BEST NEW SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR EVENT PLANNERS

As a guest blogger for Elitemeetings.com, I shared my thoughts on the best new social media platforms for event planners.

It seems that every time we get caught up with the “latest and greatest”, the masses have moved to a new social network and we are left confused and feeling behind again. Thankfully, the influencers in our industry are taking the reins and trying out new platforms before they even become popular. If we look to their success, we should be able to figure out which platforms are best for us to leverage in the coming months.

I suppose you can say it’s a good sign if you feel a bit behind– at least it that you are aware that the trends are moving. We are all busy so we don’t necessarily have tons of time to start a new account on every social network that pops up or even to stay up-to-date on the latest tech news. So, to help you out, here is a quick primer on a few social platforms you definitely should be trying for your events.

INSTAGRAM AND PINTEREST
While these social platforms certainly aren’t anything new, there are many event brands who should be doing much more to leverage these networks. I think much of the events industry is still focused on Twitter, and while that is a great platform for exchanging information, it seems that the community building and engagement has left the building as far as Twitter is concerned. Instead, we are seeing brands finding huge engagement on more image-driven platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. You should be sharing your event images through Pinterest boards, showing behind the scenes footage of your events on Instagram, and leveraging images more and more to engage your audience.

PERISCOPE AND MEERKAT
Video is the next frontier and it is taking the events industry by storm. Not only should you be collecting more videos from your events and sharing them on the various social networks, but you should leverage video-driven live stream platforms like Periscope and Meerkat as well. These simple platforms allow users to share video live streamed from their phone and are a great way to engage your audience. Let’s say you’re hosting a conference. You can assign one of your staff members to interview people behind the scenes on Periscope, take questions from the audience for one of your sessions via Meerkat and archive the videos for later use. I think we can use these platforms strategically to share portions of our conferences and events to entice new attendees to attend the event next time. Think of it as a marketing and engagement tool.

BLAB
For those of you looking to engage with your audience more personally and more regularly then say, an annual conference, this new platform is very interesting. Think of it like a better form of Google hangouts with more engagement and easier social media sharing tools. I think this is a great tool for regular chats with your audience throughout the year or even interviews with speakers for your upcoming conference to help you market and sell tickets. There is a high level engagement on these video chats and I think it’s a great way to leverage a Twitter audience you’ve already built and engage more people across other social networks.

Photo credits: Soze Soze / Shutterstock.com, Shutterstock.com, Meerkat