Social Media Makes Us Lazy
This summer has seen an increase in startup, business, and social media related conferences, yet a downturn in attendance and increase in last minute cancellations. I think there are a variety of reasons for why this is, including choice of location, topic, and team. But I’d like to focus on one that I feel like MANY of my colleagues are getting wrong: Social Media.
Social Media Is Making Us Lazy
Yes, that’s right. On the one hand, there is even more to do now, especially with events. I have to make sure we have a Facebook Event, an Upcoming Page, a Plancast Listing, a Going spotlight, a Twitter handle…the list feels endless, and certainly not for those lacking work ethic.
But I feel like many people see what I do (or Brian Zisk, or Myles Weissleder) and assume just my social media outreach sends me attendees. So they set up these pages…and are surprised when their show isn’t selling out. People assume that if they create a Facebook Fan Page and invite 500 friends, they’ll get 300+ people at the show. Or if they tweet a few raffles, they’ll sell dozens of tickets. Few people realize the personal outreach and relationships, the follow-up and engagement, essentially everything else that is behind every event I do. Events – as with most products – are not a case of “If You Build It, They Will Come.” Far from it. You need to convince people that this content will be valuable, that these speakers will be experts, and that it will be worth their money.
5 NON-Social Media Things To Increase Ticket Sales
1) Email every SF NewTech and TechCrunch demo company. These pre-funded through Series A funded companies are my primary audience, so I send a personal email inviting each and every one of these people to attend, and include a discounted rate just for them. I mention something important about their company and they could apply the show to their business. This results in a few hundred emails.
2) Attend Similar Industry Events. The people buying tickets to those shows are the people who might come to mind. I don’t obnoxiously pitch them, but I do try to mention what I do in the conversation, I find a way to ask about their mistakes, I discuss the state of failure in the industry. Then I get a card so I can personally follow up.
3) Contact Past Attendees Who Haven’t Registered. I don’t hound them, but I want to know why. I want to know if they just forgot, or if there is something I could do to change the show so they come back. I want them to know I truly do care about seeing them, and making the show a better experience than the last one.
4) Form Media & Event Partnerships. I find people with similar groups or lists and ask they if are interested in co-branding or promotions. I’ll share their logo and event info on my list and website, and ask that they do the same. This is an incredible way to make new connections.
5) Invite VIPs. I create a list of about 50 VIP guests who I think, with their help, can secure more additional registrants. I ask that they sign up so their name is on the Eventbrite page. I ask that they promote to their colleagues and networks in exchange for the pass [okay, thats KINDA social media related]. These are people who are not only well-connected in the industry, but are also well-informed who I know will be a valuable addition to the show itself.
Why Failure?
One of the reasons I continue to produce FailCon and it’s offspring FailChats is that the theme always makes people passionate. I NEVER had people write me for any of my other shows with either such excitement or such anger, and that tells me I am doing something right. For every 4 emails I get of praise, I usually get one of criticism. Those people usually argue that I am focused on negative energy, that I am cutting people down, that I am scaring them. With FailCon coming back, I’ve decided to address the issue publicly with my two most common responses:
1) If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen!
The oft-quoted statistic is that 9 out of every 10 start-up companies will fail. Now, I don’t know what – if any – scientific studies have been done to verify this statistic, but I bet it isn’t too far off. And guess what, I’d bet my entire life-worth that 10 out of 10 start-ups will have to deal with a failure, severe mistake, or tough road block along the way to becoming successful. This is inevitable. If we supported a baby every time they tried to walk, they would never learn. Similarly, if we just coddle and unrealistically encourage entrepreneurs, they will never be prepared – emotionally or practically – to overcome the challenges ahead.
2) Because EVERY Show is SuccessCon.
People sometimes ask “Well, why not make a ‘SuccessChat’ series? Wouldn’t that be nice?” to which I respond with the above. Josh Linker on Fast Company puts it best: “One skill that that few of us ever learn, however, is how to make mistakes: How to learn from setbacks.” Dozens of conferences focus on the success of their speakers, on their accomplishments and incredible stories. Now, I never want to belittle a speaker, but I want to hear where they slipped up and how they recovered – that to me is a much stronger, more impressive, and (most importantly) helpful story! If you want to go see “SuccessChat,” if you want to keep getting empty encouragement of how awesome you could be, go join the hundreds of other meetups out there. I try to focus on practicality and reality.
If the above still makes you angry, if you think it is poor form, I’m sorry. FailCon probably isn’t for you. But if you love it, give a small cheer, or are just plain curious, be sure to check us out. Tickets are just $99 through July 21st.
