A recent study found that about 80% of consumers rely on multiple marketing channels when making a purchasing decision. Yet, many associations have come to rely solely on  a single-channel approach.

Just like a monotone speaker loses the attention of his audience, mono-channel marketing prevents your members from connecting with your message.The more you diversify your communication channel with your consumer, the better the impact.

Cross media marketing hits people from all sensory perspectives, and is more successful because it connects with members of varying learning styles. Some may be more likely to remember the information in a video, others from a letter, and still others from an online conversation.

We’re going to take a quick lesson in using social networking as a marketing tool and then discuss how to integrate it with other marketing channels.

Read the rest of this month’s newsletter about integrating social media and traditional marketing.

Yes, session descriptions must be informative – but that doesn’t mean they have to be boring. Each session description and speaker bio should be unique and interesting while also informing the potential attendee how this session will benefit them. We’re not going to lie, it’s going to take more work to tell an engaging story that shows how your event can solve a problem for the attendee – but, the pay-off is much greater!

Here are three tips to help spruce up your event’s session descriptions:

Craft an interesting session title that paints a story.
Example: What Everyone Should Know About Social Media Affecting Education

List measurable learning objects.
Example: Identify 4 methods for improving patient retention

Create a detailed guest list.
Example: This session is for novice event planners.

We’d liken white space to the gaps a composer uses to build suspense. When a musician follows the composer’s direction and observes the rests, those silences enrich the other notes to dramatic effect. Ever sat in a concert hall when the entire orchestra pauses in unison before the final chord? The audience holds its breath in anticipation, then explodes into applause after that last crucial note.

White space serves a similar purpose. Some clients want to cram as much information on a single webpage or a brochure as possible, but the result can be overwhelming to the audience. Look at the margins on this blog. If the text blended right into the images, then neither text nor images would be very effective (or visually pleasing). Similarly, if a logo doesn’t have a little breathing space, then it’s harder to process. Give it a little more space and suddenly it appears to jump right off the page (or screen).

But we’re not about to just insert white space for the sake of having white space. These voids should be used purposefully. They need to be part of the overall design concept and strategy. And since we’re all about helping associations and nonprofits improve their communication strategy, it’s only fitting that our WhiteSpace newsletter reflects this approach.

Fueled by the fact that it’s getting easier and cheaper to produce quality videos, and that consumers like watching videos. We recently read that in July of 2008, 134 million Americans watched 11.4 billion videos. That’s two videos per user, per day.

Even with today’s economic situation and shrinking budgets, online marketing campaigns still include video, because it’s working.

A video is the closest that we can get to actually touching and holding a product, or experiencing a service.

The same is true for conference marketing. Using videos in your marketing efforts is the closest you will get to letting potential attendees experience your event before registering.

And, the stats show that they enjoy watching and sharing videos. About 75% of the US internet population watches videos online daily, or every other day. And, 98% of all connected desktops have Flash Player installed, meaning they are equipped and ready to watch videos online.

2010 Video Usage Stats

Video usage is only going to increase in 2010. Here are some stats we discovered projecting usage in the next year:

1. In 2010, there will be 176 million online video viewers.
2. In 2010, 86% of internet users will watch videos online daily.
3. Video is expected to continue to grow at a 40% year-over-year increase.

Just as online marketers are using video to boost sales, you can use video in conference marketing. Videos reviewing last year’s break out sessions, interviews with previous attendees, or short talk from the main speaker can help interested attendees get a feel for the conference.

Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Keep your videos simple with short talking points – no more than 2 minutes.
2. Test out the theory by creating videos for one or two products, or offers and see how they perform to other registration offers.
3. Look for user generated content. It could be that some of your previous attendees or members have created videos about their experience, or would be open to creating their own videos about the event.

A video gives people something that direct mail and e-marketing can not. If done right, you can connect with people in a more personal way and increase your chances of eliciting an emotional response. A video allows you to speak to potential attendees with a “human voice”, instead of the marketing speak that is on most collateral pieces. That is a powerful tool that you can use to increase conference registration.

References for stats:

Adobe Scene 7

eMarketer

Universal McCann

Before you send your team out into the world of Web 2.0 with nails and not a hammer, use these tips to construct a Social Media Strategy.

Listen.

Listening to social media means getting an idea of what is being said about your organization or similar organizations. This can easily be done by setting up Google Alerts for keywords that are important to your association’s mission and goals. Google Alerts can send you notifications through email or through Google Reader. Also searching for keywords or hashtags (pre-selected phrases prefixed with a # sign, usually used for a specific event) on Twitter can produce real-time search results.

Identify the gaps in content that you can fill.

