Saffire Blog

5 Ways to Use Social Media to Promote Your Event

Chances are that you’re already using social media as part of your marketing toolkit. Here you’ll find 5 ways to increase odds on having a spectacular event. 1) Create buzz with a contest Any type of free giveaways get people excited and scrambling to get in on the action. Contests are a great way to … Continue reading “5 Ways to Use Social Media to Promote Your Event”

Chances are that you’re already using social media as part of your marketing toolkit. Here you’ll find 5 ways to increase odds on having a spectacular event.

1) Create buzz with a contest

Any type of free giveaways get people excited and scrambling to get in on the action. Contests are a great way to generate interest in your event and get people talking about it.

Recently Rodeo Houston targeted the younger audience with a contest promoting their Demi Lovato concert.

Participants only needed to say where Demi was born (and spell it correctly). The winner got two chute tickets to Demi Lovato’s concert at Rodeo Houston, plus the chance to meet Demi Lovato backstage. Also, Carnival tickets, a steak dinner for two before the Rodeo, two season passes to the grounds and a parking pass. Now that’s a serious prize package!

As Leroy Shafer, chief operating officer of Rodeo Houston, said, “these entertainers introduce rodeo to a new generation that will stay with us for generations to come.”

Create a hashtag to easily track your entries on twitter and use a similar phrase on Facebook. Keep the requirements super-simple to encourage participation.

2) Create a video that people will share

A video is the next best thing to experiencing your event in person. Great visuals and sound will not only get people excited to attend, but also will get them motivated to share their excitement.

Make a video (and remember, it doesn’t have to be slick – just take it with your phone!), and leverage it everywhere you can. Post it on YouTube, Facebook and on your own site.

We aren’t sure if this was truly done by a fan or someone at the Los Angeles County Fair, but it’s unique, clever and catchy , proving that even slightly annoying things catch on with repetition.

Some Things I Saw At The 2012 Los Angeles County Fair

3) Interview Performers or Guests for Special Content

One of the main reasons people attend your event is to see your performers – rodeo cowboys & cowgirls, famous singers or even the chef at a crowd favorite fair food cart. Getting more exposure is one of the primary reasons that they are performing at your event.

So take advantage of this by doing a short interview with your performers, and this will be valuable event content. Here’s an example:

Trevor Brazile talking about the prestige of the Pendleton Round-Up

Again, leverage the content everywhere – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and your own site.

4) Create a “Great Tips” post for your blog

Help your guests organize their day by creating a post with tips about your event. Highlight the “Don’t Miss It” attractions. Suggest ways to avoid the crowds for the most popular attractions. Let them know helpful information about any event changes; for instance, you have now moved several kiddie rides over near the petting barn rather than everything being in the midway. (If you have a Saffire site, your guests can use all of this information to customize their own event schedule right on your site.)

Encourage your visitors to contribute their own tips. Make sure it’s easy for them to share this great content on Facebook and Twitter.

5) Create a tweet for your attendees

If people are excited about attending, why not make it easy for them to tell their friends by just clicking a button. You can create a custom Twitter button with your specific message already set up in the Tweet text. Here is the link to Twitter’s Button resource. Once you’ve built it, you embed the HTML code that Twitter provides.

These are just 5 Ways to promote your event with Social Media. Be creative and try out your own ideas. One of the great things about social media is that you never can predict what will catch everyone’s attention and go viral. Just keep the content flowing.

Facebook Creates Drag and Drop Feature for Multiple Photo Upload

Using your computer: Remember when Facebook only allowed for one photo upload at a time to your Timeline? Well now they have made your life easier with the new Drag and Drop photo upload tool. Steps to dragging and dropping your photos onto your timeline: Open the folder where your pictures are located on your … Continue reading “Facebook Creates Drag and Drop Feature for Multiple Photo Upload”

Using your computer:

Remember when Facebook only allowed for one photo upload at a time to your Timeline? Well now they have made your life easier with the new Drag and Drop photo upload tool.

Steps to dragging and dropping your photos onto your timeline:

Open the folder where your pictures are located on your computer
Highlight those you want to add
Drag them into your “Status Bar” on your newsfeed OR profile
A dashed-line box will appear saying “DROP HERE”
Drop your photos and watch them upload!

I tried clicking on the image of the camera (as shown below) and it opened my gallery folder but WON’T allow me to drag and drop photos that way. I would suggest not clicking the camera image, but rather dragging and dropping your photos by opening up your gallery folder first.

NOTE: This feature will NOT add them to a photo album. This is simply a Facebook post on your timeline.

Using your smartphone:

This drag & drop feature has not been added to the Facebook App for mobile use. However, I do use an Android smartphone, and have learned that if I go to the Facebook App for Androids and click on the photo tab at the top, it brings up all my photos from my phone’s gallery with check boxes; allowing me to upload multiple photos at once! This is excellent, because I am no longer staring at my phone missing out on the action waiting to see if my picture has uploaded so I can upload another one.

TOP 5 THINGS TO DO NOW TO BRAND YOUR EVENT FOR SEARCH ENGINES & BEYOND

There are moments when I’m almost painfully aware of how long I’ve been doing internet marketing (since 1995, if we’re really keeping track). One of my main reminders is seeing the change in web browsers. In the old days, it was Netscape vs. Internet Explorer, and it was a constant challenge to make websites look … Continue reading “TOP 5 THINGS TO DO NOW TO BRAND YOUR EVENT FOR SEARCH ENGINES & BEYOND”

There are moments when I’m almost painfully aware of how long I’ve been doing internet marketing (since 1995, if we’re really keeping track).

