Using social media to drive engagement and create FOMO for Australia’s most prominent digital marketing conference
Social media wasn’t simply a valuable tool for promoting State of Social ’21; it was an essential part of our marketing toolkit.
For the fourth year in a row, Coffey & Tea were engaged to execute the social media strategy for Australia’s brainiest social media event, State of Social.
Even with the West Australian border closed to the rest of Australia, 2021 was officially the biggest in the conference’s short history, with nearly 500 marketers taming the chaos at Optus Stadium.
Over two massive days filled with killer keynotes, discussions and brainstorms, Coffey & Tea utilised Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram to drive social media engagement and create a massive FOMO for everyone who couldn’t (or somehow chose) not to attend.
Seriously, if you weren’t there, click here to witness everything you missed.
Read on to learn about the social media services we used for State of Social ’21.
Pre-event preparation
State of Social ’21 was much more than a conference, from the EyeJack AR Art Exhibition, live pearl harvest, beer tasting and farmer’s market; it was a completely immersive experience with many significant moments happening consecutively. This meant it was absolutely crucial to prepare as much as possible ahead of time to ensure no big moments would be missed.
Based on the event run sheet, we created a social media content shot list that detailed precisely what needs to be captured, when it needs to be captured, where it will be captured and who will be capturing it.
Once the shot list was completed, the content that would best suit social media channels became evident. Not all platforms are created equal; as incredible as the art exhibition was, it is not crucial to mention it on LinkedIn. However, it was essential to highlight the visually spectacular display on Instagram Stories.
Curtin Marketing Association
This year, Coffey & Tea utilised Curtin University’s Marketing students to assist with capturing social media content.
Attendees were able to choose from a plethora of workshops and breakout sessions that coincided. Having the assistance of the Curtin Marketing Association ensured that each session was live-tweeted and content could be captured and shared on Instagram Stories.
Customised GIFs
The “animated GIF” (GIF stands for “Graphic Interchange Format”) is unquestionably one of the first things to appear on the internet.
Coffey & Tea created customised State of Social ’21 GIFs to make communications more dynamic, boost brand content and encourage social media participation.
Virtual Tickets
Due to the Government’s COVID-19 restrictions, West Australia’s borders were closed to the rest of Australia and the world, meaning they could not attend the conference.
Once in-person ticket sales ended, the communications on social pivoted to selling virtual tickets. Whether they were in WA, over East or in Singapore, people had the option to experience the best and brightest, all from the comfort of their lounge room, and they needed to know.
Virtual Tickets
Due to the Government’s COVID-19 restrictions, West Australia’s borders were closed to the rest of Australia and the world, meaning they could not attend the conference.
Once in-person ticket sales ended, the communications on social pivoted to selling virtual tickets. Whether they were in WA, over East or in Singapore, people had the option to experience the best and brightest, all from the comfort of their lounge room, and they needed to know.
Hashtag
Every piece of collateral, blog article, and social media post contained the hashtag #StateOfSocial21.
The social media team was able to search what attendees were saying and sharing during the conference. Attendees and stakeholders were able to find what we were sharing because of a designated hashtag. We were then able to connect with them, engage with them in a meaningful way, and form connections.
Instagram Stories
As attendees need to pay to receive full access to the conference’s elite roster of speakers, Coffey & Tea utilised Instagram Stories to showcase incredible nuggets of insights from Adrian Molina, Rachel Corbett, Zoe Scaman and more.
We engaged with all the features of Instagram Stories; music, quizzes, polls, countdowns that are a fun and playful addition.
It is vital for State of Social to have a presence on LinkedIn. While it is not the largest social network, LinkedIn has over 722 million members, noteworthy due to its specific business focus.
By posting about the grand scale of the conference, the calibre of speakers, it positions State of Social as a leader in the digital marketing conference space. It doubles down on the “FOMO” aspect to those who didn’t attend.
Coffey & Tea posted a photo album accompanied by a long-form caption that detailed the day’s events on the evening of both days. The first post had an engagement rate of 53.4%, and the second, 74.29%, which is extremely impressive compared to Social Insider’s study with the average engagement rate per post on LinkedIn traditionally 0.35%.
Slido
Slido is the ultimate Q&A and polling platform for live events. Part of the social media strategy was to create a call to action moments for attendees to ask questions at the end of each presentation.
The tool is a fantastic way to keep attendees awake, actively participating and ensure they are getting answers to their problems they can take back to their workplace.
Instagram Reels
In the fast-paced world we live in, there is a high demand for quick and easily digestible content, which is why Instagram Reels has taken off.
While Instagram has been very cagey about statistics for Instagram Reels, there is a reason Instagram redesigned its app to have Reels front and centre.
We posted a Reel for each day of State of Social, with a combined view count of nearly 5,000.
Instagram Carousel posts
Instagram Carousel posts are a powerful tool that allows accounts to convey a specific message by combining photos, video, or the ideal combination of both in a single post.
Socialinsider reviewed over 22 million Instagram posts, of which nearly 3 million were carousels, finding that carousels have an average engagement rate per post of 1.92%, compared to 1.74% for images and 1.45% for videos.
We used this function of Instagram to capture the energy and atmosphere of State of Social, which is a significant benefit over spamming all of the account’s followers with several posts which may cause users to unfollow.
Alt text on Instagram
With so many people using social media and relying on it as a primary source of information, it’s critical to ensure that everyone can navigate it, even those with hearing, vision, or mobility impairments.
We included image descriptions and video captions on Instagram to help screen-readers to describe visuals for individuals who are blind.
Start promoting State of Social ’22
Coffey & Tea began releasing highlights of the two days across all social media platforms just days after the conference to build buzz and momentum for State of Social 2022.
We created detailed blogs for each day on the State of Social website and shared links on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Coffey & Tea worked with another agency to produce a high-quality video that presents the larger narrative of State of Social but inspires people to get on board for the next conference. This video was also distributed to the media, adding an extra dimension to the standard press release.
The State of Social Instagram feed publishes daily highlights of the event, capturing all attendees’ energy and excitement along with just how grand the conference was.
