It’s that time of year again. Yes, it’s public relations and marketing conference season. Peter Shankman’s latest blog post gives some great tips for surviving it. Although social media is not a new thing to conferences (Twitter debuted at SXSW a few years ago), it is really now just becoming “mainstream.” In my June 20, 2009 blog post, I first talked about how I use Twitter as my note-taking platform and as a way to encourage engagement. A year later, and it is amazing to see how much more of a role social media plays in event participation.
I recently spoke at the YNPNdc (Young Nonprofit Professionals Network) second annual social media conference. Rosetta Thurman gave a great presentation on basic social media tools you should be using to enhance participation in your conference. Some of my favorite tips include:
- Make a hashtag and promote it early.
- Make a Twitter list of attendees and follow it.
- Don’t hire a videographer; use Flipcams and digital cameras.
- Allow attendees to take pictures and share them.
- Integrate social media into your event. It is a great way to get information to your attendees and allows for more contact points than any one person can manage.
“Building social media strategies into your event allows other people to speak and respond on your behalf. Sometimes the best answer to a question comes from a fellow attendee,” says John Chen, publications/project manager, International Society for Performance Improvement.
What tips do you have for BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers looking to increase engagement at conferences? What has worked best for your organization?
Our food blogger conference this past May saw a rapid boost in registrations once we launched the #campblogaway hastag. On-site, again it was Twitter that kept the buzz going; our mountain facility has no wi-fi (frankly, the lack of laptops and tap-tap-tapping during presentations was refreshing and attendees reported being able to relax and be “present” in the sessions). Photo opps were injected in the itinerary. Once back home, the blog posts were rich and insightful (shooting great editorial pix is easy when the setting itself is part of the story). Camp Blogaway’s marketing budget is teensie, and social media is 99.9%.
Hi, Patti,
Thanks for sharing your experience with the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers. I really like the idea of creating photo opportunities for the attendees. I’ve seen this at some conferences, and it creates a great visual for non-attendees and increases engagement with those at the event.