The day is here. Flashback to the first day of school; you pick out your best outfit and pack up your bag. Anxious and excited, you step through the doorway and into a sea of new faces. The room buzzes with “Hi’s,” “Hello’s,” and “How-are-You’s.” Flash-forward, and you’re having some serious déjà vu as you attend your first industry conference of the year.
There are so many ways to approach a conference, from an educational stand-point to a social networking opportunity. In the real estate industry, networking is key, and at this week’s Sotheby’s International Realty Global Networking Event (GNE), we were there to do just that.
Here are a few tips on how to use social media to capitalize on the endless opportunities presented to you when attending a conference.
Strategize beforehand.
Packing your bags and purchasing your plane ticket aren’t the only ways to prepare for a conference. Think ahead of time about how you would like to angle yourself and your company. Set up a calendar for social media posts and surf the web for any hype leading up to the event. Most will have one or a few hashtags you can use when posting and searching. And, most will have attendees who are already active. (Side Note: Aside from socializing, pre-engaging and setting up meet-ups are a great way to get valuable face-to-face interaction with individual attendees separate from already-scheduled group events, like asking to grab a quick cup of Joe pre-session or lunch in between.)
For GNE 2016, the hashtags were #GNE2016 and #SIRGNE2016. There was even a stellar app specific to the conference that was very similar to some of the most well-known social platforms today. Conference attendees were able to create profiles and post to a live social feed throughout the conference.
Before the conference began, we engaged our team members who would be attending and created profiles for each. We then encouraged them to each be active and shared social tips for organic interaction.
We also developed two main types of messages in addition to the direct posts from our team on the ground. We calendared out the messages to ensure we were active throughout the entire conference.
Shout it out: Your “Pitch.” If you don’t already have one developed, coming up with your main company messages, or “elevator pitch,” is a great way to introduce others to you and your business. These are the top messages you would want to communicate if you only had 60-seconds to do so. Having these lined out is not only great for attending team members to speak towards, but also for social posts. Our internal team carries fold-out business cards for quick referencing of company messaging.
For socializing via the app, we created “hooks” from these messages, encouraging attendees to get more information at our booth.
Let others speak to your credibility. One thing people highly value are the opinions others hold of a service, business, or professional. Positive testimonials and reviews are an essential driver to gaining new business. Everyone likes hearing directly from the source.
Fortunately, we were attending a conference specifically for Sotheby’s International Realty agents. We are one of their preferred auction providers. We partner with agents on every sale. In order to educate agents on this partnership, the second type of messages created highlighted video testimonials of agent partners, known as “Ask Your Peers.” The testimonials of our Preferred Agent partners built credibility among agents whom we hope to partner with in the future.
If you don’t have assets such as these at your disposal, don’t fret. Meeting and taking pictures with other professionals can work in a similar manner. Share these photos with your new acquaintances on social platforms, tag them, and they will likely do the same.
Stay Engaged. Post conference, connect on social media with those you’ve met and continue on in the conversation. When you see them face-to-face the following year, you’ll have grown your relationship exponentially. Instagram and Facebook are great social platforms for this.