Every event organizer wants their event to be a smashing success. In a time where everyone is online, it is critical to not forget a very significant factor in event marketing: social media. Although many events have recently been virtual, we are on the verge of the return of in-person gatherings. It doesn't matter if the event is a virtual conference, in-person trade show or an intimate brand gathering. The event will require a solid social media marketing strategy. 3.5 billion people use social media on a daily basis. Clearly social media has become the norm in societies across the globe and 73% of marketers believe that social media marketing has been “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business. These numbers show one thing. Social media is extremely powerful, and is a key tool that cannot be ignored when marketing an event. The first thing you need to do when marketing an event on social media is to develop a campaign with a creative and consistent strategy. This strategy should incorporate event objectives and goals, the target audience, timelines, a social media advertising budget and content topics that cover before, during and after the event. Below are 10 items to keep top-of-mind when using social media for event marketing.
1. Define Your Audience and Use The Right Platform
The first step to promote an event is to outline the target audience. The easiest way to figure this out is to create various personas. Once you know who you’re targeting, try to narrow the focus on specific key platforms that your target audience is most likely to frequent.
Facebook: This platform is the market leader when it comes to audience size and user diversity. Facebook truly is a melting pot where people of all ages and mindsets connect every day. Since Facebook allows links in posts, make sure to include in the content plan posts that drive traffic to purchase or reserve tickets. Don’t forget to engage with your target audience in order to gain their loyalty and diversify your presence on their news feed!
Instagram: This platform is perfect for posting stunning visual content like images/videos about what to expect at the event or the behind-the-scenes process. Instagram is the go-to platform if your target audience includes Millennials, Gen Z or younger.
Twitter: If your event is geared toward 25-35 years olds, then Twitter is a great place to promote and engage with potential attendees. It’s important to note that male users constitute 70% of Twitter’s user base. Twitter is one of the best places to use hashtags and host live chats, so create a compelling hashtag! Just like any other social activity, posts on Twitter need to include thumb-stopping visuals.
2. Cross Channel Consistency
To create a strong social media presence be meticulous and consistent with brand standards. If you want an audience to easily recognize your event, there must be cross-channel consistency while accommodating each platform's unique features. No matter what platform your event has a presence on, the look and feel of the profiles must be unified. A social media presence should be an extension of other online advertising tactics like landing pages, banner ads and email marketing campaigns. Consistency is truly key in success so before implementing activity make sure there is a strategy in place to ensure campaign consistency.
3. Media and Influencers Partnerships
Who wouldn't want to create buzz and excitement around their event? A key step in diversifying event promotion and expanding reach is partnering with media outlets and influencers. A robust social media marketing strategy entails creative partnerships with media outlets and influencers to help educate and reach the target audience about your event. Some event organizers feel working with influencers is out of their reach, but this isn’t the case. The influencing realm is no longer dominated by celebrities and athletes. Users have become more sophisticated and don’t respond as well to fake, curated content. Users crave authenticity and respond well to micro-influencers. When choosing an influencer to work with, look at their followers and see if they fit the demographic for your event’s niche. Observe how the influencer creates content and interacts with their followers. Before formalizing an agreement ask yourself, “does this influencer compliment our event’s brand identity?”. The other side of partnerships are media outlets. The traditional media role in marketing is undeniable and more accessible since media is so digitally focused. The credibility that media outlets have online make them ideal to promote your event through. Reach out to industry specific and mainstream media outlets to see what opportunities are available for publicizing your event on their social media pages.
4. Create A Hashtag For The Event
When it comes to event social media marketing, hashtags are inevitably part of a strategy’s success. The main function of a hashtag is to boost engagement and searchability but also create and categorize conversations. Hashtags simplify the search process, makes posts more discoverable and allow attendees to contribute to the conversation through user generated content. When creating an event hashtag make sure it is a unique, brand-relevant hashtag that is short and simple to remember. Before committing to a hashtag do some research to ensure it hasn't been used before. Use a hashtag generator tool to help avoid this issue. After you compose your hashtag, consistently use it across your social media profiles and include it in other digital strategies and collateral to help with awareness. When creating copy for social media posts, depending on what platform you’re on, make sure to also include a few trending hashtags. These small strategic moves make all the difference in the endeavor to reach a larger audience.
