Twitter for Small Business just came out with a white paper on using Twitter for Events. Here are the top take-aways that I discovered that you should incorporate into your events.
Determine objectives and who you are targeting
Is it the meeting planner itself or the attendees? Determine how you want people to interact before, during, and after the event.
Discover conversations
People are talking about your event whether you are directing them to or not. They are talking about it before the conference ever happens so go ahead and give them a hashtag to use for your event. Make it short and easy to remember. This starts the buzz for the conversation about your event and keeps it going throughout the whole conference.
Additionally, discover what hashtags attendees are already utilizing and jump on the wagon with them. Find out who the strong social communicators are. They will be the ones who tweet the play-by-play of the workshops and events. Follow them to get honest, real-time feedback on how things are going in the event. We did just that at our Annual Marketing Conference last year. Our members were tweeting left and right about the content and learning take-aways from the conference. One social media influencer tweeted that while the room was beautiful, the big glass windows made it too bright in the room. We listened and immediately asked the venue staff to lower the blinds as they were on a remote control.
The funniest thing happened next.
We listened and responded and this gave our attendees a sense that we were watching and ready to act on their discussions.
Have a compelling incentive.
Sometimes people need a push to take action. Is it giving away pre-registration information? Some of the most common incentives for event attendees include early bird discounts, upgrades, or a special offer.
Sharing is Caring
People love to tell other people that they are traveling. Give them pre-written tweets that can be copied and pasted about attending your conference.
Also, plan to live-tweet during the event. Tweet quotes from speakers and include their Twitter Handle and event hashtag. Plan to retweet other attendees as they post pictures and quotes from the event. Don’t forget to post pictures from the event via social media.
How are you getting social with your events?
