How to Use Social Media to Engage Corporate Event Attendees
Social media wasn’t always considered a valuable marketing and engagement resource. Back when Facebook and Twitter first launched, nobody took it seriously. They thought social media was just a passing fad. Boy, were they wrong!
Running social media accounts for your business or company is no longer an option—it’s absolutely crucial if you want your company to succeed and grow! In fact, you don’t just need to use these platforms as pre-event promotional tools when corporate event planning. You’ll encounter events where Live Tweeting is encouraged and hashtags are rampant.
Did we pique your interest? Keep reading to find out how to use social media to engage your corporate event attendees!
Promotions
As we mentioned, social media is a whole new door of advertising potential. You can connect with individual professionals, join events, and even chat on group forums in your local area. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are the big three when it comes to audience and the usefulness of their tools to your trade.
Advertising
When you’re planning a corporate event, you’ll want to make use of Facebook Events and advertisements. Image heaviness is what engages readers. That’s something that Facebook definitely understands. But you need to know your audience. Their age, demographics, interests—what do they want to look at? Sure, some lighthearted memes can reach an older audience, but will it entice them to click on your event? The branding of the event and information should be uniform and interesting. If it doesn’t sound interesting on paper, there’s little hope in their minds that the event will be any better!
Drive sales
When marketing your event, look into early bird ticket sales. There’s nothing that drives an audience to act better than a limited time offer! Incite them to “Like” the company page or click “Going” on the event page. This is a win-win for both parties. They’ll receive updates and relevant information about something that interests them. And you’ll be able to convince them over the course of several weeks that this event is something they want to attend. Even after the event, they’ll still be following the page and will be notified of future events!
Engage attendees during the corporate event
As you move from the “pre-event” stage to the “day of”, how you use social media will change. Yes, promotion of the event and the company is ongoing. Last-minute ticket sales and door prizes are never a wasted effort! But client and attendee service becomes your priority when using social media.
Other ways to engage attendees include inventing an event-specific hashtag. It should be specific enough to be used only by attendees. Something like #charityevent2018 is too vague and allows the feed to be cluttered by unrelated posts from people around the world. Try to incorporate the brand into the hashtag so your client can monitor their brand mentions. Another benefit to using these hashtags is that it allows you to set up spaces or opportunities for attendees to interact on social media. Your clients should be able to receive and resolve any questions and issues, as well as give alerts about scheduling changes.
Pro Tip: Using simple live polls and gamification tactics encourage attendees who are on their phones anyways to tune into your event!
Virtual attendance
Physical attendance isn’t the only option anymore! Virtual attendance for events has become possible with live streaming technology! Ensure that you set this up if physical attendance isn’t an absolute necessity in order for people to enjoy the event. This means hiring audio-visual technicians and securing the relevant broadcasting equipment.
Post-event use
Engagement doesn’t end once everyone leaves the venue. The beauty of social media is that you don’t need everyone to be in the same physical space to talk to them. We mentioned earlier that encouraging them to “Like” the page means they’ll be following your feed henceforth. Use the new audience to gauge feedback about the event. What went well? What could be improved? What can you cut from the next event?
Especially if this is a regularly occurring event, you can then provide updates to the following ones. With all these opportunities to connect, why wouldn’t you capitalize on it?
Have more ideas on how to make the most of social media at a live event? Let us know!
