Instagram for live events: Baptism by Fire

Tips and tricks for managing a brand’s Instagram handle during a conference

I recently had the opportunity to run Food Tank’s Instagram during their summit in Washington, D.C. If you don’t know Food Tank and are interested in improving the food system, definitely check them out. Their work covers the full spectrum of food-related issues.

I walked into the volunteer training the night before the summit thinking I was going to be live tweeting the event (which I’ve done for several organizations and really enjoy) only to find out that I would be running their Instagram (gasp), including producing posts and stories throughout the day and conducting live interviews with speakers who just happen to be some of the most prominent people in the fields of food policy and agriculture (double gasp).

I learned all this at 9:30 pm with my first interview loosely scheduled for 8:00 am the next day. There may have been some internal screaming as I frantically Googled information about live video on Instagram while on the phone with friends who work in social media (FYI Becca Bycott and Talia Salem are excellent sources of information on all things social and I really appreciate them taking my call). This was a textbook case of baptism by fire: never had I done an Instagram live event, never had I worked with an audience this large, and, while I really enjoy using Instagram personally, managing the handle of a large organization that I really respect with very little time to prepare was daunting to say the least.

Here’s a comprehensive list of everything I learned, including what I would do differently the next time:

Before the Event:

Develop a storyline for the day. Not everyone is going to be watching live or following throughout the day, some will be catching up later. Make sure this story includes the main highlights of the event, major partners or sponsors that need to be featured, some fun features like what was served at lunch or what was included in the swag bag, and then any action you want people to take after the event. In Food Tank’s case, this was pointing people to their March 17 summit in Seattle.

Canva is a great, mostly free, resource to create graphics in the correct dimensions for all social platforms.

Get graphics early from the organization. Have speaker photos, brand logos, and event-specific graphics already uploaded to Canva to quickly drop onto graphics as needed.

Create a personal test account and practice, practice, practice!

Clear your phone the night before: Clean up as much as you can so you have space to save the live interviews, photos, and graphics.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Now is not the time to try to learn how to get animated text on stories or add a custom font if you don’t already know. Try to remember that, keep it simple, and stick to your storyline.

During the Event:

External batteries: Have several. You need to be moving around and can’t rely on having free outlets. And bring an extra long charging cord so you don’t have to hold the battery and your phone while you’re conducting interviews.

Don’t assume there will be wifi or that it will work on your laptop when you need to make graphics: Surprise! It didn’t work. Use your phone as a hotspot when you can — this will also keep your phone charged for live interviews.

“Swipe up for link”: Unverified accounts can add links to their Instagram stories if they have more than 10,000 followers. For quick access, save the correct links to a note on your phone.

The person shepherding speakers backstage is your best friend. Be nice to them. Tell them early in the day what you’re looking for and they can float the idea of a live interview to speakers as they arrive. Brenda at Food Tank (Hi, Brenda!) was excellent at this and regularly funnelled speakers into the makeshift interview room I’d set up.

Have a mic: Or if you’ve just learned the night before that you’ll need a mic and don’t have one, find a quiet room where you can conduct your live interviews. Make sure your best friend in the green room knows where you’ve taken the speakers so she can keep track of everyone.

The event photographer is your second best friend. Be nice to them. Tell them what you’re looking for and if you’re not getting that (horizontal instead of vertical photos that weren’t working on Insta), tell them.

Tell your friends: Running any type of social media can be isolating. You’re at a huge event with a lot of people, but you’re working by yourself. Thankfully, I have a lot of friends who work in social who were very supportive and tuned in to watch what I was doing and give encouragement.

Going Live:

Posting graphics or text as an Instagram story a few minutes before going live will put you at the top of the Feed and prompt your followers to watch a live video. Use Canva to make really awesome graphics, quickly.

You can add a comment to live video that explains who the speaker is and where you are. Tap and hold a comment to pin it to the top.

The longer you go live, the more people will get a chance to watch. Slow down and keep the interview going for as long as you can.

Pay attention to the comments during the interview and, if you can, ask questions that commenters post.

Have people sit down! This is a general tip for any interview. The more comfortable people are, the longer they will talk. In my case, the longer they talk, the more people were able to watch live.

Another general tip for any interview: Have a set of starter questions that you’re going to ask everyone. Examples: “What do you want viewers to take away from watching the Food Tank Summit?” “What’s an immediate action someone who’s watching the live stream and already has a strong interest in improving the food system can take today?” “What’s your favorite thing to farm?" (this came in from a commenter). "What misconceptions do people have about farmers, farming, food policy, etc?" Remember that these are professional speakers and they’re pretty good at talking. Let them talk and ask follow-ups when you find a good topic.

Roll with it. People will misspeak, they might forget to introduce themselves, random people will walk in accidentally while you’re live. It’s all fine.

A lot of these points seem pretty obvious, I know, but in the rush of covering a live event and producing original content, there were things I wished I’d done better. Again, don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good. This was an incredible opportunity to have conversations with people whose work I’ve been reading for years all while growing my skill set. I want to thank everyone at Food Tank, especially Bernard Pollack and Danielle Nierenberg for trusting me with managing their handle and giving me the freedom to grow and try new things.