If you want to increase your social media engagement at upcoming events, keep these five tips in mind when planning your strategy.

1. Don’t waste your hashtags-Promote them!

Not only are hashtags a great way to engage consumers and spread your brand message to a new audience, but hashtags are also a vital way to track your overall reach during your post-event analysis. A common mistake of event-centric social media strategies is to under-promote your event hashtag.  You should start spreading the news about your event’s key hashtag and other event details well in advance.  It would also be wise to include the event hashtag in all other promotional materials to spread info about announcements, speaker additions, agenda updates and contests.

2. Twitter take-overs

If your event has speakers, presenters or special guests, then a Twitter take-over prior to, or at the event could generate a lot of excitement.  A Twitter take-over is simply giving the reigns of your Twitter account to someone your audience wants to hear from.  If your keynote speaker, say Joe Smith, is a big attendance draw for your event you can create a custom hashtag, for example #askjoesmith. During the Twitter take-over you can have your special guest answer questions presented with the hashtag #askjoesmith.

3. Pre-schedule known tweets and posts, live share the rest

If you know what the majority of your tweets and Facebook updates will be for an event ahead of time, use a scheduler and set them up before the event.  This will free up an incredible amount of time and give you extra time to check for errors.  You should still supplement the pre-scheduled posts with live posts that keep current with the ebbs and flows of the event but for most event marketers you can schedule 75% ahead of time.

4. Photo marketing and social media sharing

A picture says a thousand words, and a picture shared to hundreds of social media followers says much more.  It’s a great idea to use a photo marketing app to engage consumers and encourage social sharing.  If you have a fun green screen image to take pictures with, consumers are more likely to share branded content to their social media networks, your target consumer audiences.  For example, Snapshot from eshots will take branded green screen images and allow consumers to share the image to their Facebook or Twitter feeds.  Also, email photo delivery is an option to allow consumers to receive images, which allows you to collect user email data for remarketing down the road.  This expanded social media reach will really amp up your message.

5. Audience Participation Contests

Another tactic that has been embraced by event marketers are audience participation contests on Twitter and Instagram.  By using an event hashtag, organizers can run contests like treasure hunts, photo contests and more.  For example, you can promote something like “Post your picture at Joe Smith’s lecture to Twitter with the hashtag #askjoesmith for a chance to win an autographed book.”  This is a way to visually show all the fun and excitement at your event.  These pictures will live on, so next year when people search for your event you will get residual exposure.

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