Sprout at AfroTech 2024: Social Media for Occasions

Constructing a social presence isn’t restricted to engagements on networks. It takes bringing ‌real-life experiences to your viewers’s fingertips to nurture neighborhood and connection. Blavity is understood for combining social media and IRL experiences, internet hosting occasions all year long. However their key annual occasion is AfroTech™, the biggest multicultural convention in the US.

This yr Sprout Social attended AfroTech™ for the primary time, so we needed to carry our viewers alongside on our journey to showcase the significance of brand name variety in social media. On this article, I’ll share our journey to AfroTech™ and our technique for occasion protection, together with our collaboration with LinkedIn. And I’ll share Sprout’s social media for occasions finest practices to encourage your technique.

What’s AfroTech™?

Based mostly in Los Angeles, Blavity is the world’s main enterprise premium content material and community for Black tradition and expertise. The media tech firm hosts AfroTech™ Convention yearly. Every year, a worldwide community of over 20,000 creatives, engineers, enterprise capitalists, founders, executives and different tech innovators be a part of for a collection of digital and in-person occasions. The convention options panels and workshops, together with networking alternatives with trade leaders. The annual occasion additionally affords an expo corridor with mid-market and enterprise recruiters. AfroTech™ 2024 was hosted in Houston, Texas.

Journey to Sprout AfroTech™

Should you search #AfroTech throughout social media, you’ll discover individuals referring to the occasion as a reunion, a secure area for neighborhood‌ or an innovation incubator. For me, it’s all one in the identical due to my mentor who launched me to the convention. Our relationship started throughout the pandemic over Zoom. She inspired me to attend AfroTech™ in 2021, when Blavity constructed the occasion on a metaverse platform, eXp World Holdings’.

The occasion was absolutely immersive, enabling attendees to make use of personalised avatars to talk and hear to one another in actual time. There have been even dwell performances from artists like Jidenna. Impressed by the programming and enterprise presence, I knew I needed to attend in individual.

In 2023, I attended the occasion in individual with my mentor. I met professionals which have since change into my associates and enterprise companions—a lot of whom have served as material consultants or visitor audio system for Sprout. Given the affect on my profession and understanding the potential enterprise affect, I needed to carry Sprout to AfroTech™. Our community companions, clients and trade friends have been current, so Sprout becoming a member of was a pure match. I shared the insights I realized with Sprout Advertising and marketing leaders and highlighted stand-out programming with our DEI workforce and Black@, Sprout’s neighborhood useful resource group for Black staff.

As a Black@ management committee member, I pitched Sprout at AfroTech™ to our co-leads, Kiara Ealy and Chelsey Jordan. With their management and the collective assist of our govt sponsor, DEI, Recruitment and Fairness groups, we have been capable of ship 11 Sprouters to AfroTech™ 2024.

“Attending AfroTech™ appeared like a dream at first, however when assist from management began to fall in place, it confirmed Sprout’s willingness to behave on its DEI efforts. The convention was inspirational as a result of it was stuffed with leaders within the tech area which are underrepresented in our trade, nevertheless it additionally introduced mild to concepts and views that come from traditionally underrepresented teams.

AfroTech™ was greater than an area for networking and illustration, nevertheless it served as a spot the place our companions, clients and prospects joined for inclusive and international innovation.” Chelsey Jordan, Buyer Success Supervisor, Company and Black@ Co-lead

As our co-leads and inner groups navigated logistics, I started creating a social media occasion protection technique with Sprout’s Social Workforce.

Social media for occasions: Sprout’s technique for AfroTech™

For our social media technique for AfroTech™ Convention 2024, we deliberate for pre-event, throughout occasion and post-event protection to create a holistic expertise for the convention.

Pre-event

Pre-event protection breakdown for AfroTech™ 2024:

• One static publish with a branded graphic on LinkedIn
• One curated Worker Advocacy hyperlink that includes the LinkedIn publish
• One ballot asking about occasion protection
• One static publish from a nano-influencer
• One hype video on LinkedIn and Instagram
• One Sprout Social Listening Subject

For pre-event protection, our aim was to unfold consciousness about Sprout’s attendance, together with encourage individuals to tune into our upcoming content material. With the LinkedIn static publish, we introduced our attendance and occasion protection on Instagram. We amplified the publish internally utilizing our Worker Advocacy resolution. We curated an Advocacy Story and shared the hyperlink by inner channels so Sprout staff may repost it on LinkedIn. We created a ballot to share extra consciousness about our attendance and protection.

We additionally partnered with Kerry Hartley, a LinkedIn nano-influencer who shares suggestions for making ready for AfroTech™ annually. This was essential as a result of we needed to increase our attain by collaborating with somebody who already has an viewers tied to AfroTech™. Together with sharing suggestions for AfroTech™ attendees making ready for the convention, he inspired individuals to comply with Sprout on Instagram and watch our occasion protection.

Lastly, we ended our pre-event protection with a hype video sharing a few of my favourite moments from final yr’s convention to additional share our messaging:

Earlier than we headed to Houston, our Social workforce arrange a Listening matter in Sprout to gauge conversations across the occasion and establish any potential media alternatives.

