Social media is an integral part of most people’s lives. And when it comes to the hosting of your next event, it’s a way into those people’s lives.
Whether pre-event, post-event, or during, social media can add a huge amount to a guest’s (or potential guest’s) event experience. The clever use of social media for your next occasion can make it a greater success in a host of different ways.
Let’s have a look at just a few things social media can add.
Pre-Event Social Media Use
Before the event even takes place, there are a couple of ways you can leverage social media to make it more visible, and get a sense of what your guests will enjoy.
Research the Market
Before shouting about your event from the rooftops, it’s a good idea to get a sense of what your potential attendees may want. Social media is the perfect place to conduct such research. By looking at similar events’ pages, or following relevant hashtags, you can get an idea of what may or may not work at your event.
The hashtag #eventprofs is a super useful one, as it gives insight into the world of event managers.
Promote Your Event on Social Media
If you feel as though you’re ready to start to market your event, forget roadside billboards and event posters. Nothing is quite as effective as social media.
Use your social media to build hype around your event. A good way to do this is to run competitions with event-related prizes. Perhaps you can give free tickets away to anyone who correctly identifies a guest speaker, or offer a discount to anyone who shares an event post.
Social Media Use During the Event
The big day has arrived. Your event is happening, whether you like it or not. So, how can you best utilise social media at your show?
Put it on Display
A social media wall is the perfect way to get people interacting with your event on social media. A live tweet wall or social wall is a way to display live tweets – or any other form of social media engagement – on a large display wall.
This can turn your event’s social media from a fun little ‘add-on’, to a central and integral part of your event.
Drive Social Media Engagement
Having a live social timeline will also help with engagement. Guests will be encouraged to tweet or post about the event, in order to get their name up on the board. Just be sure to choose an appropriate hashtag for the occasion, as the ability to remember and easily use it will make a huge difference to engagement numbers.
Displaying the hashtag on the social wall and elsewhere around the event will also be key to spurring on engagement.
Post Exclusive Insights
It’s a privilege for someone to take the time to follow your event’s social media accounts. Be sure to make it worth their while following you.
On top of offering followers the pre-event competition prizes, give them access to exclusive insights into the event on the actual day. Take them backstage. Have them meet some special guests. Let them feel like they’re truly part of your event. Again, displaying these things on your social media wall will get the crowd buzzing.
Post-Event Social Media Use
So the fun’s over. Sure, your event was a roaring success, but the social media work doesn’t stop there.
Get Feedback From Followers
What did the event-goers think of the day? Were they blown away, disappointed, or indifferent? It’s important to know these things in order to offer a better product next time.
Head to social media to check how your guests received your event. Using an online feedback form, or simply asking direct questions over Twitter, will give you the sort of insight that can be hard to get without social media. Again, offering an incentive for people to give you feedback, such as a discount to the next event, may be worth looking at.
Utilise Social Media Analytics
You can get hard data on how your social media use fared with analytics tools like hashtag tracking. This will give you numbers on usage, engagement, and a host of other measurements. It can be a valuable tool to help you get your social media use right next time.
Simply put, social media should play some part in almost every modern day event. It can add a huge amount to both the running and the reviewing of your next event, and by utilising the sorts of services that SocialWall.me offers, you’ll have a good chance of holding the best event you possibly can.
