One of the biggest uses of social media for marketers and non-profits, alike, is for advertising events. If you’re active on Twitter, Facebook or more, you’ve probably been invited to multiple events, which is actually the basis of using social media for an event campaign. Believe it or not though, it’s important to remember that a lot more thought, time and energy needs to go into making a successful social media event campaign.

Some people aren’t exactly sure where to start when deciding to run an event campaign through social media, so we’ve decided to make it a bit simpler for you. Social media is free, and word of mouth is gold, so combine the two, and you’ve got a recipe for success. You just need to put it together.

Hashtags – These little tools are a social media goldmine if you know how to use them correctly. Using a series of hashtags for your events (keep it simple – too many and it’s overwhelming) consistently brand your market, your consumers and those you want to target for your event. Whether in print or online, remind your potential grassroots marketing team to use the hashtags you use. The more they’re used, the easier they are to find and the more effective your campaign can be.

• For example – When PETA is offering up an event to get people all over the country aware of the benefits of becoming vegan, they’ve used a hashtag like “#WhatVegansEat” garnering public awareness.

Social Home – Make certain there is a singular platform where your potential guests, fundraisers and attendees can go for information, Q & A and more. Whether this is your Facebook, your Twitter, your Google+ or any other thing you might deem relevant – make sure your audience knows where they can find that info and then consistently engage them across the board.

Collect Your Content – Pictures, comments, Twitter updates, Facebook statuses, videos and blog posts are invaluable to you! Don’t just gloss over them. If people are posting, they’re giving your organization a boost. Boost them back! Share it out, thank them, retweet it and be sure to publicize it in some manner. Their word of mouth is better than any marketing initiative.

Combine Traditional & Social – Social media and internet marketing are very often the ways to go today, but consider the impact of adding traditional on top of it! Create a pamphlet, an infograph, an invite or some sort of traditional piece that not only advertises your event and social media initiative but further brands your guests and attendees with the campaign and encourages them to get involved.

Using this blend of powerful social media tools for your event could very well have the effect that you’re looking for. It’s important to remember that social media is, quite often, trial and error. Find out what your target audience wants and adjust accordingly. A carefully managed campaign will be the most successful in the end.

There are many highly qualified marketing agencies in Boston, the Merrimack Valley and Southern New Hampshire. The really big advertising agencies typically work with very large corporations whose budgets range in the millions of dollars. There are mid range agencies that specialize in certain vertical niches such as healthcare, accounting, finance and biotech. And there are smaller agencies that are more comfortable working in one medium, such as search engine optimization, direct mail, traditional advertising, or strategic consultation.

In order to make a good decision as to which agency can better help you to increase the reach of your brand, create the proper message on the appropriate media platform, and become a virtually invisible extension of your own company, some homework needs to be done. Read more…

The easiest thing in the world to do is that which you have always done. I suppose there is at least some validity to the old saying; everything that can be done has already been done, and the trick is to think of it again. However, I tend to disagree. And, in as much as this article is going to live on a blog that concerns itself with marketing, I will focus my remarks through that particular lens, understanding that what I am going to say can be successfully applied to any facet of anyone’s life.

I think that unconscious reliance on the tried and true, even if it re-packaged in new and interesting ways, perpetuates intellectual and emotional laziness and acceptance of the status quo – even if it has the illusion of being refreshingly new. This trap is exceedingly easy for marketers to fall into. Read more…

The beginning of a new campaign is a very exciting time in the life of a marketing agency. We conduct the necessary research to accurately identify the target market, we gather the intelligence we need to devise a message that will appeal to a certain audience, we know the demographics, we understand the dynamics of the particular marketplace and we bring the best and most creative minds together for the intense brainstorming sessions that will bring the compelling messages to life.

There are many answers to the above questions, but I will focus on only one aspect of a phenomenon that pervades the marketing industry today. It is the fact that the individual human being, the person with his or her own set of unique thoughts and feelings that we are trying to motivate into measurable action, is lost in the equation. Marketers tend to forget that, no matter how many millions of people see or hear an ad, it is really only experienced by a vast collection of individuals, not by a collective mind. Read more…