Creating content for your Festival or Event can be a daunting task. In this presentation, Susan McNaughton of Susan McNaughton Social Media shares some ideas which may spark more ideas for your Festival or Events committee to create a content planning calendar and share the workload with the team.
Social media for festivals great ideas for creating content
1. SOCIAL MEDIA FOR FESTIVALS
Great ideas for creating content for your
Festival or Event
2. NEW FESTIVAL – YEAR 1
Behind the scenes – who‟s involved, why, what‟s
their interest – ask questions – shoot video?
Countdown to the Festival – what‟s happening this
week etc
Who‟s coming to the Festival – mention the names,
suppliers, producers, businesses etc who‟s going to
be involved
Photographs showing stalls set up at other festivals
Telephone interviews – write articles
Find inspiration from magazines
3. SOLVE PEOPLE‟S PROBLEMS
How to get there?
When is it on?
What happens if the weather‟s
bad?
Where should I park?
Accommodation nearby?
Where to eat in the area?
What do I need to bring?
Timings for special items – e.g.
demonstrations, workshops
Ask people what they need to
know via Twitter and Facebook –
then answer questions
4. ASK YOUR PARTICIPANTS
Why did they choose your event?
What events have they attended recently?
Where are they going next?
What made them start up their business?
What new products do they have?
What do they do with their products?
Who‟s their best customer and why?
Why do they like attending events?
What‟s their biggest business challenge?
How does their product help their customers?
5. ASK YOUR VISITORS
Recommendations from happy visitors can be used
to publicise next year‟s event
Criticisms from unhappy visitors can be used to
make next year‟s event better
Give someone the responsibility of interviewing
visitors
Create videos where you talk to your visitors
Take photographs of happy visitors
Make sure you have permission from them to use
data/ pics/ comments collected
6. LISTEN TO OTHERS & SHARE CONTENT
Set up lists of people who write well about your
subject
Use Google Reader to follow blogs or websites (being
closed – create lists? Evernote?)
Use Google Alerts to find content using key words
Create interest lists on Facebook and look at them for
content others are sharing
Create lists on Twitter and go there first for RTs or to
interact
Comment on articles and use a link to your Event‟s site
to draw people to read what you‟re writing
Remember to be helpful when doing this, otherwise your
comments may not pass moderation
7. GET OUT AND ABOUT
Attend trade shows, exhibitions, networking events
Take photographs
Ask questions of people you meet
Write about what you‟ve seen, learnt, discussed
Record audio clips with your smart phone
Take a video recorder/ smartphone
8. STAY INDOORS & USE YOUR LISTS
What‟s stopping you from getting out and about
today? Could be lots of others are indoors because
of this too.
A couple of examples follow:
Ask a question
Share some useful information
9. QUESTIONS Single update via
FB – auto-feed to
A simple question can work Twitter – creates
conversations
13. SAVE INTERACTIONS AND RE-USE
Handy tools:
Google Chrome Browser + Add-on “Awesome Screen
Shot” – can screen print and annotate with arrows, text,
comments
Make sure you use the „blur‟ tool to blank out names of
individuals who may not want to be shown
Google Chrome Browser + Add-on “Hootlet for
Hootsuite” – for creating Tweets from browsing
Save articles you find for later: Evernote Web clipper for
Google Chrome – can also send interesting things by
email
PicMonkey.com – use to change photographs – add
text, make Facebook banners
14. A NOTEBOOK?
All the digital ways of organising your content can
leave you baffled – you could just try writing things
in a notebook!
But remember to take the ideas and add to a plan
at some point…
15. KEEP PLANNING, AND REFINING THE PLAN
Work out how to get more from a single piece of
content by sharing it in different ways
E.g. A recipe – could form the basis of an article
Could be a video
Could be a series of photographs or a finished dish
Photo album on Facebook
Instagram pic
Board on Pinterest
Share in groups on Flickr
Link to Facebook
Series of Tweets
16. GET BUSY, GET SOCIAL
•Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/SusanMcNaughton
•Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Susan.McNaughton.Social.Media
•Web: http://www.susanmcnaughton.com
•LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/SusanMcNaughton