Many event planners realize that one of the most daunting goals when creating an event is figuring out how to keep your attendees engaged AFTER the event. We want them to remain connected to the event brand so that they will buy tickets next year and have a stronger emotional tie to your brand. However, a long-term content strategy can be overwhelming for some planners. For others, it’s simply out of their scope.
Until now. I have a few ideas of how you can use social media to foster this year-round community.
BLOG
Posting content on a blog is one of the best ways to keep people engaged. Your community is always looking for education and it would be great if you can provide that to them more than once a year. You will need a long-term content strategy for this, but it is well worth the engagement. To make it a little easier on yourself, involve your community in the blog. Ask your speakers to write 1 post for you each quarter based on their topic and share that on the blog. As your attendees to guest post for you – either once or on a recurring basis. This helps to involve your community in the every day operations of your blog, includes them in the marketing strategy and also gives you quality content.
As someone who is so “into” social media and technology, I often get into conversations with people about how much work it takes and how time consuming it can be to tweet, Facebook, blog and keep up with all the social networks. Most of the time, people say they don’t have time, but the truth is that we have time for all the things that we prioritize. If you felt like online networking was worth it, you would prioritize it. You would teach yourself, pay experts to teach you, and make time to execute a solid social strategy. But the truth is that you don’t yet see the value. And that’s okay.
The more I get the opportunity to speak across the U.S., the more I realize that social media engagement at events is still a trend in its early stages. So many well-intentioned event organizers do their best, but they are still having trouble getting engagement from their attendees, sponsors and speakers. Today, I wanted to share the basics with you – the ABCs of social media engagement at events.
Last week, I had the pleasure of attending The Special Event in Chicago. I attended a few of the educational sessions and did what I always do – live tweeted. But, this time, I experienced something interesting. Similar to 2010, I noticed that I was one of the only people tweeting so much. Where did all of my fellow event tweeters go? Of course, I wasn’t the only person on the stream, but I did notice that there wasn’t the same level of engagement as I have seen in past events. As I further explored this by talking to other people, it seemed that this is a trend that has been going on for a little while. What was a huge surge in people who were tweeting at events and interacting seems to have slowed down.
Your votes are in! Bizzabo has just been crowned the Top Event Tech Product of 2012! In close competition where 
As many of you know, I run a series on the blog every Friday introducing you to a new event technology product that can be used to enhance your events. And, as the year comes to an end, we are going to share the #1 Event Tech Product of 2012. To start the process, I chose the Top 10 companies and we’ll use your votes to get to the top 1!
Some time ago a friend of mine, let’s call him John, asked me about Social Media. “What’s the point in using Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin? I’m on Linkedin, but I don’t see any added value in it”, he said. “Besides I don’t know how to use it and where to start.”
Your name: Toby Beresford
