How to maximise social media at your next event

It goes without saying that many of us spend a lot of time on our phones digitally scrapbooking the moments of our lives for our family, friends and followers.

Whether it’s sharing our treat of the week or annoying our friends as we try to snap the perfect foodie shot, social media is pretty much a no brainer.

While it seems natural to use it personally, it’s easy to overthink the ways in which we can maximise its influence, especially when it comes to events.

Using social media correctly has the potential to reach a mass audience, creating a buzz around your event for your guests and generating traffic to your website or social channels.

The Mighty Hashtag

One important thing to note about hashtags is to use them sparingly. It can be easy to assume that you need to fill your posts with hashtags, but that’s not always the case. For example, just using the word ‘Cardiff’ in your post will show in search results, even without the hashtag or cluttering your post.

A simple way to create a social media buzz is to create one visible and memorable hashtag for your event, allowing your guests to share their favourite moments, even if they’re not following each other.

By creating a hashtag from the very start of your event planning it will serve numerous purposes. It can first be used to advertise the event itself and encourage people to start talking about the event before it even happens. It is important to make your hashtag visible at the event itself, you can do this by printing it on posters, leaflets, or menus. When a hashtag is strategically placed around a venue, it’s a visual reminder for people to share their evening on social.

Even when the event has taken place the hashtag will still be used, perhaps in conversations on social media about the event or when people who attended the event upload their own photos.

Once a hashtag has been established it’ll be used across the three main social media platforms; Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, which will effectively allow your event to drum up plenty of awareness.

Top tip: If you’re using more than one hashtag on Instagram, post the hashtags in the comments, this will hide them from your followers unless they click and keep your post looking clean and simple.

One last thing: Make it fun. People love a clever hashtag, so have a creative brainstorm and see what you can come up with.

Do it for the ‘Gram

People are visual creatures and we enjoy documenting our lives visually, which is why Instagram is so popular, we just all love to double tap an aesthetically pleasing photo. While it always helps to have a witty, clever caption, Instagram eliminates the necessity of words, because after all, a picture speaks a thousand words. That said, we always find a good caption works wonders for engagement!

However, to upload a simple photo on Instagram isn’t enough anymore, it must be visually pleasing and considered ‘Insta-worthy’. In order to capture the perfect Instagram post people often take pictures purely with the intention of ‘just doing it for the gram’. This means composition, angles and colouring are all important, so a shaky selfie just won’t cut it.

At your event you can easily incorporate photo opportunities that people can use for their social media accounts, such as themed walls or areas of the event, or by using some of the below.

Selfie frames are a great and fun photo opportunity that people can take with their friends and can be designed for whatever theme matches your event. Another fun photo opportunity is a photo booth, which come with a mix of props to use such as wigs, glasses, hats and accessories which make a perfect (and sometimes embarrassing) photo opportunity. Photo booths also provide tangible memories of the evening as people can take photos home with them and find the digital snaps online later.

You can also opt for a practical prop, such as oversized deck chairs or Christmas sleighs, which can also be designed specifically for your event. You’ll often see these photo opportunities at festivals or Winter Wonderland attractions, and snapping a selfie becomes a “must do” activity in itself.

Whack a filter on it

To encourage people at your event to use social even more why not create a Snapchat or Facebook Geofilter? A Geofilter is used like a normal filter when taking a photo on each app, but it is only available at a specific location or event for a limited time and is also surprisingly cost effective. Geofilters are the perfect way to make any occasion even more special, it also adds exclusivity to your event as only guests can use the filter.

By incorporating these 3 easy but effective techniques into your event planning, you’ll be sure to maximise the use of social media at your next big event which will drive attention and engagement to your own social media platforms.

For more event advice or information on holding events with us, get in touch.