5 Ways To Make Your Event More Social

It’s no secret that events are social in nature. Whatever the event may be, tens, hundreds or thousands of people are gathering together to interact and learn about a specific cause, idea or business. What’s changing about the event industry is the rise and influence of social media. We’ve come up with a few tips to make your event more social, and increase interaction in the virtual world.

1) Create a #hashtag for your event

You always need to have a unique hashtag for your events—it’s no longer an option to not have one.  There are many ways to come up with a hashtag, but it’s important to include the event, brand or company name, or something brief related to what the event is about. For example, the hashtag used for the CNN Heroes event was #CNNHeroes.

Picking a hashtag isn’t enough, it’s also important to promote the hashtag for days, weeks and maybe even months leading up to the event, as well as including it on any advertisements or pamphlets you plan to hand out to your attendees. You never know, your hashtag could end up in the coveted “trending” sidebar on Twitter!

2) You can’t get more social, than to have a Tweetwall

Tweetwalls are a great way to get your attendees interacting with your event. We like to make sure it’s placed in an area where all individuals can see it, and that they are aware of its purpose, and how it works.

Tweetwalls can help generate that social buzz your event may be lacking, while bringing a new forum for attendees to discuss what’s happening with one another. It’s also a great way for attendees to ask the speaker questions, especially for large corporate events.

3) Display your social media handles prominently

Display your social media handles and names on invitations, brochures, etc—you want your attendees to be able to easily find you on various social media platforms.

Most peoples streams are full of various brands, and you need to make sure you stick out, and if they’re not following you, that they follow you. Between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Vine, the social media channels are endless. So make sure that attendees are able to easily connect with you on their most important social platforms for your event.

Great services for creating badges are Conference Badge, Moo, and Paperless Post.

One last note on this—and this is very important—make sure that you tailor your message according to each social media channel, especially since each platform can target varying types of individuals.

4) Live Visuals and Images

We have become a truly visual society who thrives on getting an insight into the live action of the events. Instagram, Vine and Twitter allow you to share live images and videos from an event to give attendees, and those watching in from the outside, an inside look into your event. Rather than reading an endless stream of tweets, some attendees prefer a quick snapshot inside the event itself!

5) Be Responsive

People ask a lot of questions, and often times these questions bring up a lot of great ideas. Make sure you have someone monitoring all these questions and responding to attendees and onlookers. These questions will happen before, during and after the event. Not only will you look good by replying fast, but your attendee’s experience will be that much better!

Tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social and MarketMeSuite can help you manage your social accounts, and reply to your attendees quickly.