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Help9 Social Media Event Marketing Tips to Promote Your Next Event
Much of the resources you need for a high event turnout lie within social media. If you have a company channel, then just about everything you need is already at your fingertips. You just have to know how to use it for achieving the desired results.
With a little promotion on your channels done the right way, you should spark enough interest to get more than a handful of your consumers to consider buying a ticket.
1. Create a Hashtag and Make It Count
If there’s enough buzz around your event, then people should be tweeting about it. Use a hashtag to keep track of tweets so you can respond and stay in the loop about what attendees are saying. Once you have a hashtag, promote it and encourage guests to use it before, during, and after the event.
Need help deciding on a hashtag? Use these tips:
- Keep it short
- Incorporate the company name and the event name, or a shortened version of the two
- Location and year can also be included
If your company is called Digital Marketing Hobo, for example, and the event is called Digital Promotion Expo, then some ideas may be:
#DMHDigitPromoExpo
#DMHExpo2015
#DMHPromoExpoLA
The following are bad hashtag examples:
#DigitalMarketingHoboDigitalPromotionExpo2015 (too long)
#DMHDPE2015 (too ambiguous)
2. Use all of Your Social Networks
Event planners have a tendency to over rely on Facebook and Twitter because they’re the ones that just about everyone uses. However, you need a ubiquitous presence when promoting your event, and different social networks provide different ways of highlighting your event and catering to different demographics.
Pinterest and Instagram, for instance, are image-rich social networks. Use these sites for putting together a string of images pertaining to your event and link them to your main event page. This way, people who initially learned of your event through Facebook will see the event in a different format when seeing the promotion presented in an image-based context.
3. Create LinkedIn and Google+ Pages
This ties back to the second point about using different social media channels. Since you’re hosting a company event, LinkedIn is an obvious choice because it directly targets an industry-specific audience.
Google Plus should also be considered despite only having a miniscule number of users compared to FB and Twitter. Google Plus has some nifty tools for promoting your event, including a calendar and automatic email reminders. It’s just an easy way of automating and streamlining the process for a little more organization.
4. Include Regular Updates
By regular updates, this doesn’t mean tweeting your followers every five minutes to inform them of every minuscule detail. Updates should include short posts regarding certain preparation achievements or last minute changes.
Here are some updates worth spreading the word about:
• Confirming the appearance of guest speakers X and Y
• Releasing the names of sponsors that have jumped on board
• Detailing the types of booths or workshops that will be available
• The parking situation (will late arrivers have to park way further out?)
• Entertainment features
When you release updates, expect comments and questions. Take notice of what people are posting in regards to the updates and respond to enquiries, feedbacks, and concerns.
5. Include Some Fun Stuff
Besides updates, also include content that serves no purpose other than to entertain and build up excitement. These can be in the form of random and fun facts pertaining to the event, venue, or location. If the venue is hundreds of years old, for instance, then maybe you can include a brief description of the history or even mention that it has a history of ghost sightings just for the sake of generating a lighthearted social media conversation. This is a great way of building rapport.
The fun stuff should also be interactive. Why not include some contests with free giveaways? Perhaps you can ask a question related to your industry, and the first person to post the correct response gets a prize, perhaps a free ticket upgrade or promotional gear reserved and ready when he or she arrives at the event.
6. Use Testimonials
Testimonials shouldn’t just be a positive quote with the person’s first name and last initial at the bottom. People are naturally skeptical of written testimonials due to their overuse in ads. To create an effective testimonial, try to get attendees from past events to submit a positive sentence or two. Include the person’s pic, full name, and link to social media page.
This gives the testimonial more credibility since the person is backing up the statement with his or her name and image. You can also consider video testimonials where each person begins by saying his or her full name before making their statement.
7. Get Speakers and Sponsors in on the Fray
Your sponsor likely has bigger name recognition than you. The same may go for guest speakers if they are established industry figures. Have them send a quick shout out to your followers with a quick hello and introduction on social media. You can also use the moment as a Q&A session where the speaker or sponsor representative answer niche-specific questions.
This also serves as a nice buildup to the event as it creates hype and anticipation. This can also be made into a live group chat session using a tool like Google Hangouts. There is also incentive for the sponsor or speaker for doing this as it generates publicity for their own respective brands and establishments.
8. Share Behind-the-Scenes Event
There is a lot of work that goes into planning an event. Share these triumphs and tribulations with your followers. This can include pics of the planning phase, such as a pic of staff members brainstorming in the briefing room or a selfie of you with the venue in the background.
Add a little humor by including a funny caption or photo shopping the image by adding a speech balloon. This method is effective because it shows that behind the professional demeanor of your industry lies a faculty consisting of everyday fun and loving people.
9. Make Registration as Easy as Possible
On your official events page, include a big and visible icon with the words “RSVP here,” “buy ticket now,” or something along those lines. If they’re just RSVPing, then nothing more is needed. If payment is required, then streamline the process with multiple payment options available.
This includes payment via credit card and PayPal. Transactions and RSVPs should also come with an automated confirmation email.
Bonus Tip: Continue to Post Even During Event
Your job on social media isn’t done even once the event is in full swing; in fact, it’s just getting started. Attendees will be tweeting during the event; jump in on the conversation, and remember to encourage all guests to use the event hashtag. This ensures that you maintain a presence even if your job keeps you behind the scenes.
You can even employ a digital signage screen so that everyone sees the tweets as they are posted in real time. This will encourage others to jump in on the bandwagon and share their own tweets about how awesome the event is.
Milk the Hell out of Social Media
The takeaway lesson here is to exploit every social network channel you’re active on for maximum gains and results. If you are active and consistent, then it’s only a matter of time before your followers begin taking notice.
Author Bio: Dan McCarthy is an Event Manager at JD Parties, an event management company based in the UK. Dan has 5 years of event project management under his belt. He has worked on many successful events, and currently he shares his knowledge by writing on the company blog. Follow him on Twitter @DanCarthy2.
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