Best Practices Report: Winter Holiday Events

Methodology: 

• The report includes data collected in the past year between November 1, 2022, and November 25, 2023. The analysis incorporates the social media discourse from 69 partner cities and counties in Washington, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina.

• The report analyzes data from local municipalities (cities and counties) and social media accounts. The analysis reflects the interest and sentiment expressed by residents using these platforms.

• The analysis does not include sentiments and attitudes expressed on private social media discussion boards and groups— only those expressed in fully public forums.

Executive Summary

Based on the analysis, Zencity recommends the following for enhancing winter holiday events communication:

• Craft effective event posts to strengthen your event messaging strategy— plan ahead, develop unique hashtags, use positive and inclusive language, craft clear messages with essential details, and respond to inquiries.

• Create compelling event content to elevate engagement—utilize festive visuals, create enticing teaser posts, build up excitement, and boost participation.

• Cultivate lasting community bonds by expressing post-event gratitude through sharing highlights and community-generated content.

• Utilize both active and passive listening tools to analyze the event’s success.

Crafting Effective Event Posts

• Start planning and promoting holiday events well in advance to heighten anticipation and allow the community to plan ahead.

• Develop a unique event hashtag to encourage community participation and cultivate a shared identity around the upcoming festivities

• Use positive and inclusive language throughout communications to create an inviting atmosphere.

Creating Compelling Event Content

• Utilize festive visuals to capture attention and enhance event appeal.

• Create engaging teaser posts with high-quality visuals to build anticipation. Maintain excitement with interactive countdown posts leading up to the event.

• Foster community engagement through interactive content, polls, and contests. Consider hosting giveaways and local competitions to incentivize participation.

Post-Event Engagement and Appreciation

• Express post-event gratitude by sharing highlights and community-generated content.
• Share these posts multiple times to create a post-event campaign to keep the excitement going and encourage a fear of missing out (FOMO) for next year's event.

Trust-building through Event Feedback

Post-event feedback is essential for improvement. Zencity tools streamline the process, efficiently collecting and analyzing attendee insights. Utilize the following tools to make informed, data-driven decisions to elevate future events:

• Zencity Engage – utilizing an event feedback survey from Zencity can provide direct feedback from attendees to assist in shaping future events to better meet attendees' preferences and expectations.
• Zencity Organic – Request an insight to be delivered after the event to provide passive feedback that can help assess communications/marketing, sentiment, and trending topics of discourse around the events.
• Zencity Report Builder –  have all your data in one place by utilizing the report builder to bring both passive and active resident data around the event into a single report for stakeholders.
  
  Reach out to your dedicated CSM for more details on leveraging these tools.