Have you seen a Twitter wall get invaded by outside protestors or a group of attendees on the negativity bandwagon blasting a speaker while they are in the same room?
I won’t scare you with too many horror stories because in general your attendees are using social networking for good, not evil, and it is important for planners to know how attendees are using it. The next step after denial is to know when to hire outside assistance. There are many planners who are social media savvy, but one person cannot effectively coordinate the logistics of a program and at the same time monitor what attendees are saying about the event.
Start with strategy. It makes good sense to ascertain which platforms attendees are already using before you try implementing either marketing or on-site social media. A note of caution here: your attendees may not be active on Twitter in their day-to-day or professional lives, but then turn around and use it extensively at your conference. It is by far one of the best ways for them to communicate with each other and for you to communicate with them. It just so happens that most of what they post will be public.
Are you getting a high response rate on your conference evaluations? What if your attendees were able to tell you what is on their minds the second it occurs to them? Many of them are using Twitter and other platforms to do this. Are you listening? Better yet, are you responding when they say something negative? How about when they say something positive? Just like rating a restaurant on Yelp or a hotel on Trip Advisor, today’s meeting planner will be held accountable for the public comments attendees are making about your conference.
Who do you hire to monitor these feeds for you? Certainly, many organizations have tried out interns and volunteers because the perception of social media is that it is free and they don’t want to spend any more resources on it than they have to. How is a less-seasoned member of your organization going to know which statements made on social media require a response? How are they going to know what to say? Will they know when to contact the logistics team to solve an issue? Will they know who to contact on the team or at the venue depending on what the issue is?
One thing attendees will complain about is lack of Internet access. Don’t think that if you don’t provide it they will have to “pay attention” instead of tweeting, e-mailing or texting, because they can do all of these things from their mobile devices these days. You should go ahead and treat them like adults and provide the tools they need to communicate in whatever manner is most effective for them. If your speakers are engaging, they will “pay attention” to them. Analyzing the twitter feed after an event will give you valuable information about what your attendees learned from the speakers. You can see which nuggets of information were good enough to be shared with their followers.
Determining which of your attendees are influential in the group will help you make good business decisions in the future. These are the folks you will want to engage before and after the event as well as at the event. In fact, you might want to recruit them to act as social media reporters or social media ambassadors so they know you appreciate their influence. Make sure you offer them something valuable in return because they will feel like they are doing you a favor.
Don’t be afraid to setup a Twitter wall behind your speaker. Just make sure that you have someone to monitor and moderate the conversation, and a plan in place to handle any situation that may arise--good or bad.
Elizabeth Glau earned the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 2006. An early adopter of social media applications, Elizabeth bridges the gap for meeting planners with a thorough understanding of how attendees are accustomed to networking and how they can increase engagement through online social networks. www.SocialMediaForPlanners.com; eglau@BasicSocialMediaTraining.com Twitter: @elizabethglau
