There was once a time when we put up fliers for an upcoming event just to create awareness of it. It’s pretty much still done but Promoting on social media is much more the main way of Promoting events these days. It’s more of posting, tweeting, and use of event publicity companies such as Trendmyevent, and boom you’ve created the buzz for your events.
When it comes to social media event promotion, it’s important to make a plan. Whether you’re hosting a private party for clients or putting on a festival for thousands, having a strategy is key.
HOW TO PROMOTE AN EVENT THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA!
Social Media are interactive digital channels that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests and other forms of expression through virtual communion.
When it comes to social media event promotion, it’s important to make a plan. Whether you’re hosting a private party for clients, or putting on a festival for thousands, have a strategic plan. An effective social media marketing for an event is about reaching out to people on social media before, during, and after the event. Social media tools let you engage with your audience in creative ways that boost attendance and make for a better experience.
Often, organizers spend a lot of money and energy on marketing for an event without much thought about what comes next such as:
UPGRADE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES :
Before you embark on your social media event advertisement, you’ll need to revise your channel’s pages. Create sleek headers and thorough company descriptions and update any existing pages to include your upcoming event.
Try staying consistent across all your platforms – Professionalism is key. Be sure that your social media channels are consistent with one another. This is using same usernames, URLs, headers, descriptions and bio.
Interlink all of your social media pages: On Facebook, include your Twitter handle, and so on. This will allow your fans to follow additional pages for news and updates.
CREATE AN EVENT PAGE ON FACEBOOK :
Depending on your industry and targeted audiences, some social platforms may be more effective than others. Typically, if you can do some promotion on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you should be well covered.
Sharing event updates, engaging followers, and creating event pages. You can also target your messaging to specific groups using paid promotion.
CREATE AN HASHTAG:
Come up with a hashtag that’s short, unique, and easy to understand. Once you figure out an idea, stick with it! Consistency is key.
If you post anything relevant to your upcoming event, include your hashtag. Add it to all of your social account bios as well. And don’t stop there — promote your hashtag on all your other communication channels. These include your event website, promotional emails, print materials, and more.
WORK WITH INFLUENCERS :
Influencers can bring your events more buzz by having a known personality give your event exposure to their audience. Building relationships with key people in your industry who can talk up your event can help influence interested attendees to register. Influencers can be found on each of your social media channels, so it is easy to come across many of them that reach out to the same target audience as you do.
But influencer marketing can be an intimidating and uncertain path for many, so it can be challenging to develop a sound strategy. Make sure your strategy involves researching to find the right influencers so you and your events benefit greatly from collaboration.
GIVE A SNEAK PEAK ABOUT THE LAST EVENT OR HOW THE EVENT IS GOING TO LOOK LIKE:
People want to see what they’re signing up for, and a great way to do this is to show them images, videos of guests interviewed and the fun games organized at the previous event.
Add your company’s logo and the event name to the image and post on all of yout social media pages. The photos encourage new event audience and it tells them what to expect at your event.
POST PREVIOUS EVENT SURVEY:
If your event participants filled out a satisfaction survey at your last event, why not make those results public? Assuming the numbers paint your event in a good light, you should show them off!
Create a visual of the survey results that pop and boast a little about the success of your event! It will surely inspire confidence in potential new participants and will no doubt spur them to attend the next one.
FEATURE PICTURES OF GUEST SPEAKER/ARTIST ON YOUR FLYERS
Guest speakers/ artists are a crucial addition to many types of events, from conferences, to hangouts and more. If you have guest speakers/artists coming to your event, it’s important that your audience knows who this person is or what they’re about, a picture would give them what to expect.
Show your followers exactly who to expect to as the guest speaker
OFFER A DISCOUNT ON YOUR TICKET SALE:
If your event has a price tag, it could be a great reward to loyal followers to offer an early bird registration discount.
Offer the registration at a lower price before the certain date, or create a promo code for a percentage off that’s valid for a certain period of time.
Your customers will feel valued and they’ll also feel like they got a great deal, and you’ll have guaranteed participants to calm your nerves about no one showing up.
HOST GIVEAWAYS :
Ask your followers to share your posts, and invite people to win the giveaway (just my idea). Social media is vital for event promotion, but you can’t just rely on your own accounts to spread the word — you have to get event-goers to share it as well. Contests are the perfect way to motivate word-of-mouth promotion without a huge investment. Give free tickets to everyone who won the giveaway.
INSTAGRAM LIVE TO INTERVIEW ATTENDEES ON EVENT DAY:
Live video is extremely engaging these days, according to Facebook Live – users spend more time and comment 10x more when the video is live.
This also grows attendance, it is said that 30% of people who watch a Livestream of an event will attend the same event the following year.
Live video is said to be cost-effective, It’s just a common misconception that live video is costly.
POST EVENT HIGHLIGHTS :
You don’t have to livestream your entire event to make a splash with live video. Instead, use short, live clips from your event — like behind-the-scenes peeks or interviews with performers and event teams and audiences.
This light effort pays off seriously down the road.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS!
With these aforementioned tips, you can be assured that you have successfully used social media to promote your upcoming gig.
However, keep in mind that promoting your event on social media doesn’t stop after the event is launched. You should also use social media pages to generate and maintain buzz during and after the event to maximize its potential for the next event.
