Social media is a now a must for all events, including exhibitions. It gives a port-of-call for attendees to contact and gives you the opportunity to reach your audience in just one click. Used correctly it can help to make the exhibition a success.
Below are our tips on how to increase your social media engagement:
Create your hashtag/keyword
To be able to monitor the effectiveness of your social engagement, a single term must be made which will join comments together. The social media platforms Twitter and Instagram use hashtags to connect conversations around an event. For ease of use and to make it identifiable, the hashtag should be short, for example an acronym with the year of the event.
The hashtag shouldn’t only be for social posts, you should make it physical; tote bags, pens, notepads etc should all have the hashtag on them. Making your keyword hands-on with a giant hashtag stand not only makes visitors aware of the hashtag but also provides the popular photograph scene.
Make it shareable
For attendees to participate on social media it is important to post content which they will want to share. It’s the perfect situation for the organiser when attendees take photos and tweet the event hashtag – however, time restraints mean that most participants aren’t willing to fulfil the event’s social media ambitions.
For this reason, it is especially important to offer a regular output of good quality content. An example of this would be a photo of the opening of the exhibition alongside a friendly welcoming message containing your chosen hashtag.
Include games and contests
Contests increase engagement in a number of ways; increase exposure and conversations, adds a viral element, gathers attendee content, and it can grow your social following. Competitions are always well received, there are endless possibilities of how you could provide a competition. Try and entwine posting on social media with the hashtag and make the prize relevant to the theme of the exhibition.
Respond and answer
Nothing can beat a helpful online conversation, whether it’s providing information or responding to a complaint – this should always be done quickly and effectively. If the event is shown to be active on social media, it is expected to receive a response. All social media channels should be regularly monitored so you can keep in contact with attendees.
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