Top Event Technology Tools for Social Media Engagement
Photo courtesy of rawpixel on Unsplash
It’s time for your company’s next big event. Social media is an important tool to utilize not only for your event’s content but also for the content your attendees will create.
Below, we’ll outline a few steps and tools that you can use to make your event a step above your competitors.
PREPARATION FOR THE EVENT
In the months leading up to your event, remember to prepare your social media team. In addition to event-specific materials, think about the following:
Setting up your social stream
An ounce in prevention is worth a pound in cure. Preparing posts prior to your event is a great way for your social team to know what messaging to use.
Have a batch of posts ready to go out, in case a glitch occurs during the event. Use tools like:
Hootsuite: Manage all of your social pages from one place on this platform. Schedule posts to go out at specific times during the event. Searching for specific hashtags and keywords is another useful feature.
IFFT: Saving time is the main focus of this platform. If you post an image on Instagram, IFFT will post it to Twitter for you.
Buffer: Manage Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest on this platform. It can schedule posts to go out at specific times that are optimized to your audience’s activity.
An easy way to build pre-event engagement is by creating an event under your company’s Facebook page. Attendees can post their questions to the page, which you can easily respond to. It’s also a great place to include event updates and information.
Creating an event/company hashtag
Hashtags are a useful way to track guest engagement during the event.
When creating a hashtag remember that it needs to be short. Twitter users only have 140 characters in a tweet, so something long like #MicrosoftCAEvent2018 is not going to leave enough room for other information in the tweet.
Make your hashtag unique and relevant as well. Search possible hashtags on Twitter and Facebook to see if different industries or other people are using it. Finally, make your hashtag tweet-worthy! Test it out on people within your company to see their reaction.
Once you’ve settled on the hashtag, encourage others to use it prior to the event. Include it in countdowns and testimonials. Ask your featured guests or speakers to add it in their social posts about the event. Create an incentive for attendees to use it. Require the hashtag in a photo or caption contest to build awareness about your event.
Include your custom hashtag in all event materials as well. In every press release, event marketing material or registration page, add a mention of the hashtag so guests know it before attending the event.
DURING THE EVENT
Don’t let all of your event preparation go down the drain once the event occurs. During your event remember to build engagement by:
Live streaming from your location
Despite the social posts you’ve already set up, remember that some things happen that were not planned, and that’s a great opportunity to post about it on social.
Let people at home know when your featured speaker has said something thought-provoking or funny by tweeting during keynotes or panels. Share photos of your booth squad or the event floor. Remember this is also an opportunity to include your event hashtag as well.
Facebook Live allows you to livestream panels or from the event location. Do a quick check-in from your sales team or booth guests. If the Wifi connection is good, livestream a whole panel or guest speaker’s talk.
During the event, designate someone to reply and share people’s posts. Your own attendees can provide some of the best posts about your event. Answer questions from people unable to physically be at the event. Replying and sharing content from your followers builds goodwill between them and your company.
Create social giveaways
Build up engagement for your event by creating a giveaway on your social pages. Set up a contest on Facebook or through your website. On event materials, include a QR code that scans to an official contest page or the social post describing it. Once again, this is also another opportunity to use your event hashtag.
If you need assistance with setting up your giveaway, Rafflecopter is an easy-to-use management tool. It helps set up your giveaway and allows you to share it via social media or emails.
Q&A on Twitter
A great way to engage with an event audience is via Twitter. Send out a few questions with your event hashtag to see if attendees have questions for your speakers. Encourage people at home to submit their own questions as well.
Polls are another way to interact with your attendees. Ask them which booth features they like the most or which speaker they enjoyed.
PresentersWall allows you to display questions from your audience and polls that you created. This app also lets attendees up-vote certain questions they want answered by you or the speaker. By using a laptop and projection screen, you can display these questions during your event.
Sli.do is also another event industry favorite option. No app required, attendees simply visit a custom URL and begin to voice their opinion!
Track and display all social media
Let your attendees be seen and heard during your event. The following platforms not only help track your user-generated content but allows you to share it live at your event.
Tagboard: This platform transfers real-time generated content by tracking hashtags, and can post it on your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You can also share all of this content on a projection board during your event.
Eventifier: Similar to Tagboard, Eventifier allows you to hand pick what guest content can be displayed on your event projection board. However, it also grabs all event-related content that you can share at a later date.
Walls.io: Like the platforms above, Walls.io allows you to share event-related content on a display board during your event. It collects content from all social media platforms and can be embedded as a widget on your website.
AFTER THE EVENT
You’ve made it, your event is over, and everyone is headed home. Now it’s time to see how well your social team performed throughout the event.
Socialbakers can review content performance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. Compare your event content to your competitors from this platform. Review which posts users engaged with, and use it to fuel what you’ll post next.
Remember social media is another great tool to help your event to the next level. By using any of the tools or practices above, you’ll boost your company’s message out to your attendees.
Guest Author Bio: Maddie Davis is co-founder of Enlightened Digital and a tech-obsessed female from the Big Apple. She lives by building and redesigning websites, running marathons, and reading anything and everything on the NYT Best Sellers list.
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