Marketing and social media, event management course

We studied marketing and social media in module I of Innovative Event Management course.

Hugo Scherman and Joakim Cedlöf from Smuggler Music taught the course. We learned about using the golden circle (Simon Sinek) to speak about why and how we do things (limbic, the emotional part of the brain) instead of about what we do (neocortex, the rational part of the brain).

It's tough, first you need to know your why. You also work on the message because using language is part of the Neocortex, not the Limbic part of our brains, which makes it hard to put into words.

My big takeaway? The importance of having the right followers instead of many followers. This is aligned with the law of diffusion: only a few people will get it at first. And it’s better to focus on them, than to try marketing to a broad market. Those few who get it, will share it. And people listen to others who share without gaining profit from sharing. The few will become many.

This is something I’ve struggled with. I see others with more followers and become envious. But after the weekend, I realized my followers get it. Taking care of them is the work which will lead to more followers over time.

Joakim displayed a bar chart of Swedes’ social media usage. Very interesting! Svenskarna och Internet (SoI) included the bar chart in a report and in addition:

— Preferences by age groups

— Way in which platforms are used.

Click here to view SoI reports:

svenskarnaochinternet.se/rapporter/

Nice course colleges, useful subjects well presented and great discussions. It is off to a great start!

smugglermusic.com/

instagram.com/smugglermusic/?utm_medium

B Group Sweden

runs the course

#eventmanagement #marketing #socialmedia

Organizing your team

In an interview with Frank Oddbratt, experienced geek event organizer I learned lots about how to organize your team of volunteers, potential problems and tips.

For conventions there tends to be 3 levels of volunteers. The head organizers, the area heads and what we in Swedish call funtionärer (another word for volunteers). Funktionärer join to help during the event with very little activity prior and after the event. They work in shifts and have time to experience the event as visitors also. The smaller the event the less need there is for multiple levels.

The area heads organize and lead a specific area. They are normally given a budget and do activities before and after the event incl. putting together their team of funktionärer.

The head organizers lead the entire event. They handle budget, venue, contact with government, grand applications etc. They are the ones who set the vision and gets everyone else on board and heading in the same direction.

For more information on how to find people to join the team and tips check out the article at Nerdpunk Magazine:

https://www.nerdpunkmagazine.se/artikel/hantera_funktionarer

Share your stories

Podcasters, youtubers, bloggers and magazines want stories to share. If you can help them create content for their form of media they will likely want to share it.

By helping them you also help yourself. When they post about you, you grow trust. Potential future collaborators, tournament players, visitors etc. find information when searching online about you, and the more they understand what you do, the more likely they are to work with you. It also helps grow your brand and following.

Don’t think you have to create something extra special to share your story. People want to hear about people. Tell your story and think about a different perspective or part of the story that can create extra interest.

Running a game night in your home is excellent. You can talk about the specific game you played, or the engagement of your friends with the game, or how nice it is to get back to playing after the chaos of Christmas. You can discuss playing games with the family compared to playing with friends. You can share your specific interest in the design of the game components and maybe draw some links to the popularity of how to color miniatures on YouTube.

Check out the specific media. Do they like to discuss how to engage with games or how the game mechanics work? Find out and help them by creating content that suits them.

When we send a story we write and edit, but don’t spend too much time. It may never get posted. If it is posted the content is probably improved. The story might inspire them to interview us, or join the next game night, instead of using the content as it is. There will be more stories to share going forward, so we send and move on.

Try writing your latest story and sending it. What could happen?