Social Media provides benefits and opportunities both online and in the offline world. While there is a definite opportunity for Social Media to help promote already existing conferences and events, it also provides the opportunity to initiate gatherings on its own.

While there are multiple opportunities for “Meet-ups” and “Tweet-ups” during live gatherings already planned, you may be asking yourself just what benefit is there in attending these live events (such as Foursquare Day (4/16)) for you and your organization?

5 Reasons Live Events Improve Your Online Social Media

Here are 5 ways that attending or hosting live events can improve the effectiveness of your online Social Media:

• Create New Relationships – One of the biggest challenges to overcome about creating Social Media is letting people know that you are creating Social Media. What better place to do this than in person with other Social Media Creators and, more importantly, Social Media Consumers
• Expand Existing Relationships – As much as you may think you know someone from their online postings, chances are that you don’t know all there is about them to know. On a similar note, chances are that your community doesn’t necessarily know all there is for them to know about your organization. A live event is a great opportunity to expand both your knowledge base as well as theirs
• Deepen the Conversation – While Social Media is a great platform for conversation, an in person meeting can help deepen those conversations and may provide you an opportunity to spark new ones
• Build Trust – Since most agencies will opt for the agency insignia or logo, a live event gives you the opportunity to reveal the face/faces behind the agency which will help build trust amongst your community in your message
• Provides You With Content – You should definitely use the opportunity of a live event to gather content for your Social Media Presence. Photos and a blog post summarizing the event and highlighting other members of your community who you met at the event is a great way to engage others

Live events are another tool in the toolbox to help enhance and improve your Social Media.

About the author

Dave Konig wrote 204 articles on this blog.

Dave has been involved in Social Media since 2005 through the current major services and some defunct ones as well. During this time he has been able to hone the craft by testing out the theories of others, creating his own philosophies, and gathering a better understanding of the mediums involved through networking and most importantly actual practice.

• Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook

Related posts:

1. Complement Live Events with Social Media
2. Creating Passionate Social Media Messages
3. Social Media: The Real First Responder In Haiti
4. 5 Reasons and Methods For PIOs To Develop and Distribute Social Media
5. Video: Social Media Presence for Emergency Response Agencies