2014 Social Media Strategy For Business Events

Image credits: opensource.com

2014 is rolling. Last year saw serious monetisation inclined progress on different tech platforms and social media domineered. What is your cohesive social strategy for business events in 2014? How did you do with 2013 goals? What was the level of ‘your’ noise on facebook, twitter, and other platforms? How much ‘signal’ you could see and what part of the amassed fans turned product evangelists or at least gave a positive WOM?

Are you wondering what social media has in store for event organisers this year? What trends event industry needs to pay attention to keep up and run ahead in 2014?

Let’s be presumptuous to run ahead. Focused investment on your event social strategy will see the tipping point you are looking at.

Whom Are You Talking With?

Know your audience eminently; this must be top in your list. Analyse their demographic, sociographic and psychographic characteristics. This is critical to engage better and stay focussed with them online. Are you communicating with your audience and not ‘actually talking’? Understand closely, you don’t want to do empty shots. A vacuous strategy could be; you are active around Facebook and competitors having an awesome time with your target audience on Twitter! So plan with data and insights, allocate resources more where you actually need them.

Do You Stir “Passion Factor” With Your Audience?

Jay Baer, social media content strategist, says, “Passion is the fuel of social media.” It doesn’t count who you are or what you market, the products and services you propagate should kindle an interest among your audience, in their heart rather head. “Disney isn’t about movies, it’s about magic. Apple isn’t about technology, it’s about innovation. What are you about?” Remember social media is not only about real-time interaction, but the relationship you build across the network.

Publicise Your Hashtag

Hashtags extend the life of your events and conversations perpetuate even after the event. The time, effort and spends won’t go in to oblivion soon. Drive original traffic to your event with a smart hashtag (an ingredient to go viral), a competitive advantage. Use the event hashtag on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and tweet about the event in advance. Promote the tag on the slides, webinars, promotional materials including any digital, offline reach resource. Don’t miss a thing, you always have to blow the trumpet before and ramp up the registration.

Social Registration

It is wonderful to live tweet, interact real-time and engage with audience ahead the event. Event registrations integrated with social media bring shoals. Make ripples- shout online to your audience and reach further by encouraging your networks to register via socials. Don’t doubt; it will boost your reach. Be agile, some last minute tweets before the event can also pull in attendees.

Monitor & Measure Your Event

No more blind games. We always have the choice of true visuals with data; doesn’t lie or lead us wrong. So monitor, measure and measure. Leverage social monitoring tools like Hootsuite, Argyle Social, Trackur, etc to track event performance, analyse audience feedback and respond in real-time. Or step ahead with multi-pronged event engagement apps out there.

Infographics?

Not just another piece of color-filled page; there are already multitudes out there. Promote your event with meaningful, sharable infographics. It is advantageous to ignite customer engagement and amplify reach. Facebook has revamped as a visual place, Pinterest also plans further with visuals. The visual world simply works better with any audience; plan distinct giving away visuals that bring value.

Influencers

A definitive influencer outreach strategy to your social media program will move from “should we have” to “must have” criteria in 2014. It may sound a bit difficult, but not for bands who already were knitting relationships with influencers for the rainy day. It’s never late to start, so don’t be hesitant to dive in and start following influencers.  Converse and actively take part in discussions that develops the relation over time. Weber Shandwick’s Got Chocolate Milk was a remarkable influencer campaign, reshaped it from a kid’s drink to a workout beverage. Tavi, a well-known teenage influencer in fashion blogging and her Rookie got millions of tales for teenage girls.

Live Blogging

Live blogging is an ingredient to draw wider audience even beyond the last day of the event. Here you engage from the venue, letting your audience know what’s happening at the moment. You should be prepared, allocate the task to a blogger, influencer in your niche. Again, you only have to blog worthwhile content and not every breath of the event just to clutter the audience following you.

Now you know where to head and hunt audience and then bring in further. Be intelligent, strategise with data and pick the right platforms to your event goals. Focus your resources where you need them the most.