
Live Events: The Hidden Treasure for Creative Virality
Live events can include:- An industry trade show that you set up a booth at or sponsor
- A public speaking gig you or one of your team members gets asked to do
- An athletic, musical, or community-related event your company sponsors or publicly participates in
- A “meetup” you organize for users of your product in a specific area
- An event or festival that your company organizes
- A free event that you also stream as a webinar teaching prospects a valuable skill that also provides insight into why your product is valuable
Live Events and Virality
One of the incredibly obvious benefits of live events is to spread the word about your product in an environment where you can directly interact with potential customers. But it’s also a perfect place to inject some virality. Here are a few creative ways of doing this:- Set up a photo booth with funny props and your brand’s step-and-repeat in the background. Grab prospects’ emails and Twitter handles after their photos are taken so you can email those photos to each of them individually. That way, you can not only build your contact list, but you can tweet each photo out and tag the people in it. (Which is one of the best ways to generate retweets.)
- Create some sort of funny theme for your speaking engagement, and come out in costume. Encourage attendees to take photos and live tweet them, or post them on Facebook or Instagram. Just make sure they tag your brand on each. (Place a sign with your social handles in the view of the audience).
- Create some sort of event experience that is collaborative or competitive in nature, and encourage those experiencing your event to bring friends to participate. Gather an email address from each person, and offer them some free swag to take photos and tag your brand. Who doesn’t love free swag?
What’s Next
Live events are cool and all, but is there a way to kick them up a notch? Well, I’m glad you asked, because yes, our next marketing channel takes user engagement to a whole new level.Can a Marketing Channel Not Be a Marketing Channel While Also Being All of Them?
This might sound like a riddle, and in a way it is. But unlocking the potential behind our next marketing channel will open up your viral engine to a whole new audience.
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