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What will happen to my social media legacy?

Your event has come and gone, and everything went more or less according to plan. Overall you’re happy with the turnout and level of engagement you achieved. You’re looking forward to the next edition because you can use what you’ve learned this year to make it better. But what will become of your social media legacy? Many international meetings change destination and PCOs event to event. This doesn’t mean your social communities need to change. Year-round efforts of combining social media and event marketing boosts click-through rate across social media platforms 236% (click to tweet). 

Did you give any thought to what will happen with the legions of followers you’ve gained? Let’s explore your options.

Don’t love and leave your audience

You’ve enticed them, you’ve encouraged them, you’ve engaged them…and in return your social media audience has given your event something more valuable than money can buy: social street cred. Shutting down shop just because your event is over means you’re closing the doors on the community that has rallied behind your brand.

Have a post-event strategy

You likely just want to kick off your pumps and finally put your feet up, but your audience is on their way home filled with inspiration and energy your event has infused them with. This is the best time to connect with them by promoting event pictures and videos, putting together your best Tweets in a Storify, sharing presentation materials, and connecting with and thanking influencers. Check out this Sample Social Media Plan for Events, including the post-event social checklist.

Stand on the shoulders of giants

Time, money and resources have been spent in building an audience for your event; why just throw it all away at the end of your event? It’s unlikely you’ll convince all your previous followers to follow a new account. Keep your account and build on it for your next event.

Do some digital housekeeping

Keep building and managing your audience. There are great tools that can help you keep your Twitter account clean, such as UnTweeps that can highlight the accounts you follow that are inactive. Bluenod and ManageFlitter go more in-depth, allowing for community management and related insights. Next, update your Twitter lists to help categorize your followers and simplify your targeting methods. Finally, consider pinning an important Tweet to the top of your profile page and deleting some off topic Tweets for a refreshed Twitter account.

Don’t completely transform your strategy

It’s never a good idea to alienate your followers with a sudden big change in content strategy. Even if the campaign management changes hands, it’s important to maintain the strategies that worked well with the previous audience. Brand consistency is important, and that includes your social media.

Keep followers in the loop about the next event

We can’t stress the importance of year-round content enough! Regularly posting content during the off-season ensures your event stays top-of-mind. There’s nothing worse than trying to jump-start a cold audience. You can sustain a year-round presence through fun initiatives like Throw Back Thursdays (#TBT). Repurposing content from your past conference helps build loyalty and serves as a preview for any potential participant.

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