Thousands of people attend live events, whether in person or online, and to get the most out of them it is very important that your brand applies good social listening skills. In addition to being useful for managing the reputation of a brand, product or event and measuring the results of public opinion, social listening tools on social networks also track data, which can have a great impact on incident management. In general, events are about generating desire and “hype” to sell tickets, these actions are carried out mainly online through traditional media and social networks.
Therefore, it is very important to implement social listening in event planning. It can directly affect the performance of the event and increase the probability of a successful outcome.
Before the development of the event you can…
Be sure to use active listening on social media weeks or even months before the event date. Many times, users share the things they would most like to see at the event or concert, or even good and bad experiences from the last few years. With this information you will be able to discover potential opportunities or problems before the event itself. Whether you’re just starting to gather ideas for future events or in the process of planning an event, researching ahead of time means you can participate more effectively in the future and create a higher quality overall event.
Use social listening to choose the theme of your event
If you’re not sure where to start when choosing a theme for your event, active listening on social media can be a good way to conduct market research. Listening to the opinions, thoughts and feelings of your target audience on social networks can guide you towards the changes they want to see in the event and what annoys or bores them the most.
In short, with social listening you leave assumptions aside and act on a database and real knowledge.
Find the right location
Another of the assumptions that are made the most and is a key factor, is that of the location of the event. If you always hold events in the same city, state or country, it is easy to limit yourself to participants in those regions, but the social listening makes it very easy to explore new territories where your event could be successful.
After finding the right location for your event, you should do a search and research of the place where your event will take place (to discover the visitor’s past experience and potential opportunities or possible problems). Make sure you do all the research necessary for people to find your event easily and have a pleasant experience when they are in it.
Find promoters and the best promotion channel
When all the plans for holding the event are prepared and finished, it’s time to spread the news about the east.
Knowing the channels or platforms (Twitter, Instagram Facebook, Linkedin…) that people have talked about the most about certain topics means having the opportunity to find the right medium to promote your event and reach your target audience. This factor will help you increase ticket sales because you will get the best channel to reach your audience in a more direct way.
You may also want to find the right people to publicize and promote your event on these channels. Discovering and working with influencers will help you increase your return on investment (ROI) and attract new audiences. Since people tend to believe influencer recommendations than brand advertising, influencer marketing is a great tool to implement into your marketing strategy.
During the event
Hearing what customers and visitors are saying during the event means you can improve quality even further. As we’ve already mentioned, real-time monitoring of online conversations means you can avoid potentially negative experiences and situations even before the event is over.
Avoid bad press
Use social networks to listen and see what your audience thinks about your event in real time through social listening tools. Perhaps the influencers related to the theme of the event are also expressing their opinion on social networks.
If the feedback is positive and you’ve worked hard to make sure everyone has a positive experience, you’ll attract a lot of people and help establish a positive image for your brand or business. On the other hand, if you find any criticism, make sure you respond quickly and try to remedy the problem immediately.
Increases participation in social networks
You can use hashtags to make your events and conferences more interesting, interactive and dynamic, encouraging greater public participation. Using these hashtags can be broadcast to the event live through a Social Wall, which can be a great way to inspire people to join the conversation. It has been proven that this technique of using a Social Wall increases social engagement by 300%.
What a Social Wall?
The social wall is responsible for stimulating events by projecting (through a giant screen) content about the event or concert in real time from social networks. In this way, participants are encouraged to mention the official hashtag of the event so that their publications can appear on this screen, making attendees part of the event.
At the end of the event
After the event, the most relevant comments will be made. Continue to monitor hashtags and post-event mentions. At that time, the people attending will definitely express their opinions about the event and their experience in general. Most of the stuff will happen on social media or dedicated blogs and forums. All of these mentions can be turned into relevant data, designed to measure the success of your work.
Use this information to notify event sponsors, improve your social media and marketing strategy, find future brand ambassadors, measure return on investment, and better plan upcoming events.
