Social media services like Facebook & Twitter can simplify wedding planning

If you haven’t hopped on board the social media train by now, you’re probably never going to. Social networks like Twitter & Facebook are changing the world so fast that it’s often hard to keep up. One industry that has seen rapid change and growth due to social media is the wedding industry. With countless new resources available to brides & grooms, it’s no surprise that their wedding planning questions, dilemmas and ideas are now the thing of public record: and that’s not a bad thing!

Here are 6 of The Man Registry’s favorite ways that social media can aid in the wedding planning process:

Wedding Vendors have gone social. Literally. Hundreds of thousands of them.  Have a question? Need a basic consultation? They’re not giving their services away for free. But you can start the process of locating vendors and identifying favorites online. You can even create a Twitter list to compile names of vendors you want to follow up with.

Try a basic Twitter search for the topic you’re researching. For example: “Save the Dates.” Doing this will show you everyone who is tweeting about this topic RIGHT NOW. Browse tweets, see what you like and go from there. Lots of vendors run Twitter of Facebook specific promos. There’s no telling what kind of deals you might find.

OK, preferably ask the ones who are still married. Chances are you have many Facebook friends that are married. If you’ve got a wedding question bogging you down or you need a vendor recommendation; post it on a status update. You’ll be surprised how many responses you get Brides (and grooms sometimes) love to share their wedding planning experiences. The good ones and the not-so-good ones.

Here’s an answer to another common dilemma. If you’re planning your wedding from afar and you won’t be able to go dress/tux shopping with friends and family, we’ve got a solution. Create a Facebook album full of your possibilities and ask for suggestions. There’s nothing more beautiful than connecting from thousands of miles. Single tear running down my cheek.

You want your wedding party to get along and have fun during the wedding festivities. The best way to guarantee this happens is for them to get together (and perhaps party) before the wedding. OK. But what does a blog about social media have to do with a get together? Lots. Our good friends at OneWed.com recently launched Wedding Pre-Party. This savvy wedding planning app allows your wedding party and other guests to get to know each other, plan, share photos and more using their Facebook profiles. Check it out!

Is this shameless self-promotion? Yes, of course it is. Many consider including your wedding registry info along with the invitation or save the date is tacky. Through the power of social media, you can be even more tacky and post direct links to your registry on your Facebook profile page. Hell, you can even highlight specific gifts that you really really want. Want to be less subtle? Share your registry info on your wedding web page. This works as well.

Like free stuff? Wedding bloggers love to give prizes away. Make a note to do a daily scan of your favorite wedding tweeters. I’d bet my lucky $2 bill that you can find at least one contest per day. Sometimes all you have to do is post a tweet to be entered. Here’s one from Chatterberries. The prize? A pair of his and hers designer wedding bands. All you’ve gotta do is tell them who your favorite celebrity couple is. Also, check out our own social media contest going on where you can win an NCAA Grill Topper Set.

Planning a destination wedding? Have a lot of guests who can’t make the long trip for the wedding? No worries. Through the miracle of Ustream, you can live stream your wedding to the masses. Our friend @mbernier did just this and actually beat out an episode of ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’ in the Nielsen Rankings.

We asked some of our favorite wedding tweeters to share their #1 piece of advice to grooms and brides who want to use social media to help plan their wedding:

@onewed – Don’t burn bridges by blabbing about your wedding on FB to the uninvited. Use weddingpreparty.com instead!

@myweddingeditor – Create a mywedding.com wedsite. J  Share & seek ideas for your day through the blog feature..  Later, password protect your site for guests.

@1800mytuxes – Basic searches with keywords on the current project you’re working on like #gowns, #headpieces and #tuxedos is a great way to start and move from there.

@barbiehull – Get feedback!!  Whenever I doubt something I put it out there and ask for opinions!  My twitter peeps always seem to have an opinion.

@simon_daykin – I use twitter 2 connect w/ vendors I may not have heard of before so I can secure gr8 deals and amazing new stuff for my clients

@whiteflashdiamo – Whiteflash.com is an online diamond jewelry retailer. The owners of this company believe that buying a diamond is an interactive experience. That’s why they focused on social marketing techniques to engage potential customers. With live chatting on their website and numerous relationships with top bloggers, the company has increased their revenue by 15 percent, and most recently, they were featured in Entrepreneur magazine for their social marketing success. Education is also very important to WhiteFlash.com. The company offers a comprehensive diamond library with commentary from gemologists, appraisers, former diamond graders and professional educators. Visitors can educate themselves about diamonds in the site’s “About Diamonds” section. Unique videos and actual diamond images help visitors understand and clearly see the diamonds.

“Our most informed customer is our best customer,” says Debi Wexler, CEO. “Our clients gain the confidence to buy when they can leisurely view diamonds and our video tutorials. With confidence comes trust and repeat business.” Wexler says the company spends about 5 percent of its $10 million in sales on educational materials for customers.

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we want to hear what other ways our readers have used social media in their wedding planning. leave comments below.

Tags: Facebook Wedding Planning, Groom Wedding Planning, Social Media Wedding Planning, Twitter Wedding Planning

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 am and is filed under Groom Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.