6 Tips for Using Social Media Before, During & After Your Webinar

Posted by: Daniela Baker

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

Social media is the key to making your webinar a success. Use it before, during and after your webinar to engage with your audience on more than a superficial level. You may develop new professional relationships or get new customers by taking the time to interact with your webinar’s audience.

Frost & Sullivan, a growth consulting business, reported in April 2010 that a survey of 1,500 employees found that almost 2/3 used social media for work, and almost ¾ used it for personal reasons. Social media is a powerful tool to use to get the word out about your webinar.

Before the Webinar

1. Tweet your webinar’s details about two weeks beforehand. Invite your followers to tweet questions using a specific hash tag. Watch the conversation around the hash tag, and respond to people’s questions for more information. Tweet about the webinar every day before it takes place. When people register for your webinar, ask them to provide their Twitter name so that you can see what they’re saying about your organization and the webinar.

2. Post the specifics of the webinar on your company’s Facebook page once per day for two weeks beforehand. Link to the registration page in your post. Invite presenters and company employees to spread the word about the event as well. Encourage your LinkedIn network to spread the word, too. Briefly discuss the webinar in your company’s blog as well to give readers an idea of what topics you will cover. Flyte, an internet marketing and web design firm in Portland, Maine suggests offering discounts to people who “like” your Facebook page for the webinar.

Larry Chase of Web Digest for Marketers says that it is important to continue marketing your webinar even if you reach the limit of registrants for your webinar as about 50 percent of them will not attend. Chase also suggests sending reminders before the webinar to remind people when it is and how to log in.

During the Webinar

3. During the webinar, give participants the Twitter hash tag so that they can tweet about the event. Encourage them to use the hash tag in emails you send before and after the event, too. Give a company employee the task of monitoring tweets so that they can help participants with questions. If attendees have good ideas or information, ask the person to retweet it.

4. Assign another employee to tweet during the event and to update the Facebook and LinkedIn pages. The audience will remain engaged in the conversation when you provide new ideas and thoughts during the webinar. Mike Volpe of Marketing with Mike suggests that you answer all technical aspects of how to use software during the webinar in the first few minutes of the webinar. You might use social media to give pointers on how to reduce echo, ask questions or invite other participants during the webinar.

After the Webinar

5. Upload your recording to YouTube or Vimeo, to your website and your Facebook page. Another option is to put the presentation on a site like Slideshare. Put a registration page in front of the webinar on your website so that you can identify possible future customers who will use their business credit card to purchase your products or services.

6. Tell participants to continue using the webinar hash tag in their Twitter conversations after the webinar. Read comments and questions about the webinar on Twitter, and respond to them quickly. Tell people via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and any other social media platforms you use where they can find the recording of the webinar. Encourage them to talk about it, to contact you with questions and ideas and to share it with their colleagues.

Daniela Baker, social media advocate with CreditDonkey says, as you monitor conversations on your different profile pages, take note of what people are talking about. Create groups and hash tags about those topics to keep your audience engaged long after the webinar ends.