Monday, March 14, 2011

Hybrid Events = ALL events!


A simple statement: As of today, all events are hybrid events, period. With the rapid emergence of social networking technologies and their equally whip-fast integration into our work lives, your event is going to be 'broadcast', with or without your involvement.

Attendees are tweeting from your keynotes, updating their status in Facebook and LinkedIn from the hallways in between sessions and checking-in on FourSquare from the social events afterwards.

And the key for you is that your attendees are communicating with a waiting audience — their co-workers, colleagues and followers are out there curious about the event, hungry for the information you have developed for your in-person audience.
If you have enough interest to host a physical event then you can be sure there is more than enough interest in a virtual component for it. Not only that, but your attendees are part of affinity groups that extend globally and these groups want to hear what you are talking about and will put in the time to hear it if given that option.

You've put in the work to create relevant content, recruit interesting speakers and design an exciting program — it would be a shame (not to mention a strategic error) not to leverage this effort online for a broader audience unable to attend but anxious to engage.

You need to capture the attention of your virtual users — virtual attendees may not get the free Frisbees or tote bags, but you can add value for your online users that they wouldn't otherwise get second-hand or even in person. Here are a number of ways to do that:

Do it Live!
Streaming one or more of your more popular/interesting keynotes or sessions brings instant excitement and credibility to the virtual component of your event. Live streaming makes your event "appointment viewing" and extends your investment in this business-critical content.

With plenty of streaming possibilities — from the DIY options like Ustream (Charlie Sheen's newest platform) to professional companies like Sonic Foundry — streaming your content has never been easier.  Your sponsors want to be associated with the cutting-edge technology being used to speak to a much wider audience than they can reach at the physical event.

Interact to Engage
Once you've acquired your audience (see the post on audience acquisition) make sure you take full advantage of your virtual vendor’s ability to engage with your audience. The best platforms — like 6Connex — will give you numerous ways to reach out and interact with your users.

In-event chat (both one-to-one and group chat, both private and public) encourages attendees to make it a social event, mirroring networking aspects that make physical events successful.

Integrating Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn directly into the event will allow attendees to extend the tools they are using to communicate with each other in the event and outside the event. Adding these tools directly into the event will also allow your attendees to spread the news of your event by "word of mouth" without ever leaving.

Virtual Value
It is critical to the success of your virtual event that you not treat it as an afterthought. In fact, wherever possible add value in the virtual environment that isn't available in the physical.

This includes sponsoring (or finding sponsors for) treasure hunts, scoreboard games and trivia games that enhance the virtual experience.

Another way to add value to the virtual component is to bring the physical and virtual together by adding ways both audiences can interact, either with each other or with your speakers and vendors.

Tools like Poll Everywhere allow you to take the pulse of both audiences at once and display the results, real-time, in the virtual event and on screens in your exhibit hall. Bringing these audiences together increases engagement for both sides.

Staff of Life
One common complaint about virtual events is that they can feel a little lonely. There are several ways to address this, but the easiest is to staff your virtual event the same way you do your physical event.

Include staff and representatives in crucial areas throughout the environment to reach out, provide assistance and lubricate the virtual conversation. Starting a group chat or creating a moderated chat around a topic or a piece of content will bring your virtual attendees into the event and give the feeling that they are not alone.

Engaging your attendees in this way will increase their enjoyment, productivity and effectiveness.

Measure Up
When comparing the pros and cons of virtual and physical events, there is one aspect that virtual wins without much of a fight: measurement.

As with other areas of virtual marketing, promotions and training, virtual events offer unprecedented opportunities to learn about your audience. Tracking begins from the moment an individual responds to your first promotion, continues through registration and attendance and never really ends as you develop additional chances to interact with each member of your audience based on the intelligence you gain through metrics and tracking.

You will be able to determine not just the obvious (e.g. what content they are interested in, how long they are in the event, what topics held their interest), but also the less obvious: how many chats did they start, what were the peak times for attendance, to whom did they reach out and how?

The wealth of information generated in a virtual environment enables targeted follow-up that leads to much more meaningful interactions with your audience during and after your event.

One unheralded aspect of virtual tracking is the ability to view the social graph of your audience. Studying who initiates chats, who attends group chats and what content areas generate the most conversation gives you insight into how your audience wishes to interact around your content that you cannot possibly gain in a physical event where your audience is too dispersed, as well as largely unmeasured.

Summary
Your physical event is going virtual (and possibly viral) with or without you, following these tips will help you ensure that you are managing your message, reaching your audience in a meaningful way, and developing deep, actionable knowledge about potential and current customers and partners.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Audience Acquisition

If you build it, they might not come. Apologies to "Field of Dreams" for chewing up a signature line from the film, but this is an important point. Organizing and producing a virtual environment, even one with excellent content, is not enough. You have to focus some effort on audience acquisition, and it should be an ongoing effort.

10 steps for success:
  1. Define your KPI - key performance indicators. In other words, what does success look like? For some virtual environments the amount of attendance is not as important as making sure one small, well defined group attends. Know what your objectives are, first.
  2. If your target audience of attendees is large, segment it into groups that have common characteristics and develop messaging that will resonate with each. For example, if your target audience is made up of both executive decision makers and mid-management level "influencers", produce marketing materials that show each group how their jobs will be made easier by attending your virtual event or environment.
  3. Craft your message with a sense of urgency. If your targeted groups feel they'll be "missing out" on key data that will further their careers, purchasing decisions or efficiency by not attending, they'll have a compelling reason to make sure they do. At the very least, they'll be more likely to attend at a later date for on-demand content (more on that later).
  4. Promotional content is very important. Most virtual environment providers will enable a promotional micro site for your use. This should be used to creatively promote speakers, key content and important sessions that will be a part of your virtual environment. Again, consider your target audience segments when creating these promotional elements.
  5. As in all marketing, frequency of the promotional messaging around your virtual environment is important. The most successful virtual events understand this. They begin with basic information and steadily ratchet up the details as the start date gets closer. One of the key options many overlook, however, is the actual day of the event. Consider using an automated calling service to gently remind registrants to attend when your virtual environment goes live.
  6. Another time-tested method is to host "pre-live" days within your virtual environment. Essentially, you offer sneak peeks at content that will be available when the your virtual event is live. This builds excitement, helps convert registrants into attendees, and bolsters the "tell a friend" viral element that can boost your overall attendance.
  7. The most flexible virtual environment vendors offer great ways to maximize your on-demand period by allowing for specialized "pulse events" - smaller live days during which you can provide subject matter experts able to answer questions from each of your main audience segments. Pulse events keep your virtual environment top of mind, help you gather more customer intelligence and give you more one-on-one time with key customers and prospects.
  8. Some virtual environment vendors offer advanced social networking options. Certainly you can link out to social networking sites, but even more effective is the ability to enable your attendees to connect and interact with one another within your environment. If that's the case with your vendor, keep an eye on this activity. This organic "pooling" of people will help you understand customer segmenting strategies that might not have otherwise been obvious.
  9. Your virtual environment, even if it's not an "evergreen" site, is a living entity, hopefully with an active community. Keep it that way by offering fresh content over time. Consider this when building your content strategy. Don't push it all out at once - that will be overwhelming and most people will not consume it all. Instead, plan out your content distribution much like an editorial calendar. Over time, market to your segments, informing them of what's new and why they should come back and visit. Each new visit generates more valuable customer information.
  10. In short, reward your audience for giving you their time. View it through this lens, and you'll find they reward you with allegiance and the data you need to serve them better.

A final note, 6Connex offers consulting in this area for all of its customers. Ask your sales rep for details or email us: marketing@6connex.com