4 ways to use social media at conference

As we all know, social media has become an important asset in the business world. Whether it is for a company’s promotion or for the establishment of a brand’s image and story, you really can’t pass on it. There are several ways for your business or organization to acquire a meaningful social media presence, one of them is conferences, yes, you heard it right.

We usually look at conferences as a way to share information with an audience, rather than a way to interact with them. Well look at it this way : the more you encourage debate and exchange the more you will receive feedback and impact your attendees.

Now, here are four ways to use social media at conference.

1. Come up with a #hashtag

Make it short and sweet, but make it right. This is the most simple and efficient way to locate all the posts related to your event on social media. Once you found the magic word(s), encourage the participants to ask questions and post picture via Twitter and Instagram while using the hashtag.

2. One, two, tease

Use your hashtag on every social media platform before, during and after your conference. Have your guest speakers promote your conference for you by teasing some of the content on their social media accounts, using the dedicated hashtag, of course. Create an event on platforms like Facebook Events or Eventbrite, as a constant reminder for potential attendees. Create challenges and contests that will increase engagement and excitement for the event.

3. Use social walls

The secret to high audience interaction is the use of social walls during conferences. Make sure you display screens with social media feeds via an aggregator like Dialogfeed during the Maker Faire Paris 2016 or the Bpi Inno Generation . This will contribute to the fun and social side of the event and it will encourage shy participants to engage in the discussion and also share pictures.

4. Create visual experiences

In addition to, displaying social media feeds, get a photo booth. It’s a remarkable way to stand out and amuse your public. Also, make sure that your attendees can directly post their pictures on social medias and tag them with the dedicated hashtag. It’s a very subtle way to create user generated content.

5. Bonus tip : Provide free Wi-Fi

It’s true that nowadays pretty much everybody has their own Internet connection through 4G or 3G but things can get complicated when your attendees come from foreign countries. This should be a crucial point when choosing your venue. To avoid any bad surprise, talk about it with your venue provider. And don’t forget to share the password because as the famous entrepreneur Guy Kuwasaki said : “the password-protected network is the enemy of social media buzz”.