Events: Going social

Social media has taken event planning to a whole new level.  It gives marketers the opportunity to extend the reach of their events to global audiences and enables them to continue conversations well beyond the actual event.

Communicating and promoting events through social channels not only generates conversations that can drive attendance prior to the event, but also enables brands to develop a community in a way that hasn’t been possible before.  The conversations around these virtual/real world events give attendees a real sense of involvement and investment.

Whether you’re arranging a conference or a pop-up PR stunt, matching the objectives of your event to your social outcomes will ensure your strategy is tailored and specific.  Work out whether the role of social is simply to generate mentions, increase attendees, or to develop follow-on discussions. Events can be used on social media to deepen relationships with influencers and provide the opportunity to manifest virtual interactions with the brand in the real world, which will go on to strengthen engagement.

To help you build your own community around your events, there are a number of tools and techniques available that needn’t be cost prohibitive to implement and will make a valuable contribution to your event.

Hashtagging

The symbol # is used on Twitter to connect topics and conversations. Develop a # for your event on Twitter so that all mentions of it can be tracked when people search using the #.  Once it has been established, it can act as a useful call to action pre, post and during the event to drive people to websites and blogs to find out additional information.

A # will help you understand how the event is being perceived and give you a general impression of what attendees are interested in ahead of time, as well as delivering post event feedback.

During the event, the # can be used to live stream information online for attendees and for those who are unable to attend.  Services such as Twitterfall, where live tweets can be streamed onto a TV screen, help attendees and online followers keep track of the social conversations.

Free sites such as TweetReach will show you the reach of a particular keyword or topic by tracking the amount of times it has been mentioned on social media, and the audience of those accounts referencing it.

Sharing on sign up

One way to promote an event by word of mouth is to make it easy for interested attendees to share it with their social networks. If using your own sign up form, ensure there are social sharing buttons so that attendees can inform their social network that they will be attending.  Alternatively Eventbrite and Twitvite offer online hosting with social sharing capabilities built in.

Develop a blog/ microsite

Host a dedicated blog or microsite that creates buzz about the event beforehand.  Encourage outside content talking about topics related to the event before and after by working with guest bloggers or running competitions.

Facebook events

If your event or brand has a Facebook page, create a Facebook event listing and invite all your followers.  Once accepted, a notification will be posted on the user’s profile notifying their contacts that they’re attending (depending on privacy settings) thus helping to spread awareness of the event further.

Live updates

By providing live updates from the event, those who are not able to attend in person are able to follow what is happening.  The updates can also be used post-event to offer a ‘social snapshot’ of what took place.  Ensure you have an individual or team dedicated to posting live updates.  This could involve photos, text or videos and should be posted to social channels using the #.  If you haven’t created a specific account for the live updates, make sure their location is clearly signposted.

Content generation

Capture the event in as many content forms as possible.  A stream of video interviews and picture stories can be used to fuel conversations post-event on your website, event microsite or blog.  It’s also good to curate post event reviews and blog posts – so make sure you offer this too.

As with any marketing activity, social is best used when integrated into the overall plan.  So develop a social strategy from the start and – just as important – make sure your venue has WiFi!

If you would like to discuss how to support your events management with social and digital media, then please contact me at lewis.sheilds@flagshipconsulting.co.uk or call 0207 886 8449.