For the astute blogger, the key to conference blog post content success is planning your articles in advance to maximize the focused interest in your topic.
Decide which conference blog post options will resonate best with not only your existing readers, but also the broader audience interested in the conference. By piggybacking on conference content in this way, you can build your blog’s visibility and traffic.
At a minimum, schedule at least 4 blog posts for every conference or industry event you or a member of your organization attends. Focused on key topics and trends, your audience needs this information.
If your management considers the event worth investing in sending an employee to attend, chances are your audience is interested in the conference content as well.
Even if your boss doesn’t ask you to blog about the conference, just do it!
Conference blog post content underscores the value of your attendance, allows you to share the information with other employees, and grows your personal brand.
To help maximize your blogging and content creation opportunity here are 20 types of conference blog post content from which to choose.
Conference Blog Post Content: 20 Ideas You Can Steal
Conference blog post content provides a variety of options to fill your blog’s editorial calendar. (Here’s in-depth approach to conference content.)
1. Put your favorite conferences in the limelight
By offering your curated list of conferences and events, you can let people know which ones you’re attending. While this works well for high profile speakers and influences, it also allows bloggers to generate affiliate income.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
- Use these posts to promote select conferences. It shows that you support the organizers and thank them for selecting you as a speaker.
Example:
Marketing Insider Group’s Michael Brenner give readers a list of conferences to attend. Brenner spotlights where he’s presenting.
Example of List of Conferences Blog Post – Michael Brenner notes his presentation
2. Spotlight conference speakers of note
Help attendees determine which speakers are worth their scarce conference time. Explain why you selected each person.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
- Give the speakers the royal treatment. Make them look good.
- Let speakers know about your article. Get more traction for your post with influencer sharing.
Example:
Outbrain’s Shana Pilewski selected 37 top speakers to see in 2018.
Spotlight the top speakers in your category
3. Provide a conference guide
Selectively choose the top conference sessions for your audience. This is useful if you’re speaking or leading a panel since you can slip your session into the list.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
- Include an explanation. Let readers know why each session is the best of the options.
- Give speakers a shout-out. Get their social media love in return.
Example:
Joe Fields of Onalytica gave his list of top influencers to engage with for SMMW18. Here’s his email promoting the post.
4. Pay attention to keynotes
Conference organizers use their keynotes to announce trends based on their market research. These insights are often repeated through out the event.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
- Offer your interpretation of these research results. If possible capture charts from the presentation.
Example:
Mike Stelzner of SMMW and Joe Pulizzi of Content Marketing World both provide recent research data that is widely used in conference blog posts. Pulizzi wrote a blog post after each conference to underscore his points.
5. Live blog sessions
Live blogging has evolved from its early court stenographer approach.
Now, live blogging requires capturing the key session ideas and tips while adding your own commentary.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
- Determine which sessions you’ll attend. This is key if you’re attending a conference with colleagues to avoid overlap.
- Introduce yourself to the presenter. Ask the speaker if you can snap his/her photograph.
Example:
Long time blogger Top Rank’s Lee Odden is in a class by himself. He’s trained his team to master this approach.
6. Summarize the conference
This is the conference version of reporting the news. Since most conferences put speakers on the same theme in the same room, you save time getting from one room to another. (This can take a long time in major conference centers!)
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tip:
- Focus your blog post. Grab attention with a strong hook that appeals to your readers, not just attendees! When in doubt, tap into the conference theme.
7. Take the less is more approach to highlight a few key points
Be editorial and select 3 to 5 core pieces of information that will interest your readers.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
- Review your event notes. Outline your post points at the end of each day or while the even is still fresh in your mind.
- Spotlight themes. Based on my conference attending experience, speakers tap into the same environment yielding themes.
Example:
BuzzSumo’s Steve Rayson adapted this approach to publish: What I Learned Drinking Beer At Content Marketing World: Real Insider Tips and Insights.
