Managing the social media for professional agricultural events requires strategic planning and careful execution.
Here’s a list of practical and not so obvious “dos” for getting the most out of social media at your next big agricultural event taken from our experience over the years:
DO know your industry. People have invested time to be at their industry event and learn from the best, so it’s essential your social media reflects a knowledgeable and progressive presence that adds value with every post.
DO know the issues. Get to know the industry issues in advance in order to respond in a timely and relevant way to any arising enquiries, questions or concerns.
DO get to know the space you’re working in. Conference spaces can be like a maze! Orient yourself early. This will save you time navigating where you need to be so you can spend more time creating compelling content.
DO prepare strategic social media captions in advance. This allows you to be proactive with promoting your most important event messages.
DO plan out your time. One post can take you 30 minutes, another can take you five. It’s important to know how you’ll invest your time in order to get the best outcome possible for the event.
DO set aside time for your social media team to take breaks! It’s easy to go in all guns blazing and then find out you’re in a slump at 3pm due to skipping lunch (we do not recommend 🙂
DO set up an internal team tool to easily communicate with each other. Things change fast and updates in the program need to be accounted for in an effective and efficient way.
DO get to know the event program like the back of your hand, and ensure the whole team is across it. Everyone should know where they need to be when and who is responsible for what.
DO prepare an FAQ and setup message responders on commonly asked questions to free you up for when custom responses are necessary.
DO dedicate a full time resource to community management. If you’ve done your lead up promotions successfully, there will be a massive spike in user activity over the course of the event. Don’t waste the opportunity to build relationships and engage!
DO decide which channels you’re going to re-share user generated content (USG) to and which channels you will take more of a considered approach.
DO prep your talent in advance and support them to be their best on the day. Even after one day of crowds and bright lighting, energy levels can be impacted, so it’s important you give clear direction and have talent speaking points ready, along with the right attitude to support them.
DO have a crisis management plan in place and process for escalation. If something crops up, who needs to know and what step needs to be taken to best address it?
DO leave room in your social program to be opportunistic with your content creation. If there’s something good happening that you hadn’t planned for be sure to capture it and promote it!
DO consider how you involve others in your content creation, and keep it fun for all those involved.
DO be prepared to put in after hours. Events are a significant time commitment but when managed with care, the rewards are worth it and your team should walk away feeling valued and energised!
Last but not least, events should make the attendees feel like the hero, and leave them eagerly looking forward to next year! Keep this in mind when managing the social media for your next big agricultural event.
