Chances are good you’ve heard about Twitter and Facebook and other social media channels. You probably even use one or more social media channels in your business to build a larger customer base and to be able to interact directly with your customers.

And if you’re progressive with your event social media, you’ve thought about or already used social media to create hype before an event. For example, maybe you have used Twitter to create more buzz around your upcoming event by tweeting announcements, or updating those interested in your event about guest speakers and other activities to build more event anticipation.

With the growth of social media and today’s technology, the possibilities have never been greater. And while the number of apps and tools that are out there to help you leverage your event social media are growing by leaps and bounds, so are the possibilities of what you can do during the event itself to more actively engage your event goers. Certainly you can have your staff run a steady stream of Tweets using your event hashtag, and you can come up with creative ways to encourage participation.

One of the great social media tools that is becoming more popular at events to boost participation is the Twitter wall.

What is a Twitter Wall?
A Twitter wall is a way to showcase Tweets in a way that captures the viewers’ attention. For instance, you can have your tweets displayed on a hard-to-miss video wall in your event lobby, or they can be displayed on a large monitor. This is what a Twitter wall looks like:

You see the Twitter wall on the large screen behind David Schmerbach.
If you attend events regularly, it’s likely you’ve seen a Twitter wall and maybe even seen some of your own tweets up on the wall. If you’re thinking about adding a wall to your next event, here are some basic Twitter wall tips that will increase the effectiveness of this social media tool:
• Use a short and precise hashtag
• Inform your attendees about the event hashtag
• Advertise the Twitter wall(s) location
• Make sure you follow your most influential attendees on Twitter
• Display speaker information along with their Twitter handles
• Creating a compelling Twitter wall design
• Make sure attendees who are new to Twitter or Twitter walls have all the information they need to participate
• Reward active Twitter users – this helps boost participation

Those are some of the basics.
But did you know that with new Twitter wall tools, such as the SmartSourceRentals Twitter product, your Twitter wall can go far beyond a simple display device?
With a device such as our Twitter wall product, you can create a customized experience that not only engages your attendees but also gives you invaluable back-end information that will help you understand so much more about your attendees.

Customize Your Twitter Wall with Programmed Widgets
The SmartSourceRentals’ Twitter product gives you the opportunity to have widgets programmed in a way that appeals to your desires and those of your audience.
Examples of some widgets you can have programmed for display on your Twitter wall:
• Most popular users
• Tweets
• Impacts
• Contributors
• Most active users

All these things will help capture the viewers’ attention and help them see all the exciting things that are going on via Twitter at your event.

Twitter Wall Backend Analytics
Of course capturing the attention of your audience is vital. But for you, so is the ability to be able to use and analyze all that valuable data so you develop a greater understanding of your attendees, which allows you to better serve your customers and improve future events.

With the SmartSourceRentals’ Twitter product, the backend analytics not only allow you to monitor your Twitter stream so that you can get rid of inappropriate tweets, but it also allows you to see:
• rankings
• original tweets
• highest impact
• most popular retweeters
• top photographs
• tweets per contributor
• influence
• languages used
• sources
• details
All this real-time information is invaluable for your business – information that you can gather at a much lower cost than with many other forms of marketing.
The name of the social media game is no longer about just using it, it’s about using it well for better engagement, more participation, and boosting your business.
Want to see our Twitter wall product in action? Watch our Twitter wall product video here.