GUIDE Eventbrite and Hootsuite The small business guide to social media and event marketing Table of Contents
Four affordable event marketing ideas (with examples)...... 4
What’s new in 2015 marketing events...... 8
Run a small business event in 10 easy steps...... 10
Five ways you can use social media to boots engagement and RVPSs for your next event...... 14
Four things to do on social media while your event is happening...... 16
Three things you can do to keep engagement strong after your event is over...... 18
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 2 Eventbrite and Hootsuite The small business guide to social media and event marketing
Events are a smart way to attract more business while strengthening the ties you already have in your community. From the smallest get-together to a large multi-day conference, events shine a spotlight on your company or cause, can generate referrals and new customers, and help your keep existing relationships going strong.
To help you get started, Hootsuite and Eventbrite have Hootsuite enables businesses to develop meaningful teamed up to give you the best practices, how-tos, and relationships with customers and draw actionable practical examples of how to make events and social insights from social media. Whether you’re working in a media a successful part of your marketing strategy. team or as an individual, learn how to manage, monitor, and measure your social activity. Eventbrite makes it possible for people all over the world to plan, promote, and sell tickets to any event, so Together, you’ll learn everything you need to make sure they’ve seen what works—and what doesn’t—when it your events are successful. comes to event planning.
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 3 Four affordable event marketing ideas (with examples)
It’s all very well talking about business events and event marketing in theory, but what kinds of events should you be running? Firstly, to help answer that question, Eventbrite has created this quiz.
To help you think through your available options, Eventbrite reached out to a few businesses of different shapes and sizes to share their experience of running marketing events. Here is what they have to say:
The webinar Webinars are fantastic for companies who can’t afford e-commerce systems. In addition to using the forum a venue, want to reach a scalable audience and whose to raise awareness of the VAT rules change, we also objective is primarily to inform or educate. It also helps introduced the audience to our solution and this led to that they’re a great form of lead generation too. tangible sales conversions.
Eventbrite asked digital tax startup Taxamo (@taxamo) How did social media play a part in your event? about their last webinar. Social media plays a big role in all of our activities. As we are a digital company, selling to digital companies, What was the event? our customers are always online. We have a very active We hosted a 2015 EU VAT Rules, 100 Day Countdown Twitter channel and LinkedIn profile, and regularly event. produce original content for our audience. We used these social media channels to publicise our event and What was its main purpose? to post content following the event. The purpose of this event was to raise awareness among digital sellers of some major new rules that were How did you keep costs down? coming into effect on January 1, 2015. These new rules The use of social media channels and free tools such have a significant impact on how VAT is applied to the as Eventbrite were essential to keeping our costs down. sale of digital services and we found that many many At the time of the event, we were very much in start-up merchants were completely unaware. mode and keeping costs down, while at the same time hosting a quality event that represented our brand Did it meet your goals? was a fine act to balance. Our biggest spend was on Yes, very much so. Taxamo provides a complete the live stream element, but we were pleased with technical solution for the 2015 EU VAT rules that the end product and its been something that we have enables merchants to comply using their existing repurposed and used as a sales tool on many occasions.
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 4 The networking evening Networking events are a brilliant way for companies to Event milestones were: bring together all their sales prospects or key customers August 2014 – first ever #EventPlannersTalk Twitter into a room together. They’re flexible in format, chat about how to promote events using social with some having a panel or speaker to offer some media – questions from organiser. education, while others focus purely on the networking, drinks and food. This makes them adaptable to almost February 2015 – first ever #EventPlannersTalk live any budget and business goal. event about how to promote events using social media – panel of event industry professionals discuss Eventbrite asked founder and publisher of The Mice questions from the audience, facilitated by Sli.do. Blog (@themiceblog) about their last networking event. March 2015 – Follow-up Twitter chat featuring top What was the event? questions from the audience and opportunity for #EventPlannersTalk is a weekly Twitter chat for event those who attended and not attended to answer the planners every Monday from 9 – 10pm GMT (Except first questions and network with each other. Monday of each month when #EventBlogChat for event bloggers takes place). Some of past topics include how What was its main purpose? to promote events using social media, sustainability and Main objectives are to share best industry practice, green events, how to start an event planning business, collaboration, network with fellow event professionals event technology, event branding, and storytelling. and extend event life-cycle.
