How to Effectively use Social Media for Events

There is no doubt that many brands have turned to using social media to market their event to attract attendees and using social media to follow up with attendees after the event, but not many brands have tapped into using social media for events, or better put, DURING their events. This has been changing recently though.

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR EVENTS?

So why have corporate conferences, private weddings, school commencements, birthday parties, and large/small celebrations started using social media during their events now? Because if done correctly, it provides attendees an engaging and memorable experience, gives your brand and event free, extra exposure, and as a result, come away with happier attendees/customers. At TrueLoyal, we've been working with many brands to integrate social media and create a dynamic social hub/wall during their events. After learning a lot, we wanted to share with you why they do so, and what happens as a result.

HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR EVENTS?

Let's say you want to amp up your event experience for your attendees with social media. Here are a couple of ways to do so!1) Create a unique hashtag for your event and tell all attendees to tweet their thoughts with that hashtag. Then you could use TrueLoyal to pull all that together and display it on a large screen with a projector. What you'll have is an interactive wall of dynamic tweets that will encourage people to share your hashtag for the chance to show up on that display!2) Create a unique hashtag for your wedding/concert/party and tell all attendees to take photos on Instagram with that hashtag. You could then use TrueLoyal to organize all of the photos your attendees take and display it on multiple TV screens set around the event. You'll start seeing people get excited because they'll have the chance to show up on a TV display. Happy attendees= happy hosts=successful event.3) Combine 1&2 along with the host's/official event's Facebook & Twitter feed so attendees will always be in the know for new announcements/happenings. Instead of making large announcements and hoping everyone heard it, you can update your own social feed and know that it will display on all the display screens around the event!

EXAMPLES OF BRANDS WHO USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR EVENTS

We've been very fortunate to have worked with brands to launch interactive social hubs at their events. I wanted to share with you 3 of them so you can see how you could use a social hub/wall for YOUR next event:Hosting a conference? This brand used TrueLoyal to showcase their official Twitter/Facebook feed and their event hashtag to make sure all attendees would know what's going on during the event by heading over to their support/help computers.Who said churches can't be innovative with social media? This church used TrueLoyal to display their event hashtag in a grid theme to let others see what others were talking about/sharing for their week-long event.A company headed to an annual conference to talk with potential clients. And instead of handing out free swag the traditional way, they told everyone to take a photo with their custom hashtag. People loved it because they not only got free swag, but also showed up on the TV display!

THE RESULT

Instead of me telling you the results, I'll paste in direct feedback from the hosts/event planners themselves:“...it provided a great way to showcase our social media stream on real-time during our main event of the year.”"We got questions and comments from our clients regarding which tool/vendor we were using for the “Social Hub” or “Social Dashboard”. It definitely provided a visual impact on web visitors and the audience during the event.""Yes [we would use it again for] our corporate event to keep showing our social stream.""It exceeded our expectations and we received only compliments." ---Have you been to an event with a social hub/dashboard? If so, did it get you to engage more in sharing more? Are you an event host that has incorporated a social wall before? How did it go and did it get your attendees to socially participate more?