We were thrilled to have best-selling author of Socialnomics, Digital Leader and What Happens in Vegas Stays on Youtube and social media expert Erik Qualmann as our opening keynote speaker at #ElevateDC to discuss the way that social media is changing the event landscape and new technologies are changing the way that people do business.

If you haven’t watched Erik Qualman’s video, Social Media Revolution, we’ll give you a minute to do that now.

Crazy, right? It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone: social media is here to stay and it’s changing the way we do everything.

Social Trends to Tap Into

If you’re not already doing these, it’s not too late to start. These tips from Erik will help push your event to the next level.

1. Lasting Hashtag: Pick a hashtag that is short and tight but relevant and evergreen.

2. Promote the #: Start using the hashtag before people even sit down. It should be in your event invite, reminder emails, social media posts, PR & marketing efforts, the whole nine yards.

3. Engage the External Audience: Encourage your community to follow along live (via the hashtag) even if they can’t attend.

4. Pick a Socialisation Point Person: Designate one person to manage pre, during and post event social media. This can’t be the event organiser!

5. Livestream! Or, if you don’t have the funds to livestream, provide real time updates via your Socialisation Point Person.

6. Curate and Repurpose Content.  Don’t reinvent the wheel. Slice and dice content you’ve already created for sharing purposes. It’s ok to re-use things!

7. Have a Mobile App! Allow your attendees to find all event information in one place, and…save a few trees by skipping the paper brochures!

8. Provide Attendees with Photo Opportunities: Have an amazing backdrop with your event name so people can take photos and share with their friends (#humblebrag)

9. Leverage Speakers for Promotion. Ask your speakers to make themselves available for photos, interviews, after they speak and during the event.

10. Offer Free WiFi: All of the above is enabled by WiFi, vital for a smooth event with lots of social sharing.

11. Collect Onstage Feedback. Use realtime Q&A with sli.do or other polling apps to collect feedback during sessions as opposed to paper surveys post-event.

12. Finally….Watch Guy Kawasaki! Always pay attention to what Guy is doing. He’s always in the event circuit, doing cutting edge things.

Want to learn more about Erik Qualman? Follow him on Twitter @Equalman or pick up his new book, What Happens in Vegas Stays on Youtube here.