Social media engagement is so important when planning a corporate event. If you’re looking after all things social for your next event, here are 5 tips to help get things buzzing from the get-go:
- Diversify the Output
Repeated 140-character tweets and ticket adverts will soon get boring for your followers and friends. Mix things up with a diverse range of rich media output – posting videos, pictures, graphs and links to helpful information. By giving centralised access to all of the important information and entertaining extras, your followers will be more inclined to trust your output and social media activity.
Buffer Social has determined the most popular and successful type of tweet is a link to another information-rich page.
- Make Use of Hashtags
Do not underestimate the usefulness of a hashtag to engage your audience. Hashtags organize conversations and threads and are used across multiple social sites. Create a hashtag for your event (nothing too long – think of that strict Twitter character limit) and use it across your different channels.
Your hashtag can be used before, during, and after the event to communicate key messages – it’s also something that event audiences can use to collate their experiences, feedback and photographs.
- … And Live Tweeting
Real-time interaction between audience members attending one of your events is something to be nurtured. Live tweeting from events shares the thoughts of attendees with other members of your audience and at home – spreading the word of the event from a wide range of perspectives and vantage points.
Here is an in-depth guide to setting up live tweeting at your event.
- Nurture Partner Relationships
When promoting your event via social media, one surefire method to improving your reach and exposure is to get all event partners involved. From the venue to the caterers, it is possible to interact with almost all aspects of the event, and spread its influence and reach.
A spokesperson from the events team at Emirates Old Trafford, explained: “It’s important to be personable and approachable on social media when running and event – your audience will be immediately put off by too much corporate jargon. Always keep audience engagement at the heart of your social campaign.”
- Measure and Review
It’s vital to review how your event and the attached social media campaign was received by the audience – learning from mistakes and determining the effective methods for future campaigns. All events and audiences are different, so the greatest lesson you can learn is from your specific campaign. Klout can help you measure the response to all of the social media interaction – helping you determine which techniques and specific platforms really connected with your target audience and followers.
Over time, this will allow you to streamline and perfect a social media campaign for your event.