Incorporating Twitter into your live event

So your corporate social media marketing strategy is off the ground—What’s next? You have accounts on the major sites, and you are leveraging automation to efficiently schedule and post content regularly. It’s awesome, and it’s working. But, your company has a major event coming up in a few months, and you want to find a way to leverage social media using the event to engage your audience, build followers, and get your brand deeper into the digital space. Here are some ideas for making the most of social media at your live event.

Start early

Intentionality: The fact of being deliberate or purposive (Oxford Dictionaries).

Be intentional with your decisions, and make a plan for ways you can use social media to hype your event, and also to be used during your event. You will be surprised how much fun your team can have brainstorming ideas.

• Create a hashtag. This is most relevant to Twitter. Don’t forget to do a search to ensure that you aren’t using something that has already been used for another campaign.
• Alert your talent. Whether you have keynote speakers, celebrities, or your CEO speaking to a group, make sure that these key players are part of your social plan and that they are willing to engage in conversation via their own accounts. Encourage them to tease the event with their audience to attract more interest. Using a tools like SocialToaster can help.
• Make it prominent. As you design programs, flyers, or other takeaways, include your social media handles and/or hashtags to keep them relevant and top-of-mind for attendees. Add it to visuals like Powerpoint slides, videos, and other presentation collateral.
• Answer questions. If you are sharing information about an event, chances are your audience will want to know more. Be prepared to provide customer service and respond to questions/link to relevant resources.

During the event

• Use the hashtag. Remember that hashtag you chose? Use it. Say it out loud, remind people about it, and ensure there is enough activity involving this hashtag to make it worth searching.
• Name tags? If your event is the type that has name tags, leave a place in the design for attendees to include their personal Twitter handles. This strategy further pushes the presence of social as a way to communicate during your event and can be a great conversation starter for those interested in networking.
• Take photos. Have someone dedicated to photography (if you have the budget, consider hiring a professional), and then use your corporate account to share photos from the event in real time. This is especially effective for a multi-day event or conference. People love to see photos of themselves and others, so the more coverage you get the more you can anticipate attendees to explore your images and turn into followers.
• Run contests. Everyone likes to win prizes. Attendees should already have enough reason to tune into your feed, but if they need an extra push this one is easy. Here is an article outlining great examples and best practices for Twitter contests.
• Remember those who could not attend. You might have some prospects or customers who check in even if they are not actually attending your event. Keep them in mind as you post, and try to share relevant items of interest with them, too.

After the event