The document provides an overview of social networking and how it can benefit events. It discusses defining social networking, why events should use social networking to reach audiences and level the playing field with larger competitors. The document also covers which major social media outlets events should use, including how to effectively use Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to promote events.

1. Social Networking 101
Cassie Roberts & Rebekah Hardage

2. Software for Events. Your Event.
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PRESENTERS
Cassie Roberts Rebekah Hardage
Manager, Sales & Marketing Manager
Partnership
Experience: Experience:
• Received BS Public • Received a BA in
Relations, & Masters Journalism & Public
Sport Management, The Relations from Baylor
University of Texas University
• Born in Central City, NE • Expertise in email
• United States Olympic marketing, social media,
Committee analytics, etc.
• Rodeo Austin • Manages all marketing
efforts for Saffire
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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LEADERSHIP
Kendra Wright Aaron Jeremy
President Pederson Emerson
Technical Director Creative Director
Experience: Experience:
Experience:
• Leads a team of • A classically-trained
• Began building highly skilled
websites in 1995 programmers artist with 14 years of
for Fortune 1000 • Finds the perfect online design
company technology for the experience
• Started her own job • Oversees the
company in 1998 • A different breed of process of bringing
techie – speaks your brand to life
• Is a marketing English!
person at heart online
• In touch with client
needs and success
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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THE TEAM
Chris Lugar Chris Howard Daniel Bunn
Senior Software Front End Software Engineer
Engineer Developer
Jessica Bybee- Rebekah Jonathan Hope
Dziedzic Hardage Software Engineer
Senior Account Marketing Manager
Manager
Adam Cassie Roberts
Dispenza Manager, Sales &
QA Specialist Partnerships
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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HISTORY
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SAFFIRE EVENTS
5/15/2012
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AGENDA
What is Social Networking?
Why do I need Social
Networking?
Which outlets should I use and
how do I use them?
How do I integrate Social
Networking in to my website?
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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What is Social Networking?
• The practice of expanding the number of one's
business and/or social contacts by making
connections through individuals.
– www.whatis.com
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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What is Social Networking?
• A social structure consisting of individuals
or groups who are connected to each
other, for example through friendship.
– www.Lexicon.com
5/15/2012
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What is Social Networking?
1. The development of social and
professional contacts; the sharing of
information and services among people
with a common interest.
2. The use of Web sites or other online
technologies to communicate with people
and share information, resources, etc.:
– www.dictionary.com
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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What is Social Networking?
• Our working definition:
– Social networking is the practice of
connecting your customers through social
media outlets to facilitate positive
relationships that grow your brand.
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Let’s clear something up…
• Social media and social networking are not
synonyms.
• Social media are the OUTLETS like
Facebook, Twitter, etc.
– Use social media outlets to create your social
network.
• The social NETWORK is what you create to
bring value to your event.
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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For Visual Effect…
+ YOUR
INTERACTIONS
______________________
SOCIAL
NETWORK 5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Be Socially Responsible
• Social EARNED networking
– Social Media outlets like Facebook and
Twitter may be free, but don’t be mistaken…
– Give customers lots of opportunities to
interact with you in a way they feel
comfortable
REMEMBER: Social Media is only as good as the
interaction you can get from your customers on it
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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AGENDA
What is Social Networking?
Why do I need Social
Networking?
Which outlets should I use and
how do I use them?
How do I integrate Social
Networking in to my website?
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Why use Social Networking?
Social Networking Levels the
Playing Field
• Marketing (in general) is one of
the largest expenses in any
company
• Social networking levels the
playing field with “the big boys”
• Compared to other forms of
marketing, the cost to market a
brand in social media is low.
• No matter the size of your
event, you can be an
effective social networker!
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Why use Social Networking?
Traditional Networking Model
Local Radio
Ad: 5,000
Local TV Ad people/
Campaign: commercial
200,000
people/commercial Print: Varies
based on
Send
5/15/2012
*Based on midsized market © 2012 – Saffire Events

