You may have a great social media strategy for your event. You may have pithy and meaningful posts. But, are you the only one promoting them? Are you crossing your fingers and relying on chance retweets to amplify your message? Event organizers need to take a more proactive approach to make sure that social media becomes, well.....social.
Creating a set of event ambassadors does not mean hiring a whole new team, it means tapping into the people already in your network. Event ambassadors are people who are invested in some way in the success of your event. It is up to you to find those with good social network reach and make it easy for them to amplify your message. First, let's look at who can be an ambassador:
- Sales People - sales people, whether related to event sales or product sales are inherently plugged into numerous networks. Have them promote your event via their social profiles and post to LinkedIn and Facebook groups that fit your target attendee audience.
- Exhibitors - your exhibitors count on your event to draw a large crowd of qualified leads. Make them part of the process - have them reach out to their networks. Make sure you're in touch with both the marketing and communication departments/leads in the company to ensure you have the access to the right people to post your message.
- Speakers - being chosen to speak at an event provides a good level of cache and validation for your speakers. Encourage them to promote their participation to personal (you never know, their high school prom date may fit your attendee profile) and professional networks. Get in touch with their communications team to make sure they are aware of the speaking slot and can promote using corporate networks.
Now that you've identified your ambassadors, how do you make sure they pass on your message? It is important to look at the type of information you are putting out. Is it something fun that your ambassadors would want to share? Do they have to rewrite it to make it sound like it is coming from a human and not the press release generator machine? You may want to start a weekly email that highlights the week's posts on social media. Include links to the original posts and encourage these ambassadors to share the posts with their networks. You can even include ideas for their own individualized posts, encourage speakers and exhibitors to tease out some of the key messages/highlights they will share at the show. Ask them to post pictures of their preparation. When you see their posts, return the favor and share with your networks. Make it easy and even (dare I say,) fun to share news about your event and you'll quickly build not only a following, but a support system.
Image: We are social people