Thoughts on EventTech
EventTech was a conference held on June 25th to inform people on the basics of events. For someone who’s completely new to the event industry, EventTech was an extremely informative conference. I tuned in for Dave McClure, Charles Hudson, and Edith Yeung, who each covered the basics of event planning. I realized that everyone in the Silicon Valley startup industry must participate in the event scene, as the planners are the people who know who and what is hot first, and how to reach it. Here’s the breakdown on how to become an event planner on their level:
1. Do events because you love it, not for money.
The first thing is to be selfish: do events because you want to. Either way you probably won’t make any money even if you tried. Also events are tough to produce/manage, so make sure it’s something that you would work your ass off for.
2. Know your event’s audience.
Before planning an event, know if you are reaching a horizontal group or vertical by answering the question “Who am I targeting?” If you don’t know, then you have not planned your event thoroughly enough. This question will help your event be streamlined; otherwise you will waste effort marketing inappropriately and will have a harder time selling to both sponsors and attendees. A vertical audience is a single targeted group: developers on Facebook games or companies which use cloud computing. A horizontal is a broader less-targeted group: small-business owners, teenagers, moms, etc… Horizontal events can attract a larger group of people and have long-term branding, but vertical events are easier to sell.
3. Make sure your event stands out.
It would be stupid to throw an event that everyone else is doing, because then you’re just a rip-off. Brainstorm ideas for events until you get the one you want and love. The easiest way to brainstorm for me is to just clean out my brain of all my ideas and put them onto post-its. Even if the ideas are stupid now, they can be developed and be great ones later, so write ALL of them down. Also, focus on core themes to make sure you don’t go all over the place.
4. Find engaging AND smart speakers
Your speakers should have an equal mix of geeks and Jerry Maguires. You want the extremely smart people to balance off the entertaining speakers, so people don’t get bored but also learn something. If you happen to find speakers that are smart as hell and are very engaging, get them on board!
5. Recruit attendees who are VIPs, connectors, influencers, and passionate volunteers
You should have VIP’s, the people who are the best in their fields or influential people, there to attract more people. Connectors are also must-haves at events since they are the hubs of social networks. Go to Meetup, Plancast, StartupDigest, and Twitter and see who brings people together for your specific topic In addition, you want a core group that will always be there for you: groupies. These people come about when you have something that they can passionate about. Groupies are hard to get, so if you have the luck to score some of these guys, DON’T LOSE THEM! They will: give you feedback, forgive you for throwing some of the crappiest events in history, and have your back.
6.Use social media to market.
Usually the best and cheapest way to market is to use social media. For distributing tickets, Eventbrite would be the best. Email is the best tool because it allows you to be more personal to a small group of people; however, SlideShare, Twitter, Plancast, blogs, videos, and photos are all still great tools to spread the word as well. Also while using social media, make sure to especially publicize your VIP’s. For example, if you have Guy Kawasaki talking about evangelism or if you have the Woz at your “Inside the iPhone convention”, market it! It will bring more people in to learn from some of the best in the world.
All three had a lot to say about events and really gave me a clear picture of what to expect as a newcomer in this industry. For me, the major takeaway from all of this was that events are works of love and it takes immense skill to develop produce, and manage one, no matter how small or large. Overall EventTech was a great conference from what I’ve heard about the rest of the day and I’m really looking forward to the next one.
[This post is by Cass's summer intern, Ashna Ashok. Ashna is currently a high school junior who is very interested in the startup world. She is currently working on some crazy business ideas with her partner-in-crime.]
The Failure of Online Event Community Sites
How does the common idiom go? If I had a dollar every time someone pitched an online event social network to me, I’d be a millionaire? However you word it, the fact holds true: dozens of entrepreneurs have begun to see these as financially promising business plans, and an equal number of investors might be agreeing. Well fellow Event Planners, I’m here to tell you: THEY AREN’T (yet)! Let me outline why you should not waste your time with these…at the moment… (Promising entrepreneurs, tune in to learn how to make a network I WOULD pay for…)
1) They Aren’t Expected
Unless a product is truly expected at an event by my attendees, I won’t pay the extra for it. Expected things include: some food, wireless connectivity, places to sit, and possibly transportation if it is off the beaten path. Unless you can convince my attendees that this is a necessary value add at an event and make them start demanding it, I won’t buy it (and if you have a good adviser, you’ll know that you canNOT spend resources convincing someone that you are solving a problem that doesn’t exist).
2) They Don’t Make Me Money
I am willing to pay for services that sell tickets for me. For example (listen up entrepreneurs), I would pay you a referral fee for the first show, if you had an app I could stick on my website that told visitors who from their facebook friends was attending and directed them to buy a ticket (through a referral link.) I would gladly pay a % of those ticket prices for the first event, and a flat fee close to that for future events – since you will have proven you work. However, using FBconnect to do this leads to my third point…
3) They add complexity, rather than simplify.
