Episodes
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There's more to social media for virtual event marketing than posting tweets and Instagram Stories. Think about it... the average tweet has a lifespan of just 18 minutes, after which it's highly unlikely anyone will see that tweet. Stories disappear completely after 24 hours. Posts to LinkedIn and Facebook have similarly short lifespans of utility. And no matter when we post, the majority of our followers will not be online and will not be in a position to see our content. Between the timing of the post, and the deluge of other content being shared that quickly pushes our virtual event announcements out of the picture and down the feed, typical social media marketing is destined to reach just a fraction of our audience. So what are we supposed to do for virtual event marketing? Post more? Give up? Neither. There are frameworks you can follow that help you determine the perfect cadence of social media marketing activity and, more importantly, there are opportunities for you and your brand to Be Social on social media in ways that are stunningly effective at promoting your event. Ready to learn how? That's what we're covering in today's episode of The Virtual Event Strategist podcast. ~ LINKS ~ Full notes and transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-to-use-social-media-for-virtual-event-marketing/ Social Media Planner: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/help/social-media-planner/ Virtual Event Planner: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/steal-this-virtual-event-plan-for-a-flawless-event/ Agorapulse: http://www.agorapulse.com?via=allton Agency Summit '22: https://social.agorapulse.com/summit Video for Virtual Event Marketing: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-to-use-video-for-virtual-event-marketing/ Determining Virtual Event Audience: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/virtual-event-strategy-how-to-narrow-focus-to-achieve-broader-goals/
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There are ten thousand tweets sent every second. A billion Facebook Stories are posted every day. 9 billion content impressions in the LinkedIn feed every week. How are we supposed to create a plan for virtual event marketing that actually stands out from all of that noise?
How do we build buzz and excitement for our virtual event sufficient to drive registrations and accomplish our goals?
Video is the answer. Specifically, a video-first strategy that leverages psychological triggers, beats the algorithms, and fuels our entire virtual event marketing plan.
Ready to learn how? That's what we're covering, in today's episode of The Virtual Event Strategist podcast.
Full Transript & Notes:
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If you're investing a couple of months out of your life, and potentially thousands of dollars, to plan a virtual event, shouldn't you have a virtual event marketing strategy to go with it? Because if your strategy is to finish getting your virtual event registration and landing page and speakers and other details set, and then launch it without a marketing plan in place... that's not a strategy at all. A strategy is our method for achieving a desired outcome. We spent an entire episode talking about how important it is know our Why, what our desired outcome is for our virtual event, so that we'd know what the goal is. And if we're going to hit that goal, we're going to need a plan that encompasses not only the virtual event itself, but how we're going to promote that event to our audience and beyond our audience to drive registrations and ensure that we host a Sold Out Summit. What does a virtual event marketing strategy look like? What tactics should we include? How much time should we anticipate needing for preparation and promotion? That's what we're covering in today's episode of The Virtual Event Strategist podcast. Full transcript and notes: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/the-virtual-event-marketing-strategy-you-need-today/
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The virtual event industry exploded during the pandemic. Like grocery delivery and home exercise equipment, sudden global lockdowns drove unprecedented need, and innovation, for pushing once in-person events online. But as lockdowns and restrictions eased, venues and businesses gradually returned to being able to meet together face to face. So the question is, are virtual events still a good investment for businesses? What's the future of virtual events?
This is an important question due to the significant investment virtual events represent for businesses, both in time and money. To spend thousands of dollars and weeks, perhaps months, of work, only to achieve lackluster results, would be extremely disappointing.
As a virtual event strategist, of course I might be expected to paint a rosy picture and suggest that virtual events are the best possible investment for any business, so I decided to shake things up and approach friends and experts for their opinions. In a moment, you'll hear from CMOs, entrepreneurs, PR professionals, and other event industry experts, all helping us to see the future of virtual events from their perspective.
That's what we're covering in today's episode of The Virtual Event Strategist Podcast.
