I see a lot of posts and conversation these days about getting attendees to respond to post event surveys.  I’ve seen people give away prizes to get people to respond, I’ve seen drawings for gift certificates and even an ipod for taking a post event survey.

What if there was a way for people to tell you how they felt about your event with out having to answer a survey?

Hey! @Partyaficionado Cheryl loving this conference!:) #smtulsa

— Marilyn Hight (@MarilynHight) March 15, 2012

Thank you Cheryl Lawson for organizing the #smtulsa conference on social media. Great speakers and topics!

— Donna Ham (@donnahamartist) March 17, 2012

Thanks to everyone at #SMTulsa for a terrific event!

— Becky McCray (@BeckyMcCray) March 16, 2012

I just remembered that it’s Friday! Giving this #FF to all my new #SMTulsa friends. Great to meet you all!

Love #smtulsa Eco babes! twitter.com/trashtalktulsa…

— Beth Turner (@trashtalktulsa) March 15, 2012

— Sheri G (@sagourd) March 17, 2012

I’ve had an amazing experience in #SMTulsa — the folks here couldn’t of been nicer. S/O to @Partyaficionado, I’ll see you all again soon!

— Filiberto Gonzalez (@gofiliberto) March 17, 2012

You can track along with all the #SMtulsa tweets from home but you won’t be able to smell and taste how good this is! twitter.com/FollowEricBlog…

— Follow Eric (@FollowEricBlog) March 15, 2012

We’re really learning a lot at The Social Media Tulsa Conference! #SMTulsa

— AHCT (@AHCTulsa) March 15, 2012

Heading home after a great conference w the FAB folks at #SMTulsaFUN! (@ Tulsa International Airport (TUL)) [pic]: 4sq.com/FOiIAJ

Loving the partnership between #SMTulsa and @Tulsapets ! My kind of people.

— Abigail Shaw (@AbigailFShaw) March 15, 2012

— Gina Schreck (@Ginaschreck) March 16, 2012

@socmediatulsa It’s been a great conference. Sad it’s almost over! #SMTulsa

— PennWell Jobs (@PennWell_Jobs) March 16, 2012

Back in Cali. Had a great trip to #smtulsa.great people. Learned sooo much. Thanks to everyone who helped the noob.

— Craig Brandman(@Empoweryoudoc) March 17, 2012

Great speaker/comedian fresh funny informational inspirational @angelsadventure #smtulsa

— Chelia Laurance (@CheliaLaurance) March 16, 2012

@Ginaschreck is a hoot! #smtulsa

— Tara West (@SuperMediaMom) March 15, 2012

Have I made my point yet? Educating your audience on the use of Twitter hashtags and encouraging them to Tweet during your conference can help you learn a lot about your guest’s experiences. Good and Bad. Between the social media activity , both what’s there and what’s not, and the post event photography, I’m learning things that I did well, and a few things that I want to change before the next event.

Maybe taking the written survey and applying it to the web isn’t all that appealing to people used to graphics, colors, and awesome user experiences. Maybe that’s why today, Google announced; Google Consumer Survey. I see a lot of promise with this new tool and can’t wait to test it out. I’ll be teaching a market research class I’ll see what cool ideas my students come up with.

Back in July, I wrote a post entitled How Conference Organizers can use Google Plus.

I was hoping to spark ideas for event professionals and anyone trying to figure out how to fit one more social network into their lives.

I personally + Google+ more than I Like Facebook, but I do understand that they are two completely different environments and both have their place in our social atmosphere.  But I digress.

I was fortunate to have connected with fellow Google+ fan Anna Bavido. Anna popped into one of my random Google+ Hangouts.  After several months of connecting with Anna on Google +, I had the idea to ask her if she would be willing to cover the conference via Google Plus and thankfully for me, she said yes.

During the conference Anna was amazing. Using the #SMTulsa hashtag (Yes, hashtags are searchable on Google+), Anna posted updates from the speakers, candid photos, and hosted live hangouts through out the two day event.

Thanks to my friends at Vocus, we had a blogger’s lounge available for Anna to recharge her devices and keep the Google+ party going.

At the end of the conference, Anna created a Google Plus Circle of all attendees, speakers, and sponsors.

This was much better than doing a breakout session on Google Plus specifically.   Attendees just had to be told what Anna would be doing during the conference and those interested flocked to her.

More than a back channel, Google + is a great  a tool for live blogging, note taking, sharing your conference content, and  extending face to face connections after the event is over.    Not only am I enjoying reading the posts after the fact, Anna now has begun to take her notes and turn them into content for her blog Magic Bottle Marketing. 

I’m very excited about  how well Google+  fits into the social conference environment.

I get asked this question all of the time.  Especially as it concerns Twitter and other social media activities for events.

A few years ago, my answer would be something like.. “it depends.”  Fortunately as the social web matures so do the ways we measure the impact of the activity.   One of the tools I used during my most recent conference is Tweetreach.com

The morning following our two day conference, I was able to see that Tweets mentioning #SMTulsa reached over 359,000 people and which users had the most activity.

As an event marketer, I can now share this information with event attendees, sponsors, and partners to show how far a Tweet can go.

What are your favorite social media measuring tools?