My attendees have a network; it’s called the Facebook group, Twitter hashtag, and Flickr tag. Alright, this isn’t ideal. Sure, it would be nice to have one place where people see which of their friends are there, what talk they will be at, the photos they – and other guests – have uploaded, and the live twitter stream all in one place. But so far every event network pitched to me requires attendees to register and create a new profile at the event, and monitor that throughout the show. Too much work; people won’t do it. When I use CrowdVine at a show, I find less than 10% of attendees actually start engaging on it. And seeing the lack of use, those of course drop off quickly. Conversations happen on Twitter, photos are posted on Flickr, moved to Facebook, and tagged there. Your service just adds a complex extra layer, when it could be aggregating the existing data at no work for us.
So, entrepreneurs, fix this. Partner with all the ticketing sites out there (I use primarily Eventbrite, but EventBee and Mogotix are some other options…). Let “Sign-up for the event social network” be an opt-in feature at registration. If they opt-in, pull what info you can from their ticket registration, then ask them to finalize with FBconnect, and BAM – they are part of the network. Send them ONE email about it – letting them know they can connect with attendees, view the twitter stream, upload photos to Facebook & Flickr, and plan their agenda all in one place. Let them opt-IN to getting alerts of who your algorithm thinks they should meet there, based on Facebook interests or friend connections, etc. Then create this as an app on the ticketing site that I place on my page, showing anyone who lands there who from their Facebook friends is attending and take a referral fee for any tickets you sell through that. THEN, and only then, I MIGHT pay you for the service.
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EVENT PLANNERS:
So now you know, when someone comes to you pitching an event social network, Just Say No. Until these are perfected, I find I get about 10% engagement and little value add. Attendees are perfectly comfortable communicating on twitter with a hashtag, and posting photos to Flickr and Facebook, where they alert other attendees to tag them. I would LOVE to see more post-show engagement, but these social networks that pitch that they’ll do it are bogus for now. It is not a “If you build it, they will come” scenario. As event planners, it is our job to facilitate community growth outside of our events, not just hand attendees a walled garden and assume they’ll play.
The Costs to Live Stream
At every conference I produce, I am asked “is it live streaming?” and generally get complaints when it is not. I seem to be in the minority in feeling that live streaming is more a cost then a benefit to a conference and should generally be avoided, with a few exceptions. That said, I would love to hear both attendees’ and organizers’ opinions on this, as I know many seem to disagree.
WHY NOT TO LIVE STREAM:
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Properly Completing Registration Forms
So you may be asking yourself, “Does she really need to write a post on this? Its a web form; how hard can it be?”
Judging by the amount of time I spend correcting people’s forms, adjusting badges, and replying to “oops” emails, VERY HARD!
Please remember, we have NOT hired monkeys to retype your form properly. What you type is going on your badge, as it is. So let me walk you through preparing a proper and high-quality badge registration form:
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Observations from a Women Only Show
I just wrapped up the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference, which took place yesterday (1/26) in San Francisco, CA. First off, this was one of the most inspiring, informative, and no-bullshit shows I have attended in quite some time. A few people have asked “Well, was it better than FailCon?” and I have to honestly answer, “Yes.”
So of course, I wanted to figure out why, and how I could use my experience to improve my own conference in the future. Hopefully you can learn from it, too…
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Events: Catalyzing Social Media Campaigns
(This is a guest post I did for Jennifer Lindsay’s Digital Blog. You can find it at http://blog.jenniferlindsay.com/)
As the economy improves, more companies have been approaching me asking about the costs associated with producing a conference or a series of evening panels, and what the benefits would be for them. It’s as if something in their entrepreneurial brains tells them this is a good step for their businesses, but they just aren’t sure why.
Events Increase the Power of Social Media
As social media grows and connects businesses, communities, and individuals on a global scale, the time given for in-person interactions dwindles. While I 100% endorse companies using twitter to connect with customers, or LinkedIn to talk with clients, there will never be a stronger way to develop a loyal bond with your users and community than through events. SnarkMarket puts it well: “The great virtue of events today … is that their value seems durable in a way that the value of super-abundant copies of digital media does not. They provide ‘embodiment,’ to use Kevin Kelly’s taxonomy—and that’s something you can still charge for.” Done right, events can work with social media to empower and engage users on a smaller but more effective scale.
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Finding an Entrepreneurial Valentine
(Please note, this was written for V-Day LAST year on an old blog. But I am trying to collect all my writings in one place.)
I’ve talked about how to get and prepare for your first Investor Meeting. With Valentine’s Day coming up, I figured some tips on getting and preparing for a first romantic date would be more helpful for the season. (This post will be very hetero-normative, and aimed primarily at geeky/start-up men. Here are some neat articles for those this will annoy, like it normally would me.)
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Getting The First Investor Meeting
(Another old post – trying to get all my writings in one place.)
So we are thinking of raising a round of angel investment in the next few months. While we’ve been reading up on Cap Tables, Executive Summaries, Slide Decks, and things needed for official suit and tie meetings, we aren’t sure how to get that first cup of coffee with potential investors. Here’s some great advice our adviser told me:
You Are The Star:
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