HOW SOCIAL MEDIAS CAN BE YOUR BEST ALLIES IN THE ORGANIZATION OF AN EVENT? AND HOW MAKING GOOD USE OF THEM IN EVERY STAGE OF YOUR EVENT?
Conferences, seminars, festivals, exhibition and salons; the event industry, dynamic by nature, can not do without an effective tool such as social media.
Beyond simply relaying a date and time on Facebook, social media become an extension of the event, an asset for promotion, even the event itself.
WHY USING SOCIAL MEDIA?
Like all others aspect of marketing, the event industry goes digital. For the event organizer, the primary objective of investing in social media is to increase the brand recognition and therefore the scope of the event. Moreover, the possibility to apply a targeted strategy to relevant customer makes the transaction more attractive!
Other complementary objectives motivate the involvement in social media. By becoming a piece of your marketing strategy, the judicious use of these social network will reduce promotional spending, but also help the acquisition of new customers and their retention.
4 MILESTONES : PLANIFICATION, DIFFUSION, ANIMATION AND STORYTELLING
PLANIFICATION : We can’t deny, organising an event is both time and energy consuming. But a lack of time or personnel should not be an obstacle to a rigorous strategic planning. You must define the objectives based on the theme of the event, targeted groups to join as well as their browsing habits.
DIFFUSION : Those informations, and others, will help identify the most appropriate platforms to disseminate your content and promote your event. For example, for a professional event , focusing your strategy on a combination of Linkedin and Twitter will prove more effective than a maneuver directed on Facebook.
ANIMATION : It is also necessary to establish a flexible conversational schedule according to the targeted networks while identifying immediate performance indicators for your strategy.
STORYTELLING : Make sure you have a story to tell. Your “storytelling” make your content interesting , engaging and expected.
CONTENT : QUALITY, QUANTITY AND « TIMING »
Once the strategy is established, you need to create and anime the community. Yes but how?
In addition to the usual recommendations ( . Interactions , chat, content variety , human aspect, etc. ) here are some tips in bulk:
- Quality Content is the name of the game : Your social media should not be a simple copy of your conventional communications. So do not just share your advertisements and press releases . Bet on original content. Share your backstage event for example , organize exclusive contests and become a source of information relevant to your market.
- Influencers are your friends : Identify ambassadors that match your niche and create links with them. These influencers are bloggers, communities, enthusiasts who will relay your event with their networks.
- A current conversational calendar : It is important to plan your presence on social media. It is equally important to be flexible and to adapt to the news. A good ” timing ” is not just a suitable choice of day and time to publish . It is also a selection of themes that may affect the community at a given time.
- A gradual presence : Hold your community informed without flooding them . Share your news on a regular basis with an average of two or three presences on social networks per week . You can increase the rate one week before the event. This will sound the alarm for those who are slow to decide and motivate your ambassadors to intensify the sharing, for example.
Depending on the size of the event , natural promotion may not be enough. So plan an advertising budget and use it in targeting social platforms that are more relevant to your target audience . From the promotion of your publications to the advertising of your event , social networks offer advertising tool that can be helping in your quest to reach a more substantial audience .
THE MAGIC OF DIRECT
It is definitely difficult to have the internal ressources to cover your event in the hubbub of the big day. Time then becomes your worst enemy. Yet you have not one, but two target audiences waiting for information.
- On the premises: To enable participants to contribute to the event and interact with their community will add value and will prove as a profitable investment in terms of visibility. You can be creative and offer fun and interactive activities on the site.
- Outside: It is important not to neglect the part of the community that is not on the premises. Live coverage of the event, a live tweet, a short interview of participants, sharing news, photos and short video: Mobility and social networks will amplify the resonance of your event.
COMMUNICATE FOR THE NEXT TIME
Once the event is over, it is important to take profit of the momentum.
To extend the interactions and maintain active your community, you must make a summary obtained by aggregating the content (videos, photos, interactions, interventions etc..). These data will be used to retell the event and extend the involvement of the community until the renewal of the event.
It is also an opportunity to analyse and evaluate the performance by examining the statistics and questioning participants .
So, is your event strategy in place?
In the meantime, here’s a summary graphics to help you! 😉
