The winner of the Twitter contest is Ali Goldfield. Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest. We look forward to seeing you all at the Summit.**

Want to win a free ticket to the largest online social media marketing event for small businesses?

Social Media Examiner has secured some of the top names in the industry to bring you Small Biz Success Summit.

And we’ve come up with a fun way to get you involved.

First, what is this event?

Small Biz Success Summit 2012 is a large online conference dedicated to helping small businesses master social media marketing.

More than 800 small businesses have already signed up—people just like you.

Twenty-eight of the world’s most respected small business social media marketing experts will share their strategies with you.

Hear from John Jantsch (author, Duct Tape Marketing), Anita Campbell (founder, Small Business Trends), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner and author, Launch), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Jesse Stay (author, Google+ for Dummies), Hollis Thomases (author, Twitter Marketing), David Siteman Garland (founder, “The Rise to the Top” and author, Smarter, Faster, Cheaper), Joe Pulizzi (founder, Content Marketing Institute and co-author, Get Content, Get Customers), Brian Clark (founder, Copyblogger Media), Lee Odden (founder, TopRank Online Marketing), Ramon Ray (founder, Small Biz Technology and author, Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses) and Lewis Howes (co-author, LinkedWorking)—just to mention a few.

Presentation topics include developing a social media strategy, finding and engaging your target audience, selling with social media, measuring success, Facebook marketing, Google+ marketing, blogging techniques, LinkedIn marketing, Twitter marketing and video marketing (just to mention a few!). Check out all the sessions.

At last summer’s summit, 99% of attendees said they’d recommend the event to a friend and attend again.

How can you win tickets?

We have three free tickets to the summit, valued at $597 each, plus the opportunity to be promoted to more than 125,000 of your peers! And remember, this is an online conference—so no travel is required to participate.

Two ways to win:

There are three tickets up for grabs and two ways to win:

#1: Twitter entry

Simply click the button on the right or tweet what you see below for a chance to win one ticket:

You can tweet up to two times per day. Each tweet is an entry to win. We’ll randomly draw the winner of a free ticket. All tweets must have the #winSBSS12 hashtag included.

#2: Written entry

This winner gets two tickets PLUS a mention in the Social Media Examiner Newsletter (125,000+ subscribers)!

Simply write why we should award you the free tickets in the comments box below (scroll down).

The judges (Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner and John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing) will select the winning entry. Their decisions are subjective and final.

What you need to know:

1. You can enter to win either or both prizes.
2. Tweets must contain #winSBSS12.
3. The deadline is Friday, January 20, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
4. If you’ve already purchased a ticket, no worries. If you win, we’ll either give you a full refund or you can give your spare ticket to someone you really like.
5. No purchase is necessary to win.

We look forward to seeing your comments and tweets. Good luck!

Social media enables event attendees to connect in powerful ways. Social media can help promote events and empower attendees to share.

This article will reveal 15 ways you can infuse social media into your events.

Creating Pre-Event Buzz

#1: Registration Buzz

You don’t have to wait until the day of your event to create a buzz—it can start at the registration stage. Services such as Eventbrite let your attendees share the event with their networks as they register.

#2: Sharing Buzz

Encourage your attendees to share details of your event early by offering incentives for spreading the word. Meteor Solutions helps you to incentivize your event by offering rewards for sharing your content.

The Online Marketing Summit 2012 is offering the chance to win a free trip to San Diego by sharing their event.

OMS is giving away a free trip to San Diego for spreading the word about the event.

South by Southwest (SXSW) goes one step further with SXSocial, their own registrant tool which allows attendees to get to know like-minded users and exchange messages before the event.

The entire front page of the TEDx SoMa Event is dedicated to pre-registering and sharing information about the next event: all their blogs, Twitter feed, Facebook fans, Flickr and YouTube channels are up there to excite next year’s attendees, with your attention directed towards the large ‘pre-register’ button.

TEDxSoMa does a good job at highlighting their content socially, as well as the opportunities to share their content.

Make sure all your event promotions include pre-agreed hashtags in prominent positions to encourage people to start using them early when they talk about your event. You don’t want two or three variations getting coined as it will be much harder to follow conversation threads.

OMS features their event's hashtag up front and center.

