For those of you that use Twitter you will probably have seen the use of hashtags in tweets which precede certain subjects such as #ballonboy or #googlewave. These hashtags allow one constant stream of conversation to be grouped together and easily followed by Twitter users. Hashtags don’t only have to be used for news topics; they can also be a fantastic tool to promote your events.
It’s very simple to do, even for complete social networking novices. The first thing that you need to do is create your hashtag. The main rules with hashtags are to keep them short and memorable. For example, if you have an event called ‘London Publishing Conference’ then an example of a hashtag would be #LdnPubCon. You can call your hashtag whatever you like although you should always check that nobody else is using it, (this can be done by using Twitter Search), and should make sense in a sentence. You don’t need to register the hashtag and it can be used straight away in all of your event tweets. An example of using your event hashtag within a tweet would be;
Here are some of the great benefits to using hashtags when promoting your event through social networking.
Makes an event easy to followIn the build up to your event, you will probably have many attendees who would like to be kept up to date with any announcements about the event. Using a hashtag in your event tweets means you will instantly alert anybody following the trend to your announcement, meaning they will always be up to date.
Build a community for your event
It is not only you that can use the hashtag when talking about your event. If you encourage your attendees to do the same thing, people can instantly see who else is talking about the event and can hopefully start a buzz. Before you know it you could have a whole community talking to each other in the build up to your event.
Starting conversations
Once your community starts to grow you can then start having conversations about the event using the event hashtag. You could post a tweet such as ‘For all attending #globalmediaday who would you like to see present the keynote? People can then respond to your question and by including the hashtag in their reply means that everybody else will be able to see their answers as well.This doesn’t have to be limited to before the event, as many companies are also using the hashtags during an event. This allows attendees to give their opinions about your event in real time. Some events even use a screen on the stage so people can tweet their opinions during a conference for the whole audience to see, all being tracked through the hashtag!
Get a bigger audience for your eventIt goes without saying that the more people that use your hashtag when talking about your event, the more people will see it and become interested in it. This is why it can be a great marketing tool. If enough people are talking about your event you can become one of Twitters ‘Top Trends’ meaning your event will show up on the Twitter homepage as one of the hottest topics.
Tracking your Hashtag
For the easiest way to track who is using your hashtag within their tweets, use a desktop application like TweetDeck or Seesmic (both are free to use).So now go forward and use your event hashtag. Remember, you can use your hashtag across all social media channels including your blog and email, this will allow all of your attendees to recognise the hashtag as part of your event branding.
If it’s your job to organise the staff Christmas party, you might be wondering where to start. It can be a daunting task making sure your Christmas party is one to remember, but EventElephant really is Santa’s little helper! A great Christmas party is all in the preparation and planning so we have put together some useful tips to make sure you organise a night to remember.Tip 1
If you’re a first time party organiser, the first tip is don’t panic! Once you have found your location, chosen a theme and sorted out your outfit, there are plenty of easy to use tools that will help you to keep the stress levels down. Firstly you will need to tell people about the party so use the EventElephant step by step ‘wizard’ to create a unique website for your event. You can input all the information about the party as well as designing the website to fit your theme. The wizard is very intuitive so even the least IT literate person can create a great looking event website.Tip 2
Next you need to get the message out. In one click you can use the EventElephant invitation system to email all of your colleagues and friends to let them know about the Christmas party. You could use the standard invitations that are ready built in the system, or why not customize it to fit in with your Christmas party theme to get everybody in the mood?Tip 3
Now that everybody knows the who, what’s, where’s and when’s, I’m guessing you will want to know who is going to attend? Fear not, as soon as your colleagues visit your event website they can RSVP to the party, giving you a clear idea of how many Christmas puddings to order! Not only that, if bosses are asking staff to make a contribution to the Christmas Party, payments can also be taken on your new event website.Tip 4
It’s free to sign up and start using EventElephant for your Christmas party. EventElephant can also take care of all your events including meetings, networking events, exhibitions and many more.Give it a FREE TRY right now http://www.eventelephant.com/
Last week, EventElephant were awarded the ‘Most Investable’ company award from the cymypitch.ie Live event panel at Trinity College, Dublin. The cmpitch.ie award is bestowed upon the company that best demonstrates its attractiveness to venture capital funding. EventElephant were invited to deliver their 4 minute pitch against nine other companies to a panel of the most prolific investors and entrepreneurs in Ireland.
The EventElephant pitch stood out as Eamon O’Brien, CEO, demonstrated a revolutionary product for the event sector, which makes it easy for event organisers to plan, organise and manage their events and their attendees online. With EventElephant organisers can self build a registration website for specific events, promote and market the event online, sign up bookings and collect online payments, as well as monitor event progress with reporting dashboards.
‘EventElephant has managed to develop and launch a product that is not only differentiated from similar technologies available in the market, but has also succeeded in enhancing the efficiency of event attendee management’ says Eamon O’Brien. ‘The ever increasing customer portfolio of EventElephant proves that this product is needed within the market, and I am glad that the Dragons got to see the value of that today’.
