Learn how to use social media to market your restaurant or venue and generate buzz through onsite events.
Presented by Rob Marlbrough to Hospitality, Financial, Technology Professionals (HFTP) in May 2012.
Social Media for
Venue and Event
Promotion
Growing Brands With Fans
Presented by
Rob Marlbrough, Co-Founder, CTO
Social Media
Introduction Growing Brands With Fans
A San Diego Magazine Top Tech Exec Award nominee,
started Web Wizards Hosting in 1997, and co-founded
Fandom Marketing and Minglestream tweetwall in 2011.
We focus on social media marketing, WordPress, and
throwing awesome social media powered events.
Say hi on twitter: @DowntownRob
Follow the brands: @FandomMarketing, @WebWizards,
@Minglestream
Social Media
Venue and Events Growing Brands With Fans
A love story... starring social
media, and your venue.
Meet Joe.
He's on his lunch, planning a
dinner date with a girl he's
meeting for the first time from
match.com, and doesn't know
where to go.
Social Media
Venue and Events Growing Brands With Fans
Joe asks his twitter followers for
suggestions...
He takes a few of those, checks out Yelp
reviews, and decides on one that looks
great.
He checks out the restaurant web site,
the online menu, and prices, making sure
it's both date-worthy and budget-friendly.
He uses OpenTable to make a
reservation, and Google Maps for
directions, sending the info to his date.
Social Media
Venue and Events Growing Brands With Fans
When he arrives, he checks in on
Foursquare, and sees he unlocked a check-
in special for a free appetizer with the
purchase of two cocktails. Score!
The date arrives, and they are seated, and
he shows the Foursquare special to the
server. His date is enjoying the
resourcefulness, he's enjoying the discount,
and they both enjoy the VIP treatment over a
romantic meal and cocktails.
He asks if she's on Facebook, and they
connect during dessert.
Social Media
Venue and Events Growing Brands With Fans
Later that night, he posts about the
Foursquare special on Facebook and
Twitter, clueing his friends in. The
restaurant retweets his post, sharing the
great words with their followers.
She sees his post, and comments on
what a great night she had. Their friends
ask about the amazing restaurant, and
want to try it too.
The restaurant becomes their
anniversary destination, where they
have friendly battles over Foursquare
Mayorship, both enjoying the rewards.
Social Media
Venue and Events Growing Brands With Fans
They share their Instagram photos of
their celebration, tag their location,
with the restaurant congratulating
them with a free dessert on their next
visit.
Without social media, this type of
relationship between you and your
various love birds isn't as easy, maybe
impossible.
Love your lifetime customers, and
they'll love you right back.
Social Media
Venue and Events Growing Brands With Fans
SoLoMo... WTH? OMG.
It's simply... Social - Local - Mobile
But it's hard to do well, strategy is the key.
Why SoLoMo is important to your business:
• 28% of young adults use SoLoMo of some kind
• Loyalty
• Testimonials
• Getting Discovered!
Social Media
Venue and Events Growing Brands With Fans
Six things you can do today to SoLoMo your business:
1. Be where your customers are online
2. Claim your locations on Foursquare, Yelp, Google Places
3. Listen to feedback from these services, plus twitter and blogs
4. Have conversations with customers, be thankful, look for trends in
service issues, give recognition
5. Test offers on Foursquare, Yelp, focus on loyalty, not one-time foot
traffic
6. Get rid of Flash web sites, not mobile or search engine friendly.
Social Media
Venue and Events Growing Brands With Fans
Event Promotion via social media
Take the three-tiered approach...
Pre-Event (The Head)
The Event (The Body)
Post-Event (The Tail)
Social Media
Venue and Events Growing Brands With Fans
Pre-event Promotion
• Facebook event pages, encourage sharing
• Unique Twitter hashtag, use in contests and giveaways
• Influencer outreach, invitations
• Celebrity tie-ins
• Charity tie-ins
• Make food and beverage packages available
• Partner with transportation services like Uber, Car2Go
Social Media
Venue and Events Growing Brands With Fans
During the Event
• Use a live tweetwall to bring social
media into the space
• Have your mobile photographers post to
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
• Retweet attendee's photos and tweets
• Run contests or giveaways live during
the event
• Use projectors and displays in multiple
areas to tie rooms or locations together
• Webcams for live streaming
Social Media
Venue and Events Growing Brands With Fans
After the Event
• Schedule the sharing of event content throughout the
next days or weeks, create a long tail of awareness
• Use event photos and tweets to promote the amazing
time everyone had
• Promote your next event online with photos from the
previous event
• Use services like Animoto to create branded sharable
video slideshows
• Create a YouTube channel and post event videos