) to create Applications which users can download to their profile. These thousands of applications include games, ways to share music or pictures, quizzes, polls, and lots more. The one that nonprofits need to be aware of is Causes. Instead of us telling you what they do, here’s a snippet from their website:

“Causes offers nonprofit organizations of every budget size, staff capacity, and issue area access to Facebook and MySpace, which between them have over 400 million monthly unique visitors. Facebook, the world’s “stickiest” site, sees over 100 million people log in on a daily basis. Beyond the sheer reach of these social networks, Causes provides nonprofits with specialized tools for spreading awareness, building community, fundraising, circulating petitions, and promoting other actions. Whether you want to reach out to a new supporter demographic, expand your donor base, engage and mobilize existing supporters, or spread the word about your incredible work, Causes is a platform for efficiently and effectively achieving those goals.”

The Causes website has a wealth of information for nonprofits interested in using their platform, including everything you need to know to get started, success stories from other nonprofits, and information on corporate and foundation matching grants.

Key Feature #3: Events

Besides allowing users to manage their contacts and multimedia, Facebook has a feature which allows users to create events and invite guests. You can customize the event, edit its privacy settings, invite members (you can also invite members not on Facebook through email) and add pictures or video. After creating the event, you can send reminder messages to your guests, monitor RSVPs, and interact with guests via a comment section.

Tags: association members, associations, Connect with a Younger Crowd, facebook, member engagement, member feedback, Membership Marketing, Non-Profit, nonprofits, social media, social media tools, visual communicators
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A Primer on Millennials

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

There isn’t a precise consensus on which birth years mark the entrance of the Millennials, but you know who they are. They include the newest employees in the office and they can often be found giving technology tutorials to Baby Boomers.

In recent years there has been an increase in talk about generations mixing in the workplace. Many offices are a combination of Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers and Millennials (or Gen Y) trying to figure out how to work alongside each other in productive, efficient and enjoyable ways. What have you learned about the Millennials when trying to figure out how to manage your office? What can those lessons teach you about how to communicate with members in your association of that same age?

In our latest issue of White Space we covered tips for conferencing marketing to Millennials. Our tips are based on what we know about these young whippersnappers.

Marketing 101: Get to Know Your Target Audience

They have advertisers bending over backwards trying to figure out how to communicate to this group. They don’t respond to traditional marketing efforts like previous generations.
Millennials have grown up with technology. Cell phones and the Internet have affected the way they communicate, but also, how Millennials use technology has affected the development of many products and services.
They are team-oriented. They enjoy acting as resources and mentors for each other.
They have perfected the art of multi-tasking. On average they consume up to 20 hours of media a day, but accomplish it within only seven hours of actual clock time by using multiple media platforms at the same time. It’s not uncommon for them to be watching TV while uploading music to their iPod, texting friends, instant messaging friends, and checking in on their social networks all at the same time.
They expect recognition. They grew up receiving awards and trophies not only for winning, but simply for participating.
They believe they can make the world a better place. They will give time and money to causes, and in some ways are more charitable than other generations.
How an organization cares for the environment and gives back to the community is equally – if not more important than the quality and price of whatever product or service they are offering.
They are new to the professional workplace and need mentoring. Besides enjoying the personal attention of mentoring, they respect positions and titles and want a relationship with their boss and other authority figures.
They have grown up playing video games. But we aren’t simply talking about Mario Brothers. As teenagers Millennials started playing Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG), which allowed them to form online teams with players all around the world and collaborate to complete complicated tasks. This reinforces the idea that Millennials are team-oriented, but it also shows that they have developed the necessary skills for complex, fast-paced team problem solving.

Check out our latest edition of White Space to learn how to take this information about Millennials and use it to better your communication with them.

Tags: conference, Conference Marketing Plan, Connect with a Younger Crowd, facebook, Increase Conference Attendance, Increase Member Retention, member engagement, member growth, member retention, Membership Marketing, millennials, social media tools, strategic thinking
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Nonprofits Benefiting from Social Media and Online Contests

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Bringing awareness to social issues and supporting charities is the fastest growing trend we see in social media. And lately the most successful campaigns have been ones that involve a friendly competition.

