How To Be a Social Media Rock Star at Your Next Fitness Conference

Are your social media skills lacking? Do you mean to stay engaged in social media at fitness conferences but get wrapped up in the energy and forget to post? These tips will help you learn to make the best of social media at every conference.

Follow & Use the Official Event Hashtag

If you don’t already have a Twitter™ account you might want to set one up now. If you already have an account, make sure to stay current on your tweets while attending events. Do this by using the event hashtag (# followed by a short letter sequence, like #IDEAWORLD) and by following the official Twitter account of the event or host. Include the event hashtag when you post interesting facts and presenters’ quotes from sessions you attend. You can also direct tweets to the event’s official Twitter account to ask questions or share your thoughts about the fitness conference.

Network with Conference Attendees

Networking is a vital component of success. Conferences can be a great way to network with peers, and your social media accounts can be a big help. Connect with other fitness conference attendees by replying to or sharing their tweets and photos. This is a great way to find interesting people in your industry to follow. Stay in the know by checking out the most recent tweets and Instagram photos with the official event hashtag.

If the convention offers an online group for attendees, be sure to join it. This group allows you to find potential roommates, meet new friends, learn about places to eat or see while in the host city, give feedback and get important convention updates.

Another great way to stay connected is to download networking apps that enhance your conference experience. Here are a few to check out:

• CardMunch lets you take a picture of a business card with your smartphone camera and pull the information into LinkedIn.
• Foursquare helps you figure out where to go for networking and where to find your friends.
• Twitter lets you network in real time.
• Facebook lets you join attendee groups, send messages to friends and follow the convention’s official Facebook account.

Take Photos

Adding photos instantly spices up a social media post. Take advantage of this by snapping exciting shots of sessions, popular speakers and friends to post on social networks with designated hashtags.

If you have Instagram, you can save time by posting directly to the photo-sharing service and using its sharing options to post on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr®, etc.

Time Your Posts

To avoid bombarding your followers with all of your new knowledge at once, try to stagger your posts throughout the day. A great time to post is right after a session ends because everything is still fresh in your mind.

If you have a hard time posting throughout the day and you have a lot you want to share, consider writing a blog post that summarizes your experience. If you don’t have a blog set up, you can start one for free on IDEA FitnessConnect.

While timing is important, don’t let social media take over your experience. Prioritize the benefits of being at the conference over being a slave to posting about it. If you get one or two posts off a day, that’s great!

Are you attending the 2013 IDEA World Fitness Convention™ in Los Angeles, California, August 7-11? Get ahead of the game and start using the tips you just learned. The official hashtag for the convention is #IDEAWORLD; you’ll also be able to join the Facebook group for attendees (link coming soon) . We will be posting live updates throughout the event on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We look forward to seeing you all there!

To find out more on the industry’s largest and longest-running educational fitness experience, stop by the IDEA World convention site.