Forfatter: Valentina Casasola

In an increasingly digital world, where virtual interactions dominate our daily lives, the value of face-to-face connections cannot be underestimated. With its ability to bring people together in a shared space, events are powerful opportunities for us all to engage, create memorable experiences and drive personal and professional growth.

Building Authentic Connections

Unlike traditional marketing channels, events provide you with good old fashioned ‘work the room’ opportunities. Events also attract a diverse range of attendees, providing you with the opportunity to meet a range of different contacts, not only to generate sales leads but to create wider opportunities.

When it comes to building authentic connections at an event, here are some suggestions to help facilitate interactions and get the most from your attendance:

Business Cards

Yes, it seems obvious, but the classic schoolboy error is to show up with no cards. Show that you are prepared and interested in maintaining a connection beyond the event with professionally designed and branded cards.

Pro Tip: Embrace the shift from paper business cards to digital. With digital business cards, you instantly share your contact information. Tap your card against a smartphone and share your contact details. It can act as an ice breaker or as a memorable way to bring your conversation to a close. Check out TAPiTAG.

Research and Familiarize

Take the time to research and understand the companies who are attending and the services they offer. This knowledge allows you to identify potential partnerships or check in with better-known competitors. Create a plan for who you want to speak to and consider getting in touch before the event, to get some pre-agreed meetings in the diary.

Harness Social Media

Make sure people know you are going to be there. Share your attendance on your personal LinkedIn page and if you’re only there for a limited time then make that clear.

Pro Tip: Look for the official event hashtag and use it. Usually, you can find them on the organizer’s website or social media. By using the event hashtag, you will ensure that your post will be at the heart of the conversation around the event, allowing you to interact with like-minded attendees. Boost your reach!

Conversation Starters

Not everyone is confident to dive straight into conversations. Prepare some industry questions to help you initiate conversations. Engaging conversation starters can help break the ice and foster deeper discussions. Alternatively, kick-off by asking them to tap your new digital business card on their phone!

Show your expertise

Before the event, demonstrate your expertise by providing value. Share relevant content such as blogs, reviews, interviews, or industry podcasts highlighting your knowledge and making it clear what people can talk to you about. By positioning yourself as a thought leader and sharing valuable insights, you establish credibility and generate interest.

Company attendance

if your company are exhibiting then be familiar with what’s being presented. Speak to the stand organisers and ensure you’re familiar with what your company are doing, and focusing on, at the show. If you work for a larger organisation, then see who is attending from other offices or locations and build your internal network as well as your external one.

Event marketing still presents a unique opportunity to build authentic connections in an increasingly digital landscape. By activating some of these suggestions you can untap the potential of event marketing and forge lasting connections that go beyond the event itself.

If you had told the younger me, fresh out of musicology studies (some trips around the sun ago!), that I’d end up in Norway working for a marketing & comms agency specializing in energy, I’d have laughed you out of the room.

Hi, I’m Valentina, an Italian ex-pianist and musicologist, now the proud mother of three-year-old little dragon. Back in 2021 I decided to move to this beautiful corner of the world to live out my dream of embracing the Nordic lifestyle.

So, from music and musicology (if you’re wondering what the heck is musicology, look here!) to marketing & comms  – how that happened?

My first significant job after finishing my studies was with one of the top grand and concert piano producers in the world. I started as an assistant in their marketing & comms office, eventually moving to their showroom in the heart of Milan, Italy. There, I managed events, brand initiatives and collaborated with institutions, theatres, municipalities but also handled the website content, social media channels, and external communications. It was an incredible experience, working within the arts and music sphere, and meeting talented artists from around the globe.

For various reasons, I decided to leave that “dream job” and switch industry. I then worked for two major international cosmetics companies in their communications, events, and marketing teams. These roles significantly bolstered my expertise in comms, digital marketing, and social media. As a communications coordinator, I was involved in regional strategy, marketing & comms planning, organizing large events, and collaborating with colleagues from the US, IMED and EMEA regions. I learned invaluable lessons from my managers (one in particular!), especially about the difference between leadership and mere bossing. True leaders, I discovered, are indeed a rare find.

My last job before Project Neon was with a company headquartered in the USA, which allowed me to work from home and move to Norway. Balancing professional and personal life in a new country with a one-year-old child was tough, and I felt completely lost. I needed to find myself again, which led me to find a job here and eventually to Project Neon.

Starting with ONS ‘22, I had a lot to learn about the oil and gas industry’s technologies, but I thrive on challenges. The international team at Project Neon, with their diverse backgrounds, provided a rich learning environment. I began as a Digital Marketing & Events Coordinator and eventually moved up to Key Account Manager, always overseeing marketing and communications.

