Attendees are becoming more powerful. They will soon decide what your event will be about.
Actually they already are. This post has been written by Julius Solaris for Event Manager Blog (?).
I was captured by a great story published on Springwise on how Bacardi used Facebook to decide their event theme.
In plain English (or kind of)
Bacardi asks their Facebook fans what they would like during the event.
Mojito or Rum and Coke? Jazz or Rock? Quesadillas or Bruschette?
Then tickets for the crowdsourced event are made available only to those winning a competition, obviously involving writing content on Bacardi’s Facebook Page.
What’s great about this?
Bacardi customers are in control.
They participate in the process of shaping up the event. They are involved to a stage where event promotion becomes unnecessary.
Being involved as a customer in shaping a product, a service or an event makes you feel committed to it. It’s a classic marketing principle.
What’s Social about it?
Well it starts with social, it ends with social. Looking at the review Springwise linked to attendees were ecstatic. Compelled to a stage where writing about it on their blog was the most natural thing to do.
What can You Learn from it?
Crowdsourcing events is nothing new. Lots of conferences ask you to vote for panels.
However Bacardi was successful in making it as simple as deciding between A and B and clicking on Like.
That’s it. Do not ignore the simplicity of the Like button and the domino effect it can have.
Can you do the same for your next Event?
I would first populate your Facebook Page with a reasonable number of fans. Bear in mind Bacardi has around 2M fans.
I am not suggesting you should have the same numbers but do not expect similar results with a couple of hundred fans. You will be just disappointed. Try to get to 1500+ fans and then you will have the depth to carry a similar initiative.
How to get 1500 Facebook likes quickly?
I’ll talk about it soon…
