Visualize your visuals man… Sounds like something Jeff Lebowski and Tommy Chong would be talking about after a long night of hanging out together but this post isn’t about the amazing Maui Wowie we are slipping into our morning coffee. What we are talking about is taking social media from the internet to your real world event and turning something virtual into something that can have real impact on the attendee experience and how your attendees perceive their surroundings.
It’s all about the visuals man.
People love pictures. Pictures are easy. Pictures stir emotions. People especially like pictures of themselves because everyone has a little inner narcissist thing goin on… let’s use that to get them interested, interactive, and in the moment… Last week we gave you 7 tips for taking better Instagram photos, and today, we are hitting on the what to do with Instagram once you got your crazy picture taking mojo in full effect…
Oh, sure, you can leave those Instagram images on the internet and people will love them, share them and talk about them, and that is certainly OK, but what if you could get people to actually look up from their phones and engage with those photos in a different way… like maybe they could see the photos and interact with other humans all while holding a drink. Is it magic, some type of sorcery, some alchemy that takes the internet and makes it “real”? Well, no. Not really. It’s actually a service that you can sign up for in less than 10 minutes.
Eventstagram
Eventstagram is a really clever product, that does some really cool stuff, in a really simple way. Basically, Eventstagram is a web app that gives event producers the ability to take Instagram images that are tagged with the event hashtag(s) and display them on big screen(s) at their event. Pretty simple, let’s not make this more complicated than it needs to be.
They describe their product like this:
Here at Eventstagram, we make exciting social media feeds for your event. We have something special for everyone, no matter how big or small your event is! All you need is a large screen or projector and a group of people taking photos.
The Rundown:
What I like about Eventstagram is the ease of use. Seriously, it is stupid simple in a good way.
- You sign up for an account and choose a package
- You enter the hashtag(s) – how many hashtags you can pull from is based on the package you choose
- You run Eventstagram in a browser and connect the device (computer, iPad, etc) to a projector and point it at a spot where you can beam the images
That’s it. So easy a dufus can do it… In fact, to make your life easier, why not have that dufus that is sitting around doing nothing get it up and running. You are just paying that slacker to sit there. Get him to work on something that he can actually accomplish. Maybe it won’t turn out as bad as what he did to that badge printer.
Features and Cost
Eventstagram is not a pricey product in the larger scheme of event and conference budgets. For people who are allergic to paying for things, they do have a free version that you can try out before you sink a couple of bucks going all in.
You will notice that their website seems a little wishy washy about who their target audience is but that is only because they are trying to straddle the line between the serious corporate event world and the rage hard world of music festivals, nightclubs, and little Sally’s “Third Birthday Extravaganza and Pony Production”. Pictures work with all of these crowds and all of these crowds have money so I get it… and I forgive them. If you can burn that candle at both at ends you should get a blowtorch.
All of the paid pricing/packages have cool features like the ability to add themes, collect images leading up to the event, and even image moderation which is handy if that chapter from Des Moines has a few drinks too many and start thinking the event is now “class optional”.
A note on how they price
Eventstagram prices their service in hours which is weird. Really weird. It bugs me. When something is priced in hours, I have to remember to turn it on and off as we move throughout the day so that I am not wasting it on an empty room. It becomes one more thing to worry about at a conference that might have 121,384 moving parts. Anyway, this is not something that is bad enough to be a deal killer… just annoyingly annoying. OK, I am over it. Moving on…
The Free Version
- 6 hours playtime
- Can collect Instagram photos from up to a week before the event
- Up to 500 photos
- No photo moderation options
- Eventstagram “free version” branding
The $75 Version
- 8 hours playtime
- Can collect Instagram photos from up to two weeks before the event
- Up to 1000 photos
- Moderate photos by banning them
- No Eventstagram “free version” branding
- 3 Animation Options
- Choice of over 10 preset themes
The $200 Version
- 24 hours playtime
- Can collect Twitter and Instagram photos from up to 1 month before the event
- Up to 10,000 photos
- Moderate photos by banning or approving them
- Custom background, fonts and colours
- 5 Animation Options
- Fully customizable template, including 14 preset themes
The Costly Coulda Been a Diamond Ring Version Starting at $2000
- Crowd Reactive created Eventstagram.
- We also build bespoke innovative solutions to increase the photo sharing at your professional events.
- We can work to any design or specification.
- Tell us your requirements and we will give you a quote
I like the $200 version, but that is just me. Here is a look at the product:
Now that you know what it is going to set you back and how it works, let’s get back to your event. The final step is all about getting creative about where you show the images. I love to show social wherever the attendees will be en masse. That could be at registration, at the evening events, during walk in for the keynote…
Let’s use registration as an example. Attendees on their way to your event are taking pics at the airport, at their hotel, and at their office and they might be tagging them with your event hashtag. Well, they would be tagging them if you asked them too. I know people do this because my clients’ attendees do this all the time. Now imagine other attendees are walking up the registration desk and they see happy images beamed up on a huge screen. As we all know from Facebook’s creepy studies, happy posts make people happy and encourage them to engage.
Implementing Eventstagram is not hard, it is not expensive, and it can toss a little fun into any event or conference. Using Eventstagram does require you to make attendees aware of your hashtag and letting them know that there is a reason you want them to tag their photos.
Go and check out Eventstagram. They have a free option, there is nothing to fear and only experience to gain…
Full Disclosure – I have 100% nothing to do with Eventstagram and get no money from them. I have never talked to them although I am sure that they are really cool because they have a really cool product. They might also be really mean and angry people. No, don’t think that is correct. I doubt really mean and angry people would create a product that is meant to make people happy. Yeah, they must be happy… and cool people too. Maybe they save puppies in their spare time. Yeah.. I bet they save puppies and make people happy with their really cool product. But I wouldn’t know. Don’t listen to me. What I do know is that they have created something that can be of use to the meeting and event industry. There. I have disclosed the disclosure.
Go on now. Nothing else to see here. Go do good event stuff.
