How Can You Increase Posts from General Visitors at In-Store and Shopping Complex Events?
This article was automatically translated from the Japanese original. Read the original in Japanese
To increase posts from general visitors at in-store and shopping complex events, you need to design three elements specifically for general visitors, separate from the experience designed for invited guests: "places people want to photograph," "easy prompts for posting," and "ways to use waiting time."
| Measure | What it helps with | Points to note |
|---|---|---|
| Setting up photo spots | Creates places people want to photograph | Place them in several locations, away from main traffic routes |
| Short message cards beside exhibits | Creates easy prompts for posting | Suggesting a hashtag is fine, but avoid wording that pressures people to post |
| Mini experiences and displays in the queue | Keeps waiting time from being boring | Don't overload them with information and slow the queue down |
Why Do You Need to Design Separately for Invited Guests and General Visitors?
Invited guests already have some motivation to post, since they came at your request. General visitors do not. Most are people who happened to stop by or who came to the location for another reason, so they have to find their own reason to post. If you simply extend the experience designed for invited guests, general visitors will see it as an "exhibit with nothing special about it," and it won't prompt them to post. For example, for invited guests you can offer a carefully guided route and attentive staff support, but at an in-store event with many general visitors, it isn't realistic to provide the same level of attention to everyone. For general visitors, you need to build into the venue design itself mechanisms that catch the eye and make people want to take photos naturally, even without staff guidance. If you conclude that "posts aren't increasing" without taking this difference into account, you may wrongly attribute it to low interest among general visitors and never get around to reviewing the venue design.
What Should You Keep in Mind with Post-Driving Measures for General Visitors?
Photo spots should be placed in several locations that don't obstruct the main flow of people. If you concentrate them in one place, only that spot gets crowded and it harms the experience of other visitors. When using short message cards beside exhibits to encourage posts, avoid pushy wording like "Please be sure to post," and stick to suggestions such as "Try shooting from this angle for a great shot." In queues, simple content that can be viewed on a smartphone or small exhibits along the line ease the perceived wait and, as a result, improve the impression of the overall experience at the venue. For example, if you place a display in the entry queue that gives a preview of part of what visitors are about to experience, the waiting time itself turns into anticipation, and visitors are more engaged once they enter.
What Should You Be Careful About When Offering Perks in Exchange for Posting?
When you call on general visitors with an offer like "Post and get a perk," the approach to disclosure covered in What Is PR Labeling for Sponsored Posts? The Basics of Stealth Marketing Regulation and Practical Templates comes into play. Because you would be encouraging posts in exchange for compensation, you need to sort out in advance how to communicate in line with disclosure rules. Calls to general visitors tend to be directed at an unspecified large audience, so it's also important to note that the underlying conditions can easily become ambiguous, compared with requests to invited guests, where individual communication records remain. Whether an individual post falls under the regulation is beyond the scope of this article and is not covered here. Rather than simply writing the perk details and participation conditions on a sign inside the venue, the practical safeguard is to state the conditions for requesting a post in words that visitors can understand without confusion.
What Should You Decide at the Design Stage to Avoid Repeating the Same Problem?
- Treat the experience for invited guests and the posting measures for general visitors as separate things from the very start of planning
- Prepare multiple photo spots in locations that don't obstruct main traffic routes
- Phrase post prompts as suggestions and avoid wording that feels forced
- Prepare displays and experiences for waiting time according to the length of the queue
- If you link posting to perks, check the disclosure rules in advance
This kind of design for general visitors is also part of the thinking behind SNS activation (activation designed to include how the experience gets talked about on social media). We offer consultations, from experience design through to measurement, on our service page.
Scope of This Article
This article covers the design approach for increasing posts from general visitors at in-store and shopping complex events. It does not make judgments about floor plans for individual venues or the specific content of perks. The design of the experience for invited guests itself is covered in a separate article.
Conclusion
Posts from general visitors require a different design from posts from invited guests. We believe that building three elements into the venue design, namely places people want to photograph, easy prompts for posting, and ways to use waiting time, is the foundation for increasing posts. Positioning the experience for invited guests and the design for general visitors as separate tasks from the planning stage is the shortest path to avoiding oversights.