Social Media at Events: 5 Questions for Liz King

Social Media at Events: Who else to inter­view than NYC based Liz King, one of the ‘Top 25 Most Influ­en­tial Event Planners in 2013’?

 

 

1. Liz, why is social media at events important and how does it help event organizers with their goals?

 

I would say that social media is important for two reasons. First of all, as event orga­ni­zers, we often need to fill the events that we plan. Social media is a very powerful and important marke­ting tool that event orga­ni­zers can leverage to fill their events faster and with higher quality people. In addition, social media can be used to fill the event with great speakers and sponsors. The ​p​ower of social media is that it connects us with experts that we may not other­wise be able to connect with. Social media is ​also ​very important because event orga­ni­zers, espe­ci­ally inde­pen­dent planners, need to have a personal brand. Our clients are making their buying decis­ions based on more than price – they want to know that ​t​he event orga­ni­zers they are hiring are quali­fied and well respected. Event orga­ni­zers can leverage social media to share their thought leader­ship and estab­lish them­selves as an expert in the industry. As they make connec­tions with their target market, they will also raise the comfort level between that target market and themselves.

 

 

2. What was the most challenging event that you worked on?

 

I would have to say that the most chal­len­ging and meaningful event that we worked on so far has been ​tech­sy­talk LIVE. We have done some really amazing events for clients, but this event is one that we host ourselves, which adds more meaning and chall­enge. When you create and design an event from scratch, you find a deeper ability to align the goals of the event with the brand. Since you know your own branch so inti­m­ately, you are better able to under­stand what goals you would like to achieve. In addition, it is more chal­len­ging because the pressure is certainly on. When we first dreamed up this event, I think we all felt a lot of pressure to make it really amazing – we were bringing together our contacts for sponsors, speakers, atten­dees and more. We were testing out a new format in front of all of these connec­tions of ours and we were defi­ni­tely on the spot. Because of this, I am most proud of this event. We can claim owner­ship of every success and we also know that we own every mistake. It gives us some­thing to strive for in the future.

 

 

3. What does it take to realise a great event job with effective social media use?

 

I could write a book in response to this question, but I will say that I think there are a few important compon­ents. First of all, make sure that your social media fits your audience. Regard­less of what social media platform you want to use, you must know that your audience will embrace it. Secondly, it’s all about commu­ni­ca­tion – you must make sure that your atten­dees know what you ​are doing and why. Then, you must get them involved in every step of the way. Educate them, encou­rage their parti­ci­pa­tion and reward them. Finally, make sure that you evaluate the success of your plans based on the goals you origi­nally set out. Social media is a very powerful tool, but it can also be very super­fluous. Make sure you set goals and hold yourself accoun­table to meeting those goals. And, bringing your atten­dees into the expe­ri­ence from the very begin­ning will help them expe­ri­ence the win.

 

 

4. Where do you get inspired regarding social media & innovative event formats?

 

Inspi­ra­tion is ever­y­where. I get a lot of ideas from atten­ding events and figuring out what I didn’t like. Some­times, having a bad expe­ri­ence as an attendee allows me to create a better expe­ri­ence as an event orga­nizer for the atten­dees of my events. Often times, inspi­ra­tion comes from my colle­agues and industry publi­ca­tions. Some­times, we can find the se​ed​ of a good idea and put our own spin on it to make it successful.

 

 

5. What was your biggest mistake and what did you learn from it?

 

This is a really great question, though admit­tedly hard to answer. I think one of the biggest mistakes that I have made is finding the balance between great part­ner­ships. I love colla­bo­ra­tion and the idea of working with other people. In some ways though, this ​ha​s back­fired on me because either the part­ner­ship is not actually effec­tive or perhaps the idea is not great in the end. Some­times, I get caught up in the idea of working with someone and I don’t take enough time to evaluate ​t​he feasi­bi­lity of the idea itself. And, on​c​e colla­bo­ra­ting with people in the industry, success is very important. Part­ner­ships are very hard if you can’t achieve the success you are all looking for and I never want to leave industry rela­ti­onships that way. So, one of my greatest chal­lenges in growing the business has been finding the right people to partner with, on the right projects, at the right time.

 

 

 

 

Liz King is an event planning super­hero by day, and closeted tech geek and intro­vert by night. Distraught by the thought of everyday civi­lians being conquered by spreadsheets, she resolved to re-channel her orga­niza­tional and tech savvy super­powers and launched Liz King Events while still running events full time for Columbia Univer­sity. Liz vora­ciously shared content on event best prac­tices via social media and quickly became a thought leader/influencer amongst her peers. Her hopes of being an inco­gnito event super­hero went down the drain as her cover was blown once she started making cameos on lits like ‘Successful Meetings list of 25 Most Influ­en­tial People in the Meetings Industry” and ‘Connect Magazine’s list of 40 Under 40 Up-and-Coming Event Planners in 2011”. Liz now comfor­tably wears her cape and employs her super­powers to helps entrepreneurs/brands like Claudia Chan and Ramit Sethi plan smart, tech-savvy events to better engage their attendees.

 

Outside of client events, Liz uses her prowess to educate and chall­enge her industry peers on how to better inte­grate tech­no­logy into live events to create a more winsome audience expe­ri­ence, through auxi­liary outlets techsytalk.com and Plan­ner­Tech [Founder]. When not saving gotham from the event planning woes, Liz can be found unwin­ding by learning how to code, brushing up on her Korean, or indul­ging in Korean cuisine … all in civilian geek attire, of course.  

 

 

Want to know more about Chris Cuhls and this blog? Please find more infor­ma­tion about the German here.