Once you’ve got your speakers lined up you can include their profiles—and Twitter handles—on your website and other promotions, which will help your audience get to know them if they don’t already and even start suggesting questions and topics that might help your speakers gauge the audience better.

#3: Event-Shaping Buzz

SXSW has always been active in asking attendees for their views to help shape events, with 30% of their programming chosen by attendees. Without going to these lengths, you can use PollDaddy and TwtPoll to conduct simple polls before your event.

SXSW crowd is buzzing with excitement.

#4: Rumor Buzz

In 2009 a rumor flew around Twitter that comedian Dave Chappell would be playing a secret midnight show at Portland’s Pioneer Square. No-one was able to confirm or deny the rumor, so it just kept running until 5,000 people had showed up.

Midnight came and went, and no Dave Chappell. Still, people kept arriving. Had the Twitter rumor just been a massive hoax? At 1 am, just as everyone was starting to think they’d been victims of a Twitter con, Dave Chappell walked on stage and rewarded the crowd with an impromptu gig.

Rumors of surprise special guests or exciting prizes can help to invigorate your event and get people talking.

Crowd going crazy when the Dave Chappelle rumor is confirmed by his appearance.

Keeping Attendees Informed

#5: Use QR Codes for Ad-Hoc Presentations

Nowadays it doesn’t matter how ad-hoc your event is. Even if it’s being held outside with no traditional conference facilities, you can use QR codes to share your presentation without a projector by uploading your presentation to Slideshare, then creating a QR code that points to the presentation. Print an image of the code and anyone with a smartphone can scan it and go straight to the presentation.

Example of QR codes used to download a presentation.

#6: Collect All of Your Speakers’ Blogs in One Place

How do you keep your attendees up to date with all your speakers’ news, whether before, during or after the event? With Netvibes, you can use the RSS feeds from their blogs to create a dashboard of all their latest posts.

Netvibes can also be used to round up Twitter conversations, which is particularly useful at large events if there are several different hashtags being used.

Netvibes' conversation feed.

Helping Attendees Share Information

#7: Twitter Backchannels

There’s no need to stick to the rigid format of talking, then opening up to questions from the audience. With a Twitter backchannel run on something like Tweetwally, not only can the audience provide commentary on the talks, but also non-attendees can follow along on Twitter.

There can be issues around this, though: running commentary behind the speaker can be distracting and as the format isn’t censored, comments could go off-topic or even turn negative. A good solution is to have a screen up in a communal area away from the live events, with marshals collecting comments and feedback to put to the speaker at an appropriate time.

#8: Sharing Images

By setting up an official Flickr page and using small prizes and incentives to encourage participants to upload their own photos, you can quickly build a great unofficial photo record of the event, which you can use again in future promotions.

#9: Sharing Locations

Encourage attendees to check in using Foursquare at different locations around the venue by rewarding them with discounts, special offers and other incentives. Not only can everyone see which booths are popular, but also you can encourage them to explore locations that they might otherwise have missed.

Absent Attendees

#10: Open Up Your Event to Virtual Attendees

If you don’t want space to limit your attendance, consider opening your event up to virtual attendees.

The 2011 Blog World and New Media Expo is selling virtual tickets for anyone not able to physically get to LA.

BlogWorld is offering recordings of presentations for a smaller fee to those who can't attend.

Some events, such as the 2011 International Freelancers Day Conference go one step further and are entirely virtual, with speakers recording sessions miles apart, cutting the need for a conference venue, travel or accommodation. Virtual attendees can ask questions via Twitter or Facebook, or comment on events using hashtags to create what is potentially a global conversation.

#11: Video Streaming

Live recording is the keystone to a virtual event. UStream, Facebook or a dedicated YouTube channel can enable you to stream events live, either in whole or in part. This is particularly valuable at large events where attendees are never going to get around to all the talks. If you’re going to do this on a large scale, it’s worth investing in dedicated recording equipment and a separate Internet connection, as you’ll be using a lot of bandwidth.

Energize Your Event

#12: QR Code Scavenger Hunts

How can you make visiting your booth more fun and stand out in a busy venue? This year’s Comic-Con in San Diego used QR codes to create a Voltron-themed scavenger hunt for fans to win prizes. At the same event, BBC America ran their own Doctor Who QR game to encourage attendees to visit all of their Doctor Who exhibits, with the chance to win related prize-packs.

Comic-Con is always buzzing with activity.

