Eventing Marketing and Social Media have become synonymous in the world we live in today. With the rise of the unconference changing the traditional way of eventing all together, event planners need to be clear about what they want to communicate to their event attendees and those following them online. This means that online experience needs to be aligned with the main event strategy or objective because Social Media can be a powerful tool to promote your event while building strong relationships with suppliers and more importantly, engaging with your audience.

Keep The Conversation Going

Our Digital Marketing Team have specific Go-To’s for our clients looking to maximise the use of their social media platforms on event days and we’re keen to share them with you.

Pre-scheduled Content:

At this stage your event should already have a social media strategy to communicate your message to your audience. With this in place you can create content to publish before, during, and after your event. Our Digital Marketing Team advise to prioritise content scheduling on different platforms a few days or weeks before an event, which frees up some time so other areas of the event planning can take centre stage

Go LIVE:

Going Live on Instagram is a fun way to get your online audience talking and experiencing the event from their own homes. Give Instagram and Facebook Live a shot or share quick stories in the form of pictures, GIFS, Boomerangs or short videos. Twitter’s LIVE feature, Periscope, works really well for big events as well so give it a try!

Hashtags:

Coming up with a hashtag for your event makes it easy to track and engage conversations taking place online. Make sure your hashtag is unique to your event and won’t be confused with other brands or campaigns online. The more people use your event hashtag, the better the chances of trending.

Call to Action:

Keeping the conversation on your event going online is a plus, if you want to reach a wider audience. A good way to get your attendees talking is to introduce an online competition - not only is this a great opportunity to get feedback or data from your attendees but the opportunity to track your analytics and compare your engagement to future events presents itself too.

Managing Your Content

It’s true that your guests are your biggest ambassadors, especially in the age of social media where everyone has a platform to voice their opinion on anything. The experiential journey is unique to individuals, so chances are you’ll have both positive and negative feedback. And while there may be people online who might want to add a negative opinion there are ways to manage this kind of content. The first step is to have a dedicated Social Media Manager. This person must champion your social media strategy and plan the kind of content to be shared leading up to your event, during your event and afterwards. This means taking charge of the content being pushed out from you as the organiser as well as managing the content shared by attendees through tags, retweets, and mentions. Ensure your Social Media Manager has a good grasp of your brands voice and messaging so that your communication is clear, concise and consistent.

The most important thing to remember about these practices is that they have to be fine tuned to suit your overall objective and although this is where it gets tricky, this is where our Digital Marketing Team and various supporting teams find opportunities and solutions to meet client’s objectives. So, get in touch if you need a great event strategy with an equally great digital strategy!