How To Use Social Media To Promote Your Event

By Ross | 1 Entertainment on Jun 03 2020

Social media is a wonderful platform for promoting events...

However, to really maximise its effectiveness, it’s important to have a strategy in place. In this post, I’ll be sharing a simple, yet effective, 10-step social media event promotion strategy that delivers results.

1. Choose Which Social Networks To Use

To make the most of social media as a promotional tool, you first need to identify the networks which are closely aligned with your event audience. This ensures your marketing efforts reach the largest number of potential event attendees.

You will also need to identify networks that offer the functionality you may need to promote your event. Here is a quick summary of the audience gathered by the largest social media platforms:

• LinkedIn
Used by millions of business owners and career orientated individuals. It is the network of choice for professionals who want to advance their career. LinkedIn is a fantastic platform for sharing company news and event announcements with professionals of all ages.

• Instagram
Millions of images and videos are shared on Instagram daily. It is mostly used by a younger demographic and is an excellent location to promote brands aimed at that demographic.

• Facebook
The world’s largest social media network, Facebook has a very wide demographic of users. It can be used to post event updates, engage with followers, and create event pages.

• Twitter
Twitter posts with hashtags can be used to promote the event and get people talking about it. Like Facebook, the Twitter audience is also quite diverse.

For most events, promotion on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter is usually adequate. However, if you have a niche audience, you may need to use speciality social media platforms to reach them.

2. Prepare Event Branding

Branding your event will help your target audience remember its details and discuss the event with other social media users. Start by creating images and videos for your brand which are suited for social media use. This includes logos, posters, video clips, advertisements, interviews, venue images, itineraries and so on.

You will also need to decide upon a hashtag, which will be used on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the other platforms. Choose a hash tag that is short, easy to read, and memorable. This tag should be included on all printed and online content, so users can find more information easily on social media. Always be consist with your hashtags.

3. Add Branding To Social Media Profiles

Once the event branding ready to go, add it to your profiles using the following techniques:

• Modify profile headers to include the event logo, date, and hashtag.

• Add hashtags in your profile description and about us sections

• Create a sticky post if possible and include the details of the upcoming event

• Add links to any posts about the event on your web site and blog

• Make sure your social media profiles are interlinked, so viewers can learn more on Facebook, Twitter, or their favourite social media platform

4. Consider Creating A Facebook Event

The fact that about 500 million people use Facebook each month clearly highlights how wide its reach is. You can take advantage of this very large Facebook audience by creating a Facebook Event.

Facebook Events are special pages that can be used to send invites, sell tickets, post event-related news, notify interested users of changes to the event, show users the event location and much more.

The best part is, Facebook Events include an RSVP function, so you will know who is interested in coming and who definitely won’t be. This handy guide explains how to setup Facebook Events.

A couple of tips on setting up your event page:

• Use a high-quality attention-grabbing cover photo

• Pack the page with compelling content that makes the event look appealing

• When creating the event, be specific about category, time, and location as it will help Facebook promote the event on your behalf

• Make it simple to find important details like the event time, location, cost, and how to get a ticket

5. Publish A Steady Stream Of Content

The amount of user engagement that your social media posts receive will depend on two factors: the interest in your event and the quality of the content you are posting.

Ideally, you should publish engaging content that is funny, information, or interesting to your target audience. This type of content will be shared on social media, quickly increasing awareness of your event.

Some of the content types which you might use include:

• Blog posts, articles, and Guides

• eBooks

• Images

• Announcements

• Podcasts

• Sharing of user generated content (Re-Tweets, reposts)

• Videos (video stories, live videos, advertisements, webinars)

• Infographics

• Testimonials and reviews

The types of content you create should be tailored to match the location where it is posted. For example, you will need compelling or attractive images for Instagram, videos for YouTube, and snippets of valuable information for Twitter.

6. Use Tools To Streamline The Process

Take advantage of the social media tools which are designed to make publishing content easier. Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, Mention, Biteable, Tailwind, SocialFlow, and Buzzsumo will help you:

• Create and schedule social media content

• Share social media content

• Communicate with social media users

• Generate leads

• Track the results of your social media campaigns

• Track how often your event or company is being mentioned on social media

• …much more

Read this guideor this guideto learn more about the tasks that social media tools can be used for.

7. Run A Contest

Social media contests are a wonderful way to improve brand awareness, generate social media buzz, and raise awareness of an upcoming event.

Run a contest where users must re-share a post a on social media to enter. If the prize is valuable enough, you can easily attract thousands of social media shares, which will massively boost the profile of your event.

However, before starting a competition, look into the government legislation regarding the use of competitions. There may also be restrictions on the use of competitions on certain social media platforms (for example, Facebook has several restrictions on competitions).

8. Use Social Media Advertisements

Social media ads are useful for quickly gaining more exposure for an event. Facebook and Twitter ads are particularly effective as they feature prominently on both websites.

To be successful, social media ad campaigns need to be very engaging and eye-catching. Your graphics really need to stand out on a noisey social media platform and the call to action needs to be obvious.

9. Hire Influencers To Promote The Event

Social media influencers are individuals with a huge number of followers. A single tweet or Facebook post from an influencer can share the details of your event with a large audience and drive ticket sales. Read this excellent guideto learn more about influencer marketing.

10. Livestream The Event

Live-streaming your event on social media can be extremely beneficial. Livestreams:

• Are very engaging
Social media users are much more willing to sit through live video events compared to pre-recorded packages.

• Will give your audience insight into the event
A livestream shows potential attendees what they have missed out on. They will see how information, fun, or exciting the event is, firsthand. This can pay off in terms of brand awareness and bookings for subsequent events.

• Are cost effective
Live-streaming is now incredibly cheap, thanks to new technologies and social media platforms incorporating live-streaming functionality.