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Why use Social Networking?
Social Networking Model
ME:
1 My Friends’
My
Friends: Friends
500+ 250,000+
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Why use Social Networking?
Social media helps to expand the reach of your message and has a
tremendous impact on the number of impressions that are generated
for SEO.
Social media and SEO go hand in hand.
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Why use Social Networking?
Facebook
- 850M monthly active users
- 250M photos uploaded every day
- 425M mobile users
Twitter
- 465M accounts
- 175M tweets a day
- 1M accounts are added to Twitter every day
YouTube
- 3rd most visited site
- 2 billion views per day
- 44% of YouTube’s users are aged between 12 and 34
Pinterest
- One of the top 10 largest social networks with 11M visits per week
- 10.4M registered users
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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In summary…
Use Social Networking to:
• Reach a different audience
• Level the playing field
• Take advantage of the viral effect
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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AGENDA
What is Social Networking?
Why do I need Social
Networking?
Which outlets should I use and
how do I use them?
How do I integrate Social
Networking in to my website?
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Overwhelming?
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Company Plans to Increase Social Media
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Which Outlets Do I Use?
• Coca-Cola has reported that Facebook
fans are 2 times as likely to consume & 10
times more likely to purchase than non-
fans.
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Effective Facebooking
Cover Photo
 Be creative! Use this space to make big announcements,
i.e. event dates and upcoming performers.
 Change it daily during your event to highlight the day’s
activities.
 You can’t put links on your cover photo.
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Effective Facebooking
Profile Picture
 Don’t forget the profile picture!
 It will still appear throughout Facebook and needs
to be able to stand alone and represent your
brand.
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Effective Facebooking
Milestones
 Facebook’s timeline
automatically creates a
history of your event.
 Mark when your
company was founded.
 Call out important
photos and events by
clicking the star on a
post to expand the
photo to a widescreen
view.
 You can even pin
content so it will
remain the top post for
7 days.
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Effective Facebooking
5/15/2012
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Effective Facebooking
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Effective Facebooking
5/15/2012
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Which Outlets Do I Use?
• eMarketer has reported that over 50% of
Twitter followers are more likely to
purchase from brands they follow
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Setting up your Twitter
• No More than 15 characters in Username
– Ex: Amador County Fair
– @AmadorCountyFair = 16 Characters
– @AmadorCoFair
– Using your real business name makes it easier for
Search Engines, and therefore your customers, to
find you
Include your state in your username if you need to
differentiate yourself!
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Setting up your Twitter
• Get 10x more followers when you add a
photo
• Get 8x more followers when you add a bio
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Tricks and Tips for Tweets
• Tweets between 120-130 characters get
the highest click through rates
• Tweets containing via, RT, please and
check had higher click through rates
• News of weird/human interest stories
• Tweet on the weekends
We don’t like to work on weekends either.
Use: www.hootsuite.com to schedule social media in
advance.
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Stuck on What to Post?
• Blog Posts
• Questions
• Testimonials
• Contests
• Photos/Videos
• Retweet
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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The Art of the Hashtag
Twitter Hashtag Definition (courtesy of Mashable):
The hashtag is a way for Twitter users to
organize themselves: if everyone uses a certain
hashtag to tweet about a topic, it becomes
easier to find that topic in search, and is more
likely to appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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The Art of the Hashtag: Example
• NCAA Basketball Tournament: Some of
the hashtags used were #NCAA,
#NCAABB, #FinalFour, #Final4, and
#MarchMadness.
5/15/2012
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The Art of the Hashtag
How do you ensure mass adoption/use of my
hashtag?
The answer is that you can't (sorry!), but you can
• POST it in relevant places on your event website and
blog, i.e. media section, event section, etc.
• PRINT it in the tangible materials at the event i.e.
signage, printed materials, scoreboards, etc.
• PUBLICIZE its existence via the official event Twitter
channel, regularly and consistently
It is vital to make it easy for your customers to find,
adopt and promote it.
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Which Outlets Do I Use?
Experian reports that Pinterest had 21.5
million visits the last week of January, which
is 30 times the number of visitors over July
2011.
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Pinterest
• Fastest growing website of all time
– 1st to get 10 million unique visitors in a month
• Pin A Photo
– Tell your story
• Pin A Quote- www.shareasimage.com
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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PINTEREST
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PINTEREST
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What to Pin
• Pinterest=Personality
– Make pin boards that reflect your event’s
personality
• Food, Rodeo, Animals, Carnival Rides,
Parades, Fireworks, the possibilities are
literally endless!
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Saffire Events
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American Royal
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Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo
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Which Outlets Do I Use?
• 98 out of 100 of AdAge’s Top 100
advertisers have run campaigns on
YouTube
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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YouTube
• Customers exposed to videos are 437%
more likely to engage in your brand
– Engagement = ticket purchases
• Videos account for 50% of all online traffic
as of January 2012
Make your videos “raw” and not too “produced” to
help customers identify with your brand
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Ideas for YouTube videos
• Be helpful: Provide advice, tips and tricks
or answer FAQ’s
– (BONUS: Customers may actually do what
you suggest!)
• Record people saying how great your
event is
• Record Holiday greetings
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

