You’ve spent months developing a strategy to get people to share your event on Twitter. Maybe you’ve incorporated some of the ideas from BizBash's story on how to promote hashtags at an event, such as printing them on napkins or displaying them in the step-and-repeat. And it worked! Thousands of tweets about your event went streaming through the Twittersphere. But your work is only half done. Savvy social media strategists know how to harness the value of those tweets for the future. Here’s a list of 11 easy things you should do after an event.
1. Follow everyone who tweeted about your event. Social media is all about relationships, and following is an easy way to let people know you appreciate their participation. It also allows you keep up with what your attendees are sharing throughout the year. You can also group these people in a list—a good idea if you already follow many people—and, if you prefer, you can include people in a list without following them.
2. “Thank them for tweeting about the event, for example, ‘So glad you were there.’ Make sure to call them by name, and perhaps make a comment about where they are from. People think that isn’t important, but you would be amazed at how people react if you respond to their tweet and make it a bit more personal,” said Ted Rubin, chief social marketing officer at Collective Bias. Take it one step further by surprising top Twitterers with a prize such as a discount on future registration.
3. Connect on other social networks such as LinkedIn with some, if not all, of those who tweeted.
4. Respond (quickly) to anyone who tweeted a complaint or problem. Ask to continue the conversation via email to get a better understanding of the issue.
5. Measure the buzz. “It’s time to dig through those tweets and categorize them. How many were retweets? How many of them were tweets containing content from the event? What was the emotional sentiment of those tweets—favorable, not so favorable, in between? Who sent the most tweets? Take the time to analyze those tweets and provide some valuable information to the rest of your team. You'll be amazed and what you can learn about your customers by reviewing their Twitter stream,” said Jeff Hurt, executive vice president of Velvet Chainsaw Consulting.
6. Don’t forget to search for tweets mentioning your event's name but not using the official hashtag or your company’s Twitter handle. Several companies offer options for Twitter analytics tools.
7. Encourage your speakers to tweet about the event after it ends, sharing their impressions and links to their presentations.
8. “Create a Storify story and then share it. However, if you have a large volume of tweets, it won't be able to find them all after a day or two, so you have to create it throughout the event, and you can wait to share it at the end if you prefer,” said Elizabeth Glau, owner of Building Blocks Social Media.
9. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society 2012 conference achieved a record for tweets in a single day from a healthcare conference, according to researchers at Symplur, and the organization is hoping to expand the conversation at this year’s event. “The timeline to leverage this content should be extended post-conference for months after the event. If the content is compelling and valuable, it will be digested and shared and keep the conference buzz going,” said Cari McLean, social media manager for HIMSS Media. Some of her ideas include creating a slideshow of conference photos shared on Twitter and overlaying interesting tweets on conference photos to share on the event’s Facebook and Google Plus pages.
10. Share tweets on your Web site, in blog posts, and on marketing materials. Callaway Golf draped its booth at the P.G.A. Merchandise Show with huge poly-silk banners printed with customers’ comments gathered from Twitter, Facebook, emails, and in-person events, visually representing its slogan “Don’t Just Take Our Word For It.”
11. Keep the conversation going throughout the year. Ideally, those who tweeted about your event are now following you back (see tip No. 1), so use Twitter to keep these people engaged year-round. Ideas include Twitter chats, contests, previews of upcoming events, and registration discounts.