8. Focus conference news tailored to your audience’s needs
Put yourself in your readers’ shoes to figure out the information they need. At a conference like Social Media Marketing World, choose to a specific topic, platform or content type.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
- Know your audience. Understand your blog’s marketing persona.
- Align your conference content with your major blog categories. Where appropriate link to existing content to support your search strategies.
9. Spotlight conference social media content
Most conferences generate lots of social media content and sharing that’s easy to spot based on the conference hashtag. Additionally social media savvy presenters include sharable content in their presentations to broaden their reach.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
- Curate best information vetted on social media. Add editorial commentary.
- Create share-worthy conference content. Make people look good sharing your content. Flipboard used a red couch and professional photographer to get attendees involved.
Example:
Christopher S. Penn does a great job of aggregating this content for the conferences he attends. He puts the information into his weekly newsletter, Almost Timely News.
10. Ground conference blog post content in data
Tap into the power of data especially unique information your firm has.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips
- Tap into existing data. Transform it into useful information.
- Include Twitter handles and photos. Be a name-dropper.
- Email the people you mention. Let them know about your post but don’t beg for their shares.
11. Spotlight Attendees
Provide a guide of the conference’s who’s who. Let attendees and others know whose important to follow.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
- Let people know you mentioned them. Always send an email. Don’t rely on social media—they may not see it.
- Add bling to your post. Create a chart or other graphic to make the information standout and become sharable in its own right.
Example:
Lee Odden work with Traackr to determine the top influencers to follow at a conference. Key point: He explains the data methodology. Personally, I love that he includes a tile photo image.
12. Interview everyone including presenters, sponsors and attendees
Act like a reporter. Ask one person an in-depth set of questions or ask everyone the same question.
Alternatively, create a panel interview. Ask a few people a set of the same questions.
Don’t just focus on influencers! Attendees may be high profile individuals. For example, world-class blogger and social media expert Jeff Bullas attended SMMW17 as an attendee.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
- Reach out to speakers and influencers in advance to schedule time. Understand they get lot of requests.
- Prepare your questions. Do your homework to get the best information.
Example:
To spotlight the people speaking in a track that I was moderating at Content Marketing World 2015, I did a set of panel interviews.
13. Include non-text content formats
Take advantage of thought leaders attending the conference to create live audio and video content.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tip:
- Be prepared. Script your content and decide where you’re going to record your content. Also be flexible and ready to adapt to circumstances.
- Use the conference groups to get people involved pre-conference.
Example:
LinkedIn’s Sean Callahan collected input from a variety of B2B influencers at several conferences to create a set of short videos.
14. Get others to contribute to a roundup post
Conference-related roundup posts are a great way to connect with influences since they’re highly shareable.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips;
- Sex up roundup content with contributors’ photographs and/or videos. Get permission to publish their image.
- Keep your request short and simple. Ask for too much information and people won’t respond.
- Let contributors know when the post is published. When other influential people are involved, participants are more likely to engage on social media.
Example:
Social Media Examiner’s Lisa Jenkins uses this approach to create Crowd Pleaser content to attract attention for their conference.
15. Extend your presentation content
If you’re a speaker, re-imagine your presentation content to reach a larger audience.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
- Create more than one blog post based on your presentation. Lee Odden whetting his readers’ appetite for his conference presentations before and highlights the key points afterwards.
- Leverage other content platforms to extend reach. Write related posts for platforms like LinkedIn Publishing and Medium where your speaking agreement allows.
Example:
Take a page from Socially Sorted’s Donna Moritz’s blogging playbook. She summarized the tools she presented in her SMMW17 session.
16. Post Your Presentation On Your Blog
While this is a low effort way to extend the audience for your presentation, make sure that it doesn’t violate your agreement with the conference. Bear in mind that many conference producers retain rights to conference content so they can sell access to live streaming and recorded sessions.
Actionable Conference Blog Content Post Tips:
- Enhance your presentation for an audience that doesn’t have the benefit of your talk. The easiest way to accomplish this is to add notes.
