Growing-Tree Model: How to cover events in social media

— Author: Ilia Stechkin
This blog post is based on the lecture delivered by Ilia Stechkin on August 16th, 2018 as part of the course “Supporting Women Entrepreneurs through ICTs and Networking”. This course was conducted by MASHAV’s MCTC in cooperation with UNECE in Haifa.
Are you ready to tell the story about the conference, meetup, workshop or exhibition which you will take part in? Use our self-checklist to make sure you are. The Growing-Tree model is an important part of the content recycling strategy fully described by HubSpot. I’m writing this post to share with you the experience of covering high-tech events last year, such as Bitcoin SuperConference in Dallas, Startup Camp in Berlin, Fintech Junction and DLD Digital Conference in Tel Aviv. So that’s the how-to guide for implementing the Growing-Tree model for technical companies, either startups or famous vendors.
Note: Keep in mind that all the activities during the event are performed just for one main reason: to create the background for the call-to-action (CTA) email to your target person(s). So first create the list of target people you need to reach during the campaign, find events they are going to visit and add these events to your marketing plan. Then use the Growing Tree model and don’t forget to mention your prospects in your tweets, blog posts and articles. By reaching the main target you will also increase your brand awareness and extend the funnel.

Roots

You will be able to use this model for social media coverage and PR activities of your company, regardless of your role at the event. It doesn’t matter if you are visitor or exhibitor, panelist or keynote speaker if you are sponsoring the event or just bought a ticket to enter. Moreover, the fewer responsibilities you have at the event the more opportunities to grow your content tree you’ll find. If you are the part of the team organizing the event, you’d better hire someone, for example, us, to care about your content, usually, you can’t have it both ways. Start with the announcement of your participation, then review the program of the conference or  exhibition, pay attention to other speakers or booths, speak with the staff or SMEs, you can do it in a live mode, using Facebook, Instagram or even Periscope (this app is not at the top of the chart at the moment, but it’s still alive). Don’t forget about hashtags! By sharing the context of the event you are proving your expertise and building trust with your audience. People will better receive your marketing content if it is mixed with the general overview of what’s going on at the event you are covering. When you are covering a session or a panel try to combine video and text streaming. Also, it’s a good idea to create a summary of the panel, using ThingLink. Diversify the content by channels: you should be active in providing something special for your Telegram subscribers, Twitter followers or Facebook friends. Try to schedule time slots for exclusive interviews with opinion leaders. It could be great to interview one of your prospects — such an interview significantly increase your chances for further negotiations. Pay attention to the equipment you are going to use during the event. Here is my check-list:
  • 3/4G wi-fi router or separate smartphone with the “Wireless modem” mode with a local SIM-card. Try the device beforehand to be sure that connectivity is fine and the speed is enough for your needs (e.g. video streaming). Ask locals about the most sustainable operator and the most appropriate prepaid plan. Usually, high-tech events are covered by wi-fi, but it could be too slow. Anyway, it’s better to be prepared for unexpected downtime.
  • Smartphone dedicated to video streaming. Calls will interrupt your streaming and will provide bad user-experience. Also, you can miss some important content.
  • Tablet dedicated to texting and photo streaming. Do not forget about notes when you are posting any photos. That will be much easier both for your audience and you to remember why this image is important for the story you are telling.
Note: Think about your information flow as about one story. Try to keep the plot.
  • Tripod (better with the special stabilized frame for the smartphone).
  • Mic or two (boom mic and a lavaliere).
  • Professional camera for exclusive interviews and better pictures. I recommend using a photo camera for both needs. Even some modern TV-channels are using digital photo cameras for their shots.
  • High-performance laptop for post-production.
Now your backpack is prepared. Let’s think about the team. Sometimes one person is enough, but I usually recommend my clients to enlist the services of at least two media professionals: a reporter and a cameraman. The first person should be dedicated to texts and complex formats and the second one should be responsible for video streaming and photos. These two team members are on the field. Also, it’s a good idea to have one person responsible for post-production and one producer to coordinate the team. They could work remotely. You must have remoted team if you are covering the event in a different timezone.

Stem

As soon as the event (or the first day of the event) is over, your team needs to summarize all the notes, tweets, streams in one blog post. While working on the draft you can prepare the press release as well, if there is something to share with mass media. For example, covering the Startup camp in Berlin for Enecuum (ENQ) at the end of the second day we prepared the press release headlined “ENQ was mentoring startups in Berlin” and we were granted with more than 10 publications. You can update your blog post with multimedia (video, infographics, photos) later on. But v.1.0 should be published and promoted ASAP. Feel free to underscore topics you are interested in and mention/tag people you want to reach. You bet they will check if they are mentioned in media after the event is finished. Also, you can simply send them the link with the short intro of your project.

Branchwood

It’s a sign of good manners to share your presentation afterward, in a day or two after the closing of the event. You can use this content for the lead generation by adding a simple registration form. Help people to meet you — take care of your event calendar. It’s a good idea to plug the calendar into your corporate website. Add the registration form to let people arrange the meeting with your representatives in advance and promote this option when you announcing the participation in the event. Add links to your blog posts, articles, streams and presentations to the calendar, to let users easily find the content, related to the event you participated in. Note: Remember, links are most frequently using the content on the Net. Create analytics, big articles, white papers or even e-books based on the content, collected during the event/series of events.

Leafage

Now you are visible for your prospect(s) and it’s a good time to send a follow-up message with clear CTA to them. First of all, remind the prospect where you met each other, provide the link to the interview they gave you (if any), share the link to the blog post where your target person was mentioned by your writers. People usually willingly do kindness to those who paid some attention to them, so clarify what exactly you want the prospect do for you. The conversion rate will grow significantly. Good luck with your growing tree! Ilia Stechkin

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