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Make Your Events Social with Hashtags

Andy Shore Andy Shore found his way to Benchmark when he replied to a job listing promising a job of half blogging, half social media. His parents still don’t believe that people get paid to do that. Since then, he’s spun his addiction to pop culture and passion for music into business and marketing posts that are the spoonful of sugar that helps the lessons go down. As the result of his boss not knowing whether or not to take him seriously, he also created the web series Ask Andy, which stars a cartoon version of himself. Despite being a cartoon, he somehow manages to be taken seriously by many of his readers ... and few of his coworkers.

May 21, 2015 2 min read

For every company, the event piece of the marketing pie varies in size. For some, it’s a tiny sliver as if you were on an event marketing diet. For others the event marketing section may resemble Pac Man. No matter how big or small, it’s how you’re using all off the pieces together that makes the whole pie greater than the sum of its parts. Social media can boost your event marketing efforts in many ways. Let’s take a look at some of the ways using hashtags can expand the reach and effectiveness of your next event.

Outsiders Let In

By creating a hashtag for anyone discussing your event on social media to use, you’re not only give a singular place for everyone at the event to converse … you open up the conversation to the whole world. Perhaps location or financial concerns keep some of your audience from attending your event. With an event hashtag, that can follow the buzz surrounding your event and even create some of their own with their reactions.

Individual Speakers & Workshops Get Their Own Hashtags

If you’re running a bigger event, sometimes there’s mini events that exist within it. That could be various speakers, workshops or anything else that may bring attention to your crowd. With all that going on, sometimes it may be a good idea to give each section its own hashtag. That way, people on social media can see just the talk about one speaker they were looking forward to and it won’t get lost in all the hype surrounding your whole event.

Scavenger Hunt

One thing to further engage your event attendees on social media could be to create a scavenger hunt. Have them visit specific booths, speakers, or other goings on at your event and tell them to use the scavenger hunt hashtag, as well as the event hashtag, to be eligible to win a prize. Not only does this incentivize your event attendees to talk about your event on social media, the outside world can get a look at what they’re missing.

Don’t Overdo It

I know I’ve advised promoting the use of more than one hashtag per social media post. However, it’s important not to do overdo it. If there’s too many hashtags per post, that post will likely get tuned out. Or you’ll become this…

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by Andy Shore

Andy Shore found his way to Benchmark when he replied to a job listing promising a job of half blogging, half social media. His parents still don’t believe that people get paid to do that. Since then, he’s spun his addiction to pop culture and passion for music into business and marketing posts that are the spoonful of sugar that helps the lessons go down. As the result of his boss not knowing whether or not to take him seriously, he also created the web series Ask Andy, which stars a cartoon version of himself. Despite being a cartoon, he somehow manages to be taken seriously by many of his readers ... and few of his coworkers.