Social media is key to drawing in clients and connecting with your audience, and can even aid in putting on a successful event. Each platform is different—some are humorous, some are serious and some are a mix of the two. The key to creating social media campaigns lies in how you post to each platform, which requires understanding of your initiative and the different voices required to best reach your followers.
Alex Plaxen, founder and president of Little Bird Told Media, chatted with Smart Meetings to share the top secrets to posting on each platform for maximum exposure and connection with your followers.
These days, most people have a Facebook profile, and they use the platform to follow their favorite restaurants, musicians, event-planning services and more. Facebook is meant to be fun: You can share casual posts about what you’re working on as well as professional posts from successful or ongoing events. Connect with your audience by posting regularly, as the algorithms can occasionally hide your posts from news feeds.
Secret: One of the best ways to engage with attendees is by creating events on Facebook. Attendees can start networking with each other, see which of their friends are going, and check in to the event once they’re on site. This can further amplify the social footprint of your event.
Happy Friday, #meetingprofs! Have a great weekend ⚽️😉#FifaWorldCup2018 pic.twitter.com/NiAKvjQThC
— SmartMeetings (@SmartMeetings) June 29, 2018
Twitter is your chance to demonstrate your charm. Show your personality and sense of humor by constantly tweeting about your projects, your day—anything relevant. You can also retweet others’ posts, and this can, in turn, help you to connect with other professionals and companies. Make sure to include hashtags in your posts, and follow and utilize trending hashtags for more views on your own tweets. It’s a great, casual way of networking, no matter where you, future clients or other event professionals are located around the world.
Secret: A hashtag is essential for your event. But more than one hashtag can really elevate your Twitter strategy to the next level. For example, have your attendees add the word “help” to the end of your hashtag (for example, #ABCconHelp) to filter all questions or complaints to a different feed. This makes it easier to monitor and respond.
A picture is worth 1,000 words, so utilize your Instagram! Show behind-the-scenes photos of meeting preparations, live feeds of the event you’re hosting and the occasional picture from your personal life. By giving a glimpse into your life, you’re piquing others’ curiosity while showing your humanity. Make sure to choose a flattering filter and a witty caption, and use those hashtags so others can find and follow you.
Secret: Instagram stories are a powerful tool to share content in the moment that doesn’t need to live on your feed forever. These posts only last 24 hours, which helps ramp up the FOMO (fear of missing out) engagement. Use this tool for giveaways and contests on site to ensure that your attendees are always checking in on your story.
Snapchat
One of the most popular platforms, Snapchat may seem unnecessary—but that is far from true. Snapchat has a certain mystique that you can’t find on any other app, because its stories disappear after 24 hours. This will leave people regularly checking your feed for anything they might miss. To get the most out of your stories, consider posting promotions and announcements on the platform first. Your followers will feel like they’re in on a secret that the rest of the world is waiting for.
Secret: Even if you don’t plan to use Snapchat at your event, your attendees might. Create an unpublicized account so you can create and purchase Snapchat geofilters for your attendees to use. A geofilter is a location-based graphic overlay that your attendees can put on top of their photos or videos that they share while at your event. It’s also very reasonably priced, providing lots of bang for your buck.
LinkedIn is the most official and professional platform out there. Used mainly to connect with colleagues, clients and professionals in the same career as you, this is a great place to share what makes you the professional that you are. Fill out all relevant career information, list your skills, and reach out to past employees and clients for endorsements. LinkedIn is a way to show that you work hard, have experience and can handle any event thrown your way. It’s also one of the best places to post professional achievements and milestones—the humble-brag has few limitations here.
Secret: LinkedIn is one of the least mobile-friendly social media platforms. The majority of users still use it on their desktops. Keep that in mind when creating your social media strategy. It’s a fantastic platform before and after your event, but don’t dedicate many resources to LinkedIn when you’re on site.
