Meet my friend Becky Johns.

She’s one of the many talented folks living, working and making media art up in the great state of Michigan.  Becky is a self-taught, uber-talented photographer and rising PR rock star.  She’s also a blast to hang out with.  All things considered, it’s not hard to see why she’s popping up on radar.  Oh, yeah… Becky’s also just 23 – a shining member of Generation Y.  Imagine that.

I’m excited to be able to share some of her content with you today, just before Cheryl and I head up to visit Becky and about 541 other cool kids at the EPIC Detroit Tweetup.  I’ll shut up now.  Here’s Becky…

The beauty of meetups, tweetups, conferences and events is the opportunity to take online connections and turn them into real life ones. Capturing the essence of an event with different types of media offers organizers the ability to repurpose content, share success stories and develop future marketing material for their organizations.

In order to do this, it’s important to think about how to translate what’s happening in the room to an online presence. Having been part of social media coverage teams for several types of events, I offer you a list of things to consider…

Shareability – If many event attendees will be likely to share what they’re experiencing, make it easy for them to do so:

• Create a link-rich web hub with information about speakers or performers so those trying to share have easy access to the correct Twitter handles, websites, etc. for sharing purposes.
• Determine a Twitter hashtag prior to the event and share with attendees at the beginning. Ensure it’s visible throughout the event. If you can gather Twitter handles during the registration process, do so and create a list of attendees, making it easier to keep track of conversations and for attendees to connect with your organization and each other.
• Have easy access points to your organization’s website or other online properties and have links showing how to easily navigate between them.

Visual Media – Nothing will tell the story better than photos and video. Be sure to capture both, particularly to accompany any written coverage of the event or for use in promoting the next one.

• Grab short interviews with speakers and attendees. Ask what they’ve learned and enjoyed, what they’ll take away to share with others and also any feedback they’re willing to offer. This is an opportunity to create shareable promo videos with the first few questions while also gaining perspective on areas to improve the next time around. Many people won’t take the time to fill out surveys or feedback forms after the event is over, so this is a good way to counteract that.
• Don’t forget the B-roll. Pan the room, get footage of decoration details, signs, people mingling, the venue and all the things that maybe don’t seem like the focal points of the event. They’re nice bits to have later when editing a video together.
• Take photos. Capturing the speakers, the crowd, the venue and as many candid moments as possible, will pay off. They’re great for future marketing materials, for websites and organization publications and to liven up your organization’s social media outposts. Make sure to give your photographer photo credit (and link love) if you’re publishing their work; also, if you don’t hire the photographer for the whole event or work with a freelancer, be sure to offer to pay for usage for any images you’ll use for commercial purposes.

Build a Team – Event planners and hosts have a million things to worry about on the day of an event. Find a way to have a team of people dedicated to capturing your media and sharing social updates for you.

• In many cases, you can find volunteers to do these things for you. Empower attendees to capture photos and video, encourage them to share it in whichever online outpost you’re using and be sure to track this activity after the event and thank attendees for contributing.
• If you can’t find an all-volunteer team, consider offering a significant incentive to talented people you trust to be your eyes, ears and typing fingers while you’re busy running the show. Maybe it’s waiving the conference registration fee. Maybe it’s a discounted room at the hotel. Maybe it’s a backstage pass or premier parking. No matter, be sure to offer something that makes that person’s life significantly easier to attend your event and help you out.
• If you build a coverage team, put one person in charge. Have them work with each team member to decide how to cover all the action and let each person produce work based on their strengths. You might be surprised just how easy it is to find a few good writers, a good photographer and someone skilled at shooting and editing video by just reaching out to your network. Some of your contacts or attendees are likely hobbyists in these areas and would be excited for the chance to help you with coverage.

These are just a few ideas and tips to think about.

Nate and I met while working together on the social media coverage team for the Business Marketing Association National Conference in June.  This was a large conference, so we were part of fairly large team covering tweeting, blogging, photography, videos, Linkedin discussions, Facebook participation and more.

We were able to create a lot of content on ongoing deadlines throughout the conference and provide comprehensive coverage of the content in sharable, social ways. BMA built a talented team that could divide and conquer based on specialties in each area. By having a team leader develop a schedule and keep everyone organized, while still allowing for individual creativity and the option to produce the type of content we were each most comfortable creating, the result was top-notch. Every keynote, panel, exhibitor, breakout session and networking session was covered.

Nate and I are happy to answer questions about what’s covered here or requests for help putting together a social media coverage team for an upcoming conference. Just reach out to Nate here or Becky here.

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