Event strategy and social strategy go hand-in-hand – something I’ve discovered along my career path as a meeting planner turned social media consultant. This week, I had the pleasure of speaking at the FICP Winter Symposium to explore the ways that social media can help meeting and event professionals – and their supplier-partners – bring the meeting experience to the next level. Here are a few takeaways from that session:
1. Event strategy is about knowing your audience, what’s important to them, your shared goals, and how you can meet those goals through well-executed meetings and events. Social media strategy is all that, except that you’re using technology to enhance the real-life experience. Social media doesn’t stand on its own; it complements what you’re already doing. Done well, it should save you time, and help you to reach a wider and more receptive audience.
2. Social media is not a platform. It’s functionality that enables your attendees to have a voice; now, anyone can like, comment, share, publish, or otherwise interact with content or people whom they might not have otherwise been able to encounter. Social media for events may include external platforms, like Twitter and Instagram, or internal platforms like Slack or Yammer – or modules within your event app. Its benefits extend throughout the whole event cycle: before, during, and post-event.
3. Your organization’s social media team – should you have one – are your partners in creating a social media strategy for your event that align with your event strategy. Planners should consider bringing them in early in the process to ensure that they’re maximizing the benefits of social media throughout the whole planning cycle and attendee experience. For smaller events, create a basic strategy that can be applied to multiple events to gain efficiency when those resources might not be available.
4. Engage your attendees in the event’s social media plan. They’re your strongest champions of the event, and they’ll likely be happy to share their thoughts on behalf of your event or organization.
5. LinkedIn connection etiquette still feels murky to many professionals, especially whether it’s appropriate to connect with people you don’t know. Should you connect with people you don’t know in real life? The answer is: It depends. LinkedIn once tweeted that users should only connect with those “you know and trust.” This ensures that you have more meaningful interactions with your network, and that you’re less likely to get spam from less discerning users. But there may be exceptions. If you have something in common with a user, you might want to reach out and connect. If you’re in sales, you might want to invite a prospective client to connect because you were referred by another client or you can offer value in some way. Here is my advice: if you want to connect with someone you don’t know in real life, consider whether an inMail might be better, or request that a mutual connection makes an introduction. If you do feel that a connection is best, make sure you customize the connection e-mail to explain why that person would want to connect with you.
See you online!