Are you starting to plan for the next annual conference or roundtable for a client or even your own business?
Part of the planning process should include determining your social strategy because PR and social media play a crucial role in your event’s success. How are you promoting the event? What kind of content will be available and how will it be shared? It’s more important to focus on producing quality posts than getting hung up on how many you’re churning out. Consider these tips to help spruce up your social efforts.
1. Create a dedicated event hashtag
Hashtags are powerful tools for engagement when used properly in social posts. Making the decision to create one for your event is a no-brainer. However, coming up with a good hashtag should be carefully thought through . Consider keeping it short and memorable. The idea is for attendees to include it in every post, so leaving enough room for the actual message and making it easy to remember will ensure the hashtag is being used often and correctly.
Do your due diligence before attaching a hashtag to an event, or any campaign for that matter. The last thing you want to worry about is discovering on the day of the event that your hashtag is already trending for something entirely different—or worse: something offensive! Avoid the embarrassment and do some research. Your team will thank you.
It may seem like a good idea, but try to avoid adding the event date in your hashtag. If it’s an annual or ongoing conference, you may want a hashtag that’s timeless. It also prevents your content from becoming outdated if you continue to post beyond the date of the event.
Now that your hashtag is created, plaster it everywhere—from the invitation, to the website and all over the event itself. Start using it in your social media efforts leading up to the event to get your audience used to seeing it.
2. Add value to your social posts
Don’t waste time focusing on the quantity of posts you plan to distribute. While you do want to make sure you’re posting consistently, quality is most important. For example, a tweet that simply says a speaker is on stage, doesn’t add value—especially to those people who aren’t at the event, but are following the social chatter about it. Post interesting content like quotes and nuggets of useful information from a presentation. Doing so allows for more engagement and sharing. Take it one step further and encourage even more interaction by tagging people. If media is present, tag reporters in posts that have content relevant to what they write about.
Through the busyness of it all, take a step back and read what everyone else is posting. Comment, share and retweet. Listening is another powerful tool for engagement.
3. Keep your audience involved with different types of content
It can quickly get boring reading through social posts that only have text. Instead, snap a photo of the speaker and include it with your post about their presentation. Adding a visual element helps you stand out and increases your chances of someone sharing it. Behind the scenes images are also interesting ones to include. Think of what catches your eye when you’re scrolling through posts.
Encourage post-event social sharing by making conference photos and any other supporting visual content like videos and infographics accessible to attendees. Continue sharing and encourage others to do the same.