Social media is fantastic for many things: it allows you to connect with customers and enjoy increased engagement, but did you know it can help you make the most of live events as well? Today, the use of social media for live events is becoming near-universal, and more and more brands are hopping aboard.
Here’s what you need to know about how to use your social platforms to get as much traction possible from live events.
Why Social Media Can Enhance a Live Event
Live events are exciting, and customers who attend them are unlikely to forget what went on or what your brand did. Unfortunately, restrictions like distance, resources and time mean that many of your customers won’t be able to make it to a live event. This means that they’ll miss out on the excitement and staying power the affair has to offer.
Before the rise of social media, there wasn’t much you could do about this. Today, though, even customers who can’t attend a live event can enjoy much of what the event has to offer with the help of social media.
To put it simply, brands that use social media to cover and enhance their live events keep the conversation going with customers who can’t attend. This also allows the clients who did attend to continue interacting with the event long after it has ended.
How to Use Social Media During a Live Event for Effective Promotion
While there are dozens of ways to use social media for live events, the following tips are a great place to get started:
1. Choose a hashtag for the event and stick with it.
Across platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Periscope, hashtags are one of the most effective ways that content spreads; choosing a hashtag for your live event can go a long way toward making it more viral.
While it’s easy to get carried away with hashtags and choose ten different ones to represent your brand, settling on a single, relevant, evergreen hashtag is the way to go. In addition to allowing your brand and your followers to consolidate related content under one particular hashtag, this also gives your event a “home” on social media.
Although your hashtag can be whatever you want it to be, keeping it short, unique, and memorable helps ensure it’ll go big with your customers.
2. Promote your event on social media.
While it’s smart to use social media to expand the conversation during your event, using social platforms to promote your event before it happens is also wise. To leverage your social media for live events as much as possible, send out tweets, Facebook posts, and newsletters containing some information about your event, and also include the hashtag attached to your event.
Once you’ve done this, keep the theme going by using the hashtag in all of the content related to your event, and updating your customers via social as the event draws near.
3. Bring your social following into the event with you
One great way to use social media for live events is to live-stream your Twitter feed on large screens at the conference or gathering you’re having. In addition to expanding the conversation beyond the people who are in the room, it also allows you to view and respond to questions from across the web. This will help you gain access to a larger pool of input than you would otherwise be able to enjoy.
4. Take video footage of the live event, and use in content marketing down the road.
If you’re hosting a live event, video footage is one thing you shouldn’t pass up. While hiring someone to tape the event can be expensive, it’s an invaluable way to get the most traction possible from the conference or gathering. Not only does this video footage provide you with a token to give out to attendees (in the form of a thumb drive or DVD), it can also be saved to share with your social following down the line.
Consider breaking the video footage up into small digital “classes” or distributing the entirety of the footage to people who sign up for your email list.
5. Run a live broadcast from your event.
One of the tools marketers are currently using to run live broadcasts is Periscope, a live-streaming video app that’s made a big splash with companies around the country. While you’ll need to appoint a social media person to run the Periscope broadcast while you handle the live event, taking this route can cause your engagement to skyrocket, and help you produce the most conversions possible with your event.
Social Media for Live Events: The Wave of the Marketing Future
Live events are valuable enough in and of themselves, but when you pair them with social media, you can quickly expand your following, boost your conversions, and stretch the limits of the conversation to include all of your fans – not just the ones who could make it.
Looking for a reputable company to help you manage your social media platforms and integrate social media into your live events? Contact Thrive Internet Marketing. We’re a full-service marketing company offering quality social media management services for brands like yours!
