How can event planners differentiate their event social media marketing?
Hypothetically speaking let’s say an event planner secures a speaker with a very active social media profile. Let’s imagine it is Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, first on the list of top 10 CEOs using Twitter, with 2.34 million followers. Let’s take this dream scenario to the next level, Eric is so impressed by the content of the event he happily ‘boasts’ he is speaking on more than one occasion. Job done?
Event planners have every reason to believe they have hit the jackpot, especially since research conducted by CEO.com revealed social media adoption is sluggish among Fortune 500 CEOs: 61% are not active on any of the major social networks, so this is a dream situation.
Let’s get back to reality, when it comes to event social media marketing a robust plan should be launched at least 14 weeks out from the event date.
Recently, Best Case Scenario was approached by an organisation who had an established event but wanted to increase their delegate attendance by 30%. This wasn’t an unrealistic goal, we researched their target audience in terms of potential growth and also reviewed the event’s social media footprint.
We were very impressed with the volume of attendee-generated content during and post-event. To us, this was more than an Eric Schmidt moment. It was the event attendees who were consumers of the event generating content. According to a Comscore study , when people are exposed to a mixture of user generated content (UGC) and professional content, engagement can increase by up to 28%, taking the burden off event organisers.
Leveraging this content for our client’s next event is a no-brainer but is often overlooked in social media marketing plans. It’s easy to get mislead by vanity metrics, such as likes and followers.
The below principles for event social media will avoid any over reliance on an Eric Schmidt moment.
- Event content should be at the heart of the social media campaign
- Make conversation a focus, as well as a structure around storytelling for each topic focus
- Address the delegate journey from awareness to registration in your social media planning
- Encourage collaboration with clients, sponsors and media
Do not use social media marketing as a stand-alone campaign, leverage traditional marketing opportunities also such a PR, Telemarketing etc…
Jen Murray has worked in the field of event marketing for over 20 years. Recently she earned herself a Diploma in Digital Marketing (Distinction) from the Digital Marketing Institute. Her background includes working for organisations such as Polycom, BancTec and Gartner.