Based on the high level of engagement on Twitter I Did it meet its goals? decided to host a live event about one of the past topics Yes, the ones who didn’t attend the event could also and bring the online community in the physical space, actively participate and share their views on the topic. extend event life-cycle and networking face-to-face. The first event took place in February 2014. How did social media play a part in the event? It created and increased awareness, facilitated engagement pre-, during and after the events and constant and prompt communication.
How did you keep costs down? I kept costs down using Twitter as the main communication platform, by collaborating with event technology providers, venue and speakers. No print and name badges were provided on-site, which is also good for the environment!
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 5 The pop-up Pop-ups and discovery events are perfect for companies How did social media play a part in the event? who want to introduce potential customers to the goods We tried to build in talking points and ‘shareable’ and services they have to offer, by getting onto the features - from the artwork to the window dressing; street and taking their message to the target audience. characters; decor - and the concept itself. I made sure While it take a little more budget and imagination to pull we featured the hashtag on napkins to keep it top of off a great pop-up event, the value to the brand can be mind too. huge. During the event we also filmed people in slow motion Eventbrite’s City Marketing Manager for Europe, KT doing a pancake flip - this was projected on the wall McPhee, about her last event. then uploaded to YouTube which people then shared
What was the event? How did you keep costs down? DiscoveredLDN: The Pancake Academy. A Pancake I had to prioritise - for me the two important things Day themed pop-up with features including a pancake were supplying delicious pancakes for everyone and flipping contest and a ‘lab’ where people could the memorable, shareable feature of the slow motion experiment with toppings to get on their pancakes. pancake flipping. But that meant that I had to forego the live DJ and a coffee cart which I’d originally planned. What was its main purpose? We instead used a pre-prepared playlist and had a ‘DIY’ To promote Eventbrite as the place to find unique and coffee / drinks area. interesting things to do in London.
Did it meet its goals? 100% yes. We had 890 register for the event (against a goal of 800), nearly 200 social mentions and we saw an increase in the number of people going to Eventbrite to buy tickets in London during and after the event.
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 6 The conference Conferences are a big commitment in both time and How did social media play a part in the event? budget, but if you really want to make a splash with a Social was absolutely central to the success. From the B2B audience, then they could be a very effective route moment we open pre-reg we were tweeting about it to to get noticed by all the right people. our community. That was so successful we sold out pre- reg in a matter of minutes, which shows the importance Eventbrite asked mobile communication startup of having a strong social community. Zula (@zulaapp) about why they launched a conference. In the end all of our marketing – so all our attendees – What was the event? found out about the event through social. The Zula Messaging Summit, which was held in New York City, November 4th 2014 We even used social to invite our speakers. Then on the day, we had our hashtag all over the place, What was its main purpose? which ultimately led to it trending on Twitter. We’re a young, lean startup, so we wanted a way to really make splash in the team communications space, How did you keep costs down? get our name on the map and also benefit our potential We were lucky enough to have office space at a venue customers by providing them with super useful content where the event could be held, and they were awesome (and not focus on ourselves). enough to let us use it for free, so that was a huge saving. Did it meet its goals? Yes! It met its goals and then some…we had endless Again, our social connections and relationships were numbers of people who told us that it was one of the key here too, because we were able to secure really big best events they’d been to – full stop. named speakers – who can charge tens of thousands of dollars - all for free, just by tweeting at them and Not only that, but in terms of building brand awareness, building on that existing social relationship. it was a huge win for us, because we actually managed to get the Summit trending on Twitter with the hashtag #ZulaSummit.
