I’ll be coming to you live from Omniture Summit 2009 in Salt Lake City this week.  Before arriving, I already had restaurant recommendations from friends of friends on Facebook, up-to-the-minute logistical information about shuttle transfers from the airport (Thanks, Shelby!), and details about presentations that I don’t want to miss via Twitter.

It occurs to me that I did absolutely no research for this trip via search engines.  I checked the weather directly from my iPhone, coordinated meet ups (Tweetups) through Twitter, and when I was looking for a place to eat close to the hotel I read the reviews on the recommendations I got on urbanspoon.  Sorry Google… I did use maps to get me to where I was eating if that’s any consolation to you…

Twitter by far has been the most useful tool for me at this conference (and it’s only going to get more intense since the full conference doesn’t start until today).  It makes me believe that anyone putting on an event would benefit by sending details and updates (as well as encouraging attendees to post information) in short bursts of content.  There have been hundreds of “tweets” already and the conference hasn’t even started.

If you don’t know about Twitter, you can check it out at www.twitter.com.  Twitter lets you send out short (140 character) messages that can reach people on any device.  Twitter has it’s own vocabulary of retweets (RT’s when posting something someone else said), hash codes (for example, #Omniture or #Summit09 for this conference to “tag” the tweets), and user handles that start with an “@”.

Making Your Event “Socially Acceptable”

Planning for something as organic as user generated content is sort of like planning for the weather.  You can get it right, but there may still be a chance of showers.  Rather than be too in the weeds, here are a few tips to make sure your events work well in a social setting.

1.  Guide, not control.

Being proactive is key here.  You want to get out in front of your audience initially and set up tools for them to make communicating with each other and you easier.  For example, you might identify your Twitter handle to people early on and post more updates as you get closer to the event.  You may even want to set up #tags for certain topics (or ask the attendees what they’d like to use).  If you’re trying to attract people from Facebook, be sure to start early on with a “Fan Page” and build a following so you can easily message those people.

Once the basic structure of your social communications is set up, move to the background and let the attendees speak.  Post relevant messages as appropriate and when confusion may exist within the attendee posts, and follow discussion trends.

2.  The 3T’s – Track, Topics, and Trends.

It’s important to track what’s going on in the social networking world but it’s often difficult since URLs are rewritten or shortened.  What I recommend is always adding a reference parameter before you encode the URL.  You should discuss this with your web analytics professional to come up with the best tracking strategy.  We track URL referrers and also specific topics by changing up the tracking code that gets embedded in our links.  This method can also be useful if you’re doing any sort of behavioral targeting or content optimization.

Tracking topics by any method will provide insight into what your attendees are talking about before, during, and after your event.  You may find it best to divide and conquer and assign different people to respond to topics (even if done through the same account).  Topic tracking gives instant feedback on how the event is being received by the attendees.

Trends are a bit more generic since they’re the general topics that people are talking about.  However, if yours is a big event, you might trend higher and therefore draw more people to the event.  Paying attention to trends leading up to your event may open up opportunities to communicate about any topics that are related to the event and also popular.

3.  Be fun, be professional.

Keep in mind that social media is becoming an extension of how people communicate.  Have fun with it, but don’t be overwhelming and “spam” people with promos, too many links, and random ramblings all the time.  Likewise, keep people engaged by adding some interesting facts and fun tidbits to your posts.

Join the Conversation

Don’t be afraid to dip your toes in the Twitter pool.  Sign-up and follow along (I recommend TweetDeck for your computer instead of the website and Tweetie for iPhone or Tweetberry for Blackberry instead of standard SMS messaging).  Feel free to follow me by going to www.twitter.com/gregasman and follow Aspen Marketing Services by going to www.twitter.com/aspenmarketing.

As always, please drop a comment below if we can answer any questions for you or if you need help getting your social media plan on track.