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"Events, whether they are a local tweetup, a championship game or the world's largest conference, can be notoriously difficult to plan, promote, and execute.  But the end result can be amazing, and that is why we plan them in the first place.\nWhether you need to work with organizers, generate buzz, or share post-party photos, social media should be a primary weapon in your arsenal.  With the power to share comes the ability to spread the word, increase awareness, and accomplish your goals.\nMany conferences and event planners have come up with unique and powerful ways to promote and plan gatherings via online social tools.  This guide will help you understand how social media can power and drive an event, step-by-step:\nStep 1. Plan with social media tools \n\n\n\n\nAs with any event, the first step is to plan.  This goes beyond the simple logistics - it's about locations, agendas, and the people that will help you make it happen.  Whether you're inviting people over for a small BBQ or you're planning a conference, here are some useful social media tools to get the planning started:\n\nSkype: Use Skype for conference calls and chats about event planning.  Bouncing ideas back and forth via video or audio can make the brainstorming process move much faster.  Gchat and Tokbox are also fast and easy ways to engage audio and video conversations.\nPBworks: The wiki is an ideal platform for planning events - it's easy to add notes, edit information, and organize content.  Both mediawiki (the software that runs Wikipedia) and PBworks (formerly PBwiki) are good choices, but PBworks has been a favorite of organizers because of its business features, better document-sharing features, and RSS notifications.\nGoogle Calendar and Google Docs: Assign tasks and meetings using a collaborative calendar like Google Calendar and work together on your event information using a software like Google Docs.  \nIf you need a more detailed file collaboration and calendar system, consider Basecamp, a business project management solution.  CalendarHub is also a good calendar tool with event feeds and scheduling.\n\nStep 2. Organizing and inviting\n\n\n\n\nOnce you have the basic plan in the pipeline, it's time to get your ducks in a row and start inviting some people.  This is different than promotion - you're making sure to invite key guests, speakers, family, and whoever else is important to the success of your gathering, conference, or party.\nPBworks is once again a great tool for keeping information on the event organized - you can publish guest lists, speaker lists, and more with PBworks.  But if you're going for a more professional feel, we suggest actually setting up a blog: Creating and posting updates to a WordPress or Drupal blog is generally worth your while.\nFor inviting and organizing guests lists, always be sure to set up a Facebook event - this will be one of the first places your guests will look for event information.  You can go beyond a simple Facebook invite for added emphasis: Anyvite and Eventbrite are two solid solutions for inviting guests that include RSVPing and customization features.\nStep 3. Promotion and distribution\n\n\n\n\nPromotion is the key to any successful gathering.  Without it, you will not attract the interesting people that you're looking to bring in.  There are several levels of promotion and dozens of social media tools available, enough to write another full article about, but we will only highlight some of the most important details.\nFirst, be sure to have as many distribution channels available as possible.  Your potential guests or attendees must be able to easily find you on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and for business events, LinkedIn.  \nTwitter and Facebook should be your primary promotional tools - they are built for spreading a message.  On Facebook, be sure to set up a Facebook Page - they are better than groups because you can appear in News Feeds every time you update the Page's status.  Creating a Facebook Event is also key, as well as having guests and members update their own status with links to the shindig.  Twitter's key is retweeting and hashtags: be sure to have an event hashtag and promote it, and ask for retweets of the most important information.\nIf possible, all of these accounts need to link to one central blog, PBworks, or event page.  If you're using an Anyvite or Facebook event as your main distribution method, be sure that's where every one of these social media websites links to.\nHere are some more advanced promotional tools to consider:\n\nNing: Some organizers create their own social networks to build up hype and to keep connections even after the event has occurred.\nUpcoming and Gary's Guide: Add yourself to major event websites.  If it's a nightlife event, Going may be a good choice.  For technology, Gary's Guide is a smart place to be listed.  Upcoming by Yahoo is a good listing of events all across the spectrum.\n\nIf your event is social media-related, don't forget Mashable's Social Media Events Guide as well.\nStep 4. Optimize the event for social media sharing\n\n\n\n\nWhen the day comes and everyone is arriving, be sure that you keep people happy and that you've optimized your event to create additional buzz.  You didn't do all of this work just to have people complain over Twitter, did you?\nHave high-speed wireless available - this allows people to tweet and converse more easily.  Promote following the event's Twitter account for event updates.  Don't forget to have a unique hashtag for the event.  Have a web page or even a giant whiteboard where people can share their social media contact information too.\nFor people who cannot attend the event, consider setting up a live stream.  Live video services like Ustream and Mogulus make it possible to stream out key portions of events.  You don't have to stream everything - just the good stuff.  If you can't stream, upload videos to YouTube afterwards.  \nFinally, and most importantly, listen to your audience - do they complain about a specific speaker, the food, a lack of responsiveness?  Address their needs by tracking the Twitter conversation for a large event.  For small events, simply ask them for their feedback or have an online survey guests can fill out.\nStep 5. Post-event social media communication\n\n\n\n\nContrary to popular belief, the event is not done when everyone leaves.  There's still more to do to make sure the event leaves a lasting impression, especially if you intend to have future events or even an annual one.  \nFirst, be sure to continue communication with all the attendees.  The web page where users can add their social media contact information is vital towards this end, as are the emails you probably have access to.  Send them thank yous, updates, and information.  Be sure to promote friending or following your social media accounts.\nNext, do not forget to share all the media generated by the event.  Upload photos to the Flickr account and post videos on YouTube (Vimeo and Viddler are also good alternatives).  Post recordings of your live video streams as well (you did have a live video stream or two, right?).\nKeep communicating\nGood communication is central to the success of any gathering.  Even if it's just a one-time event, keeping in contact with everyone who attended could result in invaluable contacts or lifelong friendships.  Promote social media and good communication whenever you're planning and executing an event and your extravaganza will turn out to be more engaging and more popular than you may have ever realized possible.\nMore event resources from Mashable:\n\n- 5 Ways to Save Money on Conferences and Events\n- HOW TO: Organize a Successful Tweetup\n- 5 Events That Have Used Social Media for a Good Cause\n\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/04/29/events-social-media/>