One of the most effective ways to generate awareness and excitement for your upcoming event is through social media. With several platforms available, you’ll be able to get your message to a wide audience of people who may be interested in your event.
In order to maximise your social media marketing efforts, you need to put a strategy in place. Below are our 7 top tips for promoting your event on social media…
Select your social media channels
The social network that you choose to use will mostly depend on your industry and who your target audience are, with certain platforms being more effective for certain event types than others.
Generally speaking, if you promote your event on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, you should be well covered and reach a wide range of potential attendees. However, there are also other platforms which could be beneficial for promoting your event.
Instagram is an image-rich social platform where brands can get high levels of engagement. Sharing regular images and stories relating to your event can go a long way for generating interest and ultimately selling more tickets.
Choose an event hashtag
Come up with a short and snappy hashtag that fits your event. It’s important to note that you should always search the hashtag beforehand to make sure it’s unique. Once you have come up with your hashtag, make sure you stick with it as consistency is extremely important. Every time you post something relating to your upcoming event, include the hashtag in your post.
During your event, make sure your hashtag is visible so that your guests know that they can use it. A great way of maximising social engagement during your event is to offer an incentive to guests for posting using your hashtag, this could be offering them a chance to win a prize or to get a discount at your next event.
Create a Facebook event
Set up a Facebook event for your upcoming event to advertise it to a wide audience. When creating your Facebook event, make sure you use a compelling description, attractive imagery and all of the key details such as the venue, dates, time and so on. It’s also a good idea to include a link to where people can purchase their tickets.
Use your social media content effectively
The more engagement you get with your social posts, generally speaking, the more interest you will generate for your upcoming event. Therefore, it’s important to make the most of every single post you share on your social media accounts.
For maximum engagement, you’ll want to include images, enticing copy and a good variety of post types. Make sure you keep your content engaging, conversational and not too ‘salesy’. Some other tips for maximising engagement are:
- Tailor the content you share on each of your social media platforms – your audience on each social media site will vary, therefore, try and alter your content slightly to suit each platform.
- Incorporate images and videos into your posts – these could be from previous events, sneak previews of your speakers and entertainers or even some funny memes.
Run a competition
A really effective way of getting your followers to share your posts and further your reach is through a social media competition. Offer your followers the chance to win a special prize if they share your post, like the page and tag some friends who may also be interested.
By doing this, you’ll be able to significantly grow your online following, reach a wider range of people and ultimately encourage more people to purchase a ticket for your event.
It’s important to note that you should always make sure you follow platform guidelines regarding competition posts.
Use paid social ads
If you want to target a wider audience who may be interested in your event, you need to use paid social ads.
Before you begin, you should target your audience to the key demographics of people likely to be interested in your event. Audience demographics will vary depending on your event type, but previous events should give you a good idea of who is likely to be potential attendees.
To craft an engaging social media ad, you should include an eye-catching image or video, a short description and a call to action (eg. buy tickets). The ad should also link to where people can either find out more or directly purchase tickets.
Monitor your social media results
Finally, it’s really important that you continuously monitor what works and what doesn’t when it comes to your social media promotions. By doing this, you can tweak your strategy accordingly and continuously improve your results.
Key metrics to measure include:
- Engagement rate – how many people are actually engaging with your posts?
- Clicks – how often are people clicking the link to purchase a ticket or view your website?
- Sales – what percentage of your sales came from social media activity?
- ROI – are your social media efforts proving to be cost-effective?
The metrics that you choose to measure will depend on your event goals and what is most important to you as the event organiser.
