#047 Creating Content from Events

CRAFTING SOCIAL MEDIA GOLD FROM EVENTS

Step into the world of Generation Social Media by Chatterkick with Beth Trejo and Mariah Black-Overholt. In this episode, they dive into the nitty-gritty of making content magic happen at events, turning everyday moments into memorable stories.

“The most important camera you have is the one that’s in your pocket.”

- Mariah

Biggest Takeaways From This Episode

Here are a few things that stood out to us:

Trade Shows as Content Goldmines:

Trade shows are like treasure troves for content creators. From branded tees to candid customer or employee interviews, these events offer a playground for diverse content.
Mariah spills the beans on the importance of having a content maestro on-site, someone who strategically plans shots, ensuring a well-thought-out approach to content capture.

Plan Before You Snap:

Before you dive into the event hustle, have a content plan. Think of it like themed “buckets” that align with your brand goals. This not only guides your content capture but also makes the post-event content game a breeze.

Phone Cameras – Your Superpower:

Mariah’s mantra? Your phone camera is the real MVP. No need to break the bank on fancy gadgets. Get comfy with your phone, and you’re armed for content creation success.
It’s not about the gear; it’s about the heart of the story. Make every shot count.

CONCLUSION

This podcast isn’t your typical lecture; it’s a friendly chat over coffee (over maybe tea) about turning everyday events into social media gold. Mariah’s down-to-earth advice emphasizes the simplicity of storytelling, making the whole content creation journey feel less like a daunting task and more like a creative adventure. Tune in, grab your phone, and let the content magic begin!

Want your question to be answered on the generation social media podcast? Tell us what it is here!

Transcript

This text below is a straight up audio transcript of the episode. In our humble opinion, we think the audio podcast sounds much better in its original form. We have not edited the transcription below so there are indeed some grammar errors (some quite funny, in-fact).

INTRO (00:02):

You don't have to be a millennial to be socially savvy. We believe anyone can join generation social media, and your journey starts now. This is the Generation Social Media podcast by Chatterkick.

Beth: Hello and welcome to another episode of Generation Social Media, where we're going to be talking today about creating content at scale, specifically from events and in person opportunities.

Beth: I am Beth Trejo, CEO and founder of Chatterkick, and I have Mariah Black-Overholt on the call today. And Mariah has done some of this for some of our clients. And so we're just going to have a conversation about what works, how to make this happen, and how your business can use some of these tools and tactics to hopefully create that authentic content at scale.

Beth: So, Mariah, thanks for joining us on our podcast today.

Mariah: Absolutely. I'm happy to be here and happy [00:01:00] to talk through some of this stuff. It's combines a couple of really cool passions for me. I really like the creative side of things and, you know, doing the photography and videography at events.

Mariah: And then of course, figuring out ways to make that work in social.

Beth: Yeah, I don't think a lot of people realize that, but at Chatterkick, we have a lot of creatives that are working in analytical roles. Mariah works on our ad and analytics team, but she happens to be a photographer in real life. So, Mariah.

Beth: Tell us a little bit about how, like, for example, a client or a business has used in person events to be that jumping off point for content creation.

Mariah: Yeah, absolutely. So, I think one of the really cool things about trade shows in general is that you're kind of taking everything that you have as a brand and bringing into this one small space at one, at one point in [00:02:00] time.

Mariah And so you have a lot of opportunity to get a lot of different content. that you would not be able to get otherwise. I mean, everybody's probably already wearing t shirts that are branded they're shown up in person we've got customers there that we can get reviews from and interviews with you've even got probably a booth that's branded, so there's a lot, and you've probably got products, there's all kinds of things that you can do at trade shows that really take that content process and bring it down to this lovely condensed really it's a box space and allow you to really create a lot of cool things.

Mariah So that's one of the ways that we've, we've utilized that for, for new clients is really taking the opportunity to have, content created at a trade show and really use that for the first few months of content before we were able to really break it out into even farther and more segmented pieces.

Beth: Yeah, I think that, you know, especially in the B2B space most people overlook that opportunity of a trade show. [00:03:00] Like, you know, if they have an annual sales event, they may have a videographer, a photographer there, or, you know, they have a big I think your annual retreat, if you do an in person animal retreat, it's also a huge opportunity.

Beth: And but trade shows, I mean, they are just a wealth of, like you were saying, of. Just content buffet, right? That you could just pick and choose and get photo and video. Do you see that that role is somebody who's already there? Or do you think it's really critical to have somebody whose job is just like content captures?

Mariah: I think having somebody there does really help because, you know, there is so such an unlimited amount of content that you can create that if you have somebody internally, that isn't necessarily. Owning that role it's really easy to, to get lost. It's really easy to say, to say like, oh, shoot, well, I didn't catch that.

