Stylish events with plenty of impact: how to make your event Instagrammable!
All sorts of events can offer great marketing and incentive opportunities: theme nights, gala dinners, team building activities and more. And if you have a few tricks up your sleeve, you can use those events to reach out to a large audience on social media platforms, like Instagram. Here are a few tips to help boost the impact of your professional events.
Give your guest list some thought
From the moment you start planning an event, you need to think about who you want to invite. Consider inviting guests who can promote your event there and then on social media, such as influencers and leading figures in your industry. If you want a good indication of the impact they can have on the public, take a look at how many followers they have and how often they post. Through their own stories, they can also write a sort of report of the evening and stream some live moments too.
Think fun and unusual!
Instagram is all about vibrant colors and different light filters. If you want your guests to take inspirational pictures, you need to make sure the lighting really enhances the atmosphere of the event and provides guests with a great backdrop for their photos. There are lots of ways to create unusual visuals. We recommend holograms, works of art, photobooths or digital frescoes. All are eye-catching and can be used in conjunction with smartphone sensors. You could also install innovative electricity-generating bikes, and encourage your guests to have a quick pedal in order to fire up the projector and make commercials and slide shows appear on the wall. A fun and original way to promote your brand message!
Food to match your brand image
When it comes to food, you need to be thinking “style” from the very beginning. Food pictures are true Instagram classics: photos of attractive plates of food can help convey the ambiance of an event and add real value. So, you should choose dishes that are authentic and/or in keeping with the event’s context and chosen theme. And then you could use your company branding to customize certain items. You could add the name of your business to tea-bag and coffee sachets, or customize the labels on wine and beer bottles so they match your company logo. There are lots of ways to make food and drink visual reminders of your brand values.
More than just guests: participants
If you’re hosting an event, you need to organize activities. If you involve guests in activities, they’re bound to take lots of photos that can be shared on social media. Sharing can even be a goal in itself: if you install a social media wall at your event, you’ll be able to display real-time comments and images from your Twitter and Instagram feeds. This can inspire influencers to be more creative as they try to outdo each other! Workshops can also give Instagrammers creative ideas: a tea-tasting stand or even a sophrology class during a work session are bound to get a reaction from healthy-living enthusiasts. Team-building activities, such as creative challenges or quizzes, are also great for providing fun, memorable and uplifting moments that can be shared as Instagram stories.
Don’t underestimate the music!
Carefully select music for the social parts of your event: relaxing electro-lounge music during reception drinks followed by a live set from a well-known artist during the event itself will guarantee videos get posted online, perhaps even live! Involve guests in as many unusual activities as you can, and encourage them to share any moments they enjoy with their followers.