51. Software for Events. Your Event.
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AGENDA
What is Social Networking?
Why do I need Social
Networking?
Which outlets should I use and
how do I use them?
How do I integrate Social
Networking in to my website?
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Integration with Website
• That’s where most of your information, email signup
information and ecommerce is located right?
• Do you know how to post on your social media to get
clicks back to your website?
• Get customers and sponsors to repost/retweet
• Mention them by name!
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Links to Website
• The ultimate goal of your posts is NOT
simply to get people to read them
– They’re short
– They don’t have ecommerce
• While it’s great to get people to share, it’s
not as powerful without a strong website
• www.bitly.com
5/15/2012
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Three LEVELS of Social Media Interaction
Facebook or Tweet out the entire EVENT
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Three LEVELS of Social Media Interaction
Facebook or Tweet out a SUB
EVENT
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Three LEVELS of Social Media Interaction
Facebook or Tweet out a PHOTO of a sub-event
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Google Alerts
• Use Google Alerts to keep track of what people are saying
about you on the web
– http://www.google.com/alerts
• Respond to negative comments; keep your finger on the pulse
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events

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Stay up to Date
• You must make sure you stay with the
latest Facebook and Twitter fads.
• One click follow
• Updated coding for “like” buttons, etc.
5/15/2012
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Stay up to Date
For easy updates on the social networking
world, we suggest:
• eMarketer: www.emarketer.com
• Mashable: www.mashable.com
• Ad Age: www.adage.com
5/15/2012
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We’re Here to Help!
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We’re Here To Help!
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BE A SAFFIRE EVENT!
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Sources
• http://www.amazinginfographics.com/how-to-use-twitter-for-beginners/
• http://seo-alien.com/articles/social-media-business-marketing/
• http://www.amazinginfographics.com/how-to-use-twitter-for-beginners/
• http://www.brandingpersonality.com/10-content-ideas-that-generate-engagement-on-
social-media/
• http://www.nimble.com/
• http://www.inc.com/guides/201103/how-to-create-an-effective-company-facebook-
page.html
• http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/all_social_networking_statistics/
• http://www.commscorner.com/2010/04/live-events-need-twitter-hastags-built.html
• http://informitv.com/news/2006/08/31/skyviewpanel/
• http://www.publishers-edge.com/index_files/Paper_vs_Radio.htm
• http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/media-
migraine/2012/apr/22/social-media-trend-watch-get-board-pinterest/
5/15/2012
© 2012 – Saffire Events