You are probably all aware of the recent Twitter challenge between popular TV star Ashton Kutcher and CNN. The heavily-publicized contest started with Kutcher and CNN battling to be the first to obtain 1 million Twitter followers, and ended with Kutcher, CNN and Oprah Winfrey purchasing mosquito bed nets to combat malaria. Kutcher also donated $100,000 to the Malaria No More Fund. The contest was talked about on everything from morning news shows to late night TV. It aided in boosting Twitter’s popularity, but also brought awareness to an important social issue.

A Facebook Contest worth $3 Million

A more popular way of using social media for online competitions is to have various charities compete for funds. Yesterday Target launched an online contest through Facebook called Bullseye Gives. The premise is that Facebook users can go to Target’s profile and vote once a day between May 10-25 to determine how Target distributes $3 million among 10 charities. The participating charities are:

American Red Cross
Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Feeding America
The HandsOn Network/Points of Light Institute
Kids In Need
National Parks Foundation
Operation Gratitude
Parent Teacher Association
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
The Salvation Army

Although it was just launched yesterday, nearly 6,000 votes have been cast, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the lead. At the end of the contest Target will tally the votes and allocate the $3 million based on the percentage of votes each charity received. The contest will result in each of the nonprofits earning some percentage of the funds, raising awareness about their organization and learning a new use for social media. As for Target, the contest is an opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to supporting nonprofits, which will enhance their brand.

The opportunity for nonprofits to win money through online contests is growing exponentially, adding another viable option for fundraising. Most of these contests will require nonprofits to sharpen their social media skills. Starting a blog, learning how to “tweet” and starting a profile page on Facebook are just the beginning. But, besides winning money through these contests, nonprofits are raising awareness and support through social media just by participating. To us it seems like a win-win situation.

Tags: associations, facebook, member engagement, Membership Marketing, social media, social media tools, strategic thinking, twitter
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Engaging Younger Association Members Using Social Media

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

There were countless great discoveries and advancements in 2008, but one that peaks our interest is about changes seen in usage of social media. Social media sites experienced exponential growth in 2008. In addition to seeing a continual growth in usage, many social media sites are also having a shift in their user demographics.

Let’s take a quick look at some stats from 2008 for the increasingly-popular Facebook. We’re choosing to examine Facebook because it is one of the largest social networking sites with over 200 million users around the world; therefore, we feel confident that whatever assumptions we make from Facebook’s stats, will be true other social media sites.

By mid-2008 the fastest growing age demographic was 35-54 year olds
The 24-35 age population doubles every 6 months
Over 66% of all Facebook users are over the age of 21

What can we take away from these numbers?

First, social media is obviously not just something for teenagers. Second, more young professionals and Gen-Xers found their way in the jungle of social media. They figured out the tools, downloaded apps, learned new lingo and joined the online conversation…or in many cases, started new conversations online. These are people who are full of energy and want to get involved in worthy organizations, say, like your association or nonprofit!

Identify networks of users and online conversations that make sense for your organization. Ask yourself what is it about these social media/networking sites that are attracting millions and millions of people? Take it a step further and brainstorm how you can join the party in effective and strategic ways to help engage younger members.

We’ve come up with a few tips to help you engage younger members of your association through the wonderful world of social media.

Social Networking

If you hang out with a group of young adults between the ages of 21- 34, you’ll notice an interesting trend. They are more likely to say, “I’ll Facebook you”, instead of asking for a phone number or email address. Social networking sites, like Facebook, give users the ability to communicate with others, share pictures, videos, blog posts, articles of interest and more. Users can also create events and invite others. A major benefit is that it allows users to keep lots of information in one place, combined with a simple way to communicate with others. Create a Facebook page for your association, and use it to inform younger members about upcoming events, share your newsletters and any other organization news, add videos and pictures and show a little bit of personality and passion – two of the most attractive qualities young professionals enjoy in any group they associate with.

