With today’s technology you can invite all your friends and family to a show, even if they are not in the some country as you – or the event itself!

The New York Fashion Week kicks off this month and all the designers and the press are going online to reach viral audiences and they are planning to reach a larger amount of people than those present at the show. Most of the brands will make use of their Facebook pages to unveil their Spring/Summer 2012 collections and videos will also be uploaded onto Youtube. They plan to take snapshots live from the show and post that on their social platforms. Not missing out on the biggest Brand’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection ever, is becoming easier by the minute, and the strategy behind it is of great value to everyone planning their own events strategies.

So let’s have a look at some tips and hints on planning an online event. It is important to focus on your audience. Firstly, you need to capture and keep their attention. Your audience has the power to log-off, get side-tracked, lose interest, or evens get up and walk away. There must be a strong reason for them to stay connected. For this reason, a virtual event will be much shorter than a live event.

Secondly,, you need to look at a technical supplier. They need to help you with hosting and your presentation. They would also need to ensure that your website is running fast and that your presentation is seamless when you present it online. Lastly, make use of your social portals to communicate with your audience in advance. Tell them about your online event, do a build up to the day, link all your social portals, keep them interested, excited and informed; and then, make a video of the event and post it on Youtube when your event is over – giving them the opportunity to experience the event with you.

Virtual events are growing fast, try to make it part of your strategy.

So with the South African World Cup on it’s last leg our office decided at the last minute that we would like to have some fun. We didn’t want to only restrict it to our company so we decided we would run a small competition where you could win a Jabulani ball. The same one they use in the World Cup matches.

How it works

You need to predict the World Cup Final score.

You can enter in two ways or both to double your chances of winning.  You can enter on Facebook or Twitter. Here’s how:

Facebook

All you need to do is login to you Facebook account and search for “SABest” or simply follow this link: Enter Competition

Once you are there you will need to “like” our page (Shameful self promotion and then update your status with your prediction mentioning us by typing @SABest in your status.

Twitter

If you are familiar with Twitter, simply follow this link to our profile and follow us (Some more self promotion and then simply tweet your prediction mentioning us (@SABestMarketing) in your tweet.

The person who predicts the score correctly will stand a chance to win a Jabulani ball.

It’s that easy!

Competition closes at 17:00 Sunday evening SAST time.

No entries after this time will be accepted.