Congress social media content strategy creates in-person atmosphere during virtual event
case study
Case summary: real time social media for a virtual medical congress
A leading regional medical association had run a successful virtual congress in 2020, but social media engagement never matched its in-person editions. Attendees streaming sessions live were not checking their feeds. For the next virtual edition, with 2,000 participants, we built the social media plan around real time engagement so that online attendees felt the buzz of being in the room.
What we did
We ran social media as one part of a wider package that also covered e-commerce strategy, digital advertising, emailers and a live component. The posting schedule followed the same milestones as the emailers, such as early bird deadlines, so every channel pushed the same message at the same time. Paid social extended reach to 10 times the existing audience pool, and we worked with the organization’s young doctors to create content for trainees and early career professionals.
The results
The live days produced more than 1 million unique hashtag impressions and 3 million Facebook impressions. Unique user engagement rose 45% and the number of unique hashtag participants doubled compared with the 2020 virtual edition. Our activity contributed 70% of website leads and 38% of total registrations, and emailers averaged a 43% open rate.
Why it worked
Engagement was planned for the moments when attendees were actually online, not for a generic posting calendar. Because social media was tied to registration conversion rather than vanity metrics, our conversion rates to registration stayed around three times the industry average. Content made with the association’s own young doctors felt authentic to the audience it was meant to reach.
FAQ
How do you create in-person atmosphere at a virtual congress?
Plan social media around the live sessions. Real time posts, an event hashtag and content from members themselves give online attendees a reason to join the conversation while they stream. For this congress that approach doubled unique hashtag participants year on year.
Does social media drive congress registrations, or only engagement?
It can drive both when it is built for conversion. Here social media worked alongside emailers and paid ads, and the combined digital activity contributed 38% of total registrations.
Written by the CEO of Kabloom, Richard Torriani. Updated on June 8th, 2024.
Although the 2020 virtual event was successful, like other committees, the client felt that it was challenging to create the same level of social media engagement as previous in-person events. With the adapted virtual format attendees do not necessarily check their social media accounts since they are streaming content live across their devices. Bearing this mind, a strategy was implemented by Kabloom to focus on a real-time engagement approach to make virtual attendees experience a similar atmosphere to in-person events.
Kabloom helped reach 1+ million unique hashtag impressions during the live days, and 3 million Facebook impressions for an event of 2,000 participants.
These efforts not only showed a 45% increase in unique user engagements, but also doubled unique hashtag participants compared to the previous 2020 virtual edition.
impressions
impressions
open rate
registration
Organizer
Leading regional medical association
Target Audience
Healthcare professionals
Objective
To maximize regional and global attendance
Services
- E-commerce strategy
- Digital advertising
- Emailer campaign
- Social media management
- LIVE component
Social media content strategy is only one component of an overall marketing package:
- Our social media strategy focuses on registration conversion and engagement
- Our conversion rates to registrations are consistently 3x greater than the average industry rate
- The social media paid advertising campaign created 10x the audience reach beyond the existing audience pool
- The social media schedule works in conjunction with emailers with regards to milestones such as early bird
- We worked together with the organization’s young doctors to create relevant content for up-and-coming professionals and trainees on social platforms
- Additionally, the average time spent on the page showed that the correct target audience was directed to the page and the content was engaging for them, which meant that the sponsor was very pleased with the campaign.
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