Organising and planning an event isn’t easy. Offline marketing is good, but anyone can tell you that event promotion gets more attendees through social media. Promoting your event should be half the work. Utilising social media will allow you to expand your audience reach and create online hype. This week, we are discussing social media tactics that are key for a successful event, plus a few new ones you may not have tried.
Facebook Events are Crucial for Using Social Media in Event Marketing
Though it’s obvious, it cannot be left out. Creating a Facebook event is the most effective way to expose your event to as many people as possible, retain attention and manage engagement for your event. The name of your event should be fun and memorable, as well as informative. Alliteration is a great way to get people to remember your event. Think about some of the biggest events you know. Ted Talks, Golden Globes, event organisers use alliteration for the simple reason that it works!
Collaborate with Influencers
The more social platforms you use, the better. As discussed in previous posts, what better way to promote your event than through influencers? The main benefit of working with influencers is how far your audience reach will stretch. Remember, not all influencers are celebrities. They can range from leaders in your event field, directors, CEOs, public speakers and more.
Create an Event Hashtag
This is something we will always mention as since the introduction of Twitter, it has played a crucial role in online reach. We have previously written a guide on designing the perfect hashtag if you would like to know more.
The benefit of an event hashtag is that it can be used before, during and after your event. It can be used to build up the hype through Twitter and Instagram, allowing people to keep an eye on event updates. During the event, you can use it to not only keep attendees informed of the day, but it can be a tool for your Twitter Wall! A Twitter Wall will also encourage your audience to use the hashtag more, creating a cycle of engagement encouragement! If you haven’t considered a Twitter Wall and are not sure how it works, you can find out more here.
Use Facebook Ads to Promote your Event
Once your event if up and running on Facebook, you can push it out through advertisements! Facebook Ads allow you to define your target audience. You can even target multiple audience groups with multiple advertisement types, so you know who responds better to what. You can then monitor and collect responses to see who is actually interested in your event and what you can change to build your attendee list.
Use Instagram Stories to Livestream and Ask Questions
Engaging with your audience before the event will allow you to gain more visibility and learn more about what your audience would like to see, as well as offer them more insight as to what they can expect. Livestreaming is a wonderful way of doing this as it gives them a reason to “tune in” for exclusive information. Ask thought-provoking questions and interview your speakers and influencers on their opinions and to brief your audience on what they plan to discuss at the event.
Use LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the perfect social platform for a corporate event. The easiest way to grab people’s attention is through a status update. Be sure to include eye-catching visuals and consider how your event will add value to your network. Reach out to other professionals or partners directly as it can be even more affective and may even generate leads to invite guest speakers! Remember to encourage everyone on your team to share the details of the event via their LinkedIn profiles too.
Go Behind the Scenes (BTS)
Allowing people to have a look behind the scenes and see the secrets of your event is great content to share leading up to and during your event. It makes your business appear more human, encourages engagement, builds trust and makes your company look like a fun place to be! Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter are all wonderful places for this type of content. You can also livestream on the day, which is sure to encourage more people to get people talking on your Twitter Wall!
Over to You
Social media is a wonderful tool for promoting your event if done correctly. We hope that this guide has encouraged you to make more use of social media for your next event. Whether it be corporate or social, you can never go wrong with promotion via social media.
Remember, Twitter is great for building up hype leading up to the day. A Twitter Wall can give your engagement a big boost when the doors are open. To find out more about how your event would benefit from the use of a Twitter Wall, get in touch with Social Sticker today.