Doctor Who QR game.

Reward your attendees for sharing blog posts, weblogs and photo galleries at your event with prizes and discounts. The MarketingProf’s B2B Forum offered free tickets to next year’s event for the best content posted to their blog.

After the Event

#13: Publish Your Twitter Wall

If you have a whole lot of media you don’t know what to do with, try using Storify to collect Tweets, videos and photos and embed them in your website or share them through social media.

#14: Give Access to All of Your Talks With Links to Videos

You can make your website the main place for post-event catch-up by using Ustream and YouTube to embed video of your biggest events. This can also serve as a great marketing tool for next year’s event.

Make sure you have an email sign-up (you can use AWeber or MailChimp) on the same page to capture interest, and you can even get ahead of the game by offering incentives for early interest.

X.commerce is a new and innovative distribution channel.

#15: Publish Your Presentations

You can use Slideshare to reach a whole new audience beyond your own website and help convince new audiences to sign up for next year’s event.

What do you think? How have you promoted your event? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

If so, Social Media Examiner has some exciting news…

But first, much has been said about big companies such as Red Bull and Cisco, and how they harness social media to drive massive traffic to their sites and generate enormous sales.

But when small business owners are asked about social media, many have no idea how to use it in a practical way that can impact their business goals.

And frankly it’s hard for small businesses to get ideas from the big guys that seem to have unlimited resources.

Small Businesses Thriving With Social Media

Not knowing “how” to leverage social media is a huge problem for small businesses, because they typically get most of their customers through word-of-mouth referrals.

Savvy entrepreneurs are tapping the power of social media marketing.

Take Curtis Kimball, for example. In the Mission district of San Francisco where he’s known as the Crème Brûlée Man, Curtis uses Twitter to advertise his daily specials, “secret menus” and specific locations where his cart will be parked.

Curtis, who says he has no marketing budget, currently has more than 20,000 followers, many of whom literally follow him around from neighborhood to neighborhood to get a taste of his delicious custard treats.

And then there’s the story of Alex Morrissey. He leveraged Facebook to garner 500,000 fans and a very successful business called JamaicansMusic.com.

Responding to his social media experience, Morrissey said, “It’s better than traditional media or even advertising.”

What about you? Has your small business really tapped into the massive opportunities presented by social media marketing?

Small Business Social Media Stats

Here’s evidence of the opportunity for small businesses:

• Mass consumer adoption of social media: There are more than 800 million active Facebook users, 80% of all Americans use a social network and Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other U.S. website (Nielsen). Your customers are there.
• Small businesses see big results with social media: A significant 61% of small businesses are landing new customers through social media activities (CrowdSPRING). Plus, more than 70% of small businesses using social media see increased traffic and more than 60% improve search rankings (2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report).
• Smaller businesses find social media costs very low: Nearly 60% of small- and mid-sized businesses spend less than $100 to market via social media (Marketing in a Digital World, Zoomerang).

Are you “all in” with your social media activities? Want to fast-track your success?

Social Media Examiner Announces Small Biz Success Summit

Acknowledging the massive need to empower small businesses, Michael Stelzner (founder of Social Media Examiner) said, “It’s time to help ultra-small businesses really thrive with social media. Heck, we’re really small ourselves and I just don’t see anyone focusing on the needs of the small guys.”

Mike and his team recruited 25 of the world’s top small business experts with strong social media backgrounds for a brand-new summit: Small Biz Success Summit 2012.

If you’re not familiar with these events, they’re large online conferences (so you don’t need to travel).

Typically, thousands gather at Social Media Examiner Success Summits to discover new social media tactics, network with peers and discover how other successful small businesses are using social media.

Here’s what’s unique about this summit:

1. 100% small business focus: No big businesses and no speakers who target big businesses. This is fully for the tiny business.
2. This is totally new content: Broadcast new media, Google+, video marketing, blogs plus search and much more. Social media is always in flux and this event will cover what you need to know now about Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. If you’re working off what you learned six months ago or longer, you are ages behind.Need more??
3. Social Media Examiner’s biggest conference ever: Study the line-up—25 speakers. If you learn some useful new tactics, then it pays for itself.
4. Every presenter is a small biz owner. This is highly customized for you.

There's a free sample class if you click above and look for the yellow box near the top right.

