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Social Media and Events: Tips, Tools, Tactics for Planners

A brave gathering of Rhode Islanders forsaked (correctly) forecasted torrential rain for The Hive’s Lunch & Learn. Attendees spanned from professionals working at a hotel to regular folks organizing community events who wanted to know how Social Media works best with events from increasing awareness to driving event attendance.

Do see the Slideshare deck above for strategies and tactics to boost engagement with limited time and restricted resources and how it all fits together: promoting your campaigns and events using channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, plus time-saving tools like Hootsuite, Eventbrite, SEO, and more.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for co-working space or offices within a supportive community of entrepreneurs, check out The Hive.

About the speaker

Suzanne McDonald, CEO, Designated Editor

Suzanne McDonald, CEO, Designated Editor

Winner of the 2014 International Business Award — ‘Internet / New Media Company of the Year’ — Designated Editor teaches individuals, educators & companies how to create influential interactions & eliminate social media insanity via customized courses & strategic consulting.

Former Boston Globe journalist Suzanne McDonald founded Designated Editor in 2008 along with Newport Interactive Marketers 1,000-strong networking-learning group.

Suzanne is currently developing URI’s first Social Media Certificate curriculum and has launched and taught Social Media Strategies at URI and Event Planning and New Media at Framingham State University.

She also led URI’s TickSmart Social Media team of interns to win Best Viral Video at the Strategic Video Awards.

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Leveraging Social Media for Fundraising and Events

 

Events and fundraisers: Getting folks to show up & give

By Suzanne McDonald

It was a pleasure to return to share my insights with AFP-RI at its annual Fundraising Day conference. As with all my talks, this one was very interactive: Attendees shared their insights and asked a number of great questions. Even before we started, chatting with early-arrivers, I was demo’ing Hootsuite on my iPhone. Nothing like digging in!

If you’re not familiar with AFP-RI, these are the folks behind Save the Bay, the Potter League, Butler Hospital, numerous housing, welfare agencies, women’s shelters, arts organizations, and more. My talk eschewed the obvious Kickstarter and online fund-raising tools: This is more about getting people to show up and truly engage.

The slides above offer a roadmap to enhance nonprofits’ online following through social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and much more. Much of this talk is adapted from the Event Planning and New Media course I developed and taught at Framingham State University.

Tweets from attendees Association of Fundraising Professionals

Amy Cogan @cogan715   great talk! Thank you for the fantastic, quick, simple tips!!

Michele Berard @MicheleBerard   @AFPRIChapter thx for sharing your expertise in leveraging social media for FR event. #afpmeet. http://Afpri.org 

Social Media tactics to promote and boost your eventsGoogle-Analytics-hostbaby

  • LinkedIn: Sharing your event with groups
  • Twitter & HootSuite, which allow you to set up your tweeting automatically
  • EventBrite, a virtual invitation and guest tracker
  • Facebook & its analytic capabilities
  • Google Analytics is also a great tool to determine your ROI

Other Social Media platforms that may boost your reach  Unknown

  • Pinterest
  • Foursquare
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

You can also follow Suzanne by attending her group of networking sessions and events Newport Interactive Marketers.