Successful use of social media can enhance any event, giving attendees the chance to give real time feedback, event organisers the chance to dispense useful information and creating a bank of great content that can be used in the aftermath of your event.
If you’re ace at events but feel that your social media use leaves a little to be desired, we’ve put together a few tips on using social to its full potential. If you feel we’ve missed anything, let us know over on Twitter!
Hashtags
A #hashtag is a means of collecting all Tweets, Instagram images and Vine videos into one place, offering the opportunity to keep an eye on what people are saying about your event without having to go through the laborious process of searching all three networks on the off chance of striking lucky. Choose a unique hashtag for your event - making sure it hasn’t been used before - and you’ll have easy access to all of the views, images and videos sent out from your event, giving you the chance to say thank you to attendees and contributors as well as collect all of the content your guests generate.
(image: AnitaLoomba.com)
An added benefit of using an event specific hashtag is that you can calculate its reach (the amount of accounts exposed to it) afterwards. See the brilliant Tweet Reach for more information on how it works.
Social Signposts
If you want people to use a hashtag, tell them what it is. Give them the WiFi key (people may be reluctant to upload photos without it) and clearly indicate throughout the venue what your Twitter and Instagram usernames are in order for them to call you out and increase the visibility of your event.
(image: Blog.Glean.in)
Incentivise Content
Obviously it would be wonderful if one of the outcomes of your event was an outpouring of praise across social networks. Unfortunately, you can’t tell your attendees to say nice things about you on the internet - however, you can make it worth their while to do so. Offer a prize for the best Tweet or Instagram picture, for example, and you’re virtually guaranteed a large increase in conversations and visibility.
Twitter/Instagram Wall
Using free computer programs and television screens or projectors, you can show your attendees a rolling wall of tweets and images from your event in real time, perfect for a larger, multifaceted event to give guests a complete picture of everything that’s going on.
(image: Pymm.com)
Vine
The new kid on the block, social network wise, Vine allows you to make videos six seconds in length which are then sharable in the same way content is shared on Twitter and Instagram, using hashtags or into follower feeds. The perfect way for guests - or organisers - to record short momentos of a great event.
Storify
So, what do you do with all of this content afterwards? You have a massive Tweet Reach, tonnes of Instagram photos and some YouTube videos that you don’t know what to do with. Up steps Storify. Storify is a storytelling platform that allows you pull in Tweets, Videos, Images and text to give a running narrative of your evening in chronological order. You can then send the Storify to attendees to remind them of the great night you put on for them!
30th April 2013
Notes: 1
In our third installment of the Eventbrite Blogger Tour, High Tea Cast blogger Jennifer Begg visited Google HQ in London to hear Stef Lewandowski of Makeshift give a talk entitled ‘Hack, Play, Learn.’
The event was part of a series called Talk Techfest, and Stef’s entire presentation from the evening can be viewed here. To find out how Jennifer got on at the event, just visit the High Tea Cast.
Event Planners, check out these hillarious gifs on Event Marketing Professional’s tumblr! Can you relate to them? http://bit.ly/WuQxRf
Reblogged From eventmarketingconfessional
When it comes to your wedding day, there are very few things that are more important than lighting. It is the one thing that can completely and utterly change the entire feel, focus, photo quality, and all around mood of every person in attendance. Lighting cannot be replaced by anything. It is…
Although this post is focused towards lighting ideas for weddings, we feel that the inspiring thoughts could apply to all types of events. If you’re stuck on how to best light your event space, or just need a little extra inspiration, then check out these beautiful examples!
We happened across this great infographic on Event Industry News’ website about how to maximise the potential of your event marketing, and we feel it makes for some really interesting - and useful - reading! Great ideas like personalised gifts, branded products on site as well as surprising stats like 74% of people believing a live event to be the best form of marketing, for example.
Have you seen any good examples of events marketing? Let us know over on Twitter!
There are, however, many misconceptions about what event planners do. Many people that are not in the industry assume that an event planner socializes and attends popular venues.
As an event planner, do you find that people believe in these three common misconceptions about what you do?
The sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray. This coming weekend will - all things going well - be the first of the year that people across the country can confidently and without qualms dust off their barbecues, fire them up and begin to enjoy the impending summer.
If your barbecue skills have become as rusty as the grill you absent mindedly left outside over winter, you may like the recipes below that have caught our eye as we’ve scoured the web for inspiration ahead of our own personal barbecue festivals.
If you have a recipe of your own you’d like to share with us, let us know over on Twitter!
You’ve seen them crop up time and again on Man VS Food, now it’s your turn to make them at home.
Barbecue Halloumi Skewers With Mediterranean Veg
A mainstay of (almost) every vegetarian’s barbecue repertoire, halloumi is the perfect summer accompaniment.
Barbecued Chicken Tikka Masala
Spice things up a bit with this Indian take on barbecued bird.
Follow this guide from The Guardian and get it right every time.
Of course, you could just buy a bottle. But when it’s this easy to make your own, why not give it a go?
Vine is Twitter’s new short form video app that allows users to create six second long videos with their iPhones. Since it’s launch back in January, Vine’s community has grown immensely and if you haven’t checked out what this innovative app can do for your events, its time to listen up.
Keep hearing about Twitter’s 6 second video app, Vine? Endless Entertainment have tips on using it at your next event
Are you a festival organiser, or someone who one day hopes to be? If so, you might like our music festival infographic!
Made with help from the kind folks at CGA Strategy and the UK Festival Awards, our infographic gives an insight into spending habits, audience segmentation and all sorts of other useful stuff taken from a sample size of over 12,000.
Let us know what you think (or request a high res version) over on Twitter!
In our second instalment of the Eventbrite Blogger Tour, our mission to explore some of the amazing events available through Eventbrite, High Tea Cast blogger Glenn Rice visits the brilliant Campfire Talks to hear a talk from charismatic former Top of The Pops executive producer Chris Cowey.
Chris talked at length about his time in the industry, his views on music television and his advice for those wishing to support emerging musicians. To find out more, and to hear Glenn’s thoughts on the event, visit The High Tea Cast here!
