Social Media is everywhere, and with worldwide social media users are predicted to reach 2.55 billion by 2018, it’s essential to make sure you’re active on it to engage with your target audience. This is particularly true when it comes to events. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be excellent ways to promote your participation in an upcoming conference, whether your company is speaking, sponsoring or exhibiting. But why stop there?! It’s essential to continue promoting your participation during and after the event.
We’ve therefore come up with these 5 social media tips to promote your participation at the next industry event:
1. #Hashtags are Key
Many events create a unique, short hashtag to help get the discussion going. Using the specialized hashtag for the event can enhance your social buzz by allowing your followers to track the conversation around the event, and increase participation. Promote it everywhere, including your company’s website, dedicated emails, social networks, etc. The hashtag is a great way for attendees to engage with the event content, speakers, and each other.
2. Time is of the Essence
Get started now! The earlier you promote your participation at the event and use the dedicated hashtag, the greater your chances are for success. This helps to create momentum and help you reach a larger audience. If you’re trying to gain a lot of recognition at one of the larger industry conferences, it would be best to start promoting a few months in advance to ensure a wider reach.
3. Reach Out
Social media is an ideal channel for initiating conversations. If you’re participating in an event, reaching out to attendees, speakers, and prospective conference-goers can help get them excited about the conference. Whether it’s an RT (retweet), a direct message, or even sharing their content on platforms such as Linkedin, this will help you stay relevant by sharing related content around the event and initiate social buzz.
If you’re speaking at an event, engaging with other speakers via social media can help promote your participation. . The more attendees at the event, the more people that get to hear the awesome content they have to share, so it’s in the interest of all speakers to promote both the event itself and the other exciting speakers on the lineup. Therefore, when you tweet, make sure to mention other speakers with the hopes of a retweet! This can also work for event sponsorship/exhibiting.
4. Keep your Followers Updated
It’s essential that you maintain the momentum during the event by posting in real-time. Activities, photos, sponsors, special guests, speakers, agenda info, and anything else that is cool, and relevant for the conference can provide great content for Twitter feeds, and can be scheduled in advance as well as live-tweeted on the day.
5. Follow Back
Most importantly, engage with and follow-up with those who you met at the event. From the hashtag, you’ll be able to get feedback from attendees about what they liked best, least, and what they hope to see for next time (hopefully your participation is a part of this). This will increase the likelihood to return the following year and share their positive experiences with their own networks.
Don’t miss out on all the added value that can be created by utilizing the wonderful world of #social media.
Kourtney, Junior Account Assistant
