5 Tips for Promoting Your Event on Social Media

Author: Kaitlyn Partington Category: B2B, B2C, E-commerce & Retail, Marketing, Nonprofit, Social Media & Digital Date: March 25, 2017

Event Marketing can certainly be a different kind of beast when it comes to marketing a business or service. An event has so many components to it including a physical locale, a specific time and date, content, attendees, possible speakers, entertainment and more. This generally gives marketers the opportunity to collect a lot of information in order to promote the event. There must be a strategy laid out in order to market an event effectively. In addition to word-of-mouth, invitations, advertisements and e-mail, social media has become a very big component to marketing an event. Here are some tips to help you promote your next event on social media.

5 Tips to Help You Promote Your Event on Social Media

Create a Hashtag

Hashtags create a brand motto for your event. You want users to use them in your social media posts both professionally and personally. You want them to not only be recognizable, but you want someone to see your hashtag and immediately recognize your event, or vice versa. Your hashtag should be powerful, or it should be memorable. Regardless, make sure you choose one that isn’t already being used by someone else. #UseMoreHashtags

Promote in Advance

When a couple decides on a wedding date, they sent a “save the date” because they want as many people to attend as possible, even if it’s in a year and a half. This way, they don’t have to wait until the invitation goes out to announce the date of their wedding. Likewise, you should promote your event as far out in advance as possible. For a viral effect, the farther in advance that you announce the event, the more opportunity you are giving yourself for an exponential reach.

Cross-Promote

Does your event have sponsors, vendors, speakers, or anyone else that is helping make the event a success? Utilize your partnerships to help promote the event. Promote your vendors, your sponsors, your restaurants, your entertainment, your speakers, your host, whomever you can and tell them to help you promote the event as well. On social media, make sure to tag everyone that you can. The page that you tag will be notified and more likely to share your post and/or promote the event as well.

Create Challenges

Leading up to the event, you can create a challenge. Host a contest – maybe it’s a photo contest or an in-store scavenger hunt. Maybe you just offer some facts on social media leading up to the event that is interesting. Sneak peek photos, opportunities for a raffle, anything to create excitement not only at the event but also leading up to the event. This will create engagement, and garner interest. It may even lead to people sharing your event, therefore, gaining additional reach.

Encourage Communication

Social media is social, regardless of whether it’s for business or personal. This means that you should be communicating two ways. Encourage this back and forth communication by asking questions, polling your followers, encouraging feedback and more. Talk about the event, communicate on social media with your speakers, your sponsors, your host, your entertainment, your restaurants or caterers or anyone else involved with the event. Create a dialogue that will stay active all the way up until your event and after your event.

One last tip that I have, which is not about promoting your event leading up to it, but rather continue the conversation after the event. If this is an annual event, or if you are trying to raise funds, create as much content that you can post after the event. Photos, videos, contest winners, thank you’s to sponsors, vendors, and speakers, announcements about funds raised or congratulations if there are award recipients. Your event marketing does not stop and end on the day or night of the event. Continue with your outreach long past the date – do not stop communicating all the way to your next event! This will help get you in the past for next year.