How to Get Guests to Spread Your Event: Six Lessons from the Selfie Museum

Since phone cameras have become increasingly powerful, photos and selfies (along with the recent rise of personalized videos like those on TikTok) have become a language on social media for individuals to express their emotions, showcase their personality, and gain attention from others. This trend has not gone unnoticed by brand marketers and event planners, who are racking their brains to dominate social media. Check out the advice in this article.

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In Los Angeles, a brand that designs an activity where guests are inspired to share photos on social media not only extends the reach of the brand's promotion but can even reach hundreds of people in their social circles. Visitors are fans of these events and typically share photos of the gathering on Instagram (a photo-sharing app) through snapshots and posts.

Over the past year, event organizers have created a variety of pop-up experiences like the Museum of Ice Cream, Happy Place, and Color Factory to generate valuable content for social media.

The latest "Selfie Museum" opened on April 1st in Glendale for a two-month run. It features a series of interactive installations designed to cater to visitors' selfie needs. Since this pop-up exhibition is a paid event, it must create content that guests genuinely enjoy and are willing to photograph and share, so that they voluntarily pay to visit. Event planners can learn from the museum about how to design environments that guests truly want to capture and share.

Cater to Popular Preferences

In an event, a single photo area can make guests lose patience while waiting in line, leading to fewer social media shares. If you design multiple small scene-based photo areas in your event space, like the Selfie Museum, you can increase photo-taking efficiency. Since guests act as photographers, they can patiently take the photos they like and upload them to their social circles.

Incorporate Technology into Photo Areas

If you choose a traditional photo booth, try to increase the photo rate among event enthusiasts and social media users in a unique way. The Selfie Museum partnered with a tech company to create a live 3D booth using GIF technology, making viewers think the subject is jumping out of an Instagram post. Searching the museum's hashtag, you'll find posts from visitors with many followers asking, "How did you do that?" These curious comments translate into the social media engagement that brands love.

Diverse but Not Complicated

The museum's scenes include a recreation of Van Gogh's bedroom and a physical replica of Los Angeles' tallest building. Daryle Carey's exhibition is a great example: it's a black-and-white, floor-to-ceiling electronic tape installation that attracts many photographers with its striking simplicity. Just look at the popularity of Paul Smith's Pink Wall in Los Angeles to see that minimalist backdrops have great appeal to social media enthusiasts. Against such a backdrop, a unique or artistic logo can make a brand famous while satisfying guests' desire for a standout scene.

Creativity is Key

If you want to create cost-effective photo areas of the same type, the museum's bathroom selfie spot is an ingenious installation that strongly appeals to photo-loving social media users. The bathroom setup makes photographers and their friends feel like they're in a disorienting space. This technique gives the feeling of taking photos in an optical illusion.

Lighting is Crucial

If the lighting isn't good, guests won't be able to take beautiful photos. Many large events feature lavish decorations or impressive performances, but under mood lighting, the light is often too dim for guests to capture great photos. Each scene in the museum has its own suitable lighting, ensuring that photographers can take the desired share-worthy photos with any device.

Variety of Props

To cater to the frequent food shots on social media, the museum provides oversized food props—burgers, sushi, and broccoli—for guests to use freely in photos. Props like these don't have to be limited to the photo area. Bring them around the venue, where guests can easily snap a photo and then move on quickly.

(A real-life recreation of Van Gogh's bedroom allows guests to interact with the scene, creating photo opportunities that match their preferences.)

(Daryle Carey's striking and simple black-and-white room offers a "notice me" design, a form of street art or vibrant urban wall that Instagram users often seek out.)

(The museum provides props for quick snapshots, allowing visitors to quickly pick them up and use them as they wish.)