We've all seen them - or at least we've read their articles. Social Media Gurus who spout off the latest and greatest information about finding an audience on Google+ or breaking down the components of viral videos. But what really matters when it comes to using social media to plan better meetings? How does one become a social media ninja for meetings? I'm here to tell you how and by the end you'll feel like you have a black belt in social media.

The first thing you need to realize is you have to have the confidence to believe in the abilities you already possess. Social media isn't really anything more than another way to communicate and you communicate every day. Social media provides us with new tools to use so that we have the ability to get better information and a quick way to reach out to large groups of people at any given moment. That is the power of social media. You may not need to be a social media ninja to have the right skills, but you do need to have the confidence to use the tools available to you in sometimes unpredictable ways.

What is the first step in all of this? Remembering the audience. We have to start with thinking about the people involved. A really great quick way to frame a social media plan is to use the POST Methodology. The "P" in POST stands for People and that is the foundation for everything.

Who are you planning a meeting for? Who are your sponsors? Who are your exhibitors? What are their needs and desires? How do they want to interact?

What do you want your people to do with the social media messaging you are putting out there? What is their call to action? We're going to be talking about the 5 social media ninja moves for planning a better meeting and each time you think about communication being seen by your audiences, be thinking about what the call to action is. What are they being asked to do with it. This should always be present in your mind.

The second piece to the puzzle when creating your social media plan are your objectives. What are you trying to achieve? What are your goals for social media at your meeting? Some of your objectives might be generating more exposure for the meeting and increasing attendance - connecting social media to your bottom line.

The 3rd part of the POST Methodology is Strategy. Now you have thought about the Who and the Why, you need to think about the How...how are you going to use social media to achieve your goals? This takes us to the 4th part of creating your social media plan...

Checking out the tools for the job. "T" in POST stand for tools otherwise known as your technology that you are going to use. In reality, until you've figured out the first part of your plan, you really can't even consider the tools, even though they might be the sexy part of social media. Everyone wants to get busy and play with their toys straight away, but for planning a better meeting, you want to have your strategy in place first.

So what about these magical ninja moves we've heard so much about? What are some ways that we can use social media to our benefit in planning that we might not already be doing? Let's talk about it.

Site like Yelp are your friend. Checking out the reviews for the hotels and restaurants and public locations you might be using ahead of time could seriously increase your chances for success. If you aren't already doing this for every location, I seriously suggest you doing it. This year I was booking travel to a meeting and I always check reviews beforehand. One of the main hotels had fairly recently had a huge issue with bedbugs (and a recurring issue), which you found as soon as you typed the name of the hotel into Google. It probably shouldn't have been a suggested hotel for the meeting, since they'd been having issues with it for over two years. Use reviews to create suggested coffee stops or wine tours for attendees and to avoid issues like the bedbug hotel I avoided.

How are you using video to prepare for your meetings? Today more buying decisions are being made based on video, according to comSCORE. How are you using video to introduce people to your venue or your speakers? How about using video to help them plan around the event or meeting? Do you know how easy it is to create well-made videos on your phone using apps like Directr? There is no reason why you can't do more to get people excited and build buzz about your meeting using video.

Do you use Twitter to identify local thought leaders and influencers that might help spread the word about your meeting or add to the content? Why not look to the internet to find out who the local influencers are so that you have people right where you are having your meeting who can enhance your offering to attendees? What do I mean? I mean you can look to industry conversations taking place on Twitter using keywords and hashtags to identify local key individuals that may not be a content leader or an attendee, but who could spread the word about your event OR better yet, add to the content. Contacting them can help you to identify ways to work them into your meeting and will keep things fresh and relevant for attendees.

Have you used a panel picker or otherwise crowdsourced for content at your meetings? Using crowdsourcing to generate buzz and create buy-in for your meetings is a great way to be innovative. Many times, crowdsourcing for content can lead to creative sessions that otherwise may not have been submitted. Many organizations use a combination of crowdsourcing and a selection committee to figure out content for meetings. SXSW is the most famous example of crowdsourcing for content using its Panel Picker.

The 5th Social Media Ninja Move is Testing for Hot Topics...again using Twitter conversations and LinkedIn group conversations to identify trends and hot topics that people are interested in talking and hearing about.

So now that you know how to develop a social media plan and we've discussed the 5 social media ninja moves for planning a better meeting, do you feel ready to try some of them? Which moves do you think you'll probably try next? The key to mastering any kind of skill is practice.

I hereby grant all of you honorary ninja social media black belts. Now go forth and conquer!

KiKi L'Italien
@kikilitalien
dckiki@gmail.com