The whole thing resulted in a big spike in downloads, so it was totally worth it.
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 7 What’s new in 2015 for marketing events?
While email, social media, and word of mouth are Should you be investing in technology? currently the most popular channels for event 35% of businesses who took the Eventbrite survey said marketing, the survey also indicated a trend for new they are planning on increasing their budgets for event tactics being adopted by marketers when promoting technology in 2015. Their budgets will primarily go into their events. mobile event apps, with 27% saying they would definitely Top of the list was partnerships, with 59% of businesses be using this technology in 2015 for their events (and a saying they expected to use more partnerships in 2015 further 53% saying they are considering it). than the previous year. After that, there is a huge drop-off, but the next most The next emerging channel was an increasing reliance likely tools and technology to be adopted by SMBs for on marketplaces and discovery platforms like Eventbrite their events are Big Data & Analytics Software (38% to help attract attendees, as 47% of businesses said ’considering’), followed by iBeacon and other sensor they were planning to use them more this year. technologies (37% ‘considering’). How many people do you need? To execute your event marketing plans, what size of team do you need? It turns out that most event marketing teams operate pretty lean, with 46% averaging two to three people, and a further 26% being the sole event organiser. 16% had slightly larger teams of four to five, and a lucky 12% had six or more teammates. How many events should you run?
Inbound marketing made up the third most popular Do you need to run several events per year in order to emerging tactic for event promotion, with 45% saying it achieve your business objectives? And if so, how often? would play a bigger role in their marketing mix in 2015. The answer from our survey suggests that regularity is important, with the largest portion of respondents “Hootsuite has been organizing events for running four to five events a year. years. Over time, we have increased the A brave 13% of businesses run more than 26 events number of events we organize jointly with annually, but only 5% run just a single event. This like-minded organizations such as Eventbrite is probably because it usually takes more than one and we noticed that such joint events are interaction to build the necessary relationships for much more impactful than events we organize converting prospects into customers, or getting across on our own.” your educational message. Olivier Adam, Director of Online Revenue, EMEA, Hootsuite
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 8 How many attendees should you How complex should your marketing expect? plan be? One of the most important questions for commercial This was pretty clear-cut, with 52% of businesses using teams is usually how many people should you expect three to four different marketing channels, which aligns to meet at your events. Given the modest budgets and with the above findings, suggesting they likely use email, team sizes the results are not too surprising, with 61% social media and referrals to drive attendance. 19% of events being one to one hundred people in size. This used five to six different tactics, while 18% used just one is the perfect number for classes, training sessions and to two and on the opposite end of the spectrum, 11% workshops (the most popular type of event for SMBs). used seven or more.
After that, 18% of businesses said their events had 101 to 250 attendees (a good number for networking “Keep it simple! Have a plan and a clear idea events); and 10% managed to attract 251 to 500, which of your intended audience before you jump would make for a good sized conference audience. in. This will not only help you select the right marketing channels, but help you measure the How should you market your events? impact of your activities.” We asked businesses to rank their most effective Jess Wakeman, marketing channels for event promotion, and there Product Marketing Manager, Hootsuite were three clear winners.
Top of the pile was email, with 25% voting it their most What is right for you? effective marketing tactic. This was closely followed by Everything extends from the goals of your events. If you social media at 23% and referrals or word of mouth at just want to network with potential customers, then 22%. it makes sense to run networking evenings on a fairly “Don’t think about your social media efforts frequent basis, will smallish overheads, a lean team and as just impacting one event. There will be expect 101-250 people turning up. so many people who catch a Tweet or a If you want to educate your customers or establish your post which will put you on their radar for company as a thought leader, then training sessions, the next time. It’s almost like you’re doing workshops and classes are a great way to achieve this. PR throughout the year, even if you’re only Run a few times per year at a larger scale, or potentially building up to one event. So think about the every other week for a handful of prospects. Small scale educational events are a great, low-cost way of building lingering impressions.” trust and credibility with your target audience. Emma Andrews National Educator, Vega For those with more ambitious brand-building plans or who want to achieve a mix of all those goals, then you could consider running a conference, where you’d expect a much larger audience, but would in turn need a larger team and budget.
