Guest blog post by Michelle Bruno, Bruno Group Signature Events
The ground rules of most gatherings have changed. Because of the increasingly mobile and social world in which we live, guests desire and even expect to share their live experiences with online friends. Here are five ways that event organizers can facilitate a fun and social experience for their participants.
Social Photo Booth. The
2014 Reunion of University of Notre Dame Alumni was a prime example of what’s possible when you put former classmates who haven’t seen each other in years in front of a social photo booth with Kelly green wigs and foam numbers (for the years they graduated). Guests at this year’s event “seized the day” with the
digital photos created and posted online by the Pixe Social Photo Booth app.
Trivia Contest. Notre Dame’s reunion team deployed another secret social weapon to broadcast their guests’ antics online. The school hired a comedian to capture alumni responses to the first-ever
Notre Dame Trivia Contest on video. Top performers vied for tickets to the Notre Dame/Stanford football game this fall and the video footage was edited and placed on YouTube where it has received over 2,400 views.
Social Media for Good. The recent
#ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in which individuals shared videos of themselves dumping buckets of ice water over their heads to raise awareness about the life-altering disease demonstrates how well social good and social media go together. Live gatherings are perfect opportunities to enlist participants in activities that bond them together in thought-provoking ways that they can also share online.
Selfie Scavenger Hunt. A scavenger hunt is an excellent way to promote team building and bring out the competitive spirit. And, when it involves social media, the whole world can follow along. Organizers of the Notre Dame Alumni reunion instructed their guests to look for specific campus landmarks—using vague photos as clues—and take selfies at the locations. The first persons to arrive and tweet their photos out on Twitter received prizes.
Social Vending Machines. Most people know how to use a “regular” vending machine: users put coins in the slot, push some buttons, and grab what comes out. But, some companies have added a social media component to the exercise. Rather than putting money into the machine, participants post to Twitter or Facebook to trigger a response. Social vending machines transform even mundane tasks into exciting social experiences.
With some creativity, almost any experience can be socialized. What have you done to give your guests their allotted fifteen minutes of fame online?
View the Pixe Social Case Study with Notre Dame Alumni Association
here.