Throughout occasion

For our protection throughout AfroTech™, Sprout actually needed to carry our viewers alongside for the experience, so we posted Instagram Tales day by day. To floor our posting and heart Sprout’s connection to the occasion, I made positive to incorporate content material centered round two of our narrative focus areas for 2024: memorable model experiences and synthetic intelligence (AI). For instance, we shared movies of brand name activations within the expo corridor and venue campus. We additionally posted clips from the AfroTech™ AI Stage and different occasion phases.

Submit-event

Right here’s a recap of our post-event protection:

• Each day Instagram Tales
• One recap video on Instagram
• Attendee reflection posts on LinkedIn
• One associate video with LinkedIn
• Three TikTok movies that includes match checks for article promotion

Since our aim was to lift consciousness about Sprout’s attendance, we shared a recap video, had attendees publish reflections on their private LinkedIn accounts and a associate video‌. We additionally printed TikTok movies that includes match checks to advertise this text.

A number of Sprout companions have been sponsoring AfroTech™, so I labored with our Partnerships workforce to safe a collaboration with LinkedIn. I did a tiny-mic-style interview on the bottom with Andrew McCaskill, LinkedIn Profession Knowledgeable & International Communications Govt. Together with being a profession skilled and advertising and marketing chief, McCaskill is a tradition analyst recognized for his DEI activism, making him the proper material skilled for our video.

In preparation for the interview, I met with the LinkedIn workforce to debate day-of logistics and potential questions. Championing DEI is a part of Sprout’s values, however I additionally needed to make use of our AfroTech™ partnership to assist our AI narrative focus. With that aim in thoughts, I requested McCaskill questions on social media, AI and the affect of investing in numerous expertise. To assist preserve a social-first really feel, I integrated icebreakers about his favourite memes, web cultural moments and Black-owned manufacturers on social.

“[My favorite cultural moments on the internet] has to return to #ScandalThursdays and Shonda Rhimes. However nothing beats Beyoncé getting into nation music. I imply, the cowboy hats, the rhinestones, doing the [Mute Challenge] on the precise live shows the place all people went on mute all around the world,” he stated.

These rapid-fire questions served as an engagement hook and launchpad for deeper questions on AI, social media and the affect of DEI on long-term enterprise success.

“You’re committing skilled malpractice in case you don’t have individuals within your group that will help you perceive, respect tradition, decode tradition after which have some modicum of reciprocity along with your audiences…we’ve got a lot energy by way of driving the cultural dialog and [industry conversations]. That’s cultural capital,” he stated.

The video was ‌shared on Sprout’s model accounts and LinkedIn for Advertising and marketing to advertise this text. Should you’re trying to amplify your key messaging, prolong your attain and nurture associate relationships, take into account co-marketing initiatives when planning your social media protection for occasions.

Social media for occasions finest practices

Planning social media for occasions isn’t a straightforward feat. Listed below are some finest practices we used to remain grounded.

Begin planning early

The earlier you begin planning ‌your occasion protection, the higher. This fashion you may get groups on board upfront of the occasion in order that they perceive their roles and what to anticipate as soon as the protection launches. For instance, for occasions like AfroTech™ the place candidates, enterprise manufacturers and prospects are current, you would possibly wish to coordinate with gross sales, partnerships and recruiting. Beginning early may also allow you to create sure components of your posts, like social copy, properly upfront so that you’re not scrambling to create content material abruptly. An early begin will allow you to create, construct anticipation, preserve your content material high of thoughts and get ‌your viewers excited.

Establish partnerships to increase your attain

Collaborate with creators, influencers and trade companions to broaden your social media occasion protection publicity. These partnerships can assist you attain new audiences, driving extra curiosity and engagement. You may work with companions to amplify related messaging that’s essential to your model. For instance, in our LinkedIn interview, we talked about social media and the AI revolution’s affect on tradition and numerous workforces. Additionally use worker advocacy methods to amplify your protection.

Use synthetic intelligence and automation to assist your work

Use AI and automation instruments to automate duties like scheduling posts and analyzing efficiency. Utilizing AI to avoid wasting effort and time means you’ll have extra time to be artistic—plus you may be extra current throughout the occasion. For instance, we scheduled Instagram Tales in Sprout to avoid wasting us time on the bottom. I additionally used generative AI instruments like Author.AI to assist proofread this text in line with Sprout’s editorial tips.

Use social listening to information your planning

Establish conversations and sentiments surrounding your upcoming occasion with social listening. You should utilize these insights to plan your method to social media for occasions protection. In Sprout you may arrange a Listening Question and add in related themes, hashtags, handles and phrases to gauge discourse round your occasion.

Profitable social media for occasions exist past the display screen

With a robust technique for social media for occasions, you may form memorable model experiences that resonate along with your viewers in-person and digitally. Planning forward, pinpoint partnerships, leaning on social listening and utilizing AI will assist streamline your protection.

AI wasn’t simply a focus in our occasion protection at AfroTech™ 2024—it’s a device Sprout repeatedly makes use of to amplify our work, save time and create high quality content material. That’s why we created an AI advertising and marketing toolkit to assist different groups do the identical. It’s stuffed with assets you need to use to boost your content material and doc your present AI processes. Use it to assist your social media for occasions and extra.