To prepare for a highly successful, engaging event, your social media team should follow these 5 things:
1. Gauge conversations taking place leading up to the event
In preparation for an event, it’s useful for your social media team to monitor conversations, industry keywords, hashtags, and key influencers through Hootsuite by setting up relevant search streams and lists.
For example, by monitoring the hashtag relevant to the event such as #TIC2016, or a Twitter List of panelists participating in the event, they could get a better understanding of what the audience expects and what other influencers would be discussing. This is also a source of great marketing content and new ideas, and helps you stay on top of the industry trends to highlight leading up to and during the event.
2. Build brand presence leading up to events
In order to build brand awareness, build momentum around the conference, and display your industry expertise, have your team build an engaging presence on social media. Set up listening streams prior to the event, to gather a wealth of shareable content to fill your social channels. The engaging content should attract a greater following. Use Hootsuite social media management and engagement features such as Assignments and Teams to ensure that conversations are kept alive.
3. Source and connect with influencers and over real time trends
Set up Twitter lists and streams early to listen and build relationships with influencers, including panelists, thought leaders, and brands attending the event. This helps not only build contacts and potential partners or leads at the event, but also with expanding influence and reach. Beyond that, your social media team could repurpose the thought leaders’ content to fill their own marketing channels.
4. Collaborate to stay engaged and responsive during live events
With so many conversations taking place around the brand and event, have your team members on the ground to assign messages and stay organized. Moving publishing, listening, and engagement efforts easily between the Hootsuite mobile app and dashboard will allow them to be more responsive than ever, even during the busy event.
Because events tend to move quickly, it can be hard to keep up with the constant flow of content. Push Notifications will notify your team of any new mentions, direct messages, new followers, RTs, or favorites. This will help them stay highly engaged online, without constantly checking their smartphones.
5. Engage live audience with interactive, trending content
Over the course of your conference, the team may become aware of new hashtags and trending thought leaders. Keep up with the conversations by adding new keyword streams via mobile and then retweeting the best content.
Use Hootfeed to project a live stream of the audience’s tweets that mentioned the event or the panel hashtag. Schedule your own tweets to coincide with the discussion, use Hootfeed to engage your audience both on and offline. This will add an interactive element to the panel that will help keep your audience interested and engaged with the messaging.
-Brownie Communication Concepts
-Hootsuite
Photo By Alejandro Escamilla