Our Social Media Strategy for your Next Event

Planning an event? Social Media technologies such as blogs,micro-blogging,wikis, podcasts,video,RSS,forums,social networks,and online communities can help. ABCey Events will help you accomplish your program goals through a detailed social media strategy.

Here's how we'll do it:

• Build brand visibility and equity
• Gain insight into event attendees
• Promote products and services, speakers and sponsors
• Influence communities
• Increase Web site traffic for event
• Drive innovation



1. We will start talking/tweeting about your event in advance. Building anticipation, expectation, and sharing the news is vital.

2. Add event to FaceBook (Create fan and group Page), Twitter, and LinkedIn (create group) - Use all the community tools to share the event date and details, not just for logistical reasons but also social proof. Create social media event. Identify target market and invite them to join.

3. Blog, Tweet, leading up to event - Keep up the momentum and the information flow and help grow the anticipation of the event. We will have lots to talk about and can communicate directly with the speakers!

4. Add opt-in to event registration - A crucial step is to get people onto an event email list, so you do not lose contact with anyone. We can set link the facebook page to the registration.

5. Gather Questions - When we get the persons opt-in details, we will get them to provide questions they have, these become fodder for your presentations.

6. Go viral with send to friend and tweet-this - Use WordPress plugins, FaceBook features, Twitter, to get attendees to spread the word. Make it easy and people will bring along friends, growing your participation and also making more likely to attend and get value out of the event. People want to stay consistent with their own recommendations.

7. Decide twitter hash tag and flickr tag for your event - Attendees build further buzz through back channel discussions, so make sure these can be found by aggregating chatter around one hashtag.

8. Use multimedia during the event - Share pictures before, during and after using Flickr tags/groups, TwitPic, Facebook groups and YouTube channels, and encourage attendees to the same Multimedia social media

9. Provide recordings and downloads - Downloads also have chance to go viral if you encourage sharing

10. Build your list for the next event - Benefit from the “compounding” effect

11. Follow up - Don’t leave your audience hanging. Use groups, forums discussion after event to consolidate your new community.

12. Gather feedback for how to improve - You want each event to build on the last one, learn each time. Social media is excellent for gathering feedback.

13. Call for Questions/Topics - Use crowdsourcing to create the next event.

14. Deliver what people want – We will start planning next event around supplied answers and you will be confident you are delivering what is needed and desired.

15. Keep communicating - Build anticipation early, consistently and often using Facebook, Twitter and your email list

Stripped. Minimalism at its best.

Life is complicated; why should our surroundings be equally cluttered? These days it’s about simplifying your life. We’ve lost the paper when it comes to bills, lost the frills when it comes to design, and lost the yearn for extravagance. We don’t see minimalism as bare, we see it as simple.

Here are some of our favorite new products brought to us by Yanko Design to minimalize your life-- as well as our own tips to be on the fast track to minimalism.


Eat, Cook and Clean Up, All At The Same Table

http://www.yankodesign.com/

Visual Treats

http://www.yankodesign.com/

Wasteful Minimalism

http://www.yankodesign.com/

Designing Your Home
Halfway between your love for French country and your taste for Tuscan elegance you found yourself in well… ugly. For whatever project you’re working on, know your vision early, and stick to it.

Cooking Your Meal
This is a great chance to go green and minimalize at the same time. Pick an ingredient that is seasonal and local, and go with it! Let the flavor stand out. Sometimes less is more when it comes to food.

In Your Closet
Its time to let go. Some pieces will never leave, like your wedding gown. But your acid wash jeans? So long! Generally what I’ve heard is, if you haven’t worn it in a year, its time to give it away. And when it comes to getting dressed? Same rules apply. Keep it simple.

That said, we like a little bling too :)

Social Media- Your New Best Friend and Favorite Word

What is social media?

Social media is content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal, political and business use. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC). –Wikipedia

If you are a living and breathing human being, it is highly likely that you are very familiar with the term social media and are also probably sick of it. I remember when the Ad Tech Conference was here in San Francicsco over a month ago…I couldn’t escape the term for the life of me. The social media environment changes so quickly and the pace of change is so fast that it's becoming increasingly difficult for professionals to keep up, let alone small business owners like myself who have other things to do and worry about.

It was incredible to see what happened this past week after the disputed Iranian presidential election results. Authorities shut down text messaging, blocked Facebook and YouTube and cut off the BBC Persian-language service, but they forgot about Twitter. The simple microblogging service enabled Iranians to tell the world what was happening on the streets of Tehran in real time, and also served as a vital means of communication among themselves.

I’ve been told to focus on the Big 3: Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In. Personally, this is all I can manage for the time being and think these are the most valuable social networks out there. I used to be an avid myspacer when I was younger, and do have a personal facebook page, but it has now all turned to business. It’s becoming more and more apparent each day that if you don’t keep up with this “social media era” per say, you will be left behind. The 90’s were about the World Wide Web of information and the power of linking web pages. “Today it’s about the World Wide Web of people and the power of the social graph. Online networks are fundamentally changing the way we live, work, and interact.” - Clara Shih, The Facebook Era.

