Case Study: How Can Planners Use Social Media to Leverage Events?

Author: Jasmine Zhu       

Last month, Convene and event marketing agency Marketing Design Group (MDG) collaborated on an exclusive Periscope livestream at Transform USA’s inaugural event in Washington, D.C. 

Santana Innis, director of social and digital at MDG, took over Convene’s Twitter account — @pcmaconvene — to livestream the keynote presentation at the Transform USA event, where Jean Foster, vice president of marketing at Consumer Technology Association, spoke on the topic of “Competing for Exhibitors’ Marketing Budgets.”

We had never livestreamed on social media before, but thought it was a perfect opportunity to share relevant content and experiment with a new way to reach our audience. Convene caught up with Innis afterwards to talk about her takeaways from the livestream, and to ask for her advice to planners.

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Maximize Event Reach

Santana Innis: “I’d say my biggest advice for event planners, whether it’s a small meeting or a large trade show, is that your current iteration of your meeting or show is the largest advertising that you will ever do for your next show. You think maybe it’s your paid [social], or maybe your print, or any of these types of things that you spend money on in your marketing budget, but it’s really your current show.

“Live video will definitely help you [advertise your meeting], whether you choose to do it very professionally, with AV companies do[ing] a live[stream] of a keynote address, or if you keep it kind of short and DIY, like we did with the Transform [USA] piece. That helps to get eyes on the prize, get social lift, and create that buzz for the next event.”

Experimentation Over Perfection

“I would say that the spirit of curiosity and trying and dipping your toe in [the water] is something that stands as a good example for meeting planners, for event planners, and professionals overall. It doesn’t have to go right, it doesn’t have to go well. You have to try, and see what you get.”

Watch highlights of Jean Foster’s keynote below, or see the livestream in full here

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