How to use Snapchat for Events

Snapchat is a great social platform for going live during events. The social media platform used for sending temporary photos and short videos is a unique tool to show what's happening in real time during your event. Snapchat is excellent for creating excitement and marketing your event in the days and weeks leading up to it.

Snapchat is popular amongst the millennials, but don’t be  quick to judge the young demographic. Many ages of users have jumped on this Snapchat train. Snapchat stories only last for 24 hours so you should post often. Just like your event, Snapchat content is short term, so using it for events can work together quite nicely.

Younger generations don’t trust companies and events that just talk about what they are doing. They want to see what is happening and decide if they're going to participate. With Snapchat’s 186 million daily active users, event planners have the potential to gain a pretty large audience.

Snapchat could be the tool your event needs to show everyone exactly what your event is about. It’s a social media platform event professionals should consider to reach demographics that can be hard to reach.

Using Snapchat Before Your Event

Ever heard of "FOMO?" FOMO stands for "Fear of Missing Out." This term is a psychology term and concept Snapchat mastered because of its real-time marketing during an event or occasion.

Social media followers that don't attend your event can still see what happens throughout the occasion. Snapchat is a great way for event guests to send messages to their friends and share their experiences.

Snapchat is also an excellent platform to use to build up excitement leading up to your event. While you are working on plans, update your followers on things like the type of food that will be there, decorations that will be up, and even showing off the venue where your event will take place. Event planners can create "sneak peeks" to add to the event’s story for your planned entertainment, or any contests and giveaways.

Leading up to your event, event planners will most likely advertise on all of their social media platforms. For live streams and photos during the event, you can tell your social media followers that you’ll be going live and encourage them to add your company or event on Snapchat.

Snapchat’s Custom Geofilters

One way that Snapchat is unique is their use of filters. Geofilters go on top of a user’s image or video. These filters can help brand your event. Geofilters are location-based so using them for your event is perfect because it is a temporary occasion.

Creating a Snapchat Geofilter is pretty simple. Just submit the illustration to Snapchat and then wait to be approved. You will also tell them how long the Geofilter will need to be active. Event planners will want to get this set up at least 3-4 days ahead of time.

Snapchat does charge to be able to create these filters. The price is determined based on how many views and a couple of other factors.

Some things to include in your event’s Geofilter are:

• Your company name or event logo
• A filter with an illustration of the event’s theme
• Only use the bottom or top portion of the screen so that it will frame the photos taken by guests or staff

Don’t want to create your filter? No problem. Snapchat has templates that you can edit.

A real-time marketing tool during your event

To use Snapchat during your event gives it a personalized feel many guests seek. During the event, you can use Snapchat to show off all your hard work. Event staff can take pictures or videos of event swag, sponsors, or the venue.

These are the types of things to share on Snapchat:

• Decorations
• Food tables
• Giveaways
• Guest speakers
• Live entertainment

Snapchat is also a fun way for your event staff to interact with your event guests. Encourage them to take selfies with your event Geofilters and add them to their own Snapchat stories. Then, you can share them to yours, too.

If you encourage your guests to share, your staff won’t always have to record as much content themselves. It also helps show different views of your event from a guests perspective.

Feedback after your event

After the event is over, you’ll have great feedback in your Snapchat story that you can use for future events.

A great way you can use the photos and videos from your event-goers is to see what was popular during your event. Was there a favorite food item everyone raved about? Did you have a special giveaway or contest that was popular? Based on how many people add photos to your event story, you can see if the contest was a hit or not.

If your event has a special speaker or live music, check what people said about your entertainment. All this feedback will help determine how to plan for future events.

In Conclusion

In the end, Snapchat isn’t just for the younger generation anymore. Event planners should consider adding Snapchat to their social media campaign to gain trusted followers and event brand awareness.

It also helps show your event to folks who couldn't make it to make them feel like they're apart of it. If they missed this event, they may to want to attend your next event.

Use Snapchat’s Geofilters to help with your event's branding and encourage guests to share their experiences with their friends. It’s also an excellent way for your event staff to add their personalized touch to your event.