DCI Event Guide: Let’s Get Digital
December 7, 2015 | By: DCI
With the venue selected, run of show finalized, and invitation responses tracked, destination marketers interested in deeply engaging event attendees must now develop and execute digital marketing strategies designed to further enhance the reach of their event planning efforts. Below are several digital integration tactics sure to impress stakeholders and event attendees alike:
Image Driven Engagement: We live in a 140-character, image-driven world. The easiest way to encourage social media sharing at your next event is to provide guests with a token they deem shareable. DMOs can tap digital photo booths and green screens to superimpose their event attendees in iconic scenes within their destinations. Printing services like Instaprint can physically print thousands of attendees’ photos aggregated by the selected hashtag to send guests home with a physical memento while promoting digital engagement. The team behind the Instaprint printing service recently launched Instaprint Mosaics – a large-scale physical mosaic created in real time during an event using user-generated images. The mosaics enhance branding and event décor while also inspiring attendees to share more photos.
Community Manager Overtime: Be sure to tap your Community Manager to engage with event attendees leading up to and throughout your event. Community Managers can use the brand’s social media channels to monitor event hashtag activity, reshare, favor and comment on posts. These simple digital touches will help grow your brand’s social media community long after the last event swag bag of the evening is distributed.
Hashtag #Everything: Make sharing easy for your guests by including the official event or brand #hashtag in invitations leading up to the event, on attendee nametags, cocktail napkins and event signage. Be sure to run a social media tracking report like Hashtracking or Keyhole following the event to playback digital exposure and engagement to stakeholders and the planning team.
Giveaways 2.0: Take your door prize raffle beyond the business card bowl and host a giveaway via social media. Event attendees will engage with the host brand and partners digitally during the event, with the appointed social media feed live streaming on a screen leading up to the giveaway. To learn more about hosting a social media giveaway, our partner Jay Baer at Convince & Convert outlines the 13 Ingredients in the Perfect Social Media Contest.
How does your DMO engage event attendees in the digital realm? Tweet us @aboutdci.