How To Use Social Media To Increase Webinar Success

Jessica Kleppang 2011

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How to Use Social Media to Increase Webinar Success

There are many elements that attribute to the success of a webinar program, such as relevant

and valuable content, an engaging speaker, and use of the right technology. Above all that,

however, you need an audience. You could have the best program in the world, but it nobody is

there to hear it, does it exist?

Enter social media. When planning the webinar integrating social media into the process can

help you to achieve the results you desire. Social media will help you do three things: inform,

engage and reinforce. Use it during the promotional stage to inform potential audience

members about the webinar. Use it during the webinar to engage those attendees in the

conversation. Lastly, continue your use of it post event to reinforce the message.

So… how can you add social media components to your existing webinar promotion,

production, and post event strategies?

Part I: Before the Webinar

Thanks to social media, your potential audience is essentially limited only by the number of

people in the world. Well, at least those in the world who are already using social media sites

like the Facebook’s 500 million active users, the 90 million users of Linked In, or Twitter’s 175

million. It is most likely that you are already using either one or all three of these platforms. If

you are currently not using any social networks this may be the time to get involved.

The first way to apply social media is to conduct research and limit your audience recruitment

to those who would be interested in your topic. You want find out where the conversations

about your topic are happening and spend time in those networks or discussion boards. To

start you can look up groups on Linked In or Facebook that are related to what your webinar

will be about. You will want to then join those groups you have identified. Most groups will let

you in rather easily, as they want to develop the community of their social media network.

However, some Linked In groups may require either certification in the field, references, or

even a written request that outlines the reasons why you should be allowed to join the group.

Once you have joined those groups you need to get involved with them and become a member

of that community. Ask and answer questions, link yourself to other members, and offer related

content that others would be interested in. Once you have firmly established yourself as a

member, post a link and a description of your webinar. By first establishing yourself, instead of

just promoting yourself, other group members will be more likely to listen to you and attend

the webinar.

Don’t forget about Twitter either! By doing a twitter search of terms you can see who is talking

about your specific topic. Look at those top users who are tweeting about your topic and start


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following them. Most likely those you start following will follow you back. This search and

follow method is one way you can create your own network of followers on twitter, which is

important when you eventually post a tweet about your webinar. Also, look up your speaker

and see if they have an account and follow them. You can also look at who they follow and see if

those people would be interested in your topic.

The next step in using social media would be to promote the webinar on social media networks.

Now that you have established yourself, or further extended your reach, you can begin to

actively promote the webinar. Below are some of the techniques you can use on the different

networks:

Create blog posts about the topic and your upcoming webinar; make sure to include a link

to the registration page

If your organization has a facebook page or group post the webinar information to it

Post information to those relevant groups that you joined

Add social sharing to the email campaign so recipients can invite their friends/followers to

the webinar

Post to facebook events and Linked In events and invite your network

Tweet about the webinar as often as possible. Twitter posts fade quickly and you want keep

your followers informed!

Invite the speaker to blog & tweet about the event

If possible, post a teaser of the webinar

Set up a twitter hash tag and share it in all promotional communications (this will be

important during the webinar!)

The above list if far from complete, I am positive you will be able to think of other creative

ways to use your social media to promote your webinar. The point is that the more you put the

information out there, the more people will be able to find it. As the social media expert Jay

Bear said “every conference has the same MVP: some guy named Google. Why would you pass

up a chance to double, triple, quadruple your search engine listings?”

Using social media to promote the webinar is just the first step. The next installment of this

three part series will be focused on how to use social media on the day of the webinar.


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Part II: During the Webinar

In the weeks leading up to the webinar you have been using social media to its fullest potential

to promote the event. You have your audience and they are ready and waiting for that great

content you’ve promised them. It is now time to take those social media networks from

promotional powerhouses into engaging platforms that will keep the attendees involved in the

conversation.

On the day of the webinar you will want to make one last promotional push. Have all those

involved in the webinar, including the speaker and those who are monitoring the webinar, post

an update to their facebook and linked in statuses or twitter accounts. Let the world know one

last time about the great webinar that will be taking place today. Don’t forget to update the

organization’s facebook page or linked in group as well.

During the webinar you most effective social media engagement tool will be twitter. This is

where that twitter hash tag you set up and distributed to attendees will be used. Make sure you

have let attendees know that this is how they can ask questions or post comments during the

webinar. Assign one person on the team to monitor and respond to the twitter feed while the

webinar is taking place. This tactic will make it easy to communicate with everyone at once,

which is convenient if there are any technical issues or other problems with the webinar. By

using this technique you will also be allowing the attendees to connect and interact with each

other. This will make them feel like part of a community and bring that “live” conference spirit

into the mix.

