Business Events Sydney Blog

This is our third post in the new series on 'How to use social media for business events'.

Part 3: Using social media during your event to create excitement

So now we've looked at social media tools you can use to plan your event and some great sites and strategies to promote your event with social media.

In part 3 of our series, we'll look at how to use social media once your event starts to create a real buzz, get people sharing ideas and spread the word beyond your venue walls.

Make it easy to get online 

First things first. Give your attendees easy access to high-speed wireless internet. If they can get to your event sites and social media channels to voice their opinions, converse with other attendees and speakers and share the experience with their community/colleagues who are not at the conference it will make them feel as though your event is of far greater value than any traditional 'one way communication' event they've attended.

If budget allows, create a special web 2.0 lounge for people to use at the event. The more social media minded people that come together, the greater the camaraderie and excitement you'll build. Have a web page or a giant whiteboard where people can share their social media contact information too.

Live blog from event 

In part 2, we discussed the importance of creating a blog to promote your event. Now you can really take advantage of the web 2.0 publishing tools and add blog content live from sessions and panel discussions such as short opinion pieces, quotes from speakers, images, etc.

Allow readers to comment, and make it easy for them to subscribe to your blog feeds and share your posts on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks.

Twitter

Now the event's underway, promote your Twitter page everywhere. Encourage people to follow it for updates and share their own thoughts and experiences during and after sessions. Shoot out your blog posts on Twitter too.

Remember to have a unique #hashtag for the event so that people can add it to their tweets. This makes it easy for you to track what's being said about your event – good and bad.

Facebook

Make use of your Facebook event page. While Twitter often elicits faster responses (it can only take so long to write 140 characters) to your posts, Facebook pages have some unique benefits that make them ideal for creating buzz during the event.

In addition to adding direct messages and links from your blog posts, you can add photos, videos and even a discussion forum to your Facebook page. Also, every new post will automatically show up on the homepages of those who 'Like' you. This 'immediacy' to the masses played a huge part in the success of the Obama campaign.

Video

You may want to consider offering a live video stream of your event for people who can't attend. If that's not in your strategy, at least make sure to record the sessions and social gatherings.

Grab highlights from sessions, day trips, sightseeing and behind the scenes interviews with speakers Add them to your event blog or website for people to watch while the event is running. This helps participants who may have attended a different session. It also creates a buzz and sense of "wish I was there" amongst people who didn't attend.

Stand out from the monotonous crowd

Using Social media tools during your conference or event can really help you stand out from the events that everyone knows and expects. You'll learn more about your attendees than you ever could and our participants will relish being involved and contributing to the success of your event.

Together it can build a real energy and excitement that has people raving. And in today's world or marketing, nothing is more valuable than great word of mouth.

In our part 4, the final of the series, we'll look at how social media can boost your business once your event has finished.