As the sponsor, you probably got to meet a bunch of great people and pass out a ton of free merchandise at the event. Which is awesome because everyone must have loved you. I mean, who doesn’t love free stuff huh? It’s also great because you got to distribute your products and therefor subliminally increase your brand awareness. Which is the most important thing here!

But you didn’t do this all just by handing out free stuff, you did it by staying active on social media during the event. Just like we talked about in Part 2 of this series. Remember how to do this; Remember how to stay socially active during an event? Checking-in to your venue, tweeting pictures, taking videos etc.

All these things that you did during the event for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ and your blogs are essential, especially if you want to maintain your visibility and grow your audience. You’ve started to showcase your brand online but now you want to grow your brand awareness. And in order to increase your brand awareness, it’s important for you to continue leveraging your social mediums. That means leveraging them even after the event is over. Why? Because it’s is a great time to take advantage of and remind everyone of your contribution and who you are.

So let’s start with:

1) Facebook
FB is an easy and efficient way to showcase your products and increase visibility.

1. So go into your profile and update your history. Add the event you have just sponsored into your history in the “event” section. This is a great way to share your experience and give your audience a better sense of the type of events that you do, and the type of company you are.
2. You should have taken pictures at the event (pictures of event guests with your products/merchandise) so now, create an album and upload all these photos. Photos are an easy way to increase traffic and increase visibility.
3. Same goes for videos. You want to highlight your brand being active and bringing smiles to people’s faces.
4. Perhaps go back into the FB event invitation and search for any of the event guests you may have met. Search their profiles and see if they have featured or mentioned you in any of their pictures, videos or status’. You can then use these photos and feature them on your company page. Which will ultimately drive them back on to your page for a “like.”
5. Or you can use these names to tag your photos, again to increase traffic and visibility, or you can also send them a message asking them how they are enjoying your free merchandise. This is also a great opportunity to give them  coupon or let them in on a promotional offer, which can also help grow your relationship and build customer loyalty.

Bonus- Post your advertisements and promote your discounts on your company page for everyone to see.

2) Twitter

An easy to tool to use if you want to stay connected.

1. From your company’s Twitter handle, search the event hashtag and see who was tweeting about you during the event. 
2. You can then follow these event guests and then tweet at them. Thank them for mentioning your product and acknowledge them for helping you increase your brand awareness across Twitter.

3. You can then also retweet any of their tweets that mention your brand.
4. And you can retweet any of their Twitpics, Instagram pics or Path pics.
5. Not to mention, you can reward them for tweeting about you by messaging them a coupon or promotional code. This will get them to possibly consider purchasing your products and have them as a returning customer.

3) LinkedIn

Now that the event is over, you want to make it easy for people to find you.

1. Update you “about me” section. Add links for your profile sites so that you can be found across multiple social media platforms.
2. On the LinkedIn event invitation, search for event gusts and connect with them, or suggest that they connect and follow your company/brand.
3. Or you can search for the event guests and send them a direct message. Just ask them how they are enjoying your free product and tell them to follow you if they are interested in learning more about your brand/products.
4. And just like with FB and Twitter, you can always send them a coupon or promotional code. Who doesn’t want more discounted or free stuff?
5. You can also create a group with all event guests to start and promote discussion on your company brand/products.

4) Google+

A great way to share.

1. Upload all of the photos you have taken onto your company’s Google+ company page. You can either create an album or just upload a few in a post. (It’s probably best if you create an album using the event hashtag, for easy finding)
2. Do the same fo your videos. Upload them all so that your followers can see the work you have done.
3. You can also post these photos and videos onto the Google+ event page. This way you can stay connected with all event members. Even if they don’t follow you, they will see you have uploading photos of you sponsoring the event, which could then potentially drive them on to your company page and earn you a new follow.
4. The Google+ event page will also give you a chance to share any promotions and coupons with all event members.
5. You can then create a community with these event guests so that you plan event, start hangouts, and share with the right people.

5) Blogs

Try to increase traffic and boost visibility.

1. You should have taken a ton of photos during the event, so now you can use these in your blog. Photos usually draw in more traffic than just having plain text.
2. You should have also taken a ton of videos during the event. Now you can also upload these onto your blog to help you increase traffic.
3. You may have gathered a few testimonial during the event, like we mentioned in Part 2, so now incorporate these testimonials onto your blog so that readers can see what other event guests had to say about your company brand/product.
4. Try to be as specific as possible and mention the names of any people you may have interacted with during the event. This will help increase your viewer ratings. People are more likely to read and respond to something if they know that they are mentioned in it.
5. This one’s pretty obvious but don’t forgot to share the link to your blog post across all of your other social media platforms. 

So the more you post and share, the more likely your audience is to start responding and sharing your content with their friends. Which is what it’s all about. You want your content out there so that people get to know who you are and what you have to offer.  But in order to do this, don’t forget to followup and keep your audience posted via the top 5 social media platforms.

That’s all we have for you today, bu if you want to learn more tips and resources, make sure to sign up for the upcoming Networking 2.0 Book or subscribing to this blog!

And don’t forget to leave your comments below. 

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