All the speakers are themselves small business owners who are deeply entrenched in social media marketing. They include:

• John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing
• Anita Campbell of SmallBizTrends
• Jesse Stay, author of Google Plus for Dummies
• Hollis Thomases, author of Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day
• Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner
• Mari Smith, co-author of Facebook Marketing
• David Siteman Garland of The Rise to the Top
• Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute
• Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger
• Ramon Ray of SmallBizTechnology.com
• Lee Oden, founder of Top Rank Online Marketing Blog
• Amy Porterfield, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies
• Ed Gandia, co-founder of International Freelancers Academy
• Marcus Sheridan, founder of The Sales Lion
• And many others

Because this is a fully online conference, you don’t have to worry about missing a session. If something comes up and you’re not able to attend, transcripts and recordings are provided!

There also will be plenty of networking opportunities via LinkedIn and you’ll have access to thousands of people who are expected to attend.

Justifying Your Expense

Are you worried about getting funds to pay for the summit? It’s a valid concern.

Can you really afford to not give social media marketing a try?

If you land just one or two customers as a result of attending the summit, the investment may have paid for itself.

Even if you don’t need the summit for yourself, it would make a very special Christmas gift for a friend, son or daughter who owns a small business.

Here’s what Paul Rodriguez, an attendee at our previous summit, had to say:

“If you’re using social media to promote your business (and you’re crazy if you’re not), this summit is a must. The instructors and content were excellent!”

Tickets are currently on sale for 50% off if you act now. Click here for details.

What do you think? Is your small business struggling with social media? Share your story in the comments box below.

Want to win a free ticket to BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2011 in Los Angeles?

The entire Social Media Examiner team will be there!  Keep reading to learn two ways you can win a full-access pass to this mega-social media conference.

What Is BlogWorld?

The best way to learn about BlogWorld is directly from one of its co-founders.

In this video, Michael Stelzner interviews Rick Calvert, CEO and co-founder of BlogWorld during their 2010 event.

.

BlogWorld & New Media Expo is the largest conference, tradeshow and media event dedicated to blogging, podcasting, social media, social networking, online video, music, Internet TV and radio. With more than 120 educational sessions, this is THE event to attend for blogging and social media knowledge.

How Can You Win Tickets?

We are giving away two free tickets to BlogWorld’s largest event ever, valued at $1297 each!

Two ways to win: There are two tickets up for grabs and two ways to win:

#1: Twitter entry

Simply click the button on the right or tweet what you see below for a chance to win one ticket:

You can tweet up to two times per day. Each tweet is an entry to win. We’ll randomly draw the winner of a free ticket. All tweets must have the #winBWELA hashtag included.

#2: Written entry

Simply write why we should award you a free ticket in the comments box below (scroll down).

The judges (Mike Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner and Dave Cynkin, co-founder of BlogWorld) will select the winning entry. Their decisions are subjective and final.

What you need to know:

1. You can enter to win either or both prizes.
2. Tweets must contain #winBWELA.
3. The deadline to enter is Friday, September 9, and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter ON THIS PAGE.
4. If you’ve already purchased a ticket, no worries. If you win, BlogWorld will either give you a full refund or you can give your spare ticket to someone you really like who wants to come with you!
5. Winners must arrange their own travel and lodging.
6. No purchase is necessary to win.

We look forward to seeing your comments and tweets. Good luck!

Want to win a free ticket to the largest online social media event of the year?

Social Media Examiner has worked hard to bring you our third-annual Social Media Success Summit. This is our best event ever! And we’ve come up with a fun way to get you involved.

First, what is this event?

Social Media Success Summit 2011 is a large online conference dedicated to help businesses master social media marketing.

More than 1400 businesses have already signed up, including Microsoft, General Mills, Honda, Tyco, IEEE, SAP, Wells Fargo, Warner Music Group, Timex, Junior Achievement, SAP, LexisNexis, Stonyfield Farm, Cisco, Mayo Clinic, Coca-Cola and hundreds of smaller businesses.

