The OpenWater Blog

5 Ways to Encourage Social Media Engagement at Events

During your conference, attendees will turn to social media to share updates, photos, engage with other attendees, and more. Or, at least you hope they will, right?

Truth be told, attendees won’t necessarily turn to social media on their own to talk about your conference. However, when they do, you’ll enjoy greater publicity for your event and, in all likelihood, greater attendee engagement. So only one question remains: How do you actually get attendees to use social media during your event?

Put Twitter Handles on Name Badges

Speakers, attendees, and staff members should all wear name badges during your conference. This means you can put whatever you want on the badge, including Twitter handles.

By including Twitter handles on name badges, you make it simple for attendees to Tweet speakers with questions and for other attendees to Tweet others they may have heard speak as well. This facilitates engagement both during and after the conference.

Create an Event Hashtag and Make it Known

When you create an event hashtag, you can easily search through all the posts attendees have made about your event. However, if attendees don’t know what that hashtag is, they can’t share their posts into one coherent group.

Print your hashtag on every piece of marketing, include it in your mobile event app, and even on handouts for each speaker. The more places you put the hashtag, the more likely attendees are to use it.

Staff Your Event With a Social Media “Concierge”

The majority of your guests will have and use at least one social media account. However, not all guests will be as skilled at social media usage as others are. At the very least, some may not be as inclined as others to post photos or updates during your event.

Having dedicated staff members as social media “concierges” will encourage those who may not otherwise post to post an update or photo. Likewise, these staff members can answer any questions attendees may have or even help them set up new profiles if need be.

Stream Posts With Your Hashtag on Monitors Throughout the Event

People get excited to see their posts broadcast live at an event. By setting up television monitors throughout the event, you can create a live stream of posts that have been tagged with your hashtag.

Not only will this incentivize those who have already posted to post more, but it will also prompt those who might have not shared yet to do so.

Prompt Engagement Wherever and Whenever Possible

Whether at a sponsorship booth or during a presentation, actively encouraging social media usage is one of the simplest ways to engage attendees. More importantly, prompting engagement will make those who may have not otherwise participated to participate.

Increase Social Media Use During Your Next Conference

If conferences in the past have lacked social media engagement or if you feel as if you could do better (which every organization can), the five strategies above are all great ways to encourage social media engagement at any event.

Remember, it’s all about consistency and ease of use. That combined with the strategies above will make your next conference successful, regardless of your goals.

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