Whatever goal you choose, and whatever your budget or team size, these figures show that you can organise an event that will work for your business.
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 9 Run a successful small business event in ten easy steps
The single most important thing about a successful Step 1: The essentials business event is having a plan. In order to help you Your event’s name better plan your business events, Eventbrite has This should be simple, right? Well, not quite. Before you created a simple ten step framework based on Alex confirm the name of your event, think through these Osterwalder’s ‘Business Model Canvas’ that helps to questions: capture both the strategic reason for running an event, and the fundamental of how to make it successful. Is your event name unique or could it be confused with others? After exploring each step, you should have answered all the questions necessary to know what makes a Is it memorable? successful business event. You need to consider whether your event’s name is clear and descriptive, so that people will quickly and easily know what your event is about.
The date Again this sounds simple, but have you thought about the following?
Have you checked to ensure there are no big direct or indirect competitive events on or close to your event date?
Have you also made sure there are no big bank holidays, religious holidays or other distractions that “When creating a name for your event it’s might stop people being able to join the event? important you put in the time for research. Your research findings can guide you to Have you checked to see if the venue is free for create a name that resonates best with your those dates? If so, put it on hold ASAP so you don’t lose it. target audience, be buzzworthy online, and be unique. One way to do this is to research the The location types of hashtags being used with relevant This could be your venue, or if you haven’t booked it yet, events. Take those hashtags and use them to the intended city or general destination for your event. inspire your own event hashtag. Successful Before you make a decision, consider these factors: event hashtags usually have these three If you’ve run this event before, have you checked things in common: they’re short, to the point, your Eventbrite dashboard to see if you’ve picked and unique.” - the best location based on where your attendees come from? Kristina Cisnero, Inbound Marketing Specialist, Hootsuite Are there good transportation links to the venue, and no scheduled disruption (such as construction)?
Does it fit with your budget, brand, preferred dates and anything else materially important to the experience of your attendees, such as proximity to the airport or nightlife?
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 10 The purpose “Deepening brand engagement and creating As Simon Sinek says, ‘Start with Why.’ People run events brand love are important opportunities for for lots of reasons, what is the purpose of yours? Get Hootsuite at events. During the SXSW festival, this clear from the start to avoid any confusion. Some options include openings, fundraising, brand awareness, we bring our brand to life with an owl-shaped lead generation, networking, education, community art bus and matching owl-shaped party bikes engagement, product launch…and many more! Be sure for 12 riders. Hootsuite brand is in 3D with staff you know what the essential outcome for your event is. ambassadors engaging with folks, passing Step 2: Your customer needs out branded gifts and enhancing the SXSW festival-goers experience by providing buzz What is it your customers actually want? Why are they generating fun activities and transportation going to pick your event over everything else they could around Austin.” spend their time or money on? Even if your event is free, Lorien Henson, they’re still giving up their free time. Senior Events Marketing Manager, Hootsuite
You need to really understand how your event helps your customers (and prospective customers) move towards their goals. Events focused too much on your needs, or that come across as too ‘salesy,’ will not go over well and may even negatively impact your relationship. Step 3: Your solution What are the benefits of attending your event? How will it meet the needs of your attendees? For example, if you sell time management software and you’ve put together an evening panel with three time management experts, then your solution is showing your attendees how to better optimise and manage their time. Step 4: Your unfair advantage What can you do that your competitors can’t? What will make your events unique in a way that can’t easily be replicated? This is typically an internal resource (or resources) or process that would make it very hard for a competitor to do something similar.
