International Spa Association: Taking a look at ISPA 2013's social media efforts

Even though an event or conference may only come once a year for an organization, the excitement has to be sustained throughout the year for that event to be a success.

According to Social Globe Media, a social strategy is essential to sustain excitement about an event: “The key is that an event is not really an event if people aren’t sharing it, talking about it, promoting it and talking about it after it happens.”

On pretty much all of the major social media channels, the International Spa Association kept building anticipation and excitement before, during and after its 2013 conference in Las Vegas. They did this by sharing behind-the-scenes photos of pre-conference preparations, sending live tweets from the conference floor and asking attendees afterward how the conference enabled them to “Grow.”

ISPA has a presence on pretty much every major channel: Facebook, two Twitter accounts (one for the conference and one for the organization itself), YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, as well as its website, conference page and blog.

During the conference, ISPA mostly used Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. ISPA seemed to get the most interaction on both of its Twitter accounts, alerting participants to what was happening at that moment in the conference and what was coming up next, including talks from speakers, the live auction and reminding participants to visit the conference's Relaxation Area.

Prior to the conference, ISPA would give its followers a taste of the spa vendors that would be present at ISPA 2013. Through Facebook and Twitter posts, ISPA would show either a picture of that vendor's product or a link to that vendor's site, and denote the booth where that vendor could be found at the conference.

To keep the conversation organized, two hashtags were used for Twitter, as well as Instagram: #ISPA2013 and #GrowYourWorld, which was the overriding theme of the conference and expo. These hashtags enabled ISPA to find who was talking about the conference before, during and after and talk back to them, or even retweet them.

Sponsors were mostly promoted through a special page on the ISPA Conference page, and somewhat on social media. Though I did not attend the conference, I'm sure I would be safe to assume that attendees were given "swag bags" complete with sponsor-branded goodies.

Some delicious IMC at the ISPA conference!

Speaking of branded goodies, ISPA had some edible integrated marketing communications going on. Check out the scrumptious-looking "Grow" cupcakes to the left:

Outside of its social media efforts, the most impressive standout of ISPA's IMC conference efforts was an app available for iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry. Admittedly, I haven't been to a conference or event in a while, but this really stood out to me because I don't recall going to an event that had its own app. With the app, attendees have the schedule, exhibitor locations and hotel information at their fingertips:

As you can see, from the logo from ISPA's conference website above to the ISPA 2013 app screenshot to the right, the color, look and feel of the branding is consistent.

ISPA not only displayed consistent graphic branding, but with their messaging as well. Most of their Facebook posts, Tweets and Instagram pictures were similar to each other. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it ensures consistent communication, but marketers should not be afraid to change up messaging from channel to channel.

There are only two nitpick items I would have liked to see more of in analyzing ISPA 2013's social media effort:

-More pictures of attendees. People LOVE looking at photos of themselves having a good time with their friends and colleagues. Sporadic photos of the conference were posted here and there on social, but having a photographer go around and take loads of pictures to post in a gallery on the ISPA website and on social would be a great addition.

-More updates to the blog. The last blog entry in the ISPA blog is from October 14, a whole week before the conference started. From its latest tweet, it sounds like ISPA is trying to round up proper reactions from attendees for a blog, but it would be a nice touch to see blog entries from right before the event, during and right after. It doesn't have to be anything fancy; it could just be a round-up of Twitter reactions to the conference. The quick blogs would serve as a great update until there is more time to craft a longer, in-depth blog post.

Good luck to the staff as they gear up for #ISPA2014!