The Whys of WiFi – Part 1 -How to Boost Your Event’s Social Media Buzz
Have you ever thought about the phrase, “all atwitter?” Well, not that long ago this word could be simply defined as “excited.”
And then along came social media. Now you probably can’t use the word “atwitter” without most people thinking you’re talking about that particular social media channel. So nowadays, when it comes to creating a hosting an event, you actually do want everyone to be all atwitter; both the social media and the non-social media kind.
Naturally, if excited attendees are willing to plug all your event happenings to their online followers, then they are going to need fast, reliable WiFi. And since you are the one hosting the event, it’s up to you to provide that amazing WiFi service because, let’s be honest, your event is never going viral if everyone is having problems getting online, staying online, or if they have to pay extra for it.
And as we all know, social media buzz is one of the best methods for organically enhancing your marketing and reach, increasing brand visibility, and generating even more excitement about your event and future event activities.
In this 5 part Series The Whys of WiFi we are going to dig deep into the New Age Question Why Wifi?
5 Ways to Encourage Event Social Media Buzz
So, after you’ve built that solid social media base through planning, budgeting, and then implementing great event WiFi, don’t just step away and hope for results. Here are some ideas to use during the event to help you get that social buzz going.
- Go against tradition – tell audiences to turn on their phones
Lectures and seminars should not begin with the words “please turn off your cell phones.” In fact, they should actually begin with some form of encouragement telling the audience to take out and use their phones. Not for personal calls, of course, but for tweeting, and Instagram posting, and “shouting” out tips learned in the course of the talk or seminar. Encourage your speakers to plan for social media by creating their own Twitter hashtag (#) just for that talk, or have them use the event hashtag. Speakers should announce the chosen hashtag to their audience at the beginning of the talk and if they are giving a PPT presentation, it can be on one of the intro slides. Speakers might even want to consider giving their audiences a few moments during a talk to tweet or post to their favorite social media. An easy thing for speakers to do is add phrases to their talk such as “that’s a tweetable” or “you can tweet me on that” after key points. This achieves two important things – it helps the speaker drive home important points and gets those important points out into the social network.
- Have your social media person use free services such as clicktotweet
Every event should have a social media host who is responsible to generate posts and tweets and announce various important items via social media. And they can really notch it up by also using a service such as clicktotweet.com, or one like it, to put out key taglines and important online content in a way which makes it super easy for event attendees to tweet, and retweet, those taglines and other tidbits about your event. The easier it is, the more attendees are going to do it.
- Reward avid social media posters
Consider staging a contest that ties into attendees’ blog and video posts, photos, FB, and Instagram posts. Create a place (your blog) where they can submit their posts and then they are automatically entered to win a substantial prize – anything from a piece of technology to a big gift certificate for free registration to your event next year. An example of this would be something like Marketing Profs did a few years back where they offered special recognition to posts in different categories including “most likely to go viral” and “best series of posts.”
- Live streaming – more than something cool for event goers to look at
When you live stream and have it up on an eye-catching 4K Display, it gets people excited. But the purpose of live streaming feeds and other information, goes much deeper than that. An event live stream allows you to reach a global audience and others who could not physically attend your event. This not only helps you reach more of the people you want to reach, it helps the attendees appreciate that they are part of something much larger. Setting up effective live streaming isn’t that difficult. There are services to choose from that make live streaming pretty simple – with everything from the basics to full service. Your eTech Rental team can easily help you set that up.
- Encourage and reward attendees who check in on social media
Create specific check in points placed around your event which rewards attendees who check in to that spot with one of their social media apps. They might get an event pin (or pen) or other useful or collectable prizes at each point. There is a lot you can do with this beyond “hey, thanks for checking in.” You can turn it into a scavenger hunt where once they check in they receive a clue on where to go next. Or they might get a cash reward if they check in at all your preset points. If you include exhibitors in the fun they can use the engagement for lead retrieval to generate leads so everyone wins.
These are just 5 ways you can make it fun and simple for you to help your event goers generate some great social media buzz for your event. Now go ahead and get planning so that everyone who attends your next event will be all atwitter.
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