You may also choose to have someone live share the webinar. This is done by posting leading

topics, ideas, commentary, or references via Twitter or Facebook and Linked In status updates.

You can also set up the twitter feed automatically post to your organization’s facebook page.

This technique is more time consuming, but it can add weight to the webinar content and give

attendees a space in which they can further discuss the webinar’s topic.

At the end of the webinar make sure to use the twitter feed to thank the attendees for

participating. Continue to answer questions or respond to comments for as long as you are able.

Ask the speaker(s) to do the same if they are available and create an ask the experts panel. You

will also want to thank attendees and respond to any questions or comments made to your

other social media networks. Make the responses as specific as possible and thank attendees by

name, or their twitter handle, for great questions or insightful comments.

Once the webinar has concluded you are not done with social media just yet! The last part of

the equation is to extend the conversation and reinforce the message(s) of the webinar.


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Part III: After the Webinar

You have promoted and engaged; now it’s time to use social media to reinforce the message and

continue the conversation. The conclusion of the webinar does not mean it is time bow out of

the social media spotlight. It means that your webinar social media strategy will be divided into

two separate, but equally significant, objectives. These objectives are divided by those who

attended your webinar and those who did not. For the attendees you will want to continue the

conversation. For the non-attendees you will want to share the webinar so that they can get

involved in the conversation.

One of the key values of social media is building long term relationships; therefore it is vital for

you to stay involved with your established networks after the webinar. During the webinar you

clearly articulated your message to the attendees and now you want those attendees to take

action. By continuing your social media engagement and reinforcing your message you are

keeping the organization on the minds of those attendees. This engagement will help get the

attendee to take the action you want them too, such as buy your product.

At this point of the process you are using social media as a way to nurture your webinar

attendees. Continue to participate as a member of the community by offering topic related

content or asking and answering questions. As with your other marketing efforts, follow up is a

key component of your webinar social media strategy. Offer attendees ample opportunities to

contact you directly and begin the one on one conversation that can be a crucial step for an

attendee to become a customer.

There are several steps you can take to keep the conversation moving forward. First, you can

put together a summary of the top discussions that took place during the webinar and post that

information to your facebook page, linked in group, or blog. Invite all those who were involved,

including both the speaker and attendees, to comment further, clarify points, or pose new

questions. You can also take this time to answer any questions that you weren’t able to get to

during the webinar. Continue to monitor the twitter feed for more questions or comments and

respond as needed.

The second part of the post webinar social media strategy would be reaching out to those non-

attendees. These are the people who either registered and didn’t attend or wanted to attend but

were unable to make it. Just because someone didn’t attend the webinar, does not mean they are

not interested. As we all know, things happen and interested invitees are unable to attend. Post

webinar you should reach out to those non-attendees you connected with pre-webinar.

To get these people engaged you can embed the webinar on your social media sites, such as the

facebook page, blog, or website. You can use other social media sites, twitter or linked in, to

promote and inform your contacts about where it is embedded. By embedded the webinar you

are allowing for two positive things. First, and most obviously, you are letting people view it


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when they have the ability to do so. This is great for those who have a busy or inflexible

schedule. Secondly, you are giving your social media connections the ability to share the

webinar with their networks. This is truly a great way to spread your message and expand the

reach of your webinar.

Also, when embedding in the content you can require people to fill out a registration page in

order to view the webinar. This registration page will capture the information about who is

viewing it post event. A registration page is a great way to make new connections and (again)

expand the reach of your webinar.

By embedding in the webinar you are effectively expanding the webinar’s life span. Encourage

both attendees and first time viewers to discuss and ask questions. Again, you will want to

foster and nurture the conversation by asking your own questions and responding to others

questions or comments. According to Irwine Hispman of Brainshark, a company that

specializes in embedding and sharing presentations, “for every person who attends, another

person will view the replay.”

In Conclusion…

Social media is a great tool to use as a part of your webinar promotion, production, and post

event strategies. It will help you do three things: inform, engage and reinforce. First use social

media to connect to potential attendees and then to inform them about your upcoming webinar.

Second, use social media during the webinar to keep attendees engaged in the dialogue. Lastly,

use social media post event to reinforce the webinar’s message with attendees and to expand

the reach of your webinar with non-attendees.

One last tip…

In each part of the strategy make sure your content is easy to share. That is, after all, what

social media is all about!

How To Use Social Media To Increase Webinar Success

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