3 Tips for Social Media Engagement at Your Event

Social media has become increasingly important at events as a way to monitor guest experiences and reach the extended network of attendees. Here are three of our top tips for social media engagement at your next event:

1. What will attendees share?

Whenever someone shares something on social media, it is a reflection of their own personality and opinions. Consider what you want people to say about your event, as well as what it says about them. How can make this meaningful and easy to share online?

For example, if you are hosting a learning event, attendees may want to share their newfound knowledge. Determine if there are some unique bite-size facts or quotes that could be easily shared by guests and highlight them in presentations to encourage tweets. Hosting an entertainment event? What will guests take photos of to highlight their day?

2. Make it photo worthy

Speaking of photos, event aesthetics matter. The easiest way to boost your social media interaction is not by having a great Instagram or Facebook account, but by giving attendees something to snap themselves. A good example of this is the Night Noodle Markets in Melbourne and Sydney. People attend for the food, but it’s the beautiful lanterns and lighting that get attendees snap-happy on their social media channels.

Consider how you can design photo-worthy opportunities at your next event e.g. food presentation, staff costumes, entertainment, format of speaker presentations, and decorations. Lightboxes are a simple way to communicate event messages/hashtags and they look great in photos.

3. Put your phone away

This may sound like counter-intuitive advice for managing your social channels with everything available at our fingertips, but it’s important not to forget the real-world benefits of having your audience in front of you. A great experience offline provides people with something to talk about, and it’s why your attendees are there in the first place!

Particularly for smaller or community-driven events, taking the time to interact with guests should be a priority over answering tweets or liking photos on the fly. Save that for the next day and use it as an opportunity to follow up with people and even direct them to photo albums or details of your next event.

Scheduling content ahead of time will keep focus off your phone if you want to have key messages running in the lead up/during the event. If you have a photographer at your event, using their higher quality photos to highlight the success of your event may be more engaging than a hurried snap while it’s taking place.