5 Tips for Using Google+ for Your Event Marketing and Planning
Posted on Mon, Aug 22, 2011
While it is still early days in the lifespan of Google+ we've identified 5 ways you can use it as part of your event marketing and even for planning. Not to mention impressing all your colleagues with your social savvy...
Circles
According to Google, "Circles makes it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another and your boss in a circle all on his own—just like in real life." Circles allow you to segment the people in your life and what you communicate with them- regardless of where they fit. You can create circles for "sponsors," "industry press," "registrants" or "members" - creating tailored messages to each circle to make sure they each only see the messages you want them to see.
Hangouts
We recommend the Google+ video chat system for teamwork and collaboration - between rooms or across countries. The business application for Hangouts is for teams to interact or present new information to one another quickly and face-to-face. Sales people could have quick face-to-face meetings with prospects or partners. The list goes on, but it is easy and effective for connecting a group of people for a chat, either in planning an event or setting up.
Sparks
"It looks for videos and articles that it thinks you'll like, so that when you're free there's always something to watch, read and share." While this feature is far from incredible, it can still serve a useful purpose by sending contacts and groups an interesting link (say, to your event) and start a discussion. It engages them beyond the event website and makes your event community special before it even begins. If an event organiser is managing an upcoming event that is in a particular niche, area or interest group, then Sparks can be a useful tool to gather relevant content. Use different keywords depending on the genre of the event (e.g. food, medical, etc.)
Video and Photos
Google+ lets users upload video and pictures instantly. Google’s Instant Upload feature encourages users to post pictures or videos to specific networks or groups of people instantly. Normally, if an event organiser wanted to share content with a specific group of people, for example those are are attending an event, then it would take some time to get everything together. By using the Instant Upload tool, Google Plus users can take photos or videos on their phone automatically and share them with their groups.
Huddles
Huddle is a group chat feature that aims to collect people together to make plans to meet up or create an event. Event organisers could find this useful to liaise with different small groups during the organisation stage of the event or use it to gather questions to ask at a conference from a small target group of people.
It is still early days, but we're eager to see how Google+ develops. We'll keep you posted if we come across other ways to use it for event marketing or as part of your planning process, but let us know below if you can see any other uses we left out!
Update: Eventsforce has a Google+ page! Add us to your event/supplier/partner/technology circle today!