So don’t wait a week to blast out a “Thank You” message, schedule it for the hours immediately after the event closes – that goes for email as well as social media.

Make your message stand out in social streams by using an eye-catching image – why not use an app like Layout to easily create a collage of event photo’s then add “Thanks for coming” text to the photo using something like Wordswag. Although designed for Instagram, the images they create can be shared on Twitter and Facebook too. What’s great is that it can all be done, on-the-fly on your phone.

In the days and weeks following your event, share content to remind attendees of the great time they had by posting snippets or quotes from popular speaker sessions (video performs well on social right now), provide links to any presenter’s presentation on Slideshare, ask questions about what attendees enjoyed most and their main takeaways so you know what to build on for next time.

Don’t forget to thank the most “socially” active attendees for interacting - another nice way to make them feel appreciated and to develop a deeper relationship is to add them to a Twitter List.

So how do you find out who was most active on social media at your event?

A very useful feature with our Social Walls is the reports. Not only are you able to downloadable lists of the social content shared, a downloadable file of all the images (a great source of content to share), and data such as Reach, number of Tweets etc. but there’s links to all the users along with a details of how many Tweets/Posts they contributed and how many followers they have. This User list can be sorted by number of messages, number of followers, or by username so you can easily pinpoint key influencers.

Of course, it shouldn’t stop there - engaging and connecting with attendees and potential attendees all year round will pay dividends when it comes to the time for them to register for the next event.

Want a chat about your next event? Just pick up the phone or send us a message – we can’t wait to speak to you!

If you found this blog useful, you may also enjoy 5 Reasons Why Social Media Isn't Working For Your Events and How To Make Attendees Fell Valued At Your Events.

1. People Are Taking Selfies

If attendees are taking #selfies at your event, you’re definitely missing a trick if you don’t have a social wall!

The number one reason people take a #selfie is to put it on social media – if it’s a group selfie, then the other’s in the picture get tagged in and share it to all their followers too.

If attendees are taking #selfies to post on social media, then you can bet they’d be ecstatic to see themselves displayed on a huge screen at your event….. other attendees then follow suit, spreading awareness of your brand and event to all their friends and followers.

[See how AIBTM ran a #selfie challenge at their event]

It’s easy to see how events can trend on Twitter and Facebook in this way!

2. Q&A Sessions Lack Engagement

When the speaker has finished with their presentation and you open the floor to questions are you deafened by the silence? It’s understandably the part most event planners dread!

With studies estimating that 75% of people suffer from speech anxiety when speaking in public, is it any wonder that it can be such a struggle encouraging attendees to speak up?

That’s where a Social Wall comes in – texting or Tweeting a question or message removes the main obstacle for attendees who would otherwise love to get involved and voice their opinion. As a result, Q&A sessions end up being informative and relevant to the audience, creating a much richer experience all round.

SMS texting can be used in place of, or in addition to, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, depending on whether the session is public, or private and confidential.

3. There’s No “Buzz” About Your Event On Social

Are you Tweeting, Facebooking and Instagramming but no one’s taking much notice?

Are the people who are likely to engage with you on social actually AT your event, experiencing it in person rather than checking their Twitter Stream or Newsfeed?

Attendees may be having the time of their lives at your event, but who’s going to know if you don’t give them a reason to share it?

When attendees realise their social posts can end up on a huge screen, it gives them a reason to join the conversation and keeps reminding them too! And while they’re trying their hardest to get their moment of fame on the Social Wall,  the message that they’re having fun at your event is being broadcast to their social networks!

4. You Want A Bigger Budget

Trying to match your budget to the things you know would take your event to the next level is often an impossible task.

Generating revenue by inviting sponsorship on your Social Wall could be the answer you’ve been waiting for!

From full screen advertising (which interrupts the social content stream) to highlighting sponsor’s social posts we have a variety of options to help you offer sponsors opportunities to expose their brand to your attendees that they will gladly pay for.

