When developing your brand and promoting its products on the social Web, combining traditional and social media marketing strategies have proven to be quite the dynamic formula. And while we all devote a huge chunk of our daily schedules propping up our brand’s online presence, reaching out to them in the real world will definitely help tons. Here, holding events can help your brand boost your engagement opportunities, invigorate public awareness, enhance perception, and even tap into markets that aren’t exactly heavy social Web users.

Brands can hold events for different purposes—from launching and promoting new products and services, to simply gather people in your niche for closer interactions. However, a lot of work goes into organizing events—work that demands the time and effort you may not have given your regular work schedule.

But as laborious as the entire process may seem, all your efforts (and headaches) will be worth it once you get your event off the ground and you’re inching closer to hitting your brand’s goals. So today, we’ve listed down a few online services you can use to help make events a tad bit easier to organize and manage.

Initial Planning

No matter what size of the event you’re planning for your brand, it can be quite the headache to organize. Logistics may be hard during the planning stage, but these few services can be very helpful in keeping track of your progress

• Yelp
  Finding the right venue for your event can really be difficult, especially when you consider the type of activities you’re holding, the space and amenities you may need, and the dietary restrictions of your intended guests. Yelp is among the most popular services online that can help you find and even discover potential venues for your upcoming event.
• Evernote
  You can create a personal list of your tasks and even take audio and photo notes using Evernote. It syncs with the complementary mobile app for iOS and Android devices to make sure you won’t forget anything even when on-the-go.
• Google Drive
  With Google Drive, you can create your plans, discuss concerns and make decisions with your team even if you’re away. You can also use its cloud storage to save and retrieve important event-related documents (guest lists, menu, etc) in various file formats, and even larger files like those huge banner designs you’re having printed on the print shop across town.

Organizing

There are a handful of apps and Web services available for you that carry various features you can take advantage including event management, creation and sending of invites, and a multitude of cool user engagement functionalities during the event itself. These services can help you make sure you’re on the right path to organizing the best events for your guests.

• Meetup
  Meetup allows you to find people near you with the same interests, searchable via ZIP code and keywords. You can create groups which enables you to round up these people for easier engagements by scheduling and managing meetings, conducting polls, maintaining a group blog, and even sending updates to each member. Obviously, all these features also make it a great platform for interacting with your community even after your events.
• Eventbrite
  One of the biggest event organizing services out there, the San Francisco-based Eventbrite offers a straightforward way to organize your events. You create a page for your event where you can display important details including dates, the venue, and ticket prices. You can also use the site for tracking your RSVPs and ticket sales. Attendees can purchase tickets on-site (or with the accompanying app), connect with your brand on your other sites, and promote your event online and invite others.

Google+ Events offers a cool way to invite people to your events, and pulls in the images and videos they upload at the venue.

• Google+ Events
  Once you’ve created an event on Google+ Events, you can put together a beautiful invitation for it, headlined by a selection of animated banners (or you can upload your own). Once your guests RSVP, it’ll show up on their Google Calendars and will thus notify them on the day of your event. A feature called Party Mode gathers the photos and videos they upload once they’re already at your venue.
• Facebook Events
  Brands on Facebook are already using it to create a community and engage with their followers. It’s also become one of the most common ways to invite people to events. Recently, Facebook expanded their Events feature, including two different ways to view and keep tabs on events to make sure your attendees won’t miss your party/product launching/luncheon/junket/rock gig. The Calendar View shows all the RSVPs, pending invitations, and attendees in grid view, while List View displays a day-to-day summary of their line-up of events. These can be exported to Apple iCal, Microsoft Outlook, or Google Calendar.

During the Event

Naturally, the work of the brand manager and the social media marketers do not end once the event starts. Instead, they should take advantage of the countless opportunities during the event to further promote their brand, engage with their followers, and reach out to more people online.

• Twitter
  People going to your event will most likely tweet about attending it, being there, what they’re currently doing, and even include photos. For this, you can create a Twitter account for the event (or use your brand’s existing one) where you can invite people, answer their questions, and simply interact with them.

  Another way you can use Twitter is by setting up a #hashtag and encourage people to use it when tweeting about your upcoming event. That way, it’ll be easier to track your engagements, compile images related to your event, and to show people at home what they’re missing (to motivate them to go to your future activities).

• Instagram
  With Instagram, you can document the event through pictures and communicate with the people posting them. You can use the app to showcase those images on a screen at the event, or simply compile them into a folder on your Web site or on Facebook or Pinterest. Either way, these images can elicit some positive responses and more engagement opportunities from the attendees. Aside from these, you can also devise fun activities around the app like photo bingo, or scavenger hunts.
• Foursquare
  Aside from enabling people to check-in on your event, you can also create a specific marketing system on Foursquare for more engagements and to reward people for attending. For multi-venue events, for instance, you can create a Partner Badge to track who’s already at your events, and reward. Or you can partner with your venue and create different kinds of specials for your guests. Of course both these should be mapped out months before the event’s actual date.

Tags: Android, Apple, Events, Events Marketing, Google, iOS, iPhone, Mobile Apps, social media marketing, Social Media Marketing Strategies, social media tools, social networking