Whether customizing your conference on the fly to meet the needs of your audience, creating media buzz or engaging participants, one things is clear: social media has revolutionized events. If done right, your conference or event can become a global experience.

Using social media to enhance events might seem like a no-brainer, but many conferences — even social media ones — fail to take full advantage of the low-hanging fruit that social platforms offer, like ways for attendees to communicate with each other, broaden their participation, share information and have fun. If you’re planning a conference, here are some ways to incorporate social networking into your big day.

1. Help Attendees Connect With Each Other

Whether for the purpose of making business connections, making friends or building brand exposure, conference networking is key.

2. Broaden Participation

“When an event happens offline, whether a conference, sporting event or concert, the conversation around the event is happening online in real time on Twitter. This offers a unique opportunity not only for attendees, who can interact with each other and see what other attendees are saying, but also — and more interestingly — for people who aren’t there. They can become part of the event without actually being there — with hashtags, photos, videos, and other content being shared on Twitter. And, the new version of Twitter makes it even easier to follow the conversations and see media via the details pane,” Penner says.

3. Encourage Attendees to Share Information

Attendees can leave and receive tips about particular speakers, share what they think about the venue, post pictures, find other attendees quickly and, of course, share the best places to eat. Organizers, in turn, can use these same social platforms to – almost immediately – address any concerns, enhance those things that are working and ultimately build an even better event

4. Provide Recreation

If you’ve ever attended a professional or academic conference, you’re probably well aware they can be made of long days and sometimes dry lectures. Use social media to create some recreational activities to increase the energy and ameliorate the tedium. Try creating games and contests that get attendees involved.

5. Put It All Together

Blogworld takes advantage of a multitude of social networking platforms like, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare,Plancast, Sched.org, USTREAM and Plixi to amplify the conference experience.

How have you used social media to enhance your own events? And, how have you used social media, as either an attendee or from home, to participate in an event? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Meaghan Edelstein has gained national media attention through her blog, I Kicked Cancer’s Ass, which she started to document her battle with end stage cancer. She is an attorney, the founder of the non-profit organization Spirit Jump, and works for the Real Time Marketing Group.

Read full article on Mashable.

Leave a comment and let us know how you are using social media to enhance your brand and build a loyal pack of raving fans.

Failure to make significant headway will be a nail in the coffin of an already weak mobile division.

Join the broadcast at 9:30AM EST, hopefully there will be some big news.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/windowsphone/

This video does a great job of giving you some information to consider about the true magnitude of the social media in our society.  Need help getting started?  Let Social Shadows develop a social media marketing plan for your company.