Mariah: Or like, I totally didn't even think about that. But having somebody that's specifically in that role for the trade show [00:04:00] you know, they can create a shot list. You can have these opportunities kind of timed out. You can make a plan. And then that person is really focused in that role. During the trade show.

Mariah: So while you can do it, you can do a lot of offhanded kind of like pick up a phone and grab some, grab some shots kind of content. I think having somebody. That's dedicated in that space, in that time is a lot more beneficial and gets you a lot more for, for what you've got.

Beth: Yeah, because I think sometimes, I mean, I used to in another life, I used to, you know, man the booths of trade shows and I think it's really hard to like talk to customers.

Beth: And I remember thinking like, Oh, I should be taking pictures. Oh, I should be taking videos. I should be like doing this stuff. But when you're in the moment that like quick paralysis, like you were mentioning of like, just smile, random smile, like it just doesn't feel as natural, but if you have someone that's like, okay, here's my shot list, here's my plan, this is how I need to maneuver people.[00:05:00]

Beth: And I always say, like, you kind of have to have that photographer's bossiness of like, nope, move, yep, move, light here, face here so that you're getting good quality content. Otherwise, you're just going to have a lot of candid stuff with people, you know, half eating in the background, right?

Mariah: Yeah, I think that is one of the biggest challenges too, because, you know, a lot of times at trade shows, everybody's just.

Mariah: Chit chatting with each other and you've got people that are in little clumps and from a photography perspective You you do need to that you need to be able to open that up You need to be able to get a little bit of a better angle on things most of the time And so to be able to have somebody that says hey, okay Like I need you to kind of like fold open this way and I need you to kind of be talking at each other Right now but not really In a way that feels, you know, more natural, and so I think that that's really important.

Mariah: The other thing too is like lighting at trade shows a lot of times in the, in the halls themselves is usually horrible. And so [00:06:00] if you have, if you have these plans for, for, you know, interviews or more of a planned shot, sometimes it makes sense to kind of go out into the open atriums or if you've got some area with open light, because that generally is like, you know, those side areas.

Mariah: Outside of the halls can be really good for getting good shots. As well as video interviews. If you're doing any sort of video content those halls are not optimized for that at all. So if you're planning for something like that, being able to plan for a space that's much more quiet or, does make a big difference.

Beth: Yeah, I think that that is a really good point. Audio for that is key if you're going to do video, right? Because... We've seen that in the past. It's like, just when you think that, like, the magic is happening, everybody's there, they're all branded, they're in t shirts, we have everything, like, the hall is really noisy, a lot of echoes, dark lights, and it's like, darn it!

Beth: So you do have to plan and then also be flexible so that you can get what you, [00:07:00] need out of that. So, I'm curious, because... I think a lot of businesses understand the concept of like, okay, a lot of people in the same spot. Let's get content captures. But what I think businesses have a hard time doing next is, and then what?

Beth: Like, I have these photos. Do I just post them on Facebook? Or what do you think the next step is for some of these businesses to take all that content and then like distill that down to what they can use for social media?

Mariah: So I'm not going to even call it a next step. I'm going to call it a, like an almost pre step what I would do before you even start thinking about your trade show.

Mariah: And before you start thinking about what content you're going to capture, there is, is maybe start to build a little bit of a list. We call them buckets for content at so at Chatterkick. And that's really just our plan for the month of what themes we want to showcase. That relate back to the goals for for our clients and so a lot of our content is [00:08:00] is themed around those specific buckets and so if you go in with a plan of saying OK, I've got.

Mariah: You know, brand awareness posts I need to create or I need to create reviews from clients or I need to create like product demonstrations and that's going to give you a little bit more of a plan as you go instead of having this just pile of content when you get back from the trade show and saying, well, okay, I don't know what I can make out of this.

Mariah: But if you go in with a little bit of a plan and have it all kind of bucketed out already before you even get there, you've already got a little, you've already got you're, you're a step ahead.

Beth: Yeah. And I think too, you know, if you have, let's say, let's use the example of like a new product launch.

Beth: Let's say you're doing that product in six months. Like it's, it's the spring. And like in the fall, you're going to do a product launch and you know that like, Oh, I know I'm going to need like pictures of our merch because I need, it's all going to be about our brand. And we know that we're going to need, you know, You know, coffee mug to the left so that we can write copy to the right, right?

Beth: [00:09:00] Or we're going to need smiling, happy people so that we can overlay X, Y, and Z. It's so much easier to change the picture than it is to change the elements that go on the, or, you know, after the fact. So I do think that that's a really great tip of like, starting with a plan, identifying what's coming up in the future so that you can create shot lists around that.

Beth: What is your thought on, you know, vertical video versus horizontal video? Do you just get a mix? What would you give the recommendation to clients?

Mariah: So these days I think I don't think you can go wrong with vertical. So many formats these days for social are definitely optimized for if not a true like 16 by nine.

