Almost every event boasts printed collateral brazen with a creative hashtag encouraging attendees to post about their experience. Often times attendees participate and some of the time they may wonder “what’s the point?” Let’s attempt to avoid the latter. While it is great for an organization to create and track a hashtag for an even, the question becomes, why.
The use of a hashtag as a means of engagement during the event life cycle can create a positive connection with your audience and help further the marketing/sales goals. Often times hashtags are very commonly used. And there are quite a few brand fail examples that can be avoided with a quick search to determine the ways in which a particular hashtag was used, if at all.
Being mindful of a few key points will contribute to the success of the event conversion funnel.
As an event organizer, you should be in sync with sales and marketing when planning to use a hashtag for an event; then be prepared to ask a few questions before locking in a theme. Just as the event has a plan, the plan for engagement should be developed. Following are a few examples of questions to answer before getting started:
- What is the primary goal for use of the hashtag for the event?
- Has a search been conducted for use of our intended theme or similar hashtag?
- How will we communicate the event tag to attendees?
- Will attendees understand what we want them to accomplish with use of the tag?
- What’s our plan to connect/engage with attendees onsite?
Remember to begin with the end in mind. Achieve more rewarding results by implementing a few key changes to the event plan incorporating engagement as a strategy.
Currently Engaged 