The International Spa Association recently held their annual
conference and expo at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. According
to their website,
“The annual event provides an opportunity to network with spa industry professionals, 30+ educational speakers covering a variety of business-related topics, the latest trends in spa products and much more! In addition, the ISPA Expo brings together the leading product suppliers in the industry for one-on-one time with spa decision-makers.”
While
the expo only ran October 21st through October 23rd, the
ISPA began utilizing their social and internet platforms to spread the word and
create excitement among attendees weeks before the conference kick-off.
Prior
to the beginning of the expo, ISPA shared ideas on what to pack for your trip
to Las Vegas on their blog
and uploaded a PDF conference and expo guide to their website with information on sponsors and events.
They even shared photos on Instagram of their supply truck, the expo set-up
process and goodie bags the thousands of attendees would be receiving. All of
their pre-event social activity was meant to help their attendees prepare for
the event, as well as create excitement for the event among staff and attendees
alike.
Pre-Event, Event and
Post-Event Social Activity
Their
pre-event promotion mainly focused on utilizing their Twitter and Facebook accounts to
keep their followers updated on the event progress. They would tweet and post essentially
the same things on both platforms, generally posting quick blurbs about where
the staff was and what they were doing. Occasionally, they would encourage viewers
to click on the link to their event specific website
for more in depth information.
During
the actual event, ISPA focused on using a combination of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to engage with their
attendees. They encouraged attendees to utilize the ISPA2013 and GrowYourWorld hashtags
on all social platforms pre-, during and post-event as well. They posted
real-time event updates to their Twitter account and would often retweet follower’s
posts about a specific speaker or experience they had during the event. They
also used Facebook to communicate event updates and highlights in essentially
the same format as Twitter, just not as frequently or in as great volume.
While
their business Instagram did not see that much action during the event, they
did encourage attendees to utilize #ISPA2013 and #GrowYourWorld for a chance to
be uploaded onto the event website. There is a specific section titled #ISPA2013 that housed several of the Instagram photos that
used the event hashtag. Looking at the section now, it clearly did not archive
all of the photos that were posted with that hashtag. It seems to serve the purpose
of encouraging attendees to use the Instagram platform and search the hashtag themselves.
Post-event
activity has not been very exciting to be quite honest with you. While they
posted a few farewell tweets to Twitter and posts to Facebook, there has not
been much buzz surrounding event post happening. ISPA did try to keep the buzz
going by posting this to both their Twitter and Facebook accounts:
It
doesn’t seem to have worked very well though – only gaining 5 likes on
Facebook!
Key Social Platforms
Utilized
While
we have already discussed most of the social media platforms ISPA utilized for
their expo promotion, let’s revisit a few and discover some new ones!
Facebook: ISPA
utilized their company Facebook page to post updates via text and photos prior
to the event and during the actual event. The Facebook page kept attendees
engaged by using consistent hashtags in #ISPA2013 and #GrowYourWorld and
providing links to speaker bios and website information when necessary. The
Facebook page utilized for this event was the company’s main fan page, so it’s
hard to tell how much of the follower interaction was directly connected to the
event attendees.
Twitter:
ISPA utilized two different Twitter accounts to promote this event pre-, during
and post-event dates. I actually didn’t realize there were two accounts until I
clicked on one of the items retweeted and it took me to a completely different
ISPA Twitter account. It looks like they had a pre-established company Twitter
account and an event specific
Twitter account. While the majority of the posts are the same, the user
interaction differs between accounts clearly showing that not all followers are
followers of both accounts. Even though there are apparently two separate
accounts doing much of the same work, Twitter still seemed to be the easiest
and most effective way for ISPA to communicate with their attendees. With
quick, short bursts of information and a link you can click to gather more
information, it makes sense that on-the-move event goers would gravitate
towards Twitter more than any other platform.
YouTube: While
there was nothing posted on their YouTube page that directly correlated with
their annual expo, it’s worthy to note that they do have an account. The
account seems to only be updated when an executive member has some type of
quarterly update or a new study has been completed. In fact, the 2013 study was
referenced in one of their pre-event posts on Facebook and Twitter.
Instagram: This platform was utilized
mainly during the event and was predominately attendee driven. As I noted
before, ISPA uploaded a few pre-event and live event photos but the majority of
the Instagram traffic came from attendees posting their own photos and including the consistent hashtags #ISPA2013 or
#GrowYourWorld. This platform, along with Twitter, are the easiest to use
on-the-go and from a mobile device making them the perfect duo for event
communication and engagement.
