Anything but small: Micro events bring big benefits

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In the event you’re not telling your story by way of video, your competitor is. Video content material has shortly grow to be a main communication channel together with your goal. And if you happen to’re not chatting with your viewers in the best way they like to be spoken to, you’re already behind. However efficient video content material goes past what you see in a social stream. 

Organizations are feeling the stress to “get video proper” for all of their content material wants — together with within the occasions area. Whereas video turned essential in the course of the pandemic, it’s clear each hybrid and virtual-only occasions are right here to remain.

Including one other layer of complexity to the occasions panorama is the shift away from solely internet hosting one or two giant occasions per yr. Firms are starting to complement their key thought management initiatives with micro occasions, which may be webinars, dwell video broadcasts, networking alternatives, townhall-style or intimate, extremely focused occasions.

Facilitating ongoing engagement

Micro occasions are condensed in measurement and scope (30-45 minutes is right), historically held just about and executed a number of occasions per yr, with the precise quantity various by firm and the targets it’s seeking to obtain.

Occasion

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The final word aim behind micro occasions is to facilitate an ongoing engagement mannequin the place you’re positioned to share, promote and leverage video content material extra persistently and improve engagement together with your goal by way of ongoing pulses of communication.

If a corporation was solely depending on a big occasion to speak essential and time-sensitive data, it might lead to a missed alternative to attach with its viewers. Ongoing micro occasions, paired with constant communication between occasions, let you be responsive and get forward as a substitute of merely maintaining. 

Simply as polished as in-person

One of many greatest misconceptions is {that a} micro occasion means it may be much less polished than a standard occasion. Merely put, that isn’t the case. Simply because an occasion is micro doesn’t imply you deal with it as such. It must be executed with the identical stage of self-discipline and thoughtfulness as that of a standard occasion.

That being stated, the general strategy to creating content material for a micro occasion versus a standard one will probably be totally different.

In a digital setting, it’s greatest to maintain the content material partaking, targeted and to the purpose. Typically, having totally different audio system and/or new content material each 10 minutes will hold the viewers’s consideration. Relying on the subject material, this will likely not all the time be doable, however the aim needs to be to make the content material on digital camera as energetic and entertaining as doable to maintain your viewers engaged.

How one can make the transfer into micro occasions

When an organization is able to get began with a micro occasions mannequin, the inclination is to instantly clear up the platform query — what instrument are we going to make use of to ship the content material and occasion? However this could truly be the final step within the course of.

First, it’s good to outline what success seems like and develop a video content material technique that facilitates the specified conduct. That would imply driving extra gross sales, rising sign-ups or visiting a touchdown web page.

Doing extra video for the sake of doing video will now not lower it — it’s good to decide what conduct you’re hoping to affect and the way success maps to that. Establishing these key efficiency indicators (KPIs) won’t solely act because the framework on your micro occasions, however you’ll be capable of regulate them accordingly after every occasion to assist be sure that you’re monitoring towards any overarching or bigger targets for the enterprise.  

With the KPIs identified, you can begin to determine what you need to say and who within the group ought to say it. Conducting outreach to your key viewers is useful to be taught what can be beneficial to them. This could come from fast surveys, e mail and/or social media polls, or suggestions you’ve heard from different occasions you’ve hosted.

The crowdsourced concepts and ideas can grow to be the themes for occasions all year long. If there isn’t time to collect enter out of your goal, choose a subject or two that you simply really feel can be most useful to them based mostly on key insights or trending subjects within the trade.

Stemming from these preliminary micro occasions, you may analyze your KPIs and occasion metrics and pivot as wanted. Ideally, there needs to be a throughline between your occasions for connectivity, to construct momentum and proceed conversations from one occasion to the following. 

Selecting the best internet hosting platform

At this level, you may have a look at internet hosting platforms. KPIs plus the kind of content material you need to current needs to be the figuring out elements when assessing a instrument.

For instance, if the aim of your micro occasion is to facilitate a small, collaborative session amongst contributors, a primary internet conferencing instrument goes to be an applicable choice. If the occasion will observe a extra conventional path — a person presenter sharing data — a webcasting instrument will present extra choices for occasion administration and engagement, resembling polls, dwell Q&A and multi-streaming.

Figuring out the way you need your viewers to work together with the content material and the kind of occasion expertise you need to present for attendees will assist you to pare down the alternatives way more shortly as you assess the varied options and functionalities and rule out whether or not or not they might help meet your targets. 

Protecting the momentum going post-event

After all of the prep and planning, your micro occasion goes off and not using a hitch and now you may relaxation straightforward, proper?

Truly, after an occasion, there’s nonetheless work to be accomplished. The interval in between occasions is arguably probably the most vital components. That is when it’s good to ship an everyday cadence of content material stemming from the occasion. Content material that both is new or has already been shared or dives deeper into the occasion’s material does nicely due to its worth add.

The follow-ups with further content material will let you glean suggestions, hold your organization prime of thoughts and assist foster an ongoing dialogue together with your viewers. Plus, you’ve already created an abundance of recent video content material, so repurposing it and persevering with to leverage it all year long maximizes its worth.

Behold the advantages of micro occasions

Which will look like so much to do, however the advantages are huge. There are a variety of firms attempting to seize the eye of your goal day by day. Micro occasions place your group to supply related content material persistently, improve visibility and foster significant connections together with your goal.

By way of suggestions and ongoing conversations, you’ll know what’s (or isn’t) resonating and regulate content material, occasion subjects and even enterprise targets faster. Protecting your finger on the heartbeat on this approach helps you’re employed smarter, not tougher, since you’re offering considerate, extra proactive content material that issues within the second. 

What’s vital to recollect is that individuals crave content material, and ultimately, form or kind, they may discover what they’re searching for. The bottom line is to make the content material they discover yours. Optimize the content material for search with search engine marketing key phrases recognized and included in content material titles and descriptions.

Moreover, ensure that the content material is tagged with sufficient metadata in order that if there’s a lot to select from in a useful resource middle, the goal can discover precisely what they’re searching for by way of filters and search fields.

Micro occasions are a option to get your thought management in entrance of the correct folks, on the proper time and for the correct goal. Whereas it could be a deviation from how your group has approached video content material and occasions previously, micro occasions can have a sizeable impression on your enterprise. 

Donny Neufuss is director of enterprise growth and strategic partnerships at Sonic Foundry.

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