5 Creative Ways to Elevate Event Experiences with Social Walls

Every event planner strives to create an unforgettable event experience for attendees, speakers and sponsors. In 2023, it also extends to different audiences, like physical and virtual. And on the rise of event technology, choosing the right tools to accomplish these goals might be challenging.

But what if we switch our focus to familiar tools, like social media and user-generated content, and find ways to leverage it for ultimate event engagement?

According to 45% of event experts, social media walls are the most effective event engagement tool. They offer a unique way for brands to connect with their audiences and create a sense of community. Whether displayed on a large screen at the venue, embedded inside the app, or on the event website, these interactive feeds aggregate user-generated content in real-time and create multiple opportunities for attendees to interact with speakers, sponsors, and each other.

Here are five ways to leverage an event social wall to create an unforgettable event experience for your audience and partners.

Showcase User-Generated Content

Marketers love user-generated content (UGC) because it helps build authentic human connections, enhance promotional reach, and create unique branded content around an event.

40% of event experts agree that the best way to source UGC is to create and promote a unique event hashtag and encourage their audience to use it while creating content.

Social walls help event planners collect and keep track of all the posts with their hashtags and collect content directly on the wall from people who don't use social media. By collecting UGC around an event in one feed, they can showcase unique stories, photos, and meaningful interactions to engage people during the event or use them as social proof to promote future events.

Pro tip from Walls.io: use a social wall to craft a feed with a mix of attendee - and brand-generated content. Social walls attract people who want to see their posts and photos appear on them. Make sure to integrate event reminders, your sponsors' content, and posts from your company profiles to create a social hub that keeps everyone engaged and informed at all times.

Create Engagement Opportunities

Content creation turns your attendees into active participants and helps them feel like they're part of a community, which makes it a powerful engagement tool.

There are a few things event organizers can do to spice things up and encourage content creation. For example, introduce a virtual photo booth that allows attendees to take, edit, and post selfies straight to the social wall. Provide some custom stickers (don't forget about your event hashtag!) and encourage attendees to use social sharing after they post on the social wall to enhance your promotional reach.

Another effective way to use a social wall to generate event content is to run UGC-based contests and giveaways. Ensure your conditions include sharing specific content (e.g., a selfie with a speaker) on social media or a social wall and using voting mechanisms to pick a winner.

Collect Reactions

One of the voting features mentioned above could be reactions or likes. They allow your attendees to react to posts on a social wall they like the most and could be used to pick a winner in a competition based on the number of likes.

Event marketers can also use reactions to track what content resonates most with their audience, highlight the best moments from the event, and make their social wall more interactive.

Leverage Live Polling

Quizzes and polls are the ultimate event engagement tools, so no event social wall can go without them. They also get a bonus point for working in real-time, which translates into a higher contribution rate than you'd usually get by email.

Combined with direct posting and content aggregation from social media, polls on a social wall can help with voting, breaking the ice at virtual and hybrid events, and collecting feedback on the most important parts of an event.

Generate Leads

Using social walls to collect leads is one of the most innovative lead-generation techniques an event planner can use. It allows you to get your attendees' names, verified email addresses, locations, and some UGC in a few simple steps.

Lead generation through a social wall enables event marketers to better understand their audience, create effective marketing campaigns, and drive higher registration rates.

Put Sponsors in a Spotlight

Social walls offer event sponsors a dynamic platform to amplify their brand exposure by showcasing brand content in real time, fostering a deeper connection between sponsors and attendees.

You can also go one step further and monetize your social wall by offering your sponsors and exhibitors presence on your event wall as part of your sponsoring packages.

Get Creative With Your Event Social Wall!

Placing a social wall front and center in your event environment holds multiple benefits for every party involved in the experience. It's a versatile tool that can help event planners harness the power of UGC to build an immersive event experience for their attendees, speakers and sponsors.

As an event social hub, it helps foster a sense of community, bridge the gap between virtual and physical audiences, and showcase the amazing content around your event. Start implementing these social wall ideas today and level up your event experience.

Find more event UGC stats in a Walls.io Event Professional's Toolkit. Unlock the potential of your events with versatile templates, comprehensive checklists, groundbreaking ideas, and best-practice examples for event planning and marketing.