Pinterest:
Oddly enough, ISPA also has a Pinterest account. They posted a few things
pre-event, showcasing their award recipients, their chairman’s update video and
a link back to their blog for tips on preparing for the ISPA 2013 Expo. It’s a
very strange use of Pinterest given ISPA’s industry and the plethora of ideas
and products they could be posting to Pinterest boards that are directly
related to their profession.
Website:
The event specific website was really just a place for attendees to go to gain
general information on specific events, exhibits and sponsors leading up to,
during and after the event. Nothing too exciting to talk about with this
platform as it is a necessary tool with every large corporate event.
Mobile Application: ISPA did encourage their attendees to download and use their
event specific mobile app on their smart phone devices. They posted on both
Facebook and Twitter the link to download the app prior to arriving at the event
which allowed attendees to gain up to the minute information, access to accurate
event schedules and instant alerts sent directly to their phones.
Types of Content Shared
The
majority of content shared by ISPA before, during and after the event included
photos about the event or attendees enjoying event experiences, reminders on
what specific events were coming up and links back to the event specific website.
The same or similar content was shared on all of their social platforms (Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram) and tended to be more informational than truly engaging.
Little was mentioned about specific vendors and/or sponsors; however, there is
a tab dedicated to sponsors
on the event specific website.
Hashtags, Retweets and
Vendor Highlights
Consistent
hashtags were used throughout each of the social outlets before, during and after
the expo events, including #ISPA2013 and #GrowYourWorld. While there were no
specific platforms dedicated to truly highlighting their vendors, they did
occasionally retweet vendors who specifically called out one of their Twitter
handles. Aside from retweeting the occasional vendor, ISPA did a decent job at
retweeting attendees when they posted relevant comments or thoughts about a
key-
note speaker or experience.
Sponsor Promotion
ISPA
did not do a great deal of sponsor promotion on their various online and social
media sites. Each of the sponsors were spelled out in the PDF event guide and
the larger sponsors were showcased on the Sponsors tab of the event specific
website. With such a large conference, it is difficult (if not impossible) to
give face time to every single sponsor. With that being said, retweeting more
of their sponsor’s posts (both large and small sponsors) would be a great way
to meet in the middle next year!
Additional IMC Examples
While
the event was promoted via their company website and their various social media
outlets, there seemed to be a disctint lack of promotion elsewhere. This could
be because I am not “plugged-in” to the spa culture, but other than
self-promotion in the spa industry’s magazine, Pulse, I could not find any
other attempts at marketing this event. Granted that could be because this
event is truly for industry professionals; if that’s the case, they probably all
know about the event already and are anticipating registering so there may not
be a large need for multichannel promotion.
Consistent Branding and
Theming
Overall,
branding and theming was relatively consistent throughout the entire event and
on all social and online outlets. The same logo and colors were used on their
event specific website, PDF event guide and Twitter background. The same company
logo was consistently used at the profile photo for their various social media
outlets as well, making it easy to find the correct profile to explore. Like I
mentioned earlier, they consistently used the same hashtags on all available
outlets with #ISPA2013 and #GrowYourWorld.
This Stood Out to Me
The
Relaxation Area really stood out as unique to me. While this wasn’t promoted a lot on
their social media sites (one or two references at the most), this was probably
one of the most frequented areas of the entire expo. The Relaxation Area
allowed attendees to experience complimentary spa treatments from industry
professionals and various sponsors. This was a chance for attendees to not only
experience great service, but to get a first-hand look at specific products
that they could potentially utilize in their own practice. Obviously, this is
something that you are probably only going to find a spa expo and I wish it would
have been showcased more!
Room to Improve
Overall,
I think ISPA did a great job at utilizing various methods of the internet and
social media to promote their event at different stages along the way. However,
I wish there would have been more pre-event activity to help create more buzz and
excitement among attendees. I imagine that the industry professionals attending
this expo get extremely excited about the event and it would have been nice to
see ISPA encourage more engagement among attendees and staff members. By
actively posting articles on the ISPA blog or updating an event specific
Facebook page, they could easily prompt social engagement from readers and
followers. Retweeting and sharing user’s posts would be a simple and quick way
to encourage and maintain engagement and conversation as well.
This
week’s focus really got me thinking about how exciting and entertaining it must
be to run the social media aspect of a large event. Having worked in event planning
for the past three years and being a part of some very large conventions from an operations
standpoint, I know how busy those staff member and meeting planners really are.
I think it would be beneficial for any large event to have dedicated staff
members whose sole purposes are to update and maintain the event specific
social media. I mean, let’s be honest, that would be the BEST job ever!
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