One of my main reminders is seeing the change in web browsers. In the old days, it was Netscape vs. Internet Explorer, and it was a constant challenge to make websites look good in both browsers. Then along came Firefox, Chrome and others.

As is true in real life, the only thing constant is change, except I’d say this is even more so with how quickly things change on the Internet.

The shift of search engines is another reminder of my time in online marketing. Before Google, website managers had to worry about getting found in a whole myriad of search engines. Google domination has actually made our lives easier!

But then as is often the case with putting all eggs in one basket, when the Google algorithm shifts, the aftershocks are seismic.

This spring, Google has been busy teaching us what they think is important online by changing the rankings (often for the worse) of many websites. The bottom line is this: We in the industry have always known that what you have on your page is dwarfed in importance by who links to you. “Who links to you” used to mean other websites., but now it mostly means social media.

Google understands that a website isn’t the only place online where a brand needs a presence, so exchanges via social media about and with your brand are now more important than ever. You must interact with your customers, which will get you a great reputation and also rankings in Google.

The Checklist

What are the most important places where you need a presence? Our answer, inspired by a Fast Company article on the topic, is nothing new. But you should consider it your checklist in having a strong brand, both for your customers and for Google.

Have conversations on Facebook. Invite questions, suggest reading, provide links, and curate content. Share content that inspires more followers, and if you aren’t getting more followers, tweak your strategy and repeat what works.
Share tweets about topics of interest. Notice we didn’t say self-serving announcements. Nobody wants to read over and over how great your brand is. Provide info that is of real use to people, then measure what gets retweeted the most and repeat what is successful.
Upload videos to Youtube. If people aren’t watching and sharing your videos, then tweak your videos and repeat what is successful. (Remember, Google owns YouTube – reason enough not to leave video out of your strategy.)
Pin and repin interesting images on Pinterest. Most businesses can communicate better with images than text, which is handy, since as we all know, reading online isn’t exactly pervasive. Pin things that you think will be interest to your customers
Participate in groups and post company updates on LinkedIn. If a customer sends you a referral, ask them to post it on Linked In. (Send them a link to make it easy for them.) Because company pages are public and now feature status updates, these pages can be useful both for search engines and people.

Branding is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. But the time you put in pays dividends that your event will feel for years to come. Your goal is to be sought after, both online and offline, to share the relevant information you become known for sharing.

So what are you waiting for? Get going!

Join Our Webinar “Social Networking”

Social Networking Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/708951798 Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram: the list goes on and on and it seems like a new social media outlet is popping up every day! But let’s be clear: social media and social networking are not the same thing. Social media is an … Continue reading “Join Our Webinar “Social Networking””

Social Networking

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/708951798

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram: the list goes on and on and it seems like a new social media outlet is popping up every day! But let’s be clear: social media and social networking are not the same thing. Social media is an outlet for you to reach customers, but the network you create through interaction is your social network, and that needs to be your focus.

From this Free Webinar you will learn:

What is the difference between social networking and social media?
How to incorporate new media into a traditional marketing mix
Creating an effective hashtag and other tricks for using Twitter
Making the most of the new Facebook Timeline
Cutting through the clutter to find the right social media for your event

Register now to join Cassie Roberts, Manager of Sales and Partnership, and Rebekah Hardage, Marketing Manager, as they help you decipher the social networking puzzle and what it can do for the success of your event.

Title: Social Networking
Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CST

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

Should you be using Text Marketing?

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: our goal is to help improve the overall online presence of the event industry. One of the ways we try to keep up with the needs of fairs, festivals and rodeos is by surveying our current clients to find out what is important to them. Earlier … Continue reading “Should you be using Text Marketing?”

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: our goal is to help improve the overall online presence of the event industry. One of the ways we try to keep up with the needs of fairs, festivals and rodeos is by surveying our current clients to find out what is important to them.

Earlier this spring, we asked what feature they would most like to see incorporated into Saffire and the overwhelming answer was text message marketing!

After we saw this infographic, we were sure glad we took their word for it and now provide SaffireText.

But that’s enough about us. Let’s talk about why text marketing is an important step for the event industry.

This infographic breaks down why text message marketing just might be the best way to reach customers. You can’t really argue with the fact that 98% of text messages are opened!

Most Americans look at their phones around 150 times per day, so going where your users are has taken on a whole new meaning. Not only should you have a presence on sites they already visit, but you can now go directly into the palm of your customer’s hand with the latest information and updates about your event.

Text messaging is still considered to be mainly a personal form of communication, so you don’t want to just add text marketing to your mix and look like a bull in a china shop. Here are a few tips to consider as you get started with text marketing.

Text messages should be short, simple and personal.
Text messages are not billboards, so make sure to include a call to action so your point is clear.
Timing is everything, so only send messages when they will be considered valuable to the customer.
Respect your customers and don’t send too many messages. Remember, texting is a relatively new form of marketing so give customers a chance to tip toe in without scaring them off.

If you haven’t considered text marketing before, I hope these statistics show you that this new marketing technique is something your event should consider.