Talking  Points With Bryan Apolskis

Marketing Events Through Social Media

Bryan Apolskis is president of Sequence Inc., an Indiana-based event management company whose clients include the Indy Sports Foundation’s annual Shamrock Run & Walk, which raises money to support amateur athletics in Central Indiana. He offers tips for using social media—Internet and mobile-based technology—to promote and brand events.

Social networking. Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn social networking sites can be used to capture people with interests associated with your sports event. The goal is to engage customers (participants, volunteers and spectators) and interact with them before and after the event. Your customers can also interact with each other by becoming members of your event’s online community. This allows people to follow your brand and it can create word-of-mouth about your event. “Ning” powers the largest number of social networking sites on the Internet; choose the site that fits best with your event’s demographics.

Social sharing. “Social sharing” sites, such as YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and blogs, allow you to share and publish event content. If you have video (YouTube) and pictures (Flickr) of past events, post them everywhere you can. Blogs are also good for creating traffic to your website and for branding. One of the hottest blogging sites is Twitter, a “microblogging” platform that allows users to post answers to the question “What are you doing right now?” in 140 words or less. With Twitter, you can share links to new blog posts about your events and event press releases, and even follow and interact in real-time with people of like interests. Twitter can even be used as an event customer service tool.

Easing into social media. Formulate a social media plan based on your event objectives. Find out where your participants and fans hang out. Create event content that your audience will find interesting and appealing.

Follow Bryan Apolskis at www.twitter.com/bryanapolskis and www.sporteventblog.com.