For example, do you have some exclusive flagship clients that other businesses will want to meet and learn from? Can you demonstrate your product or service in such a unique way that it will be completely new for your audience (and they’ll find it valuable)? Maybe you just really know how to throw a memorable party when other companies in your industry are focused on more traditional meetings. HootBike at SXSW
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 11 Step 5: Your unique value proposition To create a unique value proposition, you need to pull the key elements of your event together into a simple, memorable tagline. For example if you’re hosting an exclusive event for your top customers, you might say: “Be the first to hear about our major product update in 2015 while you catch up with your peers and enjoy food and drinks.”
Looking back to the example of being a time management software company, your unique value proposition for the evening event might be:
“Get answers to your most pressing time management Step 7: Your event marketing channels questions from 3 world-renowned experts; then grab a beer with other time optimisation enthusiasts to discuss This is where you detail the most important marketing what you’ve learned.” channels for your event, ideally based on your persona and audience insights. Try to stick with three to five, Step 6: Your audience so you don’t spread your team and budget too thin. Arguably, your audience comes first of all. But, as you Be specific, don’t just say ‘social,’ but say which social start thinking about promotion, it is a great place to networks you plan to utilize. Will they be organic only or document exactly who you think should be at your event support by paid promotion? - often referred to as a persona. “During events, the social networks people are Personas are full documents in themselves, so for your primarily on are Twitter and Instagram. This one page event plan, you may just put the essential demographics down, such as age, gender, location, is because there is no barrier unless you have company, job title, income, and budget. These essential a private profile, and it’s easy to share and details will change according to your audience. interact with people on both networks. Post- event, we’re seeing a lot of people move to One way to better understand your audience is through social listening. Five Guys, an international restaurant LinkedIn. Lots of people connect after having chain, used Hootsuite’s geo-search functionality to tune met in person.” into local conversations happening on social media Melissa Loomans, Community and Events Manager, FreshBooks about their brand and products before opening new locations. Note: For more tips on marketing your events with “When we opened our first UK location, we social media from Melissa and other pros, listen to our used Hootsuite to monitor people’s discussions #SocialSixty panel discussion here. about us within a certain mile radius of In a recent survey conducted by Eventbrite, they found London. We were then able to reach out that the top three performing channels for event directly to them to let them know that we were marketing are email, free social media and referrals/ coming. We utilized the geo-located search word of mouth (in that order). function to target our UK customer base.” Kenneth Westling, Online Marketing Specialist, Five Guys
Note: For a more indepth look into audience development, read this Eventbrite post.
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 12 Step 8: Your key success metrics Step 9: Costs The key metrics you document in this segment should This is the place to detail your main costs and expected tie back directly to your event’s purpose, or support it budget, so everyone is on the same page as to what in some way. Again, try to limit these metrics so they they can and can’t spend and where they will need to don’t become confusing. Pick one lead metric that will make savings. Most likely, this will be the cost of venue, indicate the event was a success. For example, sales or catering, drinks, and marketing. However, it may also attendance. You can also pick a couple of supporting include things like audio-visual, lighting, onsite branding, metrics that look at other success factors such as artists or performers...the list goes on! number of social mentions (to check engagement and Step 10: Revenue sentiment) or press hits. Last, but certainly not least, you need to document “As a social media organization with a strong how you’ll balance the books and get some money in the bank! For example, it may be that you don’t expect analytics offering, it would be silly if we were any revenue as the event will be free. In that case, not making the most of our own tools. We ensure your marketing budget stretches to cover all the track multiple online engagement metrics for expected costs. If it doesn’t, consider charging a small events that we organize such as interactions, fee (this also helps increase commitment from those mentions and reach.” who RSVP, and reduce the dropout rate); or even seek Olivier Adam, another corporate partner to share the costs. Director of Online Revenue, EMEA, Hootsuite While these ten steps may seem like a lot, in reality, you should be able to run through them with your team in an hour. Trust us, taking the time to detail your event plan will definitely prove worth it. Once you’ve documented your event plan, you’ll then be on the right track to create an event that is beneficial to your business, your customers, and has all the right ingredients for success.