Mariah: Vertical format. They're, they're definitely optimized for, for a taller format. And so shooting in that is never going to be a bad idea. Worst case [00:10:00] scenario, if you did need to use some sort of horizontal, video for, for, for a project or something, you can always crop in. Just making sure that you kind of keep, I think, that subject in kind of the middle.

Mariah: Which is good business, good practice anyways, because you don't want to ever run into space. On social where you're kind of running into the headers or you're running into the captions. So keeping that subject in the middle is important anyways. Both from a visual point of view and

Beth: Especially if you have people, right?

Beth: I think you, yes, because you can cut off scenes in different spots, but like you don't want to cut people's heads off. So keep your person in the middle.

Mariah: Yes, definitely. With that said, I do think there is some space that you could definitely shoot some horizontal, like B roll. So when you maybe do have, you know, background people, or you're just doing kind of environmental type shots, there is some room for that.

Mariah: And you can always, again, crop in if you needed to. But if you're doing any sort of, [00:11:00] you know, theme specific. I would definitely shoot vertical.

Beth: I think you bring up a good point in terms of like other things that businesses can capture, which is that B roll, because you can use it. I mean, we'll capture B roll and use it for Tic Tac videos, reels, like you're mentioning ad backgrounds.

Beth: You could, and it can be like change up the pace. Slow mo to quick bounce, fast loops. I think that's a really good point of like, don't forget to get that. Cause you can use it a lot throughout the course of the next year.

Mariah: And that is one of those places too, that audio doesn't really matter as much. So as long as you've got decent lighting, or even just an interesting, like you said, like I mentioned, maybe a different effect, like if you're doing a stop motion or if you're doing a slow mo you can get away with some of the things that you can't necessarily get away with when you, when you're doing subject type matter so that's one of the ways that's, it's really easy, like just pick up your phone and go take some stuff [00:12:00] while you're at the show.

Beth: Yeah, you definitely, don't be afraid if you don't have good fancy camera equipment, like the phones that we have these days work wonderful.

Mariah: Mm hmm.

Beth: And another thing that I've noticed a lot of, again, when you're at the event or you're trying to capture the content is making sure that you don't have only people in your video because if that person leaves or, you know, you need to.

Beth: Do a non people related post. I think having a mix of both really is important. So just something for businesses to keep in mind as they're at those events, getting their content planned.

Mariah: Yeah, absolutely. That is a, that is a huge point. The other thing is to think about sometimes you may need releases especially if you're talking to customers or potential clients, you want to make sure that, you know, you're not just creating content.

Mariah: And then not getting people's permission to post it. That's a really big no no and we, we, you know, ethically we say that's not a great idea. So make sure that you're definitely [00:13:00] communicating that. In some cases you're probably even going to want to have a written response. Written release, and that's easy to get.

Mariah: You can get templates for that online, and they're super simple to have on hand. Just to cover your bases if you need to.

Beth: Great point, Mariah, and I think that is a very good question that I get from businesses a lot, is like, do we need these? And I think ethically, and just letting people know where this is going to be is like baseline, but even just going another step further depending on your industry, or even, you know, the exposure that they may get.

Mariah: Absolutely.

Beth: Oh! All right. Well, thank you very much. I think we covered a lot of grounds here today. Just a quick summary on events themselves and how you can use them for social media. We talked a lot about using an example of a trade show, but you can use another example of a company retreat, a celebration, a holiday party.

Beth: What else am I missing? There's a lot of different gatherings in person that you really can showcase as it [00:14:00] relates to capturing social media content.

Mariah: And Beth, I wanted to add one more thing right before we left. You mentioned talking about cameras and, you know, do you have the right equipment?

Mariah: I, the most important camera you have is the one that's in your pocket. And these days, honestly, most phone cameras can do just about anything you would need to. So don't feel like you have to go out and buy a lot of equipment especially if it becomes more overwhelming than You're used to so if you don't understand your camera, you're not comfortable with it, then it's just going to be more of a hindrance So I would definitely just be comfortable with your phone and make sure you know how to utilize it and you're gonna get great stuff

Beth: Awesome. Well, thank you very much for that's a great tip And we definitely need to remember that as we go out and have computers in our pocket, right? Like those tools that are out there Well, this has been a wonderful episode and make sure you stay tuned to our next generation social media episode. Mariah, thanks for joining us.

Beth: And [00:15:00] I always learn more from you. So thank you.

Mariah: No problem. Well, happy to be here and looking forward to the next time.

Outro (15:09):

That's it for this episode of Generation Social Media podcast. If you had an aha moment or just a haha moment, I would be so grateful if you leave a review with the moment you loved most. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the next episode, fill out the form on generationsocialmediapodcast.com.

inspiration, Business, Social MediaChatterkickNovember 17, 2023internal team, Podcast, Executive Social, CEO