Elizabeth and I attended the National ProStart Invitational in Minneapolis last month to cover the 3-day event live on social media for our client, the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.

The top-chef style competition for ProStart Program students had culinary and management teams vying for championship titles and $3.75 million in scholarships. With 50 culinary teams and 50 management teams from each US state competing, there was a lot of ground to cover on social media!

Social media is a great way to provide live updates to your fans, interact with attendees, and provide coverage for people unable to attend the event.

But where do you start? Here are some first-hand tips on how to successfully live cover an event on social media:

1.    Create a hashtag for the event and follow it continuously

Make sure it’s relatively short, unique to the event, and easy to remember. Make sure to promote the hashtag beforehand so that attendees know to use it during the event and keep the hashtag consistent across all social media platforms. Creating an official hashtag for an event not only allows your fans to easily follow along with your updates but it allows you to track the chatter at the event so that you can easily interject in conversations on Facebook and Twitter and like and comment on photos on Instagram

 2.    Compile a list of important attendees and their social handles

At the National ProStart Invitational, there were 50 high schools competing and countless scholarship donors and event sponsors that needed to be acknowledged on social media. Beforehand, we researched every school, donor, and sponsor attending to see if they had a social presence. By researching them and creating a document with their social handles, we had them readily available to tag at a moment’s notice during the fast-paced event. Preparation is key when live covering an event!

3.    Schedule and drafts messages

While you are going to be sharing content live from the event, anything you can do ahead of time helps. There are certain aspects of the event you can anticipate. For example, at the Invitational, we knew exactly what time each team was competing so we pre-scheduled tweets to announce which team was competing when. That gave us time to take pictures and share everything else surrounding the competition.

 4.    Take as many pictures as you can!

There is no better way to share the experience of being at an event than to show it via images. Don’t be afraid to get close and get the perfect shot to give your fans a look at what is happening, live from the event!

An up-close shot of one of the culinary competitors!

5.    Take notes of what you hear

Quotes are a huge hit on social. During the Invitational, there were countless speeches and commentary about the students competing and the restaurant industry as a whole. Documenting key quotes and snippets of dialogue to share on social will help your fans relive the event. The more knowledge you share from the event, the more your audience will feel they were a part of the experience as well.

6.    Vary your content across social platforms

While you want to keep your message and tone consistent throughout the event, change up the content you are sharing across each social media platform. What is appropriate for Twitter may not be right for Instagram. Make sure you share your information with the uniqueness of the platform.

 7.    Keep an extra charger on hand!

There is nothing worse than covering an event and your phone dies. Constantly snapping pictures and sending out posts from your phone will cause the battery life to diminish quickly. By carrying an extra charger or with you, you’ll be able to upload photos, post updates and consistently execute multiple tasks throughout the entire event and not cut yourself short due to a dead phone.

8.    Have a team member(s) to help you out

Covering an event live on social media definitely helps when you have an amazing partner like Elizabeth to share efforts with. Definitely couldn’t have done it without her!

What other questions do you have about covering an event live on social media? Ask away!