Smartphone Picture Nation

In case you missed it, one of the most adorable moments in social media happened last Friday – the day that Batkid came alive! It was a huge win for humanity and brought together people from all over the country to applaud the dreams fulfilled of a little boy who has suffered from leukemia. In case you missed it, here’s the full recap, but based on the number of people tweeting about it, I’m pretty sure most people are aware of what happened.

The story was incredibly sweet, but there was another thing that caught my eye as well. Did you see the background of every single picture taken that day? There was a sea of participants in the background all aiming for the best shot taken from their smart phone. Sure enough, we have become a picture nation. Having your smartphone at your fingertips gives you the ability to capture every single moment in life. From the food you eat to precious moments like the batkid, our entire country has become obsessed with taking photos of everything that we do.

I think there are people on both sides of this issue. Some who think that we have become too obsessed with this trend and take pictures of two many needless things. Then, there are others like me, who think that this is one of the greatest trends to hit our society. Capturing memories and special moments has become the status quo. From special moments with your family to exciting moments at an event, everything can be cataloged and saved for viewing at a future date.

So what are we doing with all these photos that are at our events? Here are a few quick ideas.

– Brand your event. Think of what people will take pictures of and make sure your brand is there clearly.
– Get your audience involved. Encourage your attendees, speakers, sponsors and partners to take pictures and share them on social media using a hashtag.
– Use a Live Feed to share attendee photos.
– Create a Pinterest board to share behind-the-scenes photos.
– Take headshots of your speakers and combine it with a quote from them to create images that are easy to share.
– Use an Instagram printing station so your attendees can print out their favorite pictures.
– Host a photo booth where attendees can take crazy pictures with props and take home the printed photos.

What other things have you done? How can we better use pictures to engage our audience and leverage social media to make a viral impact?