This article is originally published on Enplug.com
If no one posts on social media about an event, does it actually happen?
In order to increase engagement and leave a lasting brand impression on attendees, social media should be a key component of your event marketing strategy.
We interviewed Martha McCarthy, co-founder and CEO of The Social Lights Social Media Agency, to find out how event coordinators are leveraging social media to generate buzz, multiply impressions, and market their event effectively.
What additional value does social media provide for events?
Being present on social during events provides so much additional value for clients. This value comes in the form of awareness, ticket sales/event registrants, website visits, social media impressions, Q+A responses, brand recall, brand sentiment, etc. When event organizers decide they’re “too busy” or simply forget to check in on social conversations, they lose out on several engagement opportunities—especially in the form of establishing connections with brand loyalists.
Having a plan in place and not loading too many responsibilities on one individual can help get you set up for social media success for your next event.
What are the steps or phases for running a social campaign around any event?
When it comes to events, we plan for three distinct phases: Before, During and After.
- Before – Pre-promotion for event awareness
- During – Live-tweeting, monitoring and response, attendee engagement, broadcasting the event on social so those not present can experience it (or see what they are missing out on)!
- After – It amazes me how many people call it quits immediately after an event. We try to leverage the momentum and social experiences that took place during the event and showcase them online. This can come in a variety of forms and becomes extremely valuable for marketing future events. That way, there are multiple places you can point online to show “Look how much fun we had at XYZ event last year! Don’t miss out this time…”
How quickly should content be posted during the event?
As quickly as possible. When on the road, it’s important to plan to be as mobile as you can – since it’s easiest to publish content in real-time from your smartphone or tablet (vs. lugging a laptop around and experiencing spotty WiFi) you’ll want to have the right tools and processes in place to capture, edit, and post content in a timely manner.
In order to do so efficiently and effectively, we recommend implementing a “Divide and Conquer” method. For really big events we’ll put a social team in place vs. having one person in charge of managing all of the platforms. In this case, you’ll want to be clear about who’s monitoring the channels during which time slots. Even a small team can accomplish a lot when roles are divided and expectations clearly outlined!
You recently worked on the “Ford Food Truck Challenge,” a 6-week road tour campaign. How was social used throughout the tour?
Social was an integral part of the Ford Food Truck Challenge Road Tour. First, we started with strategy—developing a social media toolkit to assist in communication with local car dealers, food truck competitors, and PR partners. The social media toolkit provided access to all social media-related campaign resources. From there we:
- Developed a digital press kit to announce the campaign to regional media outlets
- Established a social media strategy to connect to the customer base within each regional market and drive people to the event, yielding high event attendance and online voting at individual events
- Sourced and trained a Community Manager to travel with the Ford Food Truck Team and handle on-site and online social media engagement on behalf of the auto manufacturer. The Community Manager acted as the eyes, ears and voice of the brand on social media, in addition to being an on-site resource for the division, dealers food truck competitors, and PR partners
- Established a client portal tailored to the road tour campaign, and developed a process for managing real-time campaign material, updates and analytics over the 6-week campaign period