5. You Run Contests Or Competitions

Contests and competitions are fun and really easy to do using our Social Walls.

Contests encourage your audience to get involved in the social conversation – everyone who posts a message to a specific hashtag(s) is automatically entered, then a winner is randomly drawn and displayed on the big screen.

The Contest feature is included free with all our Social Walls and there’s an array of settings to help you set any restrictions you feel are appropriate, such as filtering out specific users (such as your own brand).

Leaderboards for Top Users and Top ReTweets also connect with attendees competitive side, inspiring them to generate quantity and quality social content.

Voting or Polls (choosing between several options) and Battles (a visual scoreboard between two “sides”) are also great ways to increase audience participation – an extra fee is applicable for Voting and Battles.

Have the signs that you need a Social Wall at your events been staring you in the face?

If so give us a call or send us a message to find out how we can help!

Found this blog article useful? Why not check out How To Make Attendees Feel Valued At Your Events and Why Event Professionals Can't Resist The Magic of Our Content Curation Tool. 

Run a Social Media Contest!

Of course, we love helping out our fellow event professionals, and we understand how healthy competition can create a fun atmosphere, that's why we have Contests included as standard with all of our Social Walls.

Contests are really easy to run from our Live Center too!

Just select Contest in the Display Features dropdown menu.

You then have a number of options to choose how you run your Contest.

By far the easiest is to click on "Draw a new winner" for our software to randomly pick from all users who have Tweeted, shared Instagram or Facebook posts, used SMS or Web Messaging. 

By default, the winner is automatically excluded from subsequent draws but that can easily be changed in the Filtering tab [see above].

The Filtering tab allows you to set parameters for more control over which users are eligible to enter the draw as you can see from the "Sources to use" section above.

It's also possible to "tag" social posts in the Moderation panel and then have the software select the winner from the specific tag category - for example you could tag selfies and run a contest from just selfies.  In the afternoon you could run a contest for answering a specific question and tag those responses for the prize draw or if you want to personally choose a winner, you can do that too! You have the ultimate choice! 

And if you still don't like the winner selected, you can keep drawing new ones until you're happy with the result - just press "Click to display" and your Social Wall changes to a countdown screen, grabbing attention and selecting the winner, either from a spinning wheel of users names [shown below] or an onscreen shuffle of user profile pictures [shown near the top of this blog] until the winner is revealed along with any prize information.

Prizes can be really simple such as an event T-shirt, or perhaps free registration to your next conference or event a great way to get sponsors involved!  Let them sponsor your contest. They get to increase their profile and you get to earn a little money off of their sponsorship!  Win, win for everyone, literally! 

Contests can make a huge difference to the social engagement and reach of your event, but we also have Leaderboards for Most Active Users and Top ReTweets to encourage competition and encourage social sharing. Check out our blog on Gamification for some examples.

Wondering about using a Social Wall at your next event? Give us a call - we would love to talk to you about it.

By asking attendees to share short video clips (with or without sound) featuring products, or having fun at your stand/event you'll be able to drive more dynamic content, encourage social sharing and increase brand awareness as video content has been proven to be shared even more!

Make it a competition and have even more fun, by using our contest option to pick a winner from just those folks that have shared a video! 

What ideas do you have? Get in touch and let us help you with your next event.

Here's some more blogs that we think you may be interested in - How To Make Attendees Feel Valued At Your Events, 3 Ways To Make Your Event Family Friendly, Inspiring Interaction and Engagement At Your Conference Speaker Sessions.

See you again soon!

A unique hashtag is a must - and it's a good idea to keep it short and easy to remember so people don't have trouble using it - for example #JoSteveWed15.

Apart from that, you just require an internet connection, a screen (or projector and screen) and a laptop - just plug it in and hit play!

Simply display all Tweets and Instagram posts throughout the day or, for a bit more fun, provide props and costumes for your guests to show their silly side. 

What's more, when the party's over, you'll have a zip file full of everyone's photo's and messages that they shared through the day (much easier than asking guests for copies later).

