Using an SMMS is no excuse for common sense. Programs of this size need a human element of checks and balances.

http://therealtimereport.com/2012/02/06/toyota-under-fire-for-camryeffect-twi...

http://adage.com/article/digital/bazaarvoice-buddy-media-partner-make-ratings...

Nest Bazaarvoice inside Buddy to allow WOM to scale...

15 Ways to Bring Social Media to Events

By Ekaterina Walter
Published November 29, 2011

Do you host events or informal gatherings?

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.

1,495
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Tags: ekaterina walter, event marketing, event promotion, event recording, eventbrite, flickr, foursquare, hashtag, netvibes, polldaddy, pre-event, qr code, slideshare, social media event, storify, tweetwally, twtpoll, virtual event

http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/02/report-facebook-has-acquired-gowalla/

I love the term 'acqui-hire' - possibly to compliment/support FB's new Timeline feature....

Yes yes and yes....

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/15-ways-to-bring-social-media-to-events/

Bravo~!@ Its about time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/technology/software-to-rate-how-drastically...

About time! I foresee pop up friend art gallery openings coming to a commercial space near you.

http://mashable.com/2011/11/27/instagram-canvas-prints/?utm_medium=email&...

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/38619/Modern_Warfare_3_Grosses_775M_Worldw...

Just - WOW!

Brands are increasingly turning to Facebook both as a place to advertise and as a complementary platform by which to build their online presence — and begin conducting social commerce. There are a number of solutions, for example, that allow big and small operations alike to operate retail storefronts on Facebook, sell their wares, and, to a degree, manage their transactions.

But what about that other popular social network, Twitter? The “micro-blogging” platform has certainly become a vehicle for celebrities and brands looking to hawk their products, stir up brand awareness, and interact with their customers, so the question becomes: Why can’t Twitter, too, offer some of the same eCommerce functionality as Facebook?

There are a number of reasons for this, but for starters, Twitter has been largely focused on doing one thing well above all others: Building the best realtime communication platform the Internets has to offer. There’s also the fact that Twitter has privileged a “consistent user experience” and hasn’t always had the best relationship with third-party developers.

Thus, brands have typically used Twitter as a somewhat indirect broadcast platform, listing items for sale, but only doing so in a way that is intended to lure customers away from Twitter to their own eCommerce platforms. (Facebook has also struggled to keep commerce and transactions happening on its platform, rather than suffering from redirection to retailers’ homepages.)

But Chris Teso sees a big opportunity for direct eCommerce on Twitter, which is why, in July, he launched Sell Simply — a simple way to enable consumers and brands to buy, sell, and transact on Twitter. Essentially, Sell Simply turns Twitter into a eMarketplace, allowing users to buy and sell anything over Twitter by replying “buy” to any listing Tweet.

Users can list an item for sale on Sell Simply, or import their items from other commerce platforms, like Etsy, Ebay, Craigslist, ArtFire, or Bonanza, and automatically tweet those items out for sale. All users have to do is connect their Sell Simply accounts with Twitter and PayPal, so when someone responds to that tweet with “buy”, Sell Simply facilitates the transaction through PayPal, enabling users to buy and sell an item with one tweet. (Re-tweets, too, are transactionable.)

And, in terms of security, since all transactions take place through PayPal, customers have no liability for unauthorized purchases when they meet PayPal’s requirements, and, in turn, can take advantage of refunds for incorrect orders or items that never arrive.

Since launching in July, the platform has racked up over one thousand members listing over 10,000 items for sale on Twitter, and Teso says that 75 percent of Sell Simply’s members have connected their PayPal and Twitter accounts to the platform, which he sees as encouraging evidence that people are ready to take that leap of faith and begin using Twitter as a direct sales platform. So far, the average transaction price has been $35 and the most common items being sold are vintage clothing and photography, (as many users are coming from Etsy), but he expects the merchandise to diversify as more people begin connecting to the platform.

As for the road ahead, Teso plans to launch a “T-commerce” platform designed to expand Sell Simply’s possible uses for brands, with features that will include integration with back office e-commerce workflow, analytics, and a recommendation engine that will suggest items based on what a user Tweets about, for example. For brands interested in this kind of functionality, Teso said, there will be a licensing fee.

Obviously, for brands, the value proposition both for Sell Simply’s current offerings and the marketplace features that will be launching by the end of the year could be huge. If you’re a brand, Twitter is the perfect platform on which to broadcast flash sales and time-sensitive deals, and Sell Simply’s buy-with-one-tweet service will make that even easier.

And for non-profits, Sell Simply uses the same formula for transactions to turn Twitter into a donations platform as well, allowing people to donate their charities of choice with one tweet.

Just as brands hope that using Facebook as a social commerce platform can help create scale so that a larger audience will see cool products or sales because users post those items on their wall or share them with friends, Teso said that he sees a similar opportunity for eCommerce on Twitter.

If one happens to be selling their bike on Twitter through Sell Simply, there’s a good chance that a user’s friends will re-tweet the listing, and their followers may follow suit. If those people then, in turn, re-tweet to their followers, well, you get the point. Suddenly your listing might be reaching the eyeballs of someone in a fifth degree of separation, to which they can reply and instantaneously purchase the item. And with Chirp, that can all happen while you’re on the go.

