Stuart WoodJames Morgan of Event Tech Lab suggests organisers try some more unconventional social media channels when it comes to marketing.
Event organisers – get rid of those tired and over-tested social media channels, and try something new to market your events to a new generation. Your sponsors and attendees will love you for it.
With 39% of the global population using social media channels, taking a closer look at how organisers evaluate their social media channels for marketing events is crucial. This is especially the case when marketing to a global audience. So what have we missed?
My hot tip is Tik Tok. With 500 million people using it regularly, it has more monthly active users than Snapchat or Twitter, globally. It’s a video sharing channel where users can create short videos of themselves lip-syncing to songs, or acting out comedy sketches, with a database of music, effects and sound bites from which to choose. Tik Tok challenges attract a lot of attention and often go viral, providing a great channel to promote events. Or, organisers could provide Tik Tok booths at their events, which can be branded by sponsors to amplify attendee experiences to virtual audiences.
Staying with the idea of the sponsor-branded booths, how about exploring the use of Houseparty? It has a lot less monthly active users at 20 million. But, with the huge growth and popularity of online social video growing in both the Generation Alpha and Generation Z segments, this app is just waiting in the wings to take off. Houseparty is a virtual living room where up to eight users join an online video chat. Chat requests are sent out to friends via notifications through the app or through SMS text messages. Imagine branded booths being used at events, so attendees can share their experiences with friends that are not there?
Lastly, with over a billion monthly active users, WeChat is an app to be applauded. Its core function is similar to Whatsapp, but it also allows users to create a timeline of moments where particular contacts are allowed to see updates. So there could be a timeline created for friends, family or work colleagues.
For organisers this is a great app. Companies can offer vouchers and promotions to their followers, and event flyers that include QR codes can be scanned by users via the app to allow interaction. Organisers can also use WeChat to take payments.
So, organisers, why don’t you re-think your social media strategy with one of these new platforms?