Events like Xerocon are fantastic for getting accountants revved up with lots of new ideas and understanding how to better serve your clients using tech. They are also a great opportunity to use them to your advantage when it comes to marketing: and make the most of you and your team being there!
Using social media in particular will not only help you get more from the event, but it will be great practice for your own future social media marketing, for the firm.
Ideas to maximise your firm’s social media activity:
1. Pre-event social media
- Be the eyes and ears for your clients
Contact your clients and prospects and let them know you’ll be at Xerocon. Ask them what they’d like to know: Xero product update? Tips on Futurli that you can ask at their stand? Overview of a new add on app for the food industry?
You can then share the answers and insight live from the event. Keep it brief and follow up with a more detailed blog after the event.
- Build awareness you’ll be at the event
Prepare some social media posts about attending Xerocon to show you’re staying up to date with the latest tech news for your clients. Use a tool like HootSuite or Sendible to schedule the posts in the run up to the event.
Images increase the chance of people engaging with social media posts. It’s a great touch to have an image which relates to the content, as well as your firm’s brand. Remember to make the image your own, ask your designer or someone like Design Pickle to incorporate your brand colour or font.
Post ideas to share:
- Speakers you’re excited to hear
- Partners you’re going to find out more about
- Long term add-ons you’ll meet
- Session you’re looking forward to
- Views from the team about what they’re going to see
Examples of posts you could adapt
We’re excited to be attending #Xerocon London in Oct! Let us know if you’ll be there and we’ll catch you for a coffee.
We’ll be at #Xerocon London next week! Any burning questions for add-on apps you’d like answered?
- Build your social media audience before the event
Have a look through the agenda and exhibitor listing. Follow those that you’d like to meet, those you’d like to find out more about and ask questions on behalf of your clients.
You can also use the #Xerocon hashtag to your advantage and see who else is talking about attending. Be sure to listen to what they’re saying, rather than diving right in. If it looks like they might be someone you want to connect to, you’ll be able to engage in a helpful relevant way. Remember that building trust, and building true relationship, is essential to the success of social media lead generation.
- Share helpful content
Share your own blog posts or a guide which could be helpful for people thinking about attending the event. You could create a specific landing page for the event which links directly to the content.
Not only will this build up awareness of your firm but these people will keep you in mind when they need an accountant who knows their stuff!
Use the hashtag #Xerocon and tag @Xero to help take this content even further.
Content examples:
- Video tips on using Xero if you’re in retail
- Guide to get started with Xero
- How Xero can help you scale your business
- Quickbooks v Xero
Social example:
Attending #Xerocon London? Here are some quick video tips to get you started before you catch the @Xero team.
2. Using social media during Xerocon
- Live video
Go live while you’re there! Whip out your iphone and share some insight live from your firm’s Facebook or Twitter profile. This will be helpful for clients who can’t be there, your team back at the office and you can even download the video afterwards and use alongside a follow up blog.
Video is so powerful and gets across so much more, in a short time span than you can do any other way at an event.
We’d suggest that you do a practice run before you get to the event. It helps if you’re comfortable with how live video works, how it appears once it’s published, and practical items like making sure audio and visual are coming across well. At huge events like Xerocon, you will need to find a quiet corner as the background noise will be intense!
- Share live updates
Share the stats and quotes from the keynote slides that are interesting: for you and your clients! Pick out the key product update info and share: this is a great way to start a discussion on social.
Be sure to tag Xero, the speaker or exhibitor to take your post to a wider audience.
- Photography
Using real photography on your firm’s website and marketing makes a huge difference to how your clients will connect with you. Images are also essential for social media engagement so share as much as you can of the event. These are so useful after the events so take as many pictures as you can.
Take photographs (even on your iphone) of:
– Your business card against the Xero banners or keynote stage
– The crowds and speakers
– The presentation stats
– Branded items from your favourite add-on partners, and Xero
- Join in with social media activity throughout the event
Xero will be sharing updates via their social media, and exhibitors will be running competitions. Join in with this: you might win some great goodies and you’ll also be visible to a bigger audience.
Keep an eye out for the PF social competition running during the event! You could win a goodie bag full of PF branded items and a very cool mic to get your started with your own videos (worth £200!).
- Get the team involved
Give your team the flexibility to share their views and what interests them from the event. It’s their personality and connection with clients which helps build relationships.
It also helps the rest of the team back at the office to keep up to date with the event.
- Run a live poll
Engage with your followers, see how they are enjoying the event, which session is most interesting? Try running a live poll (you can even set this up beforehand or have someone in the office do it for you. They could also respond to questions and comments that people send so you can focus on the event. We found Twitter Poll the best for this.
Then take this insight and use it in your own marketing and content.
- Contact key note speakers
Sitting in the audience listening to one of the sessions and have some question? Tweet them! If you don’t catch the speaker during Xercon, at least you’ll get a reply via social.
3. Post Xerocon
- Share your thoughts on the event and topics
Think about the key themes and tips that your clients would love to get insight into, and your view on the event. Then write this up as a blog post for your firm’s website or you could even record a video to share all of this.
Include some of your pictures from the event: especially any of the slides which relate to the topic.
Both these options will make fantastic content for sharing on social media, and if you tag @Xero they may even re-tweet you!
The great thing with social is it doesn’t need to be long winded. Keep everything short and make sure you leave enough time to enjoy the event.