Although the majority of modern day businesses have found a way to incorporate social media into their company culture, there is one industry where it holds a higher level of importance rather than just, “working it in,” that industry, if you were wondering, is the meeting and events industry.
When it comes to planning events, promotion is one of the key and crucial factors to the success of any event. If no one knows about the event, how is anyone going to know to show up! Okay, so now that we’ve stated the obvious, perhaps we should explain why social media for event planners is so important.
Below you will find a well-defined list that highlights:
Six various ways that social media for event planners can be used towards an industry advantage.
1. Promotion, Promotion, Promotion:
Pick an event name, pick an event date and time, and start posting away. Reaching out to potential event guests on Facebook or Twitter is an excellent way to catch their eye and make them feel important. Not to mention, an easier way to share updates, like weather delays or location information, when guests begin to make their way to the event location.
Event planners can also use social media to collect polls before the event, in efforts to gather necessary information such as: preferred meal options, number of attendees, availability and so on.
2. Easy Documentation:
Yes we know, your event may have a professional photographer, but what about in the meantime, the here and now? Share live videos and photo updates during the event for full coverage. Share details of the event with your social media followers at home and spark their interest in your company or event. Live-streaming via Facebook usually works well for this! Read more about why live-streaming an event is the new fad.
3. Creating Engagement, Social Media Contents:
Social media contests make for great lead-ups to an event. For example, come up with a creative photo contest, maybe the guest who receives the most ‘likes’ on their photo will receive an award at the event. This is a great way to keep the attention of your guests and build up event excitement and engagement before the event even starts.
4. Incorporating Event Technology:
An NYC event space resource, OFFSITE, suggests featuring a live social media feed as another way to keep guests engaged. There’s nothing that guests love more than to feel important. Seeing their own content on the big screen is just one way that event planners can make sure this happens. If your event location calls for TV screens or large display monitors, perhaps feature your company’s Twitter feed on one of those screens.
Encourage guests to use the event hashtag (another social media must for event planners) in hopes of seeing their tweet featured at the event. I’ve even seen photo booths at events being connected to a hashtag printer. That way if one of your guests post on Instagram using your hashtag, they get a free photo strip printed from the photo booth. This trend started in London a few years ago and has pretty much taken the whole world by storm.
5. Saving Money:
Depending on the formality of the event or occasion, event planners should know that these days, social media outreach is an acceptable form of sending invitations. Although not the most formal method, sending invites and event updates or time changes out via social media is both a cost effective and time efficient way to spread the world. After all, the show must go on!
6. Getting Feedback:
Social media usage for events also presents the opportunity for businesses or event planners to easily gather feedback about the event. Whether it’s posting an anonymous survey on the company Facebook page (or in the event group on Facebook), or receiving positive, negative, or mutual feedback about the company on Twitter. Social media makes providing feedback quick and easily anonymous, increasing your chances for getting any feedback from guests at all.