Through trial and error, young professionals are setting the etiquette for balancing their personal life and professional life using social media tools. LinkedIn is considered the professional version of Facebook. It allows users to interact with each other and share information, but it has the reputation of being more serious about networking and being a place for people to build community around their career.

Multimedia

There are several sites that allow you to share multimedia with others. Nearly everyone has at least heard of YouTube and Flickr, which allow you to post and share videos and pictures. Creating an account for your organization with each of these sites is free, and allows you the opportunity to allow younger members to watch videos from previous events – which may help them RSVP to your annual conference; or, allow them to see all the great photos from the last event they attended.

Blog

Whether it is a new product, a restaurant, an event or your organization – young professionals are going to Google it before giving it a try. In addition to wanting more facts about their new item of interest they also what to get a “feel” for it before they make a decision. We recently read a statistic that said nearly 40% of consumers place more trust, and have a more positive view of brands that have a blog. There are several guides with tips on how to start a blog, if you don’t already have one. Besides posting news information about your organization, make it social as well by sharing pictures, videos and information your younger members may find interesting. Not all blog posts have to be serious and directly related to your organization’s mission – they can be fun, with the sole purpose of trying to engage readers.

At first glance it might seem like some of these suggestions don’t directly relate to your organization’s mission, and might even seem like a waste of time. But, this is how your younger members are using social media to interact with everyone (and every organization/business) that is important to them. Understanding how your younger members consume, manipulate, produce and communicate information through social media will bring you much closer to understanding them, and how to get them more involved in your organization.

For more tips on using social media, check out these blog posts:
Social Media Goes Corporate
Fitting Social Media into Your Schedule
Managing Your Professional Relationships
Using Twitter at Your Annual Conference
Twitter to the Rescue

Tags: association members, associations, Connect with a Younger Crowd, facebook, LinkedIn, member engagement, Membership Marketing, social media, social media tools, strategic thinking, twitter, visual communicators
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Fitting Social Media into Your Schedule

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

The most common objection we get when encouraging people to learn more about social media is, “Who has the time for that!?” But for those of us who experience the benefits of social media and networking we wonder, who doesn’t have the time! This is especially true since a recent round of Nielsen research showed that online member communities such as Twitter and Facebook have moved ahead of personal e-mail to become the fourth most popular way people spend time on the Internet (after search, portals and software applications).

Could the time you put into social media and networking give you more ROI than how you currently spend your time? To help you figure that out, here’s a list of tips to help you get the most out of social media and networking even if all you can spare is 15 minutes a day.

Listen to what people are saying about your association.

Get familiar with the search options on LinkedIn, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia and niche blogs to see what others are saying about your association. If you can’t find conversations about your association, look for ones about similar or competing organizations. What are members saying? What do they like? Dislike? What keeps them active? What needs do they have that your association could meet?

Identify which social media/networking sites have the greatest potential.

After some research you will identify which sites or networks are worth your time. You will see that some are already being used by your members, and may already have conversations in which you should be participating.

Give new sites a 30-day trial.

If you’ve created a Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook account, or started commenting on a new niche blog, give it 30 days before you make a decision whether or not the time you are investing is giving a good return.

Add or reach out to at least one connection.

Make contact with at least one current or new connection on whichever social media/networking site you decide to use.

Keep notes.

Along the way take notes of what sites you participate in, connections you make and what results you experience.

Set a time limit and stick to it.

Before you dive into learning more about how social media/networking can benefit your association, decide how much time you can devote each day or week to this endeavor. Stick to that time limit for at least 30 days.

Social media and networking is growing rapidly. Leaders of associations must at least attempt to find out if their organization can benefit and increase value to their members by using these tools. Lack of time can no longer be an excuse.

Tags: association leaders, associations, facebook, Increase Member Retention, LinkedIn, Membership Marketing, Retention, social media, strategic thinking, twitter
Posted in Rottman Creative Group | 1 Comment »

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