Full Service Social Media Marketing

How Social Got Us Noticed At An Event

Tessa-May Marr

July 21, 2017


So events. Big part of marketing. Big part of how brands connect with potential customers right?

What people think you need to make an impact at an event:

  • A keynote speaker slot
  • A bomb-ass presentation
  • A flashy booth (with a significant investment)
  • A huge team starting conversations with every passerby

Those things are great, but if you don’t have a big budget, a big team, a lot of time or a presentation slot at all, it’s okay! You can still make events work for you. I swear. And I’m going to tell you how.

These days, at events (or just all day erry day in life), people are staring at their phones. This is why it’s crucial brands be investing in social these days….

And events are no different. Yes - people are coming together in one physical location and yes, they might intend to have some real life, face-to-face conversations like it’s 1995. But I am willing to bet you, they’ll spend a good portion - like a really really good chunk of time - staring at their personal electronic devices.

I know. Take a minute here. Shake your head at how society has changed so much. And at how little we connect now IRL (that means in real life, and we say that because it’s shorter to text…) and how we focus mainly on connected via technology. Vent. Tsk tsk tsk. Go for it.

But now, get over it. And focus on how your brand can learn to operate and excel in this new age technology-obsessed world we’re in. Because a) you have to figure it out or you won’t be around long and b) because there are actually some really cool (and affordable) options to market this way! Check it.

Our team recently attended Social Media Week LA where we mingled with social media experts and gurus and even celebrities learning the latest and greatest in the field. It was jam-packed with information. (Seriously, we all spent the entire weekend that followed napping and watching The Real Housewives in bed. Not together… that would be weird.) Many people like us, who attend conferences like this (or on any topic with relevance to their jobs or lives) might be inclined to take notes so as to not forget all the juicy stuff. Then post event, they can revisit these notes and remind themselves of what they learned and start putting it into practice. Maybe they even share a few key takeaways with their team at a team meeting. Maybe. But then the reach stops there.

We change dit up a bit and took all of our “notes” via tweets. We even took behind the scenes videos where we shared the mind-blowing moments on camera to our Instagram followers. And broadcast live Facebook video from the very best sessions.

Why’d we do that?

Well for a few reasons:

  1. So that we could remember what we learned. (It’s easy to scroll back through your feeds or re-watch saved videos after it’s all over.)
  2. So that the information could reach more people! Why covet all that good stuff for just us? Feed the hungry minds!
  3. So that all these hungry minds consuming our social posts (and the info in them) started to remember our brand as being the smart, sassy and helpful brand that we are.

Genius, right?

With live tweet streams broadcast onto large screens all around the conference, our logo was getting screen-time on the main stage. Before and after every session! All the inquiring minds sitting side by side waiting for Mr. Keynote to step out and wow them were consuming our brand while they waited. And guess what we paid for that screen time?

Nada. Ziltch. Zero. Twas free, you could say.

(Well, that’s not entirely true. We did have to incur the conference attendee expenses like travel, registration and extra battery packs to charge our devices - but so did everyone, so that doesn’t count.)

And then guess what else happened? My team has these awesome red and black tote bags that I had made with our brand embroidered on the side. They’re super functional and snazzy and so we actually all use them regularly when we’re out and about. (Free merch advice: If you don’t make stuff people actually want to use, you’ve wasted your mula.)

So here we were at this particular event, of course all sporting our matching bags. Without our snazzy black and red totes, no one would have known that we were the Mad Medians behind our phones. But with them in tow, can you imagine what happened?

People approached us! We got to hang out at cocktail hour stirring our gin-infused drinks and people just walked right up to say hi, congratulate us on our hilarious GIFs (included with many of our tweets) and even to ask us professional questions! Here we were, being approached as social media experts at an event like this. And did we have to get up on stage and brag about how much we knew or tell people all about our company and our success - they knew already (or assumed, anyway) because they followed a tweet.

Our tweets bought us authority.

And all we were really doing was taking notes.

Bam.

How impressed are you right now?!

How much do you want to book us to “live tweet” your next industry event so that your brand too can stand out just like ours did? Well you’re in luck. We do offer those services. So go on, click to learn more.

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