Twenty-three of the world’s most respected social media experts will share their strategies with you. Hear from Jeremiah Owyang (Altimeter Group), Guy Kawasaki (author, Enchantment), Brian Solis (author, Engage), Frank Eliason (Citigroup), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Erik Qualman (author, Socialnomics), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner), Dan Zarrella (author, The Social Media Marketing Book), Andy Sernovitz (author, Word of Mouth Marketing), David Meerman Scott (author, Real-Time Marketing & PR), Jay Baer (co-author, The Now Revolution), Hollis Thomases (author, Twitter Marketing), Steve Garfield (author, Get Seen), Mario Sundar (LinkedIn), and Ann Handley (MarketingProfs)—as well as experts from Intel, Cisco, Timex, Boeing and Verizon.

Presentation topics include developing a social media strategy, finding and engaging your target audience, measuring success and customer service (just to mention a few!). Check out all the sessions.

At last year’s summit, 96% of attendees said they’d recommend the event to a friend and attend again.

How can you win tickets?

We have three free tickets to the summit, valued at $597 each, plus the opportunity to be promoted to more than 65,000 of your peers! And remember, this is an online conference—so no travel is required to participate.

Two ways to win: There are three tickets up for grabs and two ways to win:

#1: Twitter entry

Simply click the button on the right or tweet what you see below for a chance to win one ticket:

You can tweet up to two times per day. Each tweet is an entry to win. We’ll randomly draw the winner of a free ticket. All tweets must have the #winSMSS11 hashtag included.

#2: Written entry

The winner gets two tickets PLUS a mention in the Social Media Examiner Newsletter (65,000+ subscribers total)!

Simply write about your biggest social media challenge and link back to this page (please link to your post in the comments box below) OR submit your entry by adding a comment to this page.

The judges (Mike Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner and Mari Smith, co-author Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day) will select the winning entry. Their decisions are subjective and final.

What you need to know

1. You can enter to win either or both prizes.
2. Tweets must contain #winSMSS11.
3. The deadline is Friday, April 15, and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter.
4. If you’ve already purchased a ticket, no worries. If you win, we’ll either give you a full refund or you can give your spare ticket to someone you really like.
5. No purchase is necessary to win.

We look forward to seeing your blog posts, comments and tweets. Good luck!

As of March 2011, Social Media Examiner has 59,000 email subscribers, 33,000 Facebook fans, over 60 writers and half a million page views per month.

In addition, the site has generated almost $2 million in sales; ranks among the top 12 websites on two Technorati lists – business and small business; and ranks among the top 1,500 websites in the entire United States, according to Alexa.

“We didn’t do anything unique,” Stelzner said. “We simply employed great content with smart social media marketing and our community did the rest. And any business can achieve great results.”
Listen to Michael share more of the story.

Here’s How Your Business Can Thrive With Social Media

Would you like to learn the tactics of social media from pros like Stelzner—all from the comfort of your home or office? If so, keep reading.

Imagine how much it would cost you to attend a week-long conference with 22 different experts in a faraway city. The conference fee, airfare, hotel room, rental car and restaurants would set you back several thousand dollars.

But you can attend an online conference with 22 different social media pros for a fraction of that cost.

Yes, we’re talking about Social Media Examiner’s upcoming third-annual social media conference, Social Media Success Summit 2011.

You may have been one of the 2,500 attendees at last year’s summit and now you’re wondering if you can skip this one. We don’t recommend it!

“LinkedIn and Facebook have gone through many changes just in the last two months,” Stelzner said.

If you’re one of those 59,000 Social Media Examiner subscribers, you already know that, right? Because you’ve read the following stories:

• 8 New Facebook Page Changes: What You Need to Know
• What the Facebook Message Platform Means for Business
• 8 New LinkedIn Features Worth Exploration
• How LinkedIn Apps Can Promote Your Business

All of these articles were published in the last two months.

Learn What Works in Social Media Marketing

“We have a whole new lineup this year,” Stelzner said. “And the major emphasis in this summit is monitoring and tracking your social media marketing results.”

Nearly all of the presenters have either authored a social media book or manage social media programs for well-known corporations.

You’ll hear from Boeing, Verizon, Intel, Citigroup and Cisco. Here’s a partial list of the 22 presenters:

• Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group
• Brian Solis, author of Engage
• Mari Smith, co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day
• Frank Eliason, Citigroup
• Mario Sundar, LinkedIn
• David Meerman Scott, author of Real-Time Marketing and PR

And here’s a sample of what you’ll learn: Facebook news feed optimization, how big B2B brands are using social media, how to use LinkedIn to grow your business, how to attract local customers using Facebook Places and the 6-step process for measuring social media return on investment.