Thinking of using Social Wall for your special day? Just get in touch for our special Wedding Day event rates today - and don't forget to share this with any friends or family getting married soon - it might make their day!

Fancy something a little different? We've got another twelve standard templates that you can use - here's a small selection below.

The improved resolution is sure to have a stunning effect on your attendees experience when sharing pictures to the big screen.

See the difference when you compare the 1080px to the old 640px in the image below.

Release the power of creating amazing content on your Wall (and on social media) to attendees by integrating Instagram, Twitter and Facebook messages and images - it makes for a great mix and keeps them engaged in the conversation!

Want to know how about other benefits from using one of our Social Walls at your event? Just get in touch - we'd love to talk to you about it!

Have you tried using social media for your events but been disappointed with the results? Check out our blog 5 Reasons Why Social Media Isn't Working For Your Events and Why Facebook Is Fabulous For Events has some great tips too!

Enjoy!

Our custom Walls are unique and attention grabbing, but even with the most spectacular Social Walls, they won't reach their full potential without some stimulating content to further inspire increased engagement and interraction.

Easily Pull In Content From Facebook, Instagram And Twitter

Curating content from Instagram and Twitter is super-easy with our free Google Chrome Extension - just find the post or Tweet you want to pull in to your wall and click on the T at the bottom of the message or post (your Social Wall session must be active before you do this).

 

To curate Facebook comments just click on the timestamp which is located just under the username. 

 

You'll then be taken to a new window - just copy the URL from the browser bar and then paste it into our curation tool within Live Center.

 

The Comment is then pulled in from Facebook to the bottom of the screen where you can Accept, Reject, or Save for later.  

It Pays To Do Some Homework

When Manchester United Football Club held their Player of the Year Awards in May, they came fully prepared, armed with already curated content (links to Tweets) that had been Tweeted by the players through the past year. 

Once curated in our Live Center, the Tweets were released to the Social Wall at key moments during the evening, generating hype as awards were announced in addition to "setting the stage" from the very start, simultaneously encouraging engagement and participation with those attending the event at the Old Trafford, and via social across the world. 

Here are some Tweets that were curated and displayed on the Social Wall to highlight key moments and Tweets from the season along with Ander Herrera's live Tweet on the night.

So have we sparked any ideas on how you could use our Social Walls and Curation Tool for your next event? Maybe motivating delegates to particpate more willingly in Q&A's or building some hype as speakers are about to commence their conference sessions.

We would love to know how your next event would benefit from our solution - don't hesitate to get in touch!

Find out more about Inspiring Interaction at Conference Speaker Sessions or Why We Love Our Moderation Console in our blog.

See you next time!

In order for people to feel comfortable in asking questions or voicing opinions, they need a "safe" environment to do so. 

Some people start to feel more comfortable putting up their hand after the ice has been broken by other people asking questions first.

But what about those people who would never want to raise their hand - their contribution could be just as valuable, or even more so.

Use A Social Wall

Our Social Walls can be used along side presentations, either full-size on adjacent screens or integrated on the bottom of the main screen using our Ticker Style template.

Questions or comments can then be Tweeted, or posted on Facebook or Instagram using hashtags or a variety of criteria used to pull relevant messages to the Wall.

Of course, there are people who aren't comfortable posting questions in their Twitter Feed or on other social media either BUT don't worry, we have solutions for them too!

SMS lets attendees text annonymously to a dedicated number, so they can say whatever is on their mind without fear of repercussions - this has proved especially useful for events such as internal company meetings, but can be used in addition to social media posts.

One meeting delegate said the following as the result of using this function. 

"I'm new in the company but this has been the best meeting I've ever been too.  It's clear you value our feedback!

Web Messaging can also be used either in isolation or with other social media platforms so attendees can easily join the conversation.

How Else Can We Make The Moderators Job Easier?

All our Social Walls come with our moderation tool, as standard. 

