So you finished your event…yes! It was a resounding success as you hit your attendee numbers, everything went without a hitch (because Event Builder rules), and your speakers had a great time too. But what now? What can you do with all that great content generated by you and your company, your invited speakers, sponsors, and guests?
Below, we look at just a few ways you can extend the life of your event and create more value from the content generated.
1. Place your event footage as gold standard content on your website
Your event videos don’t have to end after the recording finishes. After your event ends, make sure your video is hosted online and place it on your website. Some visitors are happier to watch video as opposed to reading content so you’re covering all your bases. This gold standard content lives on and you can make dedicated sections on your site for the videos or turn it into a branded video channel.
Using the tools on YouTube or Vimeo, you can add graphics and links to your other content to create interactivity. Plus of course, video provides great backlinks to your site and enhances SEO.
2. Create an in-depth report or ebook
No doubt your event covered many topics in your industry. Is there a hot topic that was covered in enough depth by your contributors to warrant turning into an e-book or white paper? These assets can often be used as lead generators on your website, where you ask for the downloaders email address before sending them the report/ebook. Alternatively, you could send out the ebook as a thank you to attendees in any post-event email.
3. Write a blog post series around event streams or topics
Blogs are an obvious way to repurpose your event content. They’re great for expanding on specific points and getting into the heart of the matter. Things that are quickly covered in a video because of time constraints can be covered in greater depth in a blog post and they can provide helpful summary items in list form.
You could even ask your guest speakers to provide their notes or write a column on their topic for your blog. Many speakers will jump at the chance to have a guest post with a link back to their own site. You could possibly turn this into a series of emails for your post-event contact each with content provided from your speakers.
4. Itemise Q&A conversations and poll answers for content
Question and Answer (Q&A) sessions from your event often produce valuable information. Conversations often spark interesting lively debates that provide extra information from your event but aren’t necessarily included in a speaker’s notes and are difficult for guests to jot down in a hurry as they are often at the end of the session. Providing a summary of the Q&As is super useful information for your guests. Trawl through your Q&A transcripts after the event to find this content and repurpose it for blog posts, podcasts, presentations, and emails.
Results from polls will also create great debate amongst your followers and readers, so summarise their content in graphs and lists and create new blog posts for your site. You can also send the results out through social media and in your post-event emails. They make great snack-sized sharing content that helps with your thought leadership strategy, especially if results from polls lead to controversial or enlightening information.
5. Produce attractive graphics from your results
Creating graphics, charts and tables from your event sessions is a great way to enlighten and engage with your audience. Graphics are a simple method to demonstrate insights from your event, translating complex information into easy-to-understand visuals.
Graphics can be easily shared on social media and you can turn key information from results into bold, colourful points. They stand out in a timeline from the usual information and help boost your company’s leadership on a topic.
Graphics make great content for your post-event emails too, so think about what information you can summarise from the various streams and use them to make your emails pop with colour.
6. Record a podcast with your event speakers
It wouldn’t be the 2020s if we didn’t mention a podcast. If your company currently runs a podcast, then your event should definitely be a part of it. From interviewing upcoming speakers to post-event discussions on key topics in your industry a podcast provides a great way to utilise the content generated by your event.
7. Create highlights video reels from your key speakers
Creating a highlights video of your event lets you use its content as short snippets and creates a powerful advertising tool for your following events. A more engaging video with narration, music, and graphics can be a great item to place on your video channel to let guests know what they missed out on, what your event looks like, and what to expect from your future events.
Short snippets from each event are also easily shared on social media. Grab a key talking point from each of your speakers sessions and turn that into a small 30sec shareable video for your social media and post-event emails. Powerful quotes, controversial statements, and fun, jokey asides all make for interesting and entertaining videos that you can use to promote your upcoming events and remind guests of the event they attended.
8. Create a SlideShare presentation
SlideShare is a site dedicated to sharing slideshows and is part of the LinkedIn empire. It’s a great place to store and share your slide decks, as individual slides can be shared with your professional audience on LinkedIn.
From your event content, create a slide deck on a key topic, stream, or the results of your Q&As or polls. Your slide deck should be created in your normal presentation program (Google Slides, Powerpoint, Keynote). Then upload to the Slideshare site for another quality link to your content and an easily searchable place for your potential customers to find your information.
Now you’ve generated more value from your event
Just doing one of the above points will generate more eyeballs, interest, and value for your event. Work your way through all of them and you’ll have enough information to build a whole world around your event and build towards your next one. Good luck.