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 13 Five ways you can use social media to boost engagement and RSVPs for your next event
Help your attendees join in with an event hashtag Hashtags (#YourEvent) help attendees find others on You can keep things neat and organised by creating a social media who are talking about your event. When tab in your Hootsuite dashboard where you can nest coming up with a hashtag, choose one that isn’t already your event streams. in use by someone else, that is memorable (which usually means short), and that describes your event. Note: Watch this Hootsuite Tip video for a more in-depth look at adding tabs and streams to the Once you’ve picked your hashtag, make sure to include dashboard. it in all event-related content, even paper invitations or flyers, to make sure people know how to follow along “When we launched in Dublin, we packed the room full of event industry influencers, invited some top notch speakers and showed everyone a good time with nice food and drink. They responded by helping us to trend locally on Twitter for both #BriteLive & #LDLive.” Mark Walker, Head of Content Marketing, Eventbrite
Use Twitter lists to connect with speakers and sponsors You can sort people or brands that interest you into Twitter lists, which can be public or private. Once you’ve added a user to one of your Twitter lists, you can easily see what they’re posting and sharing.
Here’s a quick and easy how-to on adding Twitter lists For Hootsuite HootUps, event-goers use location specific hashtags like #HootUpNJ to your Hootsuite dashboard. When hosting an event, you can create public lists of your speakers, journalists, Your event hashtag makes up part of your social sponsors, and influencers. You can also create Twitter engagement metrics. To make tracking and monitoring lists of invited, prospective, and registered attendees, easy, you can create a unique search stream on and then engage with them by retweeting their Hootsuite to show you only the Tweets that mention the comments or mentioning them in your own Tweets. hashtag #YourEvent. Schedule content so you can spend But if attendees don’t know about your hashtag or more time engaging choose not to use it, you won’t see those Tweets in your When you’re busy planning an event—not to mention custom search stream, which is why we recommend your day-to-day job—you might not have the time to creating more search streams: one that shows your tweet. With Hootsuite, you can craft messages when @yourbrand mentions, one that pulls Tweets with it’s convenient for you and schedule them for later relevant keywords such as the name, time, and place of publication. your event, and also a stream that shows you common misspellings of all of the above.
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 14 Hootsuite Teams lets you invite others to collaborate TIP: You can choose when you would like each of but keeps you in total control. You can see and edit your messages to be published or you can have scheduled posts, make sure there are no duplicate AutoSchedule choose the best time. responses going out, and also assign social messages to a specific person on your team so that they are tasked
with replying to it. Track the impact of social media on RSVPs
Having an event hashtag is a great way to measure how excited people are about your event, but when it comes to actually following that through to registration, URL shorteners are your best bet.
Here’s a helpful blog that gives you a more detailed look at URL shorteners.
“Before you begin a social campaign, it’s
See and edit all scheduled messages in the Publisher view in important to set up a measurement strategy. your Hootsuite dashboard This way you can proactively measure success and quickly see the impact of your campaign For a look at all of your scheduled content, click on on your business’ ROI.” the Publisher view in the Hootsuite dashboard. From Marc Chaix, there, you’re able to edit your message, the date/time Senior eCommerce and Digital Analyst, Lululemon Athletica scheduled, and which networks you’d like to send to.
