If you’re organizing a party, wedding, or fund-raising event, a photo booth is a great way to draw attention. A photo booth lets you engage with social media in a helpful way, gaining attention for your cause while allowing attendees to connect to their social media in a way that promotes your brand or cause. Here’s how you can make a photo booth work for your event.

Why use a photo booth

Photo booths have become all the rage lately, and there are plenty of reasons why they live up to the hype.

They are pressure-free: If you hire a professional photographer for your event, you risk putting off some of your guests by making them feel forced to participate. Often, people don’t like to do things if they feel they have to. They’d rather let loose and have fun on their own terms.

That shy guest who no professional could ever convince to get her picture taken might be persuaded by her friends or family. And that shy guest might just have a lot of social media followers, meaning lots of exposure for your event.

They are memorable: Staged photos are quickly forgotten, but if everyone has fun with their pictures, they’re likely to remember the occasion fondly for a long time. A photo booth rental Long Island could be the perfect way to make sure your brand or your event doesn’t get forgotten.

The event will be memorable not just because people can take photos on their own time, but also because they can personalize those photos. Instead of standing in a little group and grinning like everyone else, they can dress up, use props, or otherwise make their photo unique.

They provide instant gratification: While instant gratification isn’t always a good thing, there are times when it’s appropriate. More importantly for your event, modern people are obsessed with having what they want right now. The modern rental photo booth is a lot like the old state fair and boardwalk booths of yesteryear, only now the photo quality is much better.

Your guests or attendees can have their photos in hand the moment they take them. They can also get high-visibility photos to share online, which they’ll love and you’ll appreciate.

How to set up your photo booth

The key here is personalization. You want to provide a way for people to show pride in the event they’re attending while also personalizing their photo to reflect their unique style.

Background: The background is your chance to hit up the theme of your event or your own brand. Get creative here, and if you can afford it, it doesn’t hurt to get someone with artistic skill to design the perfect background for you.

You can also get all kinds of backgrounds from stores or online. Just make sure that the backdrop conveys the sort of message you want people to take away from your event, whether that’s fun and light, artistic, gothic, or more professional.

Good props: It’s the props that make your photo booth unique. The right props let your guests engage with the event using all their creativity. If you have a theme, it shouldn’t be difficult to know what props to get. If you want to let people have a bit more freedom, however, you might want to search further afield.

Head out to your local thrift shop and look for any kind of object people might like to take with them into the booth. These could be binoculars, clothing, steering wheels, costume jewelry, vintage electronics, musical instruments, or things like antlers. Even if you can’t think of something to do with an item, your guests might have no trouble engaging with it creatively.

Whether you’re hosting a wedding reception, a birthday, a fund-raiser, or trying to get attention at a trade show, a photo booth is a great way to do it. Invite people to use their creativity, provide a way to link to you or your event, and then sit back and watch your popularity soar.