Last year’s attendees included General Mills, American Express, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, 3M, Kellogg’s, General Electric, MetLife, Fox TV, U.S. Army, NCR, Ben & Jerry’s, Xerox, Capital One, Disney and thousands of small businesses.

There are only 2,500 spots and a lot of them have already been taken. Grab yours before it’s gone!

Sign up here to see a FREE sample class or take advantage of the half-price sale. It’s only available for a limited time! Last year’s summit sold out.

Did you attend last year? What did you think? What are your social media plans? Please leave your comments in the box below.

If you use Twitter, chances are you’ve tweeted from a live event.  But there’s so much more Twitter can offer.  In this article, I’ll share three secrets you’ve likely never heard of…

But first, why do you attend offline events? Is it the lunch (invariably chicken and rice)? Maybe the dorky name tag? Or perhaps you’re lured to the junk contained in a $5 laptop bag made in China?

No, no and no. You go to events and conferences for something more than a snack and some SWAG.  You go to learn something and grow your personal network.

And in that regard, Twitter has a starring role.

Beyond live tweeting, Twitter tools can give you a whole other level of live event benefits. Here are three of my favorites:

#1: Follow ‘Em All With BlastFollow

When I’m at an industry event where the attendees are almost universally interesting or relevant to my business, I want to follow them on Twitter. I’ve been advocating for a while now that event organizers create Twitter lists of attendees, but few are doing it. But now you can take matters into your own hands with BlastFollow.

It’s an incredibly simple and effective concept. Go to http://blastfollow.com and enter the hashtag for the event you’re attending. Add your Twitter username and password. Click “Get Users!” and BlastFollow automatically follows anyone who has used the hashtag.

The system also shows you a list of everyone using the hashtag, and notes whether you’re already following them. The entire process takes about 10 seconds.

#2: Keep a Digest With Twapper Keeper

Having to decide between concurrent sessions is incredibly frustrating at good conferences.  Do I go to this one, or that one? Also, sometimes you want to actually PAY ATTENTION and not tweet the session, but maybe you want to see what others tweeted as the key points. Or in some cases, your cheapo boss just wouldn’t pay for you to attend.

If any of those scenarios sound familiar, please welcome Twapper Keeper into your life. It’s the free tool that instantly creates PDF archives of all tweets that feature a particular hashtag.

Just click “Create Keyword Archive,” type in the hashtag and description, add your Twitter handle, and click the button. Bam! You’ve made an archive of all the tweets. (It also sends out a tweet from your Twitter account letting your followers know about the archive.)

I created an archive for the recent Social Media Success Summit. It’s a doozy, since SMSS (produced by the folks here at SocialMediaExaminer.com) featured 30 presenters.

Also, you can easily customize your archive by date range and by how many tweets are gathered. Date range is especially useful if the hashtag is used by multiple events, or is recurring and you only want tweets from one day. For example, I could create an archive that only includes tweets from Social Media Success Summit on the day I gave my presentation.

Twapper Keeper also has a basic search function enabling you to search for existing archives. No sense reinventing the wheel if someone has beaten you to the punch!  (Thanks to my pal Todd Lynch for the heads-up on Twapper Keeper!)

Here’s an archive example I created for the Counselor’s Academy PRSA conference I spoke at about social media in Asheville, North Carolina.

#3: Bring the Event to Your Site With Tweetboard

The problem with live-tweeting an event is that it’s so amorphous and ephemeral. Like the verbal equivalent of the smoke monster on Lost, your tweets are here one second, gone the next.

Leverage your live-tweeting skills by adding a streaming Twitter widget to your website. Tweetboard is the best of these tools. It’s simple to install, has good customer service and an excellent interface.

And most importantly, Tweetboard automatically creates threadable discussions of all of your tweets—turning your 140-character event notes into an easy-to-follow discussion forum–type layout that’s perfect for deep engagement with your followers and website visitors.

Tweetboard is currently in alpha release, so you’ll have to request an invite to try it (for now). But check it out; I think you’ll instantly see how useful it can be in conveying live event coverage in an organized, sensible fashion.

Here’s a video overview of Tweetboard and how it works:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjmiwPOCt3Q

The next time you head out for a live event, armed with your i-whatever and a stack of business cards, think about using these three tools.

