As the public at large continues its fascination with online social media, event planners are pushing their marketing efforts further onto platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
“Social media is becoming a part of everybody’s life,” says Sarah Vining, the former marketing manager at the National Conference Center, near Washington, D.C., who now works as a creative marketing specialist for the National 4-H Youth Conference. “Attendees are using it as a resource: Where do I find my room, what can I do after hours? So that’s how event planners are engaging with attendees.”
Thanks in large part to social media, attendees are identifying with an event as a brand, according to Vining, as they discuss an event weeks or months before and after it occurs.
“Blending meetings and social media interaction with attendees year-round is the trend we’re moving to,” Vining says.
As a result, meeting planners find they will have lots of extra help, wanted or unwanted, from potential attendees who may weigh in on everything from session topics and speaker selections to catering and entertainment choices.
“Groups give their attendees a chance to make the conference personal by asking what speakers and sessions they’d like,” Vining says. “But even if the suggested speakers aren’t possible, the planner can still tailor sessions and topics based on what the attendees say they’re interested in learning.”
Meeting planners are becoming more sophisticated in managing social media, according to Vining.
“Instead of just seeing Twitter hashtags for a meeting, you’re seeing more of the Twitter walls,” she says, by way of example.
A Twitter wall aggregates tweets related to specific hashtags, search terms and user names on single screen, which planners can then display on large monitors placed around an event space to encourage further participation.
“A Twitter wall reminds people to tweet about the event,” she says. “This is a tactic that can increase engagement, foster conversations with non-attendees, and boost attendance for the following year.” PageBreak
Attendees Take Control
Vining says a trend developing among attendees themselves is to arrange their own meetings within an event using Twitter. To arrange what is called a tweet-up, an individual tweets the invitation with a link to an online scheduling service like Doodle. Potential attendees can enter their name in the space for the date and time best for them, and then the individual or group can decide on a single time.
Most event organizers stick to the major social networking platforms rather than trying to move attendees onto their own platform because, as Vining says, “They have to be where their audience is. People want to stick to the sites they go to daily, whether that’s Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook. That’s where they want to connect with people, not necessarily a new site. That’s why Google Plus is having a hard time.”
Mike Malinchok, principal of S2K Performance Coaching and a consultant to i-Meet, a social networking service for meeting professionals, advises event organizers to “know your attendees; fish where the fish are.”
“If it’s a younger audience, then they’re probably on Twitter,” he says. “But if it’s a 40ish professional group, then it’s more Facebook and LinkedIn. Facebook has significant volume, but it’s more of a personal site. LinkedIn is more for professional networking, but you many not get some of the personal conversations you’re looking for.”
For organizations that want to incorporate social media in attendee engagement, Malinchok recommends that a dedicated person work the social network daily, monitoring the conversation and contributing to it according to an organization’s objectives.
“I tell clients that if they want to tip their toe in the water of social media, they should commit to five hours a week,” he says.
