Is your company looking for ways to –
- Build credibility?
- Increase brand awareness?
- Create community goodwill?
- Reach key demographics?
- Stand out from the competition?
There’s a surprisingly easy answer to meeting all of those objectives: Community investment through event sponsorship.
Once you’ve committed to sponsoring a community event, catch up on what you need to do BEFORE the big event in Part 1 of our series.
<<< READ PART 1 NOW >>>
Now that you have a strategy for what to do before the big event, this is what you can do during the event to maximize your sponsorship investment.
Maximize Your Company’s Event Sponsorship During the Event
6 Things to Do During the Big Event
Get Your Team Ready
- Staff members as volunteers or event staff
Having team members attend solidifies your commitment and involvement in the event and show the real faces of your company. As a business, this is prime time to interact with the community. Depending on the event, you might even need to be prepared to answer questions about your business and services.
- Capture pictures and video in real-time
On-site staff can also help capture photos and videos for social media. They can be in the pictures, stage needed images, and be ready to catch any spontaneous moment. Trusted team members can even “go live” from the event.
Sharing photos and live videos from the event showcasing your staff will do double duty as proof of your sponsorship and commitment to the event. This can pay off big time towards community goodwill!
Seize the Moment
- Engage online during the event
Use your social media platforms during the event. You will want to post pictures and videos (collected from your staff – see above) and share other content created on-site during the event.
What’s just as important as posting on your own social? Paying attention to what event attendees and other businesses are doing! Being aware of the conversation surrounding the sponsored event is a fantastic opportunity put the “social” in social media.
Your company can: answer questions, offer greetings, comment on photos, share content, give directions to your booth, and talk about why you sponsored the event.
- Use the hashtag (if there is one)
If the event has a hashtag, use it. It will tie content together and be useful for reviewing the event after it’s all over. No rule says you have to use it on EVERYTHING but use it enough to maintain a presence and stay connected to the online conversation.
Go the Extra Mile
- Target event attendees with social media ads during the event
Creating a social media ad that runs during the event to highlight your company’s sponsorship is a smart extra step. Facebook ads, in particular, can target an audience based on the address of the event. That means your ad can encourage the community to stop by the event (with directions) and visit your booth (if you have one). The same can be applied if your company will be giving items away, having an enter-to-win contest, or signing up new members.
Make your presence and sponsorship known in a consistent and controlled way with ads. They are a great compliment to any “live” activity!
- Screenshot and save content and links during the event
Did the media attend the event? Did anyone do an interview or feature story? If other organizations or the event host posted pictures or created content for the day, can you save it?
It can be hard to remember where you saw something after the fact, so grab screenshots or links when you see them during the event.
Use these 6 tips to get the most out of community event sponsorships while the events are happening!
Your company can get connected and use your involvement for successful corporate promotion.