How to Use Social Media to Benefit Your Meetings

Facebook, Twitter  and Instagram, oh my!  Social media has quickly become the most influential way to promote any business, product or event.

Promotion. Use every outlet of social media that you can to promote your meeting. Create an event on Facebook, post statuses and tweets encouraging registration, announce speakers and other intriguing information. Blogs are also very helpful to promote meetings, typically written to divulge as much information as possible whereas other social media outlets provide the highlights.

Preparation. We all get thousands of junk emails daily and often delete them right away. There is no telling how many we delete that we may actually need! Social media is a great back up tool for keeping your attendees up to date and informed. If there is a room change, weather advisory or a simple reminder to bring their laptop, social media is often the most reliable communication medium.

Interaction. Promoting your events via social media will automatically spur interaction among your online audience. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Pinterest all give confirmed and prospective attendees the ability to share their excitement, thoughts and questions about your upcoming meeting with each other. This is also an excellent platform for attendees to share their thoughts after the event, to give their praise and suggestions.

Meeting App. If your meeting draws a large enough crowd, it may benefit you as well as your attendees to create a meeting app for mobile devices. A meeting app allows you to provide all kinds of information for your attendees including their event schedule, maps, local recommendations and surveys.