It’s like Square, but you don’t need an extra device (a Square) — or a credit card. Pretty cool.

Check out Sell Simply at home here and let us know what you think.

Crunchbase

• SELL SIMPLY
• TWITTER

Company: Sell Simply

Website: sellsimp.ly

Launch Date: January 6, 2011

Sell Simply enables commerce on Twitter. Sell Simply transforms Twitter into a marketplace, where businesses and consumers can buy, sell and transact all with one Tweet. Traditionally brands and consumers use Twitter as a broadcast platform, trying to lure customers away to their storefront to purchase. Sell Simply enables you to push commerce into the Twitter stream, allowing any person to purchase right from a Tweet simply by replying with the word “buy”.

Learn more

Company: Twitter

Website: twitter.com

Funding: $1.16B

Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 (launched publicly in July 2006), is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post their latest updates. An update is limited by 140 characters and can be posted through three methods: web form, text message, or instant message. The company has been busy adding features to the product like Gmail import and search. They recently launched a new site section called “Explore” for...

Learn more

We predicted this one! Social commerce comes to Twitter: http://tcrn.ch/suxH70 #BFSocialLabs

Human beings love games. If you look hard enough, you’ll find game dynamics in everything we do, from education to careers to relationships. We’re all about establishing rules, defining winners and losers, competing and cooperating. So while it’s no surprise we see all of these things in marketing campaigns, it’s also nothing new. For decades, loyalty campaigns that instill customer loyalty by awarding points and prizes have been a mainstay of establishing customer relationships. Now the rise of social media is bringing a different kind of gamesmanship to bear. Facebook is flooded with FarmVille and Mafia Wars achievement. Foursquare is turning everyone into the mayor of somewhere. And Twitter, though most are loath to admit it, is all about the accumulation of followers. Then there’s Klout, which has managed to make a game of all these games, awarding badges and small gifts to those who are best at playing the social game.

Brands want to play, too. And some are doing a good job of it. Pepsi, Starbucks, Hallmark and Nike are just a few examples of marketers who have gamified their customer experiences. “Gamification” — the application of gaming principles, mechanics or concepts to efforts that aren’t necessarily “games,” has everyone talking.

But games aren’t all fun and, um, games. While they might appear to be a safe way to earn engagement for your brand, they must be integrated in an authentic way in order for consumers to want to participate. When considering the prospect of a program using these principles, it’s important to focus on very human benefits that make games successful — challenge, recognition, tracking, competition and cooperation.

These five benefits are the lenses through which we’re approaching any gamification effort:

1. Challenge

As marketers, we’ve been taught to make communication frictionless, easy and direct. But for games, that’s a recipe for boring. The artful application of difficulty to games is what makes them fun, and there exists the same opportunity to create fun in marketing using this principle. Don’t be afraid to challenge your audience but, of course, that’s not the same as miring them in complexity.

2. Recognition

A lot of people go through life without being recognized very often — that’s one of the reasons we have birthdays and Facebook. Games can change that. They recognize achievement, scarcity and excellence in a context that matters to the player. Taking that understanding of context and what truly matters to a consumer creates a flood of creative marketing ideas. Badges, mayorships, little gifts — they can all go a long way to make your consumers feel special.

3. Tracking

The notion of the Quantified Self has taken deep root in our culture. We’re tracking more and more of our lives via sensors, apps and Web sites than ever before. Our workflows, diets and sleep schedules are all now quantifiable using the latest technology, but games have a long history of giving players feedback about their progress and when they’ll finally reach the end. It’s easier than ever before to harness data to enrich any experience and deepen the engagement one has with it, be it entertainment or marketing — or both. Using games can help you help your consumers better understand their performance and help them improve.

4. Competition

This is the most obvious lens to consider when applying game thinking, because games produce winners, losers and everything in between. The rub with marketing is making sure that the audience cares enough and that there are enough relevant rewards to warrant real competition.

5. Cooperation

Throw “teams” into a competition and all of a sudden everything is more intense. As much as people like to compete, they like to achieve things together even more, and social games have taught us lessons about that fact for several years now. Marketers offer things consumers want — making them participants in a gaming experience, and encouraging them to work together toward those wants can be a powerful motivator.

Together, these five lenses create some really interesting programs. We’re using them to bring lively connections to family dinners, create hunts across America for hidden prizes and power a Twitter-fueled race to the Super Bowl. Beyond marketing, businesses are using these lenses to aid them in everything from training to customer service to logistics.

Can gamification get in the way? Of course. But it can also be a profound tool in the marketer’s toolbox. Consider adding game design to the marketing skill set — and treat it like creativity, flexibility, tenacity and any other must-have in the marketing superpower set. Applying what we’ve learned from games to advertising creative, the tracking of marketing efforts and the brand itself is interesting. If it’s also fun, then it becomes very interesting.

Link to the full article.

http://razorfishoutlook.razorfish.com/articles/gamification.aspx

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Quick but insightful clip of who this group is and what they spend their time doing. The whitepaper tells a whole lot more...

http://meet2015.com/

A rehash/summary of the Nielsen Social Media Report

http://www.briansolis.com/2011/10/state-of-social-media-2011/?utm_source=feed...

We are going to see more and more of this companion device network this year. Love the simple UX...

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008648

Full article.