Full transcript and notes: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/what-is-the-future-of-virtual-events/
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A virtual event platform sales person I was talking to about potentially investing tens of thousands of dollars into using his solution told me he didn't want me to abuse his platform.
Abuse it?
Did he honestly think I was going to spend that kind of money to, what, create spammy junk virtual events?
Is it possible for me to use a virtual event platform too much? Run too many events?
I don't know what his perspective was, but it got me thinking. I obviously didn't invest in that virtual event platform, but I did allocate a lot of budget for another vendor for our events at Agorapulse. I have a few big virtual summits and a bunch of smaller webinars and social meetups planned every year, but what else could I do with this new tool?
If you're making a case for budget for a virtual event platform, wouldn't be nice to show your CMO that the tool has additional uses and benefits?
That's what we're covering in this episode of The Virtual Event Strategist Podcast.
Full transcript & notes: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/what-else-can-you-do-with-a-virtual-event-platform/
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Has your boss given you an unlimited budget, without any particular goals or objectives you have to hit? Of course not. You are under a lot of pressure to achieve and report on your virtual event ROI, aren't you?
Between all of the time you've spent planning a virtual event, to all of the costs associated with the virtual event platform, speakers, advertising and more, this online summit of yours represents a big investment for the company. It's reasonable to expect reports or a retrospective on what that virtual event delivered.
What kinds of returns can a virtual event produce, and is it only about revenue? More importantly, how do you measure and report it all?
If that's what you're wondering, you're in the right place, because that's exactly what we're going to break down in today's episode of The Virtual Event Strategist Podcast.
Full transcript and notes: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-do-you-determine-virtual-event-roi/
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Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Money often costs too much." In his essay on wealth he attempts most earnestly to help us understand that there are hidden costs and risks associated with every transaction. From the business person's point of view, the sales of goods and services, or the investment in projects, carries with them many unseen and uncalculated costs, which must still be determined and considered. Which, in essence, is why you're here to learn how to make money with virtual events. Regardless of why you're planning a virtual event, it needs to be successful and for your business that translates into making money. But it's more than that. The cost of the virtual event as a thing cannot exceed the amount of the money it brings in. There must be a positive return on that investment. We'll come back to the idea of ROI and drill down into how to measure and determine ROI in our next episode. But first, the question of how to make money with virtual events is front and center. What can you charge for? What options do you have? Aren't virtual events just for brand awareness and lead generation? That's what we're diving into, in this week's episode of The Virtual Event Strategist Podcast. Hope you're ready to make it rain! Full transcript and notes: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-to-make-money-with-virtual-events/
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Have you ever felt so stressed out and overwhelmed by a task, or by a suddenly out of control moment, that you were paralyzed with anxiety? You didn't know what to do next and so you froze up like a deer in headlights? Those kinds of stress-inducing moments are normal and occur to all of us. The issue, though, is what if those moments are occurring every day? What happens when we are experiencing stress, not as a once-in-a-while kind of thing, but as an all-day kind of thing? What toll is that taking on our mental health? How do we manage our stress and anxiety so that throughout our days we feel good and focused, and we're able to operate at peak performance? That's what we're going to explore in today's episode of The Virtual Event Strategist Podcast. Show Notes & Resources: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/maintain-mental-health-while-planning-virtual-events/
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It’s a known fact that whatever can go wrong, will. That isn’t to say that everything which can go wrong during an event or webinar will, just that there will be issues. If you host enough virtual events, you’ll likely gain experience with all of those things that can go wrong. Knowing that, what’s important then is to have a virtual event backup plan. The backup plan, though, is actually not a plan but a series of smaller, individual plans that are designed to anticipate and consider the most likely scenarios and plan for how to mitigate those problems. With proper planning and training, the savvy virtual event planner will be positioned to ensure that attendees, speakers and sponsors of the event never know that anything’s wrong. How do you put together a virtual event backup plan, particularly if you’re on a budget? That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of the Virtual Event Strategist podcast. Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/always-have-a-virtual-event-backup-plan/
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It's your first time planning a virtual event, and there's so much to do. From picking and customizing a virtual event platform, to finding speakers and attendees to sign up, the To Do list just keeps getting longer and longer.