In addition to seeing what is being said about your organization, work towards understanding what your members and potential members desire from online communities and content. Many Twitter users will pose questions to their followers asking for advice on selecting a service or product, or to finding a solution to a problem.

Get to know the communities and how to interact.

Before you jump into a forum or on a social networking site, it’s best to learn the ropes. Get a feel for how people interact because it is different from one social media site to another.

Establish goals.

Besides setting goals for social media, consider how the interaction fits into the association’s communication strategy and goals. Identify if and how social media is contributing to building awareness, developing relationships with members and distributing valuable content.

Check out our newest edition of WhiteSpace about measuring ROI from social media efforts.

Distribute your social media policy.

Don’t have one? Check out our blog post on creating a social media policy for your association.

Go to town.

Finally, you can add content. But, only valuable content that fits within the association’s social media policy and strategy.

Review, adapt and repeat.

Regular reviews of how social media is affecting your association’s communication efforts is a must. Use some of the tools listed on our comprehensive guide to social media metrics and ask users how they are enjoying the online experiences to get a well-rounded view of how to adapt.

Here are some tips to help you create a policy that fits your association.

Six Tips to Help you Get Started

1. Introduce the purpose of social media policy.

Staff members need to know what’s in it for them to get them to read the policy and adopt the guidelines. Let them know that the goal of the social media policy is to empower everyone to engage with social media responsibly. The policy is not simply about protecting the association’s reputation, but also about protecting those who chose to participate. Encourage them to be smart about protecting themselves because what they publish is widely accessible and can be around for a long time.

2. Define what is included in the policy.

Let staff members know that the policy applies to all employees and contractors who contribute to blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds, or any other kind of social media. List specific examples including Twitter, Facebook, commenting on online media stories, etc.

3. Define the rules of engagement.

Encourage staff members to be authentic and themselves by using their name, company info and title when appropriate. Remind them that they are a valuable asset to the organization, and their involvement with the association’s social media efforts will enhance the experience for everyone. Just as in meetings in the office, everyone is responsible for what content they share and should strive to add value to conversations.

4. Comply with company conduct policies and company culture.

Everyone needs to know that the same policies that apply in the office, apply online. It’s not okay for employees to harass colleagues in the office, and doing so online will not be tolerated. Same goes for sharing of private conversations and confidential information. Using common sense and common courtesy are great rules to follow.

5.  Set rules for moderating content.

Let staff members know that the social media sites within the association’s control will be moderated, which is the act of reviewing and approving 3rd party content. To create a safe environment for users, you should let it be known that all offensive, abusive, illegal and irrelevant content is prohibited. As content is added from anonymous users, it should always be reviewed before being approved. This isn’t the case for content being shared by registered users. Also, let staff know how you plan to handle comments that could be considered negative for the organization. If you are going to have an authentic online presence, then you can’t hide all the bad comments. Instead, look at it as an opportunity to show the world how you manage conflict.

6. Where to get more information.

There may be times when staff members get involved in conversations online that turn nasty, and they don’t know what to do. Provide employees with a method of contacting your PR department about issues like this. Also, reminding employees that they can contact the HR department to have questions answered about the policy and on how to protect their privacy online. Of course, this first means you must equip your PR department with the skills necessary to handle potential problems. And, provide resources to the HR department that can be used to teach users how to protect their online reputation (i.e. a class on how to properly set privacy settings on Facebook).

Take a look at policies from companies and organizations that are similar to yours. Use those benchmarks and these tips to guide you in creating a policy that fits the culture of your association.

The essentials:

Google Analytics
Feedburner

Calculators:
ROI Calculator for Social Network Campaings from Frog Loop

Social Networking Media ROI Calculator from Dragon Search Marketing

Tools, widgets & more:

Sometrics
Analytics that measure social advertising efforts.

Social Media Metrics Plugin for Google Analytics

Bit.ly
URL shortener that tracks information like number of clicks, traffic sources, and even at what time clicks occur.

Xinu Returns
A great dashboard overview of your website’s standing in social media. Run a report and you will receive information on Technorati, Googe Pagerank, Diggs, and even backlinks to your website.

PostRank
Detailed information on Tweets, stumbles, diggs, and Friend Feed. Great for blogs with a lot of content

SocialToo
Create social surveys and track social stats. Also, reports on Twitter follows and unfollows.

Tweet Reach
Follow your tweets and retweets to see how far they travel.

Social Meter
Check out your site’s social popularity on sites like Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Furl, Google, Technoratic and more.

Statsaholic
Compare rankings and other info on up to three sites at a time.

Site Volume
Compare how often keywords show up on a site.