Mitra Sorrells of BizBash (BizBash.com) an online resource for event planning news, spoke with four social media specialists about what it means to go beyond quantitative measures to a deeper, qualitative analysis of online activity. Chris Kerns is head of research and analytics for Spredfast; Jady Manibusan is a social media analyst for Brandwatch; Jeff Ramos is a digital creative director and brand consultant; and Reb Carlson is a social media strategist. They suggest these tips to collect meaningful data from an event’s social media activity:
Evaluate social media throughout the event life cycle. ”You’ll get a lot of different types of conversations that can get you a lot of different intelligence around what people are anticipating, what the actual delivery is, and what the takeaways are based on those different time slots,” Kerns says.
Understand who is talking about your event. Listening tools can uncover information such as the gender, age and background of people posting on social media. “Are they influential? Are they valuable? Are they the target group you were looking for, or is there a whole new group attending the event that you didn’t even know was interested?” Kern says. And by understanding who is posting
and the scope of their social reach, planners can identify people to develop relationships with in the future. “They can become advocates for your brand or your event,” Manibusan adds.
Look at engagement and sharing data. Are some posts generating more shares than others? What types of content get the most activity, for example photos, or calls to action, or questions? This type of information can help planners understand how to engage attendees in the future.
Assess long-term impact. Many events aim to create an online community that stays engaged year-round. “If social presence is important, then looking at how many new audience members you retain from the event is really important,” Carlson says. Peaks and drops in activity on social media can also indicate the sustainability of an event’s online community.
