Whether you are organising a conference, an exhibition, a product launch or even a client get together social media apps represent a powerful tool for promotion, marketing and delegate engagement.  Here are 5 quick, simple, free, no brainer ideas that frankly you’d have to be daft not to be doing as a matter of routine when hosting an event.

Twitter
Unless you actually want to be the best kept secret in the industry you should be promoting your event by Twitter.  Push out news and updates of your event via your usual Twitter channels. For larger events consider registering an event specific account and push out dedicated news and updates both leading up to and during the show via that account.  Consider asking delegates for their Twitter ID during the registration process and promote your own Twitter details via normal marketing channels.  Assign yourself a Hashtag for your event and push out to your delegates and followers. During the Future of Web Design event #FOWD was trending almost all day in the UK.
 
Engaged delegates will push out news worthy information themselves from your event resulting in a self promoting buzz.....

LinkedIn
The Events widget in LinkedIn allows users to promote their own events and for delegates to announce their intentions for attendance.  This is a great tool to promote delegate networking before and during more professional business oriented events such as trade shows and conferences. Influential attendees will automatically attract potential visitors in turn. Why wouldn’t you use this freely available tool?  Presentations and delegate details can also be shared via LinkedIn afterwards which in turn promotes recurrent events.

Facebook
Facebook has an Event tool which works in a very similar way to LinkedIn except that guest invites can be sent out to connected friends and contacts or to the wider public world. During the event, photos and other media can be attached in Facebook. Bearing in mind that Facebook is used as a more personal social media application I would consider this for more informal occasions.

FourSquare
Foursquare is a relatively new location specific social media phenomenon that is being seized upon by businesses in a big way.  Businesses especially in the retail sector are concocting engaging promotional ideas to entice users to their locations by providing discounts and free offers via foursquare rewards and “specials”.  Promote the involvement of your event with Foursquare to encourage visitor engagement.

 
YouTube & Vimeo
Why not video your event and post the results to video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo?  Tell delegates you’re doing this and this will save them the trouble of taking notes during presentations and seminars – ideal for future reference and to promote your event next year!!