Example:
Content creator par excellence Ann Handley used this approach on Slideshare after a keynote at Inbound. She waited almost a year to release her annotated presentation.
17. Add Your Voice To The Mix
Panel sessions offer different perspectives on a specific topic. Use your blog to voice your thoughts.
Actionable Conference Blog Content Tips:
- Keep track of the questions asked during panels. The best leaders work with panelists in advance and ask them to craft responses.
18. Educate Readers (aka: Teach Me How)
Collect tips from a single session or various presentations within a track or theme or a specific Transform session notes into an organized, actionable post. This conference blog post content differs from live blogging since you select your answer to the question: “What can my readers learn about this topic from this session?”
Actionable Conference Blog Content Tips:
- Consolidate tip-related information on a specific topic.
- Get a speaker to explain the answer to a key question. It’s pure Marcus Sheridan. They ask, you answer.
- Take good notes. Add value when you repackage the information.
- Include screenshots with attribution (where appropriate). Plan for blog post visuals.
Example:
Dan Gingiss author of Winning at Social Customer Care wrote an article spotlighting the customer service theme on Social Media Today where he’s a contributor. Note that he didn’t mention his own session or his related book!
19. Collect Case Studies
Buyers, especially B2B customers, want to see what worked for others as proven by LinkedIn’s B2B research. Give your prospects the information that they need to buy from you. Where possible avoid the case studies and examples that everyone knows.
Where Customers, Sales & Marketers Differ on Content Marketing
Take a page from Content Marketing Institute’s Jodi Harris’s playbook, she keeps a spreadsheet of every example and case study that appears on their site.
Actionable Conference Blog Content Tips:
- Drop names where appropriate. This extends your social media reach.
- Link to companies and examples. Help readers find this content when they want it. In turn, it supports your search efforts.
20. Give your readers the tools they need
Since presenters like RazorSocial’s Ian Cleary and Socially Sorted’s Donna Moritz discuss their favorite tools, you can either list all of the tools or highlight the best ones. (BTW—As a presenter, I always include the tools I use in every presentation.)
Actionable Conference Blog Content Tips:
- Test the tools yourself to add your input. Include your perspective to make the post more targeted for your audience.
- Include affiliate links to drive passive income. Clearly mark any affiliate content.
Example:
While RazorSocial’s Ian Cleary is the tools expert, check out Donna Moritz’s post listed above.
Bonus: Take attendees behind-the-scenes
Pull the curtain back to give your audience a peak. Just as this works for Customer FAQ content, it works for conferences.
Actionable Conference Blog Post Content Tips:
Show another point of view of the conference. Most attendees have no idea what it takes to put on an amazing conference. Think of it as your out takes roll.
Examples:
Christina Kellerman worked for SMMW17 (BTW—She was amazingly helpful!). That didn’t stop her from creating a behind-the-scenes post.
Conference Blog Post Content Conclusion
Check your industry’s conference calendar to determine which ones are relevant to your business and blog.
As live content events, conferences are an idea bonanza for bloggers and content creators using a variety of content formats including text, visuals, video, audio and webinars.
Since conferences tend to be annual events, you can plan them in advance and incorporate them into your blog’s editorial calendar. This ensures that you attend the sessions that are important for your audience.
Make appointments with people you want to interview in advance. Bear in mind that speakers may only attend the day that they present so your window of opportunity is limited. (And don’t be disappointed if they turn you down, they’re busy folks.)
Also take advantage of chance meetings. Be ready to snap a photo or shoot a video. Have a set of questions ready to ask.
Even if you can’t attend the conference live, you can still create conference blog post content. Use the agenda, follow the live-stream and social media, and/or purchase the recorded or virtual version. (BTW, you can still get a ticket to the virtual version of SMMW18!)
Fill your blog’s editorial calendar with one or more of these 20 conference blog post options.
Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen
This post has been significantly updated and improved. The original was published on Apr 21, 2017. Hat tip to my SMMW17 Workshop students for their help: