Do you have an event planned? By promoting it on social media, you significantly increase your chances of success. With these 10, you’ll lay a solid foundation for success.
Whether you’re organizing a small-scale open house, planning a networking event for over a hundred attendees, or holding a trade show to which you want to attract a thousand visitors, social media are an ideal way to reach interested parties, pique their interest, and keep that interest alive. Not just until your event goes on, but also during your event and even well after.
Before we unleash our social media event marketing tips on you, here’s what.
Timing is everything: start your event campaign early (enough)
To get the maximum return from your event promotion, a well-thought-out approach with concrete planning is a necessity. Unfortunately, this is not always easy to put into practice. Events often take shape as they go along, but promoting them cannot wait until the entire program is 100% fixed.
A small event requires at least a 6-8 week action period, a large event easily 6+ months. Gigant events such as Web Summit (53,000+ attendees) and Inbound (18,000+) start their new edition immediately after the end of the current event.
Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do in the period between the initial push and the day your event goes on. And best of all: with a good plan, it doesn’t even have to take a huge amount of time.
For the promotion of your event, go to work with these concrete 10 tips, and you will reach a larger and more relevant audience, guaranteed.
Get the perfect hashtag
The first item on the agenda of every event promoter who wants to use social media is to come up with one super-strong hashtag that you can connect to really all your event communications. Above all, don’t take this lightly; the hashtag should almost become a synonym for your event throughout your promotional campaign.
So make sure that the hashtag is unique, instantly recognizable and easy to remember. And above all: use it always and everywhere when communicating about your event – both on and off your social media channels.
Create an event page on Facebook.
Whether you’re planning a B2B or B2C event, creating an event page on Facebook is a must. Indeed, such a page offers a number of unique features, allowing you to use it as a central hub for your promotion on social media.
So refer to it in your messages on other social media platforms, link it to your company page and make sure the information on your event page is always up-to-date.
Select attractive imagery to dress up the page, fill in the basic details (dates, set-up, location, your (event) website, and so on), and add to the details as your event takes a firmer shape.
Plan your key posts in sync with your event schedule.
For paid events where attendees need to sign up in advance, it’s a necessity to immediately provide a landing page on your website where attendees can sign up. See if it’s appropriate to offer early adopters a discounted rate, and also specify when the registration deadline falls.
Think for example of early bird specials, benefit codes for those who register before a certain date, public competitions for the followers of your event page, and so on.
Select the channels where your target audience is present
As we mentioned in previous blog posts, different social media channels offer different possibilities. Not only in terms of the formats of your posts but also the user profiles you will find there differ greatly. So be sure to check out which platforms best fit your setup, and what specific opportunities they might offer for your promotional efforts.
Build up the tension steadily
Gradually, as you prepare for your event, you will be able to add new eye-catchers to the lineup: a list of speakers who have confirmed their presence, workshops, demonstrations, attractions, entertainment, and so on.
Post regular updates on social media when you see such new additions confirmed in your organization planning, and add them to your event page on Facebook and the landing page on your website.
Plan these posts carefully: on the one hand, you want to announce relevant eye-catchers as quickly as possible to give your event to somebody, but you also don’t want to shoot all your spice in one go.
Think of actions with an added value
Also, think about teasers and actions in time for periods when there are few new additions to the event poster.
For example, you can give interested parties a look behind the scenes with photos and videos, share images from previous events, share content items from your blog in which you introduce the speakers present, and so on.
As long as it is relevant to your target audience and it keeps the attention focused on your event, it is definitely worth considering. Promotions with vouchers for your event or give-aways with free tickets can also generate a lot of shared posts and positive publicity.
Strong together
You never organize an event alone. You may be the organizer, but the parties you work with for your event also benefit from making it a success.
To connect on social with your speakers, brands that are present at your event or parties who provide animation, and share each other’s posts on social media.
You might even agree in advance with the attendees who fill out your poster that they will give publicity to your event on their own social media channels. This guarantees extra reach and visibility for all involved.
Paid outreach as an amplifier
Make a budget available for paid promotion on social media, even if it is a very limited amount.
If you’re organizing an event in a new location or holding an event for the first time for a new target audience, this is a no-brainer. After all, it’s a unique opportunity to reach a relevant target group that doesn’t know your company, brand or event yet.
But it doesn’t stop there: you can also use it to work on leads that are already further along in the Funnel through remarketing. With the custom audiences of Facebook, it is for example possible to show ads to people who have already visited your (event) website but have not yet registered for your event. This can be an excellent way to convince genuinely interested doubters or late deciders.
Look ahead as well
Look ahead to your event as well and think about two things specifically: how can you further promote your event during the event itself, and what content can you get out of it? You can use that content in a post after your event or to promote the next event you organize.
But it can also be a great addition to your company blog or later posts on social media. By taking this into account in advance, you will make your life a lot easier at your next event.
Promoting an event does not stop with social alone. Marketing automation also plays an important role at events. See here a detailed example of a drip campaign for an event of J. Boye.
