How are you currently using Social Media at your events?

I know we are all using Social Media at our events and I hope that this blog post doesn’t seem too trite. But I’d like to question are we all really using it to its full potential?

So let’s look at the role of Social Media at Events

So here goes are you currently using Social Media at events to:

1. Search for delegates and potential sponsors and exhibitors? I mean it. Directly searching and targeting people through Social Media. Would you consider contacting a potential delegate who has made a relevant comment on LinkedIn? Or someone who plays an active role in the #hashtag community covering your event? Or how about if they just have a relevant job title and they work in the city your event is taking place? Social Media delivers the hottest of leads. You can be proactive and contact active companies who may want to spend their advertising dollar with you.

2. Do you follow your competitor feeds? Do you react to them? Do you know what content is re-tweeted by their followers? There is no more need to sign up with a false name. Follow them and see what they are all about!

3. When we look at Social Media there is arguably MUCH MORE in it for the organiser than our attendees. So how do you help attendees engage? How do you educate them that promoting your event is a good thing for them? This is a crucial step that too many organisations have skipped. Using Social Media at events has to start from the basis of what’s in it for them.

4. Social Media loves content and evidence is proving that the more visual that content the more interaction people have with it. And here we are: we’ve lucked out again! We have great looking events with loads of content? So are you taking advantage of this? Blogs are great and other aspects covered in any content marketing strategy are very useful. But you have to start to think visual. If you have a great looking event with great content social media is there to help you make the most of that.

Tweeted pictures of delegates badges at Tech Fest 2014

5.  How do you support your sponsors and exhibitors to get maximum value from actively engaging in social media? Your stakeholders are likely to need some solid, practical support to make the most of the social media you are using to support your event so make sure you know the top tips.

6. I can confidently say that we all have a hashtag at our event and we encourage tweeting on the day. But do we use that communication feed to impact the event on the day? It’s a great idea to have someone following the tweets and responding to them. But also highlighting to the organiser if something is wrong. If an attendee commented negatively on the desert at a dinner how good would it be if you found him and offered another option? Or how about you noted a delegates positive comment on social media and then introduced her to the speaker after her session?

These are simple examples but they do demonstrate the power of using social media at events. The power is in our hands to make our events EVENT BETTER. Let’s not rest on our laurels.