T2IQ Live Finale Recap
This past May, Tomorrow’s Technician launched an exciting new podcast series, T2iQ, with YouTube sensation The Rustbelt Mechanic‘s Kyle Thoreen. Over the course of ten episodes, Kyle and Tomorrow’s Technician Editor Doug Kauffman sat down to give advice and answer questions on how to get started in the automotive industry as a tech student and early career technician.
For the finale episode, Kyle and our team here at Babcox Media decided that the season should go out with a bang: a livestream Q&A, hosted on The Rustbelt Mechanic YouTube channel. Preparation for this event involved a full implementation plan complete with a strategic social media strategy, so we could prepare our audience for the shift in medium.
Here are some key take-aways we learned through this exciting and rewarding experience:
Use Your Most Effective Platforms
Take note of the most effective platforms to reach your desired audience. For the T2IQ Podcast, this included emphasis on Facebook and Instagram. Once you determine your audience, social posts should be created and planned under a balance of feed posts and stories, as used for T2IQ. Our strategy was to create Facebook feed posts every day, each with a different purpose and CTA, and alternate Instagram feed posts and Instagram stories. Both feed posts and stories worked great as a quick reminder to attend or get excited for the event.
Introduce the Event and REMIND The Audience
Of course, you’ll need to introduce your audience to the event before you move forward with promoting it. The audience must know what the event is before they decide if they want to attend. People need details, so provide them clearly and often.
The introductory post should engage the audience early-on, and include the date and time, platform, hosts, topics, etc. Since the T2IQ event happened to be a livestream, it was crucial that the audience was aware of the platform on which the event would take place and how to access it.
The posts thereafter should be reminders of the event information that you already told them. The premise here is simple: First tell them the information, then tell them what you told them.
Include Engaging CTA’s
Call-to-actions are key to social promotion. Don’t over-complicate it, directly tell the audience what you want them to do. For the podcast, phrases like “listen now” or “go give it a listen” worked effectively to boost listens and engagement. Since the finale was presented on Kyle’s YouTube channel, it was important to direct the audience to that platform for the event.
What’s In It For Me
You not only need to let the audience know what you want them to do, but also give them a reason to do it. People need an incentive, so you should show them what they are getting out of the event as they inevitably ask themselves, “What’s in it for me?” For T2IQ , the finale event featured questions taken directly from the audience and the topics they specifically wanted covered. Further, 3 giveaways were offered for attendees during the actual event. These elements are easy examples of incentives you can use to get people to attend. Remember: make the event about them.
Check out how all these elements (and more!) came together to create the T2IQ Podcast Finale by watching the replay here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lj6DTyjqzc.
Special thanks to our partner in the T2IQ podcast project, Kyle Thoreen of Rustbelt Mechanic. Listen to the full season of T2IQ on your favorite podcast platform by searching for T2IQ or Tomorrow’s Tech.
