Create Engagement with Social Media

Marketing your event or conference in one way or another is obvious for all event planners. The primary purpose is to ensure that your guests and participants know when the event takes place and how to register. But for events and conferences, it is not just the number of participants on site that counts, but also participants who actively engage. A good and well-thought-out agenda is of course a prerequisite, but we also want to highlight social media as a great tool for creating active participation.

Social media is, in addition to generating interest and curiosity before your event, an excellent way to market your company, brand, and your position within the industry, but also to engage your participants during the event. It can also contribute to keeping the event alive even after it has ended.

What Should You Consider?

Start from how much time/resources you have available, your company policy, and how accustomed/mature your participants are at using social media.

Here are some simple guidelines for those who want to get started:

Before the Event

Do not wait until the last minute. Talking about your event on social media well in advance creates curiosity and makes it easier to get engaged participants during the event itself.

For those of you who use Twitter, a good and simple tip is to create a unique hashtag exclusively for your event. Encouraging your participants to follow and use your hashtag means you, and everyone else who will attend, can follow all posts written leading up to the event. Use Twitter to, for example:

• Ask participants to submit questions they want answered during the event
• Conduct a simple mini-survey by asking a couple of simple questions to the participants, which you then present during the event
• Ask for input on topics to include in the planned agenda
• Start competitions

By encouraging your participants to include your unique event hashtag in every tweet, the event's tweets also become searchable.

During the Event

Today it is common to offer live-tweeting during events and particularly for your participants to be able to comment or ask questions to speakers. It makes it easier for participants who might otherwise avoid speaking aloud in front of others, and you also get automatic documentation of both questions and comments.

It is worth noting that a live Twitter feed means that you as moderator, organiser, or speaker must actively follow the feed and follow up on both questions and points of view. It requires a somewhat more flexible agenda (or tough moderator), since a live feed tends to generate more questions than usual.

Tip! If you want live Twitter during your event, it is good to inform your participants in advance, so those who may want to learn more can create a Twitter account and thereby actively participate during the day.

Tip! If you have speakers during the event who use some form of presentation support such as PowerPoint or Prezi, you can ask them to include hashtags in the footer of their presentations.

Competitions!

You can use social media for on-site competitions. A good approach is to let participants take photos and post them on Instagram, which they then tag with a specific event hashtag that you announce during the event. A simple way to engage and connect with your participants, especially for external client events.

After the Event

Hopefully your event has generated quite a few comments, photos, and perhaps even videos from Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, which is perfect for summarising your event and perhaps including in a thank-you email. Many people enjoy seeing themselves in photos, so put the pictures on a temporary landing page, which will also drive traffic to your main website. Remind participants of the unique event hashtag in your thank-you email/summary after the event so that participants, even those who were not on site, can see all the photos from your event.

Tip! Compile a list of the tweeters who participated during your event, and make sure to interact with them afterwards. Thank them, answer questions, retweet, and follow.

Good luck!