Marketing your event in social media
Marketing your event in social media is key for its success. Whether your event is aimed at industry professionals or directly at consumers, social media is a powerful and cost-effective marketing channel that you should make good use of. Correctly used, it will multiply your audience and spread your message like wildfire. We put together some content ideas and social media channels that you can take advantage of when marketing your event.
Decide your goal
As with planning your event, key to marketing is to decide what your goal is – are you hoping to attract more participants or have they perhaps been already separately invited? Whatever your goal is, the correct use of social media may generate leads, improve your visibility and raise your brand image. If there are exhibitors at your event, it is worth your while to let them know of your investment in social media as this is a selling point, which may tip the balance in your favour when partners and potential exhibitors are debating whether to participate or not. Also, encourage them to share your message through their own channels, as this will increase your media presence even further. Win win!
Select your channels
Once you know what your goal is, you can make your message clearer and choose the best channels for your event. Consider carefully which social media channels will serve your purpose best; it’s better to be an active and competent presence in a couple of channels than to have many accounts that are not kept up-to-date and look unfinished. There is plenty to choose from in social media, but remember that most relevant for your choice is to know where to find your target audience and visitors.
Real-time, Twitter is an excellent tool for following events live. Especially if your event includes panel discussions to get visitors involved.
Facebook is often a safe choice, and the event pages work really well because when a user selects ‘Going’ or ‘Interested’, the word about your event is spread through Facebook’s own feeds. Facebook also offers the best targeting options – for instance, you can try to narrow down your ads on the basis of the email addresses of the participants of your previous event.
Instagram is a great way to share visual material. What’s more, the ‘Stories’ feature is tailor-made for any kind of event! In Stories, you can share teasers to give a taste of things to come and allow your audience to take a peep behind the scenes.
Snapchat can be used in the same way as Instagram Stories, but because it’s a closed platform you will need to market your Snapchat channel through multiple channels in order to gain an audience. If you already have a Snapchat account, it’s definitely worth using.
Remember to make sure that all of your channels have a visually striking and, first and foremost, consistent look. This will give a better idea of your event and organisation and attract more participants. Remember to be approachable and show a personal touch!
What kind of content on social media?
If you have already organised your event several times, you’ll know from experience what works and what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to use materials from your previous events because the atmosphere they create helps with the FOMO (fear of missing out) effect.
But don’t rely solely on material from your previous event – create some new and exciting content, ask questions and discuss, request feedback, comment and reward. Blogs can be excellent for content but typically require more resources. Consider whether you could assign, for instance, each organising team or development team the task of writing one text per person each week. This way, content would be generated at a steady pace as the event draws nearer. At the same time, it provides a many-sided glimpse at the upcoming event and its set-up. Invest in inspiring quality content, which will educate and benefit the reader. Also, well-planned texts optimised for search engines will improve your visibility on Google, bring new readers and thereby new participants.
Video always works
Without a shred of a doubt, we are living in the time of video. Video is often the best and quickest way to convey the atmosphere to the other side of the screen. Use video to share the reasons for attending your event. Upload your videos to social media – remember that YouTube is the primary search engine for videos, so label your content correctly. In addition to YouTube playlists, you’re well-advised to share your video materials directly on social media. For example, the Facebook algorithm does not favour videos linked via YouTube in the same way it favours the versions uploaded directly to Facebook. However, all social media algorithms favour videos, which is one more reason to use them to market your event. Outside the social media, it’s a good idea to use videos in after-sales and thank you letters, on your home page, blog and newsletters.
Social media content ideas:
– Behind-the-scenes materials (remember multiple channels – Instagram Stories, Facebook and Twitter)
– Live broadcasts
– Early bird – give reminders of ticket prices and periods of validity
– Competitions
– Ask questions, engage your audience and make good use of this content (for instance, if organising a music festival, ask people what outfits they are planning to wear, or if organising a sports event, you can share the training schedules of the competitors, etc.)
– Programme content: share content of your performers and speakers (remember to add your speaker in your post to increase the chances of the speaker sharing updates with their own network)
– The history and surroundings of the venue (an unusual story and history may entice more visitors)
– Directions and local attractions (especially for international events)
– Recycle or create content about your partners and sponsors
Check out Messukeskus’s teaser on organising events!
Remember to be active
Keep an active eye on the content of your target group and remember to take into account all of your hashtagged event posts already leading up to the event. Use the official hashtag of your event in your posts from the very start. Make sure that the hashtag is visible on all social media channels so that your partners and visitors can find it and use it. For instance, your account’s cover picture is a good place to show your hashtag and the date of your event. Good planning also enables you to time your content in advance to make your work easier. More on this topic next week.
Marketing your event on social media takes perseverance but is very rewarding. Hopefully our text will give you some good tips for marketing your upcoming event. Stay tuned because next week, we will talk about how often you should post on social media before your event and share some thoughts on how to maximise the images and videos shared by participants on social media.