Have you used any of these tools? Got your own to share? How do you use Twitter when you attend events? Write your comments in the box below.

When setting up the event as an organizer, I highly recommend you leave all the default settings the way they are – that is, allow guests to invite others, upload photos, write on the wall, etc. The reason is that every one of these activities creates news items that go out into the feeds of those individuals and their friends. This is great viral visibility for you and for them. Here is an example of all options you want to check:

And, as an attendee of any event on Facebook, you can easily help create buzz and visibility for both yourself and the event organizer. Win:win!

I do recommend being strategic and mindful about the events you RSVP for. (I’m sure, like me, you get your fair share of non-relevant event invitations!)

Also, when setting up your own events, be sure to choose a really catchy title, subtitle and photo. These three fields are the only ones seen in “Requests” when you invite your friends (and they invite their friends). The small greeting you can include goes out in the email notification, so that’s important too.

Here are my top nine tips for creating buzz as a Facebook Event attendee and/or host.

1.  Always RSVP

If you are attending an event, make sure to RSVP and write a message in the box on the “Request” page.  Here is an example of a personal invite to an event.  The invitee could then write a reply in the box below. If you want to punch it up a bit, you can even record a short video from your computer, letting your friend know you are excited to attend their event.  And then all you need to do is click on the video icon and upload it!

2. Get Noticed

If you RSVP to an event, make sure to write a note on the event wall – whether your RSVP is a yes, no or maybe.  This is great visibility for you!

Also, if it is your event, continue to generate buzz by periodically commenting on your own event wall. When people RSVP and write on your event wall, go write on their wall to thank them personally. Comment on any added photos/videos/links. Each of these activities goes into your mini feed and your friends’ news feeds. I call this strategy “RSV” – radical, strategic visibility.

3. Upload Photos

Make sure to choose an engaging photo for your main event description and add multiple photos related to the event to pique interest.  An engaging photo should be eye-catching, warm, friendly, and inviting. Typically a person’s face is better than logos/images/graphics. You MUST include a photo or your event will have that nasty question mark. And who wants to attend a “?” event?

4. Upload Videos and Links

As mentioned in tip #1, you can record a video and upload it to any of your RSVPs.  If it is your event, you can make a short video explaining what your event is about and upload it to the invite. And just like photos and videos, links are a great way to offer more value as well.  You will want to make sure you include a link for your participants to register if you have an opt-in strategy.  Make this very clear to your participants.

5. Write a Personal Message

This makes your event more personable.  Most people have their email notifications turned on and they’ll get an email with your event title, date, time and your personal message. I also recommend including the time zone in the personal message, because Facebook defaults to your own time zone.

6. Send Out Invites

Click on “Invite People to Come” and invite your friends. This invitation will go into your friends’ “Event Requests.”

7. Spread the Word

Click the “Share” button and “Post to your Profile” and your invite will go on your wall for all to see.

Or use the “Share” button to send an invite to specific friends or lists.

This is my rule (you may want to test your own parameters): I only promote about one event of my own on Facebook every month, so I don’t have any qualms about inviting all friends because my events are virtual (conference calls).  (In this case, I would use tip #6 above and “Invite People to Come” and “Select All” to invite everyone.) For location-specific events, you may want to be more selective.

8.  Tweet About Your Event

Send out tweets with a link to the Facebook event. Preferably not just, “Check out my event! [insert link].” Rather, offer something enticing like, “Learn How to Create a BUZZ With Facebook Events [insert link—use a short URL].”  (Link to either the Facebook Event page or your registration page.)

Also include the link in your Facebook status updates periodically and mention your event on Plurk, LinkedIn, Plaxo, FriendFeed, Ping.fm – whichever platforms you’re active on and have followers/friends! Your friends and followers will happily pass the snipped link on for you.

9.  Experiment With Social Ads

Promote your event with Social Ads and every time someone RSVPs, their name and photo may appear alongside your ad. Experiment with a weekly/monthly budget and see what happens.

10. Send Out Reminders

As the event date approaches, be sure to gently remind people who have not yet registered that there’s still time.

Wow, that was a lot to cover!  I hope you find value in these tips!

What do you think? Did you learn something new about Facebook Events? What has your experience been so far with Facebook Events? Share your thoughts in the Comments box below.