You’ve read our blog post on 5 ways you can use social media to boost engagement and RSVPs for your next event. You’ve done the pre-planning work.

Now it’s the day of your event. You might be feeling equal parts excited and busy. To help you and your team succeed, we’ve partnered with Eventbrite UK to give you exclusive insights into how you can use social media to generate engagement during your event—while cutting down on your stress.

Eventbrite makes it possible for people all over the world to plan, promote, and sell tickets to any event, so they’ve seen what works—and what doesn’t—when it comes to event-day engagement.

1. Keep an eye on the conversation

In our first blog post for this series, we showed you how to create custom Twitter lists and how to set up your Hootsuite dashboard for success, including:

  • a search stream that shows you real-time online conversations about your event
  • a tab dedicated to your #EventHashtag
  • and how to set up Google Analytics to track excitement for your event

While your event is happening, it’s a great tactic to reach out to those people or brands you saw showing interest in your event (whether through Tweets, Likes, direct messages to @yourbusiness handle, etc.). Thank them for their support, and encourage them to continue engaging.

Below, we’ve outlined a few ways you can use social media to connect with event guests, speakers, and even non-attendees who are following along using #YourEvent hashtag.

2. Desktop apps for monitoring Instagram

With more than 75 million daily active users, Instagram is a hugely popular image and video sharing app. A really easy way to keep track of the photos and videos being taken and shared at your event is through the Instagram app in the Hootsuite App Directory.

The app allows you to view and search for photos, view and add comments and likes, share photos to your social networks, and much more.

TIP: To encourage users to post on Instagram, consider setting up a photo booth and related hashtag. As inspiration, check out the #HootSX hashtag, created especially for SXSW.

Once you’ve installed the Instagram app, you can set up a new tab in your Hootsuite dashboard to monitor a number of Instagram streams (your feed, photos tagged with #YourEvent hashtag) or you can set up a new stream under your main Event tab. Choose with the option that works best for you.

event marketing social media

Instagram-Screenshot

Note: The Hootsuite Instagram app is currently only available for Desktop. Read our Instagram Hootsuite Tip for a quick primer on how to install and use the app.

3. Set up a HootFeed

If you can hook up a screen or TV at your event, consider setting up a HootFeed—a live Twitter stream that you can customize to display every Tweet that contains #YourEvent hashtag.

A live “wall” of Tweets is a great way to bridge the online and offline event experience for your guests. It also encourages attendees to use your hashtag and share their experiences as your event is unfolding.

4. Share live event updates right from your phone

When things are in full swing and your computer is out of reach, you can still know what’s being said on social media about your event. The Hootsuite mobile app, available for free on iOS, Android, and mobile web, gives you all the insights you need on the go.

After you’ve downloaded and installed the Hootsuite mobile app on your phone, it will automatically show you the custom tabs and streams from your Hootsuite dashboard, so you don’t have to create a new dashboard from scratch.

If you’re working with a team, you can have someone monitor your tabs and streams in real-time. You can also assign social media messages to a team member or even yourself for follow up. For example, if an attendee needs to find an outlet to charge their laptop, they might tweet to ask for help using your handle or event hashtag. If you can’t answer them yourself, you can make sure they’re being taken care of by assigning their message to a team member.

For non-urgent messages that you’d like to follow up with in future, you can assign those to yourself and come back to them later.

You can also turn on push notifications for your Android or iOS phone to keep yourself updated on social media messages happening in real time, such as:

  • Any time someone retweets one of your Tweets
  • When you have a new follower or when someone adds you to a public Twitter list
  • @mentions or direct messages to your social accounts

Want more?

Learn what to do—and what not to do—the day of your event with The Small Business Guide to Social Media and Event Marketing from Hootsuite and Eventbrite, which also includes:

  • 5 ways you can use social media to boost engagement and RSVPs for your next event
  • 3 Things You Can Do to Keep Engagement Strong After Your Event is Over
  • 10 Steps To Running Successful Small Business Events
  • Events Checklist: Tips and Essentials from the Pros
  • How to Amplify your Business Events on Social Media
  • 10 Stats To Help SMBs Benchmark Their Event Marketing Efforts
  • 4 Affordable Event Marketing Ideas (With Examples)