5 questions about social media coverage for live events

Social media live event coverage is about more than showcasing that you are at an event to your audience. It is a dynamic and creative way to stand out as a thought leader, deliver additional value to your existing followers and grow awareness for your brand with a qualified and engaged audience.

The way we do social media live coverage for events can be quite new and different for our clients.

We deploy a team of editors, producers, writers, photojournalists, videographers, analysts and more to capture the key moments from its speakers, the trade show floor and networking events. This content is then published in real time to our client’s social media and other digital channels to drive awareness, engagement and conversion activities.

Since it’s so unique, we often get asked the same questions about our approach and its potential impact: 

1. Won’t this annoy my followers? In our experience, no. There are two main reasons for this. First, before publishing anything for a live coverage campaign, we analyze our client’s social media channels to understand both a volume threshold for each channel as well as what type of content performs best. Armed with this information, we plan the publishing cadence accordingly to avoid negative impact. Second, it’s no secret organic reach is declining. Every piece of content you publish is not getting shown to every single follower. Increasing publishing volume for a few days during the event won’t dramatically change the experience of your brand for your audience.
    
2. Will we be posting too frequently? Will we look like we’re spamming the event? Part of our pre-launch analysis includes determining the publishing volume of the event. If it’s a marketing event, there are likely more posts per hour than, say, a manufacturing event. We take this into consideration when planning how often we will publish for each channel. A loud, highly active event hashtag means you can publish more frequently while a quieter one means a more relaxed pace.
   
   
3. You can’t post directly to our channels?! How can we create an approval process? We work with our client teams to create content approval processes well in advance of the event. We have developed approval processes that includes as many as 50 stakeholders, including legal and compliance departments. To ease the burden of approvals in real time, we create content before the event and get it pre-approved. Our only ask for real-time approvals is that key individuals make themselves available for reviews. 
   
   
4. Why should I publicize an industry or non-owned event? In short, because your target audience is there. As a brand looking to build awareness and trust with your audience through content marketing, sharing content about the event and relevant to the topics, and themes on the agenda means you’ll position yourself as a key part of the community that is delivering value about an upcoming event.
   
   
5. Why do you want us to start publishing so early? Event hashtags are active before attendees show up and speakers get on stage. Publishing content in the months or weeks leading up to (and after) the event is a simple way to increase the organic reach for your social media channels. Your brand will stand out by contributing high-quality, valuable content for the engaged audience. Additionally, when an event has media pickup, journalists checking the hashtag will see your content, which could result in landing coveted earned media placements.  
   

For every company spending money on an event sponsorship, social media live coverage for events can drive awareness, contribute to brand value, grow followers, and is a source of cost-effective content creation. 

If you have an event coming up and want to learn how social media live event coverage can help you stand out, reach out to us. We’ll analyze the event hashtag and share ideas on how you can drive more value with your next sponsorship.