And on top of that, there's the pressure that comes with having a very specific, unchangeable deadline looming, and a steep learning curve.
It's up to you to get everything done that needs to be done, all in time for your virtual event.
And if all of that is squarely on our shoulders, it can feel overwhelming and isolating. But there's hope. Even if you don't have a team of employees standing by to help you, you have more resources than you know. People who can help you share that burden.
That's what we're talking about in today's episode of The Virtual Event Strategist podcast.
Transcript & Notes: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/virtual-event-strategy-how-to-rally-resources-to-help-you/
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Have you ever faced a project that was so big, had so many moving parts and interdependent tasks, that it was completely and utterly overwhelming?
Maybe, like me, you just sat, staring at your computer, at a complete loss of where to even begin.
Giant, complex projects, particularly ones filled with new and unfamiliar aspects, are a terrific challenge and quite frankly, they're a monster. You know that every minute that ticks by is one less minute you have available to complete this huge project, successfully, ahead of your deadline... and that doesn't make it any easier, does it?
Fortunately, the next twenty minutes are going to be well spent, because we're knocking down this issue in today's episode of the Virtual Event Strategist podcast.
Transcript & Links: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/virtual-event-strategy-getting-started-with-elephantine-events/
Virtual Event Plan: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/steal-this-virtual-event-plan-for-a-flawless-event/
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There's a deep rooted struggle that every virtual event, every content creator, every influencer, e v e r y business owner faces. It's a struggle that's easy to define and identify, but hardly easy to actually overcome, which is why it's one of the major monsters facing virtual event planners and why it's one of the key topics we're talking about in this virtual event strategy series.
No matter what it is that you do in business, you're selling something, whether that's a product or a service or an idea. And in order for us to feel successful, to be successful, we need to reach other people, more people. I think we'd all agree that if we want more sales we need to be able to sell to a larger, wider audience, yes?
The thing is, not everyone in the world is in a position to receive what we're offering. Maybe they don't have the problem that you solve for. Maybe they don't have the capacity to accept your solution. Maybe they can't afford you!
Oh. Some of you really felt that, didn't you?
It can be hard to accept that our business isn't for everyone. And it's natural to assume that the wider we promote and advertise and position ourselves, the more people we'll reach and the more sales we'll accrue as a result.
In fact, the more we're able to refine our message so that we're speaking directly to the kind of people that absolutely need what we're offering and can accept it, the more our message will resonate and the more successful we'll be. This is true for every aspect of business and marketing, including online events and summits.
But when we have big hairy goals in our business, huge numbers of virtual event attendees that we're expected to hit, isn't it counter-intuitive to focus on a narrower, technically smaller audience? Aren't we limiting our chances of success? And if we do narrow our focus, how do we decide what that should look like? How does one actually niche down with a virtual event?
That's what we're talking about in this week's episode of The Virtual Event Strategist.
Full transcript, links and notes: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/virtual-event-strategy-how-to-narrow-focus-to-achieve-broader-goals/
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Why are you planning to host a virtual event? What do you hope to accomplish? Who are you hoping to reach? While most of us might quickly answer something like sales or leads, that's too superficial of an answer to be meaningful. You can run ads to get leads. You can hire SDRs to generate sales. Why a virtual event? What, specifically, do you want? This is an important thought exercise that I walk my clients through, sometimes taking an hour or more just to pull this apart, because it's a critical first step toward assembling a successful virtual event strategy. Transcript & Notes: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/virtual-event-strategy-your-why-is-why-youre-unfocused/
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In this introductory episode for The Virtual Event Strategist Podcast, hear from host Mike Allton why virtual event strategy is so important, and why you should listen and subscribe to this podcast.
Transcript & Notes: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/introducing-the-virtual-event-strategist-podcast-by-mike-allton/
