Coming at You Live: Nailing Live Social Media Coverage for Events
Live events are a great opportunity for businesses to talk to potential customers face-to-face. If you sell a physical product, it lets them get up close and watch live demonstrations. If your business is more service-based, you can strike up meaningful conversations, skipping all that preliminary emailing and phone tag that comes with exploring a new business relationship.
Live events are also a chance to build general excitement around your brand; however, the value extends beyond in-person interactions — you can leverage your own social media accounts for further reach. Now, whether people are directly in front of your booth, table, or pop-up, or watching through their phones, they’re getting to know your company.
So, how do you nail live social media coverage?
(You) Wish You Were Here
Great event coverage isn’t just about recapping the event; it’s about making people WISH they were there. (FOMO, anyone?) But it’s for the people who are there, too! People want to share their photos, engage with other people’s content, get a behind-the-scenes scoop, reminisce when they get home, or check up on a product or service that intrigues them. In other words, it’s about creating a buzz.
Before covering a live event on your social media accounts, run through the following list and make sure your bases are covered:
Cover it in shifts, if necessary
If this is a whole-day or multi-day event, make sure you have someone there at all times. That means creating a schedule for your team, assigning different shifts so nothing slips through the cracks.
Plan a loose cadence for posting
What social media do you have? Let’s say you’re on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. How many posts/Stories/videos do you want to post on each platform per hour? Have a number you want to hit. There’s room to be flexible, but it helps to have a structure.
Create pre-event content
Don’t just start covering an event without having put in some forethought. Plan a few posts ahead of time based on what you know about the event. For example, maybe you’re having a live demonstration at 3pm. Write the copy ahead of time and even schedule it using software like SEMRush. You can always add a candid photo to the post before it is published.
Focus on the visuals
Let your creativity flow when it comes to taking pictures and video. For the record, you don’t need to be a professional photographer to cover a live event on social media. Snap some candid pictures, behind-the-scenes shots, customer photos (with their permission), and product photos. Pan the room with a Boomerang! Add some music! Film a quick Q&A!
Make a memorable event hashtag
Creating an event hashtag makes it much easier for people to find a collection of the content you’ve posted at the event. It also makes it easier for you to engage with people using the same hashtag. In the same vein, you could also make a customized Snapchat filter for the event!
Interact with attendees virtually
When it comes to marketing, one of the best parts about events is all of the user-generated content it creates! Encourage people to engage with you online (and continue to engage with you throughout the event and beyond) by liking, commenting on, and resharing posts from attendees! This not only helps to create more buzz around your event and brand, but it also helps generate more content you’ll be able to use in future marketing efforts.
Recap the event
Event marketing isn’t over as soon as the party shuts down. Once you’ve had time to go through all of the content you created and curate user-generated content, put together an event recap! Show the highlights of the event and provide links to products and/or services that were featured. You could even take this time to ask for feedback on the event from attendees!
The Benefit of Live Events Coverage
Covering a live event your business or nonprofit organization is hosting doesn’t have to be intimidating. It’s fairly low-cost, but it can have a high impact, driving awareness, contributing to brand value, assisting account growth, and creating cost-effective content. The content around this event also has a long shelf life and can be used for years to come!
When You Work With Cosmitto
Building buzz around an event can be tough, but it comes from a passion for your work and a desire to share your story and unique selling points — you know, those details that set you apart from your competition! At Cosmitto, our content creation team puts storytelling first through blog posts, newsletters, and of course, social media management and live events coverage. To get our recommendations on marketing for your next event, reach out!