Learn more about how to schedule Tweets and save TIP: Before you create your shortened URL, make time. sure you have set up URL tracking parameters so that your data gets recorded. To learn how to do Working together on event planning so, follow our step-by-step checklist. If you want to ask colleagues or other contributors to
help with the social media activity for your event, you When you send out a social message about your can do so without giving out the passwords to any of event, use a shortened URL that directs people to your your social networks. registration page so that you can track how people “Social media is just one thing you need to interact with your message. If you’ve set up your URL think about when planning and running an tracking parameters, you’ll be able to see how you’re event. To make sure everything runs smoothly doing in terms of conversion. I recommend you have a checklist with your “With the new Hootsuite extension, users event’s running order on it, and ensure you can now extend the reach of their invitations have individuals assigned to each task that by amplifying over social media within the needs completing. Before the event begins, Eventbrite dashboard. The extension uses ask them to tell you what their responsibility Hootsuite’s Ow.ly URL shortener to help you is, just to make sure nothing has been lost in track which posts have produced the best translation.” results.” Mark Walker, Mark Walker, Head of Content Marketing, Eventbrite Head of Content Marketing, Eventbrite
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 15 Four things to do on social media while your event is happening
Now it’s the day of your event. You might be feeling equal parts excited and busy. To help you and your TIP: To encourage users to post on Instagram, team succeed, we have exclusive insights into how you consider setting up a photo booth and related can use social media to generate engagement during hashtag. As inspiration, check out the #HootSX your event—while cutting down on your stress. hashtag, created especially for SXSW.
Keep an eye on the conversation Once you’ve installed the Instagram app, you can set In your custom Twitter lists, set up: up a new tab in your Hootsuite dashboard to monitor a number of Instagram streams (your feed, photos tagged a search stream that shows you real-time online with #YourEvent hashtag) or you can set up a new conversations about your event stream under your main Event tab. a tab dedicated to your #EventHashtag
and how to set up Google Analytics to track excitement for your event
While your event is happening, it’s a great tactic to reach out to those people or brands you saw showing interest in your event (whether through Tweets, Likes, direct messages to @yourbusiness handle, etc.). Thank them for their support, and encourage them to continue engaging.
Below, we’ve outlined a few ways you can use social media to connect with event guests, speakers, and even non-attendees who are following along using #YourEvent hashtag.
Desktop apps for monitoring Instagram With more than 75 million daily active users, Instagram is a hugely popular image and video sharing app. A really easy way to keep track of the photos and videos being taken and shared at your event is through the Instagram app in the Hootsuite App Directory.
The app allows you to view and search for photos, view and add comments and likes, share photos to your social networks, and much more. Note: The Hootsuite Instagram app is currently only available for Desktop. Read this Instagram Hootsuite Tip for a quick primer on how to install and use the app.
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 16 Set up a HootFeed Share live event updates right from If you can hook up a screen or TV at your event, your phone consider setting up a HootFeed—a live Twitter stream When things are in full swing and your computer is out that you can customize to display every Tweet that of reach, you can still know what’s being said on social contains #YourEvent hashtag. media about your event. The Hootsuite mobile app, available for free on iOS, Android, and mobile web, gives A live “wall” of Tweets is a great way to bridge the online you all the insights you need on the go. and offline event experience for your guests. It also encourages attendees to use your hashtag and share After you’ve downloaded and installed the Hootsuite their experiences as your event is unfolding. mobile app on your phone, it will automatically show you the custom tabs and streams from your Hootsuite dashboard, so you don’t have to create a new dashboard from scratch.
If you’re working with a team, you can have someone monitor your tabs and streams in real-time. You can also assign social media messages to a team member or even yourself for follow up. For example, if an attendee needs to find an outlet to charge their laptop, they might tweet to ask for help using your handle or event hashtag. If you can’t answer them yourself, you can make sure they’re being taken care of by assigning their message to a team member.
For non-urgent messages that you’d like to follow up with in future, you can assign those to yourself and come back to them later.
