5 Reasons to Include a Social Wall at Your Next Virtual Event
Dominique Martinez
Jan 6, 2022 10:04:12 AM
For example, we use LinkedIn to make announcements, Facebook to create event pages, and Instagram to share visual content.
But social media strategy should not be only about creating and distributing content across social media platforms. It also needs to engage attendees before, during, and after the event, inspiring them to share the word and create social proof for your brand.
You need to make sure people are talking about your event. The best way to do so is to create a social wall that collects and displays all the content around your event, including your posts, user-generated content (UGC) from various social media platforms, and even attendees’ selfies, taken in a virtual booth.
A social wall allows you to pull together your social media efforts and use them to drive registrations, engage and entertain your audience during the event, and create a positive brand image for future events. Here are a few ideas for how you can use a social wall to create an unforgettable event experience for your attendees every step of the way.
One of the best ways to promote your event is to show how excited the audience is about it. After all, people are more likely to believe other people than an old-school advertising campaign.[1] Get your audience to engage with your event online by asking for user-generated content with the event hashtag and offering incentives to sweeten the deal. Once you capture UGC, use it as a free promotional tool to reach wider audiences.
Don’t forget about your speakers. Smart event organizers include their speakers in promotional campaigns early on to leverage their individual social media audiences. Ask speakers to share and engage with the event and potential attendees online and, in return, introduce them to the audience by creating engaging content featuring them, such as short Q&A videos.
49% of marketers say that audience engagement is the most significant contributing factor to having a successful event.[2] Meanwhile, many virtual events severely lack engagement and interaction because the audience’s role has not been translated well from offline to online. You need to turn your online attendees into active participants and create conversations between speakers and the audience.
Social media is a great tool because most of your attendees are already active on it anyway. So all you need to do is run a real-time social media feed and put your attendees in the spotlight. From what we’ve seen, people tend to gather around social walls to check out whatʼs going on with other attendees or find their own posts showing up.
To make a social wall more effective, try extending your usual set of event activities to social media to engage your audience and generate more UGC. For example, run contests under the condition that content must be posted on Twitter, create custom filters to flood your wall with fun selfies, and much more.[3]
Although versatile, the social media approach doesn’t suit every kind of event. It excludes attendees who want to keep their social media profiles private or simply have none at all. However, it shouldn’t stop you from making your event as social as possible.
Some social wall providers, such as Walls.io, have features that allow attendees to submit their images, videos, and text messages directly to the wall, bypassing social media.[4] Combined with social media content, it creates an authentic, truly social feed.
Adding fun, interactive elements to virtual event venues has been one of the major challenges for event planners. To give your attendees something to have fun with in between sessions, try connecting your social wall to a virtual photo booth.
Believe it or not, people love creating and sharing content. Displaying branded selfies on a real-time social wall during virtual or hybrid events will help you build a sense of community and connect speakers and sponsors with the audience.
It only takes a few clicks to take, style, and post a selfie to a social wall, and together with social media posts, it creates a great content mix for your event. Of course, the easier you make the process, the higher the chances are that your attendees will actively participate and produce lots of branded content for you. Luckily, with 6Connex integrations with Walls.io and Snapbar, you can easily set up your social photo booth.[5]
60% of virtual event organizers use social media to drive registrations.[2] With UGC, you can take a step further in building up the hype around the event by allowing your community to advocate for you. Once again, a happy attendee is a great promotional source for your event.
For recurring events, build excitement by capturing how much people enjoyed the last one. Collect their selfies, social media posts, and praise statements on a social wall and embed it on your registration page.
Ask people to share their excitement about purchasing the ticket by setting up a social photo booth on the purchase confirmation page where they can take a selfie and even share it on their social media. The key here is to start interacting with your attendees as early as possible to secure a memorable event experience at every step of the way.
In a world of virtual and hybrid events, social media has the potential to bridge the gap between your brand and its community. A solid social media strategy should focus on event promotion and help you connect your attendees, speakers, and sponsors. A social wall empowers you to do just that before, during, and after the event. It delivers the best results when embedded into a reputable virtual event platform, such as 6Connex. You'll see our very own 6Connex social wall, in which you can interact with below.
Sources:
1. Walls.io - User Generated Content Guide for Marketers