Apart from the pure entertainment value provided by social networks, several businesses and organizations consider social media valuable to the dissemination of their message. Events have been one thing we’ve seen for years being posted on popular platforms like Facebook and Twitter. People attend events to connect, interact, and share with their peers. Similarly, people join social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to connect, interact and share with their peers. If the goal is to get as many people as possible interested in your gathering, then social media is a perfect tool for spreading the word to your core base of customers and membersand beyond. To understand these networks well is to understand that there are upsides and downsides to relying highly on social media as the main method of getting the word out your network.
POSITIVES
• Let people your network know about you every early on
• Collect feedback from network before you push it out the general public
• Post regular changes related to you event
• Gauge the level of interest from your attendees
• Survey your network on thoughts of the event
• Post-event follow-up with Social Media
NEGATIVES
• You’re limited to your network based on defined maximums
• Membership is required to view or participate in you social media posting
• Limitations on sharing or even alerting your attendees is time consuming
• Stress of keeping your network connected
The concept of social networks are excellent, but in some situations they are not well suited for event. Your networks are usually strong and targeted because they are composed of the people that took the time and effort to find and join the network, although they might have never been to a single event.