Using the Hootsuite mobile apps, you can also turn on push notifications for your Android or iOS phone to keep yourself updated on social media messages happening in real time, such as:
Any time someone retweets one of your Tweets
When you have a new follower or when someone adds you to a public Twitter list
@mentions or direct messages to your social accounts
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 17 Three things you can do to keep engagement strong after your event is over
Even after it’s over, an event can do a lot to boost Get feedback visibility for your brand. After your event, remember to Depending on the type of event you had, you might also give yourself and your team major congratulations on find it useful to learn what your guests thought by asking your accomplishment, you can do a status check and: them to fill out a survey. Reflect on what worked—and what could have gone Use the SurveyMonkey app (which integrates directly better at your event with Eventbrite for ease of syncing your data) or the 123FormBuilder app for Hootsuite to create your Review your Google Analytics to see if you met the goals you set out to achieve survey and then share it with your social networks. You can also keep track of how many answers you have, Keep the conversation going on social media with the types of answers, and your results right from your sharable, useful content based on your event Hootsuite dashboard. Following up with event attendees Create a specific offer Thanking your guests, sponsors, and supporters is The follow-up email is also a great place to invite people a great way to wrap-up your event. If you collected to take a specific action - possible to trial your product business cards or already have contact information, you or service for free (or at a reduced price). can send thank-you notes in the mail, by email, or using social media. Ideally link it to the experience they had at the event, so it feels like a customer offer tailored to their interests. Eventbrite makes it super easy to sync your data with With them high on good feelings after the event, this is popular services like MailChimp and Aweber for larger the perfect time to present your product or service. event lists, or for smaller events you can send a thank- you email directly from your event management page.
Social networks such as Twitter or Linkedin help you reconnect with everyone who retweeted your messages, shared your posts, or engaged with your #YourEvent hashtag. As a bonus, this shows other followers that you’re actively engaging and open to dialogue.
Tip: Unless you choose to connect privately through a Direct Message (DM), your social media thank-yous are visible to all, so be sure not to copy/paste the same message. Vary your messages to deliver that personal touch: Thanks for coming, looking forward to the next one, Thank you for attending, Great seeing you there. [DESIGN: Screenshots of how to use the Storify app, please.] If you have any Tweets that you assigned to yourself to follow up on, now is a good time to reach out, engage and answer.
HOOTSUITE AND EVENTBRITE 18 Give your followers something to share Announce the next event As a result of the work you put into promoting your ‘Strike while the iron is hot’ goes the saying. The best event, you now have an engaged audience. Share time to announce a follow-up event is either on the day, presentation decks, facts, event photos, or even or the day immediately after, your current event. animated GIFs. Check out this GIF about how you can add GIFs on Twitter. Sometime a one-time interaction isn’t enough to close the deal with prospective customers, so line up a Find and share user-generated content from your event second, third or repeating series of events to keep them (by searching for your brand name, #YourEvent hashtag, coming back, engaging with your brand and building up your event name) and use the Storify app for Hootsuite enough trust before they become a customer. to capture and share your story by pulling together social content into a visual timeline that you can enrich with your own commentary.
Event attendees will enjoy having a look back at your Resources event, and anyone who couldn’t make it might take away Here are some additional resources to help you helpful information—and possibly make it a priority to set up your event with Eventbrite and Hootsuite. attend your next event. Small Budget? Try These 8 Low Cost Small Business Marketing Ideas
[Quiz] What Kind of Event Should Your Business Run?
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Start planning your event now! Get started with Eventbrite and Hootsuite today!
What is Hootsuite? What is Eventbrite? Find new customers, nurture the relationships you Eventbrite provides you with all the tools you need to already have, and grow your business. make your event a success. Eventbrite enables people all over the world to post create, share, host, and track Hootsuite Pro is a flexible solution tailored to fit all any event. your social media needs. You can manage, monitor, and measure your social activity from a single, secure Evenbrite ensures that everything runs smoothly for you dashboard. and your event attendees. Set your unqiue event page up in minutes and get the word out effortlessly. Collect View all of your social networks, streams, and scheduled payments online, manage tickets at the door, and track messages in one customizable place—with only one progress in real time. password to remember.
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