Every fall, Vital’s content team partners with the New Hampshire Film Festival to provide a 360 degree view of the event from the perspective of the artists, filmmakers, industry professionals, and festival-goers. Using blog, video, and social media content, our strategy has three main goals:
• Create content that encourages people to attend the festival
• Share the festival with people who are not able to attend
• Supplement and enhance the experience of festival-goers
The strategies that we use for the NHFF can be scaled to fit any size event, and we encourage you to enlist them. Having a plan for creating content and listening to and interacting with your audience during an event is so important because chances are your event is already being talked about and shared online. Whether you choose to join those conversations, or you choose to ignore them, they are going to carry on. So, why not make the most of the buzz and leave your audience delighted?
Here are our top three tips for creating engaging, exciting content during your next event. Also, want to see firsthand how we’re sharing content this week, follow #NHFF on Twitter and Instagram.
- Create a Content Team
Events are fast paced, sometimes hectic, and it’s nearly impossible for just one person to capture all the great content that is bound to happen. Creating a content team will greatly help. The team may include photographers, videographers, bloggers, and social media-ers. Their job during the event is to identify all the different types of content opportunities, capture them, and then distribute their work through various channels. This approach will help share the experience of the event through more lenses and audiences will love the breadth of coverage.Just like with any content strategy, however, remember that it’s important for your team to understand the brand and voice of your event. This brings us to tip number two. - Have a Clear, Simple Workflow for Content
It’s best to create a simple workflow for how content will be created, published, and distributed during the event. All content should have a vetting process, a proofing process, and a publishing process. One person should approve content so that the voice stays consistent throughout the event. To most easily and effectively achieve this, tip number three is a great one. - Plan Content in Advance
Planning content prior to an event will ensure that you don’t miss key moments and that your team knows where they need to be throughout the day. However, though it’s important to try and prepare for all types of scenarios during your event, it’s also good to remember that sometimes the greatest content comes from those serendipitous moments you just happen to stumble upon – so be ready, but be flexible too.
Above all, creating amazing content for any event is a collaborative effort, and so I want to take a moment here to thank the team of bloggers and social media-ers who will be creating content this week for the NHFF. We couldn’t do it without you, so without further ado:
Zac Clancy is a Portsmouth based software and technology entrepreneur. He is the vice president of an international disaster relief non-profit, which he helped start in 2010. He runs a technology/leadership blog at www.blackglasses.me, and keeps a running commentary on his Twitter, twitter.com/zac_c.
Sarah Paradis has lived near the Piscataqua seacoast all her life. Movie-obsessed since birth, she has seen almost 1,000 films from genres such as classic, thriller/mystery, action-adventure, and children’s animation (Pixar). Enamoured with life, she is also passionate about music, self-created art, food, people who have class, being technically-minded, and Sukkot.
Michael Soldati is a New Hampshire native and a bit of a nomadic talent. As a stage actor he has performed up and down the North East and Midwest. Known for his rhythmic stylings as a performance poet, he runs a creative writing blog at Thedirectact.wordpress.com and has performed with such notable musicians as Sammy Miller and The Congregation, Franky Rousseau’s Large Band, and the late Austin Peralta.
Erika J. Wilson is a fearless film & stage actress, writer, producer, Seacoast Film Society founder, knowledge hunter, social butterfly, gemini, purveyor of positivity, debater extraordinaire, bacon connoisseur, Chihuahua lover, and friend.
Also joining the content team will be Stephanie Kamakas, Melissa Stanwood, and Molly Taaffe.
Thank you all.
Maybe you’re already creating content for your next event, or you need some help getting a strategy in place. Tell us how or why in the comments section, or check out our post on five ideas to keep your blog active.