In addition to Accept & Reject, you can also "Save for Later", which puts the Tweets and other messages that you choose into another panel so you can easily find them later.

For more complex conference seminar situations where you might choose to run different Social Wall displays in each breakout or seminar, messages can be categorized by creating and applying "tags" related to each session, so you can release the relevant information at the right time.  The tags carry through to the report, too, so you can view the content later. 

When reviewing the messages that have been saved for later or tagged the speaker session moderator or chair can choose which ones they want to address. 

Messages on the Social Wall generally change dynamically every few seconds, but our Remote Control feature lets you pause, forward and rewind messages instantly so you and the audience can remain focused and on topic.  

Find out more about our Moderation tool. 

More Great Tips

Make sure you announce the Social Wall and any relevant hashtag prior to each speaker session and invite people to Tweet/message throughout. Seeing questions and comments come up on the Wall will inspire more engagement. If you're still worried that there may not be any questions to start with, pre-prepare some questions in advance and display them, the audience won't be able to resist joining in.

It's important that your speaker(s) know what to expect and it's great if they can also remind people to submit their questions at key points throughout their presentation.

So, now you know how a Social Wall can inspire attendees to feel a valuable part of your event by allowing them to voice their comments and questions in real time, and using tools that they're most comfortable with. 

Do you have any other ideas to encourage participation in speaker sessions? If so, please share them with us.

Find more ideas on How To Make Attendees Feel Valued At Your Events, how to use Gamification and Tag Cloud to drive engagement, and loads more on our blog pages.

And of course - if you want to talk about Social Walls, just give us a call or ping us a message.

When attendees register ask them for their Twitter @username and invite them to your communities on Facebook or Google+.

In the next few days follow and connect with them on Twitter - they'll get a notification that you've followed them and may follow you back.

Twitter Lists

The next step is to add them to a Twitter List. In fact, it can be good practice to create Twitter Lists for every event - one for attendees, one for exhibitors and one for speakers if you have any. (Find out more Twitter Lists)

Twitter Lists not only help focus on relevant conversation and make it easier to engage, but they can also be subscribed to - great for encouraging attendees to connect and network, so be sure to share the lists with other attendees, exhibitors etc. 

When a user is added to a List, they receive a notification, so it won't go unnoticed, is flattering, and is another signal to them that they are valued.

Of course, if you set your Twitter Lists to private, you won't benefit from being able to share the lists, nor will the user receive a notification, though you will still be able to use them for monitoring and engagement. 

Using A Social Wall/TweetWall

What could make someone feel more special than seeing themselves on the big screen? 

It's surprising how even the most introvert and shy people react when they see their Tweet/message on a Social Wall. A common reaction is for them to take a snap of their message on the screen, which they then message again to their followers. 

Or you could even choose SMS to invite non-social users, or for complete anonymity, so attendees don't have to fear or be embarrassed by what they want to say (don't worry, with our comprehensive moderation, you still choose what shows on the Wall).

Making your event even more memorable (and with the pictures in their photo album to remind them of it).

Gamification

There's no doubt about it, Gamification drives more conversation, sparks competition and increases attendee interaction.

Contests

Contests pick a user at random from everyone who has Tweeted, or posted on Facebook and Instagram (and SMS and Web Messaging) using the event hashtag or other specified criteria.

Most Active Users

The Most Active User leaderbaord displays the top three users. It has been known for attendees to wait and watch the Social Wall to see if they are in the lead.

Top ReTweets

The Top ReTweets Leaderboard encourages attendees sharing great content to encourage their Followers to share - exponentially increasing exposure of the brand.

Social Walls, along with social media, can truly transform your events - turning them from "just another conference" to a dynamic, engaging platform for networking, leaning and connecting.

Want our help to transform your next event? All you have to do is get in touch - we can't wait to speak to you!

If you found this article useful, you may want to read Why Facebook Is Fabulous For Events and Managing Multiple HashTags For Your Events.

Come back soon!