10 Bite-Sized Social Media Tips for Events With Cheryl Lawson

 

Cheryl Lawson was AWC’s August 2018 Know to Grow Webinar speaker. Her session was so popular, we invited her to do this follow-up post on Trending! Cheryl says “I am the founder Social Media Tulsa, LLC. We started as a community but now we specialize in doing social media for events specifically. We work with Route66marathon, SCOTEST, Tulsa Oktoberfest, Center of the Universe Festival and of course my own social media conference, SMTULSA Conference.”

1. HASHTAG It

What’s a hashtag and how do you know where to find them?

Hashtags are like file folders on your desktop. They keep the conversations all in one place. Hashtags on social and on the internet become live searchable links.

You can click on the #SMTULSA right now and you’ll see the top people who have used that hashtag. Then if you can chose “latest” to see the most recent uses of the hashtag.

Where can you use hashtags on social media?

Instagram is the most used place on social media for hashtags. You can use up to 30 hashtags in an instagram post. Hashtags on Instagram help other people find your content. Search the hashtag, #Vacation on Instagram and you’ll find over 87 million posts. Then, search for your events hashtag, If you don’t have an official one, your attendees might just make one up. Twitter is still my favorite for events.

I like to have an official hashtag. #SMTULSA No year at the end. My feeling is that once you’re a part of #SMTULSA family, you’re a part of the family. Adding the year to the end is a choice you must make ie: #CES2019.

We use Twitter to hold #Tweet2Win contests.

2. Create Shareable Content

Hire a photographer, make a selfie station, schedule video interviews with your speakers, attendees and VIPs. Create opportunities and memorable moments that your attendees will want to share on their social accounts. Don’t forget to ask them to add your hashtag. A graphic artist on staff is always a good idea. Make sure your graphics match your event’s theme. Create speaker badges, photo frames, and other branded images that your participants will want to share.

If you don’t have a graphics person on staff, consider hiring college students from your local University, or you can find qualified artists on one of the freelance websites. Upwork.com and Freelancer.com are a couple of my favorites.

3. To the Cloud

Create shareable folders for your speakers, attendees, sponsors and partners.

Dropbox, Google Drive, Box are just a few of the tools you can use. The easier you can get the content in the hands of your ambassadors, the more they will be willing and able to share. Include text and links when asking partners to share your content.

4. Turn Over the Reins

Do you have a CEO, VIPs, speakers, or celebrities in your field attending your event? Hand over your social media controls and let them do their thing. Example: You can Tune in at 5pm as @Famousperson takes over our Instagram account.

5. Create a Social Media Team:

• Photographers (professional and smartphone)
• Copywriter Someone who can write the captions for the photo
• Someone responsible for each social network (you chose)
• Social Listener – Someone monitoring your hashtag and answering questions via social media.

6. Social Listening

Social listening tools help you watch hashtags, mentions, and other conversations around your event. Good tools are:

• Hootsuite,
• TweetDeck, and
• Sprout Social

7. Schedule Your Time

Use the right tools to keep you sane before, during, and after your event.

• Tailwindapp– To schedule Instagram posts directly. I used to post content leading up to and after events. Tailwind is a great hashtag research tool as well.
• IFTTT – If This then That – This beauty allows you to automate some of your social. Like sharing instagram images as Twitter images (instead of just the link). I like to use IFTT to create
  spreadsheets of Tweets and Posts. This allows me to follow topic trends each year.
• Twitter Media Studio: Every photo, video, GIF you’ve ever Tweeted is saved in Media Studio. Great content for scheduling #ThrowbackThursday and other memorable posts to keep your followers engaged.

8. Pixel It

Facebook Business Manager: One stop shop for your business pages and ad management.
Connect your Facebook and Twitter pixels to your website to track conversions for your social media ads. Most online registration platforms support pixels as well. This is how you measure the return on your investment.

9. Report

Most of us are asked to show the value of what we do. A few of my favorite reporting tools are:
Facebook’s custom reports through business manager and ad platform.

Union Metrics and TweetBinder are great tools to learn about your social media performance
and the top influencers.

10. Go Mobile

Your websites should already be responsive. Meaning it should work on any size screen including mobile. Mobile apps are also the norm for event. I’ve used Whova app and Aloompa.

 

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About the Author

Cheryl Lawson is a professional speaker who brings corporate marketing, communications, entrepreneurial acumen, and deep social media and event marketing expertise to her clients, colleagues, and students. Cheryl’s own event, the annual SMTULSA Social Business Conference, has put Tulsa on the social media conference map.

As the founder and organizer of Social Media Tulsa and SMTULSA Conference, Cheryl works tirelessly to make the annual conference a wonderful experience. “I work hard to create the content and environment that is comfortable for everyone to learn and share, said Cheryl. “Once the conference starts, I get out of the way and let the conference become what it needs to become for the people in attendance.”

Before returning to Tulsa, Oklahoma Cheryl served as marketing manager for Fleetwood Enterprises. As marketing manager, Cheryl was in charge of creating the RV division’s digital content. Before Fleetwood, Cheryl was a District Manager for General Motors’ Pontiac Division. During her ten-year career with GM, Cheryl led corporate to dealer communications in several major markets. Cheryl is the founder of social marketing firm Party Aficionado, LLC where she helps small businesses create social marketing strategies and PR plans. In 2010, Cheryl founded Social Media Tulsa the area’s go-to resource for social media influencers, consultants, and live event social media teams. As a popular speaker, Cheryl’s topics include social media for events.

Cheryl holds a BA from Southern University in Baton Rouge and an MBA from Nova Southeastern University. She is a marketing course developer and adjunct professor for University of California’s Extension Center where she teaches social media marketing, event marketing, market research, and event marketing courses.