Who makes up your events community and why should you care?
Your community isn’t comprised of just a passive audience. It’s made up of potential event attendees, event professionals, colleagues, and thought leaders. So how do you build genuine relationships with your events community? I sat down with Brian Pesin of event technology company EventFarm via webinar to dissect what it takes to build engaged and loyal communities and how you can apply them to your own before your next big event.
1. Learn about your events community by being a part of it.
You can’t build a community that you’re not ingrained in. For #eventprofs, your community can include past, present, and potential event attendees, sponsors, brand admirers, and anyone who helps make an event happen: caterers, property staff, AV, and the list goes on. Understanding who is in your community, finding out what kind of events they attend will help you narrow down how you can provide value to them. Does your community love to get together to interact? Sponsor an #eventprofs only networking happy hour in conjunction with a large conference. Knowing who the people who comprise your community and what they find valuable will help you understand how to best interact with them.
2. Content comes in many forms: use the medium that resonates best with your community.
Just as it’s important to listen to your community and the influencers in your space, it’s equally valuable to determine the best medium in which to talk with them. Some communities thrive on social media, others prefer exculisve online groups or private forums. Run a few tests with different mediums and track what resonates best. Did your email get hundreds of replies you could hardly keep up? Or does your phone light up with notifications when you post something on Twitter? Never stop testing different communication mediums to see what is the most effective way to communicate and effectively, build your community.
3. Use content as a way to celebrate your community members, before, during, and after an event.
So what is content anyway? At what point should you use it as a tool to connect with your community? Content is the “information or experiences directed towards an audience. Content can be delivered through different mediums, like TV, video, print, social media, or live events.” Content can be used to connect, celebrate, and drive a better experience for your attendees, whether it’s an experience online (like a webinar or Google Hangout) or offline (an event, conference, or tradeshow). Content can be leveraged before, during or after an event through live social media posts, long-form event recap blogs, videos, interviews, or even surveys. Featuring community members through content at every step of the event will not only spotlight them but will demonstrate your commitment to the individuals that comprise your community.
What steps do you take to maintain a thriving events community?
Share your tips in the comments below or tweet them to us @socialtables!
Could your social media game use a refresher? We dive into the reasons that social media should be essential part of your event planning proccess. Here’s how to leverage Social Media, before, during, and after your next event.
The post [WEBINAR] 3 Proven Methods to Engage and Celebrate Your Events Community appeared first on The Social Tables Blog.