At Project Neon, I maintain key client relationships, develop social media strategies (especially on LinkedIn), write copy, manage social media campaigns, oversee website content, and project manage events and exhibitions, including my “baby”—as Laura calls it—our own event series, Neon Nights. I like collaborating with the team to help clients achieve their goals, but what I enjoy most is being a problem solver. Whether marketing a product or service, understanding the client’s target market and crafting compelling messages is essential. It requires a lot of digging, researching, and learning.

Working in an agency is a constant source of inspiration, with different clients, projects, and problems to solve. It keeps my creativity on its toes. I hold myself and my work to very high standards, always striving to deliver the best solutions for our clients.

These high standards also apply to my personal life. I’m a quality-over-quantity kind of person, valuing a few good friends over many acquaintances. I’m very social but open up completely only with the right people. And yes, the music you listen to can indeed be a deal-breaker for our friendship. Jokes aside, in my younger years I used to be a hardcore punk-emo scenester in Italy, hanging out with friends who knew every niche record label by heart. I still have trouble relating to people who just listen to whatever’s on the radio.

Aside from music, I love going to the cinema, watching movies and TV series, and reading books. Lately, I’ve been diving into ancient Greek philosophy. If I had the time and energy, I’d love to get a degree in philosophy. The term “philosophy” means “love of wisdom,” and ever since high school, I’ve been fascinated by the reasoning behind each philosopher’s thoughts. Exploring the meaning of existence and the limits of human knowledge is endlessly intriguing to me.

And what better way to reflect on life’s big questions than by taking a walk-through Norway’s breathtaking landscapes? The beauty of this country offers the perfect backdrop for deep contemplation or simply embracing the moment. And that’s life—at its core, a tapestry of simple yet unforgettable moments and experiences that shape who you are.

– Valentina

Did you know that unlike a personal post, any content posted from a company page on LinkedIn will only be seen by the page followers? This is one of the the key reasons your marketing team are always asking you to like, share or comment on content. Without you the potential for company content is limited. Employee engagement and social amplification are the best ways to get your content seen and grow the page following.

On average, employees have 10 times more social media connections than their company has followers. In addition, content shared via employees consistently generates at least a 2x higher click-through rate than the post shared from a company pages. As a result, getting your team engaged and using LinkedIn can have a positive impact on the visibility of the company.

Why care about LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is all about building a professional network and the platform centres itself on building relationships. Engaging with even the tiniest segment of the 756 million LinkedIn users can have significant impact on your visibility as a company and individual.

Interaction is key

LinkedIn rewards interaction and engagement. LinkedIn’s algorithm takes interaction as an indicator that users are interested in a certain post and that the content would be valuable to share with a wider audience. Likes, shares, and comments operate as indications to LinkedIn that content is good.

In practical terms, this means that LinkedIn will feature the post in the feeds of those whose connections interact with it, or simply put, if I like something then my connections will see the post in their feed. In addition, the post may feature more prominently in relevant groups and hashtag search results. As a result, it’s through the initial and subsequent interactions (one of my connections then likes the post and it’s then shared with their connections…) that visibility grows. When done successfully it is also possible for posts to ‘go viral’ and break out of your immediate follower networks when interaction grows exponentially.

So how can we help make this happen?

Employee engagement is central to ensuring that you are maximising your potential interactions, unlocking new audiences and keeping your posts alive.

Not only does a strong employee response to LinkedIn posts demonstrate that staff are invested in the success of the team, but by interacting with posts, they in turn share the content with their own followers, thereby further widening the net of potential interaction.

So what can you and your team do?

• Encourage likes and comments on company posts from your team.
• When sharing, make sure you are adding text that indicates to your followers why you are interested and why they should be too.
• Demonstrate real interest in what your company is sharing. Was it ‘great to be a part of the project’ or are you ‘proud to have achieved such fantastic results’? Then share that with the community.
• Stage sharing amongst colleagues over the following days to extend the longevity of posts.
• Avoid cannibalising posts (sounds dramatic but it just means when engagement is drawn to a shared version of the post at the detriment of the original), especially in the first few days of posting.

By putting a real focus on employee engagement, you can make a significant impact on the reach and longevity of your posts without making any changes to content or diving into the realms of paid advertising. With these simple steps you can make the most of the valuable connections of your team as a springboard to greater visibility and interaction potential.

So why not have a talk with your colleagues and discuss the importance of engaging with company posts? Make sure you’re not missing out on unlocking your true LinkedIn potential.

Want to learn more about LinkedIn and social media marketing?

Get in touch: hello@project-neon.com