For businesses, the opportunites are invaluable. Some of you may not like this, but it’s about turning strangers into friends and friends into customers.-@Bradleywill How often do you buy something from someone that you don’t know, like, or trust? Truth is, often sales are made after a relationship is established. Social media has already helped me source new business opportunities, target marketing messages, and transform communication with my prospects.

I’m still learning and have a feeling this is going to be a very long course that may never end. I’m learning all the rules on facebook and twitter etiquette (aka twitequette), reading books, blog’s, and PDF’s on the subject matter. I’m learning how to build my networks, community, and brand. I’m trying to create valuable content within my industry to engage others that are in my industry, and get my message across. I’m hoping that if I build up my networks enough on all these sites, the word of mouth referral process will take effect and I will never have to make awful sales calls again;)

With that said, hop on the bandwagon if you’re not already…

Become a fan of ABCey Events on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter, and Join my network on Linked In

“Social media means consumers have been given a larger seat at the table. And they’re never going back.” -@bobinmotion

Greening your Next Event

ABCey Events can help you take a few easy steps to make your event greener. Planning Green meetings has become a major initiative for many professional meeting planners and corporate travel departments.

Choose a Local Venue:
When selecting that perfect setting, why not keep global warming in mind? We will work with you to select a convenient location also help to arrange for carpools or transportation options to the event as well. Encourage your guests to carpool and pair up people who live close to one another. For those who come by public transportation, bike, and foot give low-waste door prizes like a coupon for a cup of fair-trade, organic coffee from the locally-owned coffee shop, or a bag of freshly baked cookies made from organic flour and “Bird-Friendly” chocolate.

E-vite Your Guests:
Emailing invitations save paper and money, especially if you have an extended guest list. We can also use social media to create a group for your event and create buzz around it. There are many websites that provide free email invitation services, however if a printed copy is an absolute must, we can use postconsumer recycled paper or flower seed paper, which can actually be planted in your garden.

Local Food:
Depending on the type of food you are looking to serve, we will choose a restaurant or caterer from our list that uses food and ingredients from local farmers. We can also work with a local food bank to pick up or deliver any leftovers.

Grow some of your own food:
If you’ve never tried planting a vegetable garden before, now is the time to begin. Start with easy to grow vegetables such as: radish, squash, beans, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, peas, and herbs. Try growing your own “signature salad” for the event. Reduce the amount of meat you serve or consider a vegetarian menu:In relation to our diet, animal products are one of the largest contributors to global warming. Plan your menu so that there is less emphasis on large meat portions and replace with either tasty plant-based options, or with grass-fed, pasture-raised products instead.

Offer rainforest certified coffee and chocolate:
Organic, fair-trade and shade-grown products can still be problematic to our diminishing rain forests. Look for one of two seals: “Smithsonian Institute Bird-Friendly,” or “Rainforest-Friendly.” To accompany your coffee, don’t forget to serve organic cream, organic GMO-free soymilk and fair-trade, organic sugar.

Serve green drinks:
Organic spirits and “green” wines (sustainably grown) are becoming more popular and there are some excellent choices. Unfortunately, the “USDA Organic” label isn’t always enough to really know what is the best quality. Look for products from smaller companies that can be contacted for information on growing and production practices.

Use Reusable, Recyclable, or Biodegradable Tableware:
We can use cloth napkins and real tableware to reduce the amount of waste that will need to be disposed of. Alternatively, we can also provide post consumer recycled content paper napkins and biodegradable plates, cups and utensils, which will degrade faster than other types of single use tableware.

Buy in bulk and purchase and serve things with less packaging:
Don’t serve appetizers or drinks with throwaway plastic spoons, stirrers or bowls. Use biocompostable products like peppermint sticks or wooden popsicle stirrers for drinks. For food, try hollowed out cucumbers for individual appetizer bowls, a wide carrot slice when you need a spoon for something savory, and ice cream cone bowls with a thin biscotti spoon for dessert.

Clean up with green cleaning products:
Natural cleaning products are gaining in popularity and work well in the kitchen. Wash your tablecloths, napkins and towels, and clean counters, dishes and tabletops with biodegradable, earth-friendly detergent. Use only as much as needed. If you must use paper towels for cooking or cleaning, get unbleached, brown paper towels. And for whatever waste you have (hopefully, it's not too much), use biodegradable trash bags; either brown paper bags or biocompostable ones. Find all these products at natural foods stores, online, and even at some of the larger chain grocery stores.

Offset your Carbon Emissions:
Got leftover carbon waste? We all do. It comes from the energy used to do things like drive to the store to pick up party supplies, grow the food for the meal, and manufacture our chips and salsa. After reducing and recycling as much as possible, consider offsetting (mitigating) what’s left. Carbon offsets are payments you can make to a third party to remove or offset your own carbon emissions from the atmosphere. They can help to create new industries that work towards improving the Global Warming Diet and global warming in general, for example in areas such as renewable energy.