5. Create Teaser Posts to Drive Interest
When it comes to marketing, suspense is an effective tool for improving engagement, building excitement and driving attention to an event. And if you do everything just right, then you’ll leave a distinct memory in your target audience’s mind long after the event is over. To accomplish this, you’ll need to add a series of teaser posts to your campaign. A simple example is to publish a post across all your social media channels with an expression and visual that entices folks; for example, “something big is coming”or “ stay tuned for more”. This will create a mystery and get people restlessly imagining how it will unfold. Then, organize a countdown. Post a graphic/video each day with the number changed and a small clue about the event. This will work as a daily reminder that sticks in your audience's head, stirs up excitement and attracts attention. When the countdown is over, the next step is to create a short video highlighting the best moments of last year's event or, if this is the first time the event will be held, create an exciting video describing what attendees can expect. Keep your audience on their seat by not disclosing too much. Finally, release the event details through social media profiles, media partners and influencers.
6. Share Content from Speakers or Vendors
Diversify your content plan by sharing content from speakers or vendors that will be attending the event. Sharing content from their social media profiles will give potential attendees a taste of what they can expect during the event. Also, the speakers or vendors will appreciate their content being shared and will reciprocate by sharing information about the event on their social media profiles. Another way to share content from vendors or speakers is to have them host an Instagram takeover, host a Twitter chat with the event hashtag or interview them through Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn Live.
7. Sell Tickets on Social Media
Once the pre-promotion aspect of your social media campaign is completed, the next step is promoting ticket sales or reservations by proving the value of the event. If the pre-promotion of the campaign was successful, then there should be demand from users for more information about how to attend the event. The moment you announce tickets are for sale implement scarcity tactics like early-bird pricing, limited number of seats, VIP packages, and pricing tiers. This type of approach fuels sales by creating exclusivity and capturing the attention of your audience. Provide influencers and media partners with ticket promo codes. Avoid abandoned carts and keep the online purchasing process as simple as possible. Worldwide, 1.8 billion people preferred to make purchases through their mobile device. Social commerce makes this task easier with shoppable posts that shortcut the long purchasing transactions. Finally, give users social sharing opportunities at the point-of-purchase. This move will definitely generate more sales.
8. Feature a Social Wall During The Event
Spark a sense of community during the event by encouraging event-related discussions and user generated content curated through the event hashtag. Using a social media wall, like walls.io, displays on a monitor attendees' posts and content from your social media platforms like videos, images, and questions for speakers. Social media walls encourage and motivate attendees to create their own social media posts about the event which helps with engagement. Don’t forget to filter and curate what goes on the wall to avoid any negativity!
9. Share Content During The Event
Although sharing content before the event is essential, social media activity during the event is equally as important. Social media interaction during the event is an imperative element in determining an event's overall success. Social media can also be used during the event to communicate important updates to attendees. One of the most effective ways to get attendees to create user generated content during the event is having a photo booth or step and repeats. Encourage attendees to share their posts by using the event-specific hashtag. This brilliant move facilitates tracking attendee sentiment. You can prompt attendees to interact with your hashtag by hosting contests and asking questions. Ask them about their favorite moment or speaker. Live tweeting is another tool that is useful to increase engagement. Tweet on various aspects of events like funny moments or speakers quotes. Retweet relevant tweets and reply to tweets from attendees. Instagram stories give you the ability to share timely updates during your event. Stories can be used like “red carpet moments” where you interview attendees about their reactions and overall take on the event. You can also get you speakers talking or just get the general atmosphere recorded on your stories. Sharing content during the event also allows those who didn’t attend to get a sneak peek about what they’ve missed.
10. Follow-Up With Post-Event Polls & Analyze Overall Event Results
After wrapping up the event, it is time to reflect and assess. Evaluating the event gives you the ability to determine whether the event was successful or not. Spending time to reflect on the event allows you to contemplate new ideas, pinpoint downfalls and capitalize on successes. There is no better way to determine an event's success than asking the attendees and speakers to take a poll. Polls are great because people love to share their opinions and they take only a few minutes to complete. Once the poll results are in, analyze these final results to see where things went well and where things didn’t. Be meticulous with overall event data analysis and pay attention to small details throughout the whole event promotion process. Data interpretation is the only way to effectively improve and make your next event even better.
The biggest take away from this article should be to strategically create your campaigns and think about one phase and how the phases fit together to create the bigger picture. Implementing these 10 critical tips will help ensure success for your next event, whether it is virtual or in-person.