Perception is changing and fast. If I get used to a behaviour, I expect to see it taken care of wherever I mingle. If I am used to recycling home I expect recycling facilities at the events I go to. Otherwise it’s a cognitive dissonance, which means frustration.

We spend lots of time on the web, in the UK 41% of web users look at a social networking site daily. It’s part of our lives and we are definitely not developers or geeks.

So if social media are not taken care of, if you don’t offer spaces for your attendees to find their friends, if you don’t communicate with them through the channels they use, this is probably the end result of your event. Frustration and dissatisfaction.

So let’s have a look at trends and developments in the events industry in relation to social media.

Events as we’ve always perceived them are a like a hockey stick shaped graph. Pretty much boring and uneventful until we reach the hype, the event. This is when everything happens, this is when things cannot go wrong, this is when consumption is intangible. And then it’s all gone until next year when we’ll start all over again.

This is the effect of social media on events. Peaks. Attention is continuous and the overall experience substitutes the hyper-excitement of the ‘one-off’ The events starts well before the day when people meet face to face. It is not location based but it happens all over the world. It is tangible thanks to online discussion. It is linked to the next event in the same way two mountains are connected in a mountain range. Once the event is over you have the community that continues to talk and attracts new players to the game.

Photos by http://www.flickr.com/photos/intersectionconsulting/ and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/haagsuitburo/

This is a terrific infographic about how brands are tackling the ‘new marketing’. Marketing people look at what is out there. They Plan by listening, they engage by creating content and publishing with web2.0 platforms. They promote their content and review for corrections.

What happens for events is quite similar. After listening attendees should be gathered in a community, these are few examples. Marketers then populate communities and web 2.0 tools to push their proposition. Then the party starts, the events happen, everything can be then reviewed for next year.

I chose Eventvue, Pathable and Ning for easiness of sign up through Ning ID - Facebook login - Twitter connect - Open ID. There tons out there and I am sure you'll find them in comments.

Photo by http://cargocollective.com/learnsomethingeveryday/

It’s simply not possible, that is it. You can’t keep your eyes open, you can’t control your brand, you can’t control your event. If Social Media were a sneeze you couldn’t keep your eyes open. The Harvard Business Review asked why brands are so reluctant to let it go, what do they have to hide? You have to let it go and there are a number of ways to do that.

Here are some examples on time budget investment:

 

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/earcos

Get the most out of speakers and try to involve them into the conversation. Invite them to join the online platforms you set up. Fetch their content from blogs and publish it for attendees. Get them to mingle with people at the event. Set up rooms for that. Get your audience to rate them, share their slides on your platform for the use of the world.

Here are few examples and case studies. Slideshare, Keynote Tweet and Powerpoint Twitter Tools are great to involve speakers with the community. SXSW does great in getting the attendees to vote for panels and speakers. Great way to involve speakers and generate buzz from the Word of Mouth Supergenious Conference.

Give voice to your attendees. Let them talk about your event. Set up tags on flickr, twitter and for blogs. Collect the conversation and promote it online for the benefits of potential prospects for the next year. Get someone to talk to them during the event online as you do offline.

- Cisco GSX
- TedX Amsterdam
- BlizzardCon
- LikeMinds
- Ecomm (Google Wave at Conferences)
- Camper experiment to decide for its store design getting customers to vote at an event.

If you have to give control away make sure you are ready for it. People online speak their mind and if they don’t like what they see, they are going to talk very bad about you. It looks like an oxymoron for some, it is quite straight forward to me.

Some great tools for Twitter moderation:

- Twubs
- Paratweet
- Wiffiti

Producing unique experiences, engaging, innovating always pay back. I have never read anything negative online about Ted. I have never read anything negative about user generated events.

Some examples of those doing it differently:

- LikeMinds
- Coachella (iPhone app, Water program, Layaways, Choose your artist Lineup program)
- TED
- PechaKucha Night

Grow and talk to the 10% of people who upload content. Taking care of the mass is also important as the percentage of people uploading will grow. But for the time being your focus should be the evangelists, those who cared enough to talk about you. Whether positively or negatively. This is going to allow a smoother control release process.

If you have questions, comments or want to add examples or tools please comment!