Every member of an association views the events calendar as an important element of his or her enrollment in an organization. Offline event gatherings promote traditional networking, idea exchange, educational opportunity, and credentials enrichment.

As annual events grow more vital and complex, a social networking community can play a powerful role in effectively promoting every aspect of a yearly conference. Attendees can easily connect online, share past experiences and explore details of scheduled tracks and sessions. Linking with like-minded community members, an association’s most influential individuals can advise others and help guide them to select the most beneficial programs. When scheduled presenters at the event have questions or need counsel, the community’s thought leaders can help them prepare for a successful session.

Pre-event, social media tools such as blogging, commenting, photo and video sharing, group dialogue and forum discussions will help inform and animate attendees. The online interaction and “buzz” can significantly boost attendance, particularly when the exhilaration builds over time. Community administrators can seed annual event topics by embracing them in community announcements, timely blog entries, and forum threads.

The dynamics of social media are even more important after an annual event takes place. Following up on the excitement and energy of a major conference, a socially-infused community can keep the conversation going for weeks, if not months. Attendees actively share event experiences and nurture new connections made at the offline venue. Without the barriers of geography, a post-event dialogue in an online community can give new meaning to a central topic and elevate its status.

In simple terms, attendees create more value when they are able to interact with each other, ask questions and share opinions during sessions at conferences. A dedicated, dynamic social community is the perfect destination in which to achieve this, along with the sharing of photos, videos and presentation highlights in the form of blog post, comment, group creation or forum conversation.

A custom, seamlessly integrated social networking community helps radiate a year-around spotlight on the next annual event on the calendar. Both membership retention and future attendance benefit, and those two critical factors help ensure that every event an association sponsors is indeed, special.

Please click here if you would like to attend an informative, free webinar about how Associations use social networking to increase attendance and sponsorships of their offline special events. The webinar takes place Thursday, April 9 at 2:00 pm EST.

 Also, if you have ideas, questions or comments about associations promoting special events in a socially-enabled community, please share them here.