Social media ideas

October 1, 2013

Crowds gathered inside AT&T's tent at the N.C.A.A. Lacrosse Championships in Philadelphia in May to watch the company's "Twitter balloon" gradually inflate as people tweeted using the hashtag #ATTLAX.

Photo: Courtesy of Team Epic

Topshop hung monitors made to look like birdhouses inside its Oxford Circus store during London Fashion Week. As images from its fashion show played on the screens, the monitors shared "chirps"—brief birdsong-like sounds that activated data on nearby mobile devices running the Chirp app.

Photo: Courtesy of Topshop

GPS data can help planners understand which parts of a trade show received the most traffic.

Photo: Brandon Dowling for BizBash

Organizers, like those behind this year's Cisco Live conference in Orlando, now take social media feedback—and the integration of it at an event—more seriously, dedicating spaces and staff to monitoring and responding to posts from attendees.

Photo: Mitra Sorrells/BizBash

Lacoste provided colorful beach towels for guests who tweeted about the event.

Photo: D. Channing Muller for BizBash

Esteban Contreras is director of strategy for Sprinklr. He is also the author of the book Social State: Thoughts, Stats and Stories about the State of Social Media in 2013, and a former social media manager for Samsung.

Photo: Courtesy of Sprinklr

Photo: Courtesy of Gary Vaynerchuk

Photo: Courtesy of Altimeter Group

Photo: BizBash

4. Grey Goose

Earlier this month, Grey Goose hosted a launch party for its new Cherry Noir flavor at Thompson Hotel in Toronto. At the event, guests could use Instaprint, a location-based photo booth for Instagram designed with a specific hashtag, to print out keepsake photos. Some 365 images were printed out on site, but using the hashtag #cherrynoir, guests created more than 131,000 social media impressions that night.

Photo: George Pimentel

7. Tiffany

In November, Tiffany & Company hosted an in-store party in New York to celebrate the launch of its Tumblr page. At the event, live feeds from the brand's Instagram and Twitter feeds were projected onto the walls via Postano. Launched in 2011, Postano is a social media visualization tool that's designed to help brands leverage social and digital marketing content to build branded communities. Through Postano, brands can aggregate multiple social media feeds and then style the content to match the brand's presentation standards. The platform then lays the result out in a completely customizable format and automatically syndicates it across Web sites, Facebook tabs and apps, and more. It is also one of the only tools that aggregates social content for brands across all of their owned channels, including Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and more. A live Postano feed allows clients to easily pull in content whether by selected accounts or hashtags, monitor the content, and then have it instantaneously displayed.

Photo: Courtesy of Tiffany

Photo: Aaron Davidson

Some eateries offered less traditional submissions, like Marc Murphy of Ditch Plains, who served a Sabrett hot dog on a roll, topped with a dollop of lobster mac 'n' cheese.

Photo: Nadia Chaudhury/BizBash

Tagstand provided N.F.C.-enabled wristbands that allowed guests to vote for their favorite roll with a tap of their wrists.

Photo: Kat Cheng

Guests could also opt to link the bracelets to their social media accounts, allowing them to tap the prox cards against signage to check in on Facebook, tweet preset phrases, win a V.I.P. gift bag, or download the official Rumble playlist.

Photo: Nadia Chaudhury/BizBash

The GT Academy area was based on Nissan’s virtual-to-reality contest that allowed players of Sony’s Gran Turismo Playstation game to become race drivers. At the Geneva Show, Nissan set up simulation pods where guests could play the game and share a photo of the experience on their social networks.

Photo: Courtesy of Nissan

Toronto firm Bensimon Byrne created a social media activation, dubbed the "Bird Box," for the event.

Photo: Stefania Yarhi

At four locations around Bonnaroo, concertgoers could swipe their wristbands to take a photo that would post to their Facebook accounts.

Photo: Erika Goldring

Photo: Charley Gallay/WireImage.com

Instant Feedback

Interactive marketing display company ZoomKube has launched the ZK100, a stand-alone touch-screen kiosk that allows consumers to interact with a brand while it captures real-time feedback, such as information accessed and time spent. The portable display is designed for use at events, product launches, and conventions, and includes customizable software, a built-in camera, social media sharing, badge-scan capability, and a heat or air-conditioning unit for outdoor use. The product is available to rent for around $10,000 per event.

Photo: Courtesy of ZoomKube

1. Write It on the Wall

A simple way to draw attention to an official hashtag is to place a call to action on a wall. Promotions like Wired magazine's pop-up, which took place in New York last November, used wall decals to encourage consumers to promote the store while on-site.

Photo: Jika González/BizBash

3. Make It Larger Than Life

Increasingly common at events is the use of large video screens to display Twitter chatter. For the "Shops at Target" launch in New York on May 1, the producers took advantage of the IAC Building's 120-foot-long video wall to magnify posts marked with #TheShopsatTgt.

Photo: Nilaya Sabnis

4. Provide a Memento

Services like Instaprint are popping up at many affairs, proving popular with guests as a tangible record of their active social media use. At a fashion show held by USA Network in New York, even the wall the machines were mounted on sported the hashtag, motivating curious attendees to snap a photo and post it via Instagram.

Photo: David X Prutting/BFAnyc.com

5. Make Staffers Wear It

Staffers are a common sight at events, and some event producers have put hashtags on the outfits worn by greeters, caterwaiters, or even hosts. In February, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival advertised its official Twitter phrase on the T-shirts worn by participating chefs like Rocco DiSpirito.

Photo: Elizabeth Renfrow for BizBash

7. Place It at Entry Points

Just as common as a red carpet are the rope-and-stanchion barricades that denote an entrance or V.I.P. area. Among the ways the Art Gallery of Ontario displayed the hashtag for its annual Massive Party fund-raiser on April 19, was the use of small signs placed atop stanchions.

Photo: Emma McIntyre for BizBash

12. Print It on Functional Items

A more subtle approach is to use the hashtag on the cocktail napkins. The organizers of Travel & Leisure's first Social Media in Travel & Tourism Awards (the Smittys) in New York on June 7 made sure attendees saw the hashtag when grabbing a bite from a passing waiter or when taking a cocktail from the bar.

Photo: Anna Sekula/BizBash

One of the most popular features of the hub was the photo booth, where guests could pick up props related to the day’s theme and have photos taken with the Nokia Lumia 1020, which features a 41-megapixel camera. To encourage social interaction, attendees could tweet or Instagram their snaps with the hashtag #MsftAW for the chance to win V.I.P. tickets to see DJs Avicii and Cazzette spin at Microsoft’s Wednesday night Advertising Week event.

Photo: Nadia Chaudhury/BizBash

Photo booths, like the one used at the February Billboard relaunch party in New York, that encourage guests to share moments from an event to social networks can help boost R.O.I.

Photo: Courtesy of Track Marketing Group