About cmypitch.ie
Earlier this year, UK events company Square Meal approached EventElephant to help them build a registration website for their upcoming ‘Altitude 360’ event in London. The event was to celebrate the launch of Altitude 360’s new event space including the brand new River Room, plus an exclusive first view of the newly expanded panoramic space with 360 views of the London skyline. Time was short as they needed to get invitations sent out straight away as well as start taking bookings for the event. This is where EventElephant stepped in.
Simon Anderson, Marketing Executive for Square Meal commented ‘I've used several other online attendee management systems in the past, but always been disappointed - EventElephant was an entirely different experience. We didn't have a great deal of time to market the event and needed to set up an online registration page immediately - to my relief, the EventElephant set-up process was extremely user-friendly, and the site was up and running in a matter of hours’.
Not only were Square Meal able to set up their event in a very short space of time, they managed to sell out their event in record time also. To do this they used the simple marketing tools available to all organiser within the system.
Simon said ‘The system offers a wide range of layout, graphic and text options, so creating a bespoke site is incredibly simple. You certainly don't need to be a web genius to produce an eye-catching website, and the EventElephant team are always happy to help out over the phone.’
Square Meal are already planning their next event using EventElephant due to the massive success of ‘Altitude 360’. Simon added ‘The registration process for our event went very smoothly and we even surpassed our original target number of registrants. To any marketers frustrated with their current attendee management systems, I would certainly recommend EventElephant’.
Check out Square Meals growing database of venues both in London and throughout the UK www.squaremeal.co.uk
EventElephant are delighted to announce the launch of the EventElephant Partner Portal. Now not only can you SAVE money by organising and promoting your events through EventElephant, but you can also MAKE money!You can use EventElephant to Make Money in the form of commission. When you apply to become a partner you will receive your unique Partner ID. For any event that carries your partner ID code you will receive a pre-agreed percentage of the fees that EventElephant receive. That means for every event organiser that sets up an event using your code, you will receive a percentage of any money taken through ticket sales, simple!EventElephant is the perfect referral product. It clearly transforms online registration and payment for event organisers. They use it to increase their event attendances, reduce their administrative costs and improve the attendee experience. It’s easy to use and entirely self service.There are many tools within the Partner Portal that will help you to attract partners and promote EventElephant’s benefits and features. They include email templates, videos, HTML banners for your website, buttons for your blogs and a choice of sales collateral PDF’s.As soon as one of your organisers creates an event using your Partner ID, a member of the EventElephant team will contact you to arrange payment of your commission.To get started click here and sign up to become an EventElephant Partner today!
Central Hall Westminster one of London’s most famous event venues and EventElephant the leading online product for event organisers, team up to offer a powerful new event service.
Central Hall Westminster and EventElephant today announced that they have joined forces to offer a highly innovative new event partnership that opens up great new opportunities for all event organisers to transform the running of their events.
Together Central Hall Westminster and EventElephant will give event organisers the complete end to end event package - both from using self service online technology to being able to market to and register attendees, to also receiving superior ‘at show’ facilities and ‘on the ground’ support .Colin Pauley, Business Development Director at EventElephant, states that the combined expertise of both companies will deliver ‘success without stress for organisers – and will minimise costs, increase revenues and create great attendee experience, time and time again’.
About Central Hall Westminster
Central Hall Westminster is one of London’s most historic conference, exhibition and concert centres. Located adjacent to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, Central Hall Westminster offers event organisers versatile meeting room facilities, as well as spaces for syndicate rooms, offices and dinners. With a team of dedicated event Managers and the latest audio and visual facilities, Central Hall Westminster offers every option for every event in stunning surroundings.
About EventElephant
EventElephant is a self service online product that makes it easy for event organisers to plan, organise and manage their events and their attendees. With EventElephant organisers can self build a registration website for specific events, promote and market the event online, sign up bookings and collect online payments, as well as monitor event progress with reporting dashboards.
‘We are delighted to be working so closely with EventElephant. Lots of our clients are looking for ways of making the driving of attendees to their events more efficient and affordable – and with EventElephant we can now offer them that ability and service’.
Michael Sharp, Managing Director Central Hall Westminster
‘We are thrilled to be partnering with such a wonderful venue. Users of EventElephant are always on the lookout for prestigious and magical event settings and Central Hall certainly fits the bill .The link up is a true meeting of the historic past and the innovative future’.
Ron Downey, CEO EventElephant
Along with the great new functionality that was launched last week for the EventElephant system, we have one more fantastic update that will make it even easier for you to sell out your events.
A new tool in the EventElephant system lets you instantly share your event with your social network including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and Bebo.
When you click on the relevant icon, an update about your event will be published on to your social networking page and with a link back to the event registration web page - meaning your whole personal network will be able to view and book directly on to your event. Make sure you check it out today!
Don’t forget that you can also follow EventElephant on Twitter by clicking here or become an EventElephant fan on Facebook by clicking here.
For those of you that use Twitter you will probably have seen the use of hashtags in tweets which precede certain subjects such as #ballonboy or #googlewave. These hashtags allow one constant stream of conversation to be grouped together and easily followed by Twitter users. Hashtags don’t only have to be used for news topics; they can also be a fantastic tool to promote your events. 
Here are some of the great benefits to using hashtags when promoting your event through social networking. 
