Display Your Social Media at Your Event
This story was originally posted on Publing Blog (https://www.publing.co/blog/social-media-display-at-your-event/)
Social Media Display, also known as Social Wall and Social Media Wall, is the trending marketing strategy to live stream your or your sponsor’s social media content. Social Walls are suitable for almost all types of events and it is an affordable solution to promote your business and also your social feed. Social media is more effective if you find a way to engage with your customers, therefore any method to increase social media engagement is a potential benefit to your business. You can use screens or projectors to display the official Facebook or Twitter feed of the event, speakers’ Twitter feeds, sponsor’s Instagram feed or the most important one to display user-generated content. We have mentioned before the importance of user-generated content, so it is also an opportunity for the event planners to use it. The more people sharing about your event, the bigger benefit you will gain from the social media for the event. For further information about Social Media Display please check our “What is Social Media Display” blog.
Why is it Important to use Social Media Display for an event?
Social Media is an important asset for marketers these days. When one of your attendees posts something, it reaches to all of his/her friends, followers and fans. So by setting a Social Media Display you can engage more of your attendees to post about your event and the more they will post, the more people you will reach. Social Media Display is an amazing tool to inform your attendees and also to get huge numbers of engagement rate.
How to use Social Media Display for Events?
Let’s see how you can use Social Walls to promote your events.
Setting a Hashtag and Displaying the User Generated Content over this Hashtag
People love to share. But sometimes they might not know which channel and which hashtag to use. By setting a Hashtag you can drive them to the correct channel and Hashtag. And when they see that the social feed is on the big screen, another thing which they love will start to control them, the fame. The 15 seconds of fame will drive more to share and will drive them to share more. Free PR for your event. Isn’t it fascinating?
Highlighting Branded Content
Social Media Displays are the attention centres on the events. So you can use them to engage your attendees. Simply displaying your Facebook Page, Twitter feed and Instagram feed so your attendees won’t miss what is going on the event and also by highlighting the Branded Content will make them see what you want them to see.
Promoting Sponsor’s Content
Event planners are having hard times to find sponsors for the events. One of the frequently asked questions from the sponsors to the event planners is “what is there for me?” Social Walls or displaying the social feed on the screens is giving you another opportunity to market to your sponsors so they can promote the content they would like to. Since the Social Walls are customisable you can put your sponsor’s Facebook page, YouTube videos or whatever they are willing to display to your attendees.
Including 3rd Parties to the Event
When you use the social walls, you will get the freedom to include any party around the world to the event. So you won’t be limited to use the content only from the speakers and the attendees. You can include 3rd parties to the event easily.
Having a Modern Way for Q&A Part: Displaying it on the Social Display
On some events, attendees might want to ask some questions to the speakers. You know this moment when you want to ask a question, but the microphone is far far away, or you are too shy to ask this question. So by running the social displays for Q&A, you would enable your attendees to ask any question they like over social media. Just drive your attendees to use the hashtag you set. This for sure, eases the Q&A part and also brings free PR for your event.
Where to Set up Social Media Display at your Events?
No matter if you are planning an event for 50 or 10.000 you should pay attention to the position of the social media displays. Here are some examples for you to set up your social media display.
Entrance of the Event
The entrance of the event is one of the best places to place your social media display. First of all everyone will, for sure, pass through and see the display. Secondly, when you place your display to the lobby of your event it will increase the excitement and motivate your attendees to post about the event and jump into the conversations. Don’t forget to drive them to your hashtags so you can increase hashtag engagement and social visibility.
Digital Signages
Signages have always been a part of the events. Even printed media was pretty useful so you can expect way better than the digital signages. Place your social media display on a signage among the event information, schedules, last updates and the advertisements and be sure your social media display will be seen. The most important point is designing the display to fit the overall aesthetic of your event.
Stage of The Event
Stages are the attention centers where everyone looks. Therefore it is a great place to set up your display. Just be sure that you won’t steal all the attention from the speaker. You can either use sides of the stage or top to place your display so your attendees can check the social media display while listening to the speaker.
Lounges
You might lose some attendees’ attention on the lounges. So you should convert lounges into social lounges where they can rest without disconnecting from the event. If you drive them to your hashtags, they would post pictures and comments on their free time.
After Party Locations
The whole point of having an after party is networking. Attendees are more relaxed and tend to have fun. It is when selfies with new friends and co-workers start to being taken so why wouldn’t you put a social media display there to use these selfies to increase social visibility and user-generated marketing material for your possible next event.
Creative Ways of Social Media Displays
There is no bad place for social media displays but some displays are located really, really good. Let’s see the masterpieces of social media displays.
AutoShow 2015
Autoshow has always been a great place to engage with customers and Opel used it wisely. Opel wanted from the Attendees of AutoShow 2015 to post pictures over the #opelshow hashtag. They also installed a social wall to their stand and put the social wall onto their website to increase engagement
Mobile World Congress
On the Mobile World Congress, a surprise was waiting for the attendees. A giant balloon was set up to display the social media. However, the balloon was a unique social wall, the style of the display was also pointing that it is a Microsoft product.
Nike Running Flatiron Store
Nike installed two social media displays into its one of the most popular stores. On these screens, Nike is showing products and also the user generated content from Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. It is not only engaging with customers but also promoting the #NikeRunning and #RunWithUs Hashtags.
