Event Marketing

Increase your Event Attendance with Social Media

Eventually Learning Team

17 September 2021

Read time 7 min 54 sec

Events generate sales, leads, profits and build a brand identity. They also spread awareness of your company and forge lasting connections between you and your customers. An event will provide a platform for many to learn, grow and interact. Whether the event is a concert or an important business event, event planning and marketing should be on point. There are traditional marketing methods that work to promote an event and then, there is also social media.

Social Media Marketing has shown potential to be a powerful medium in increasing attendance and awareness. Its impact is impressive, especially considering the cost of promotion on an online platform is almost zero.

It is important to make a plan when it comes to boosting event attendance with social media. There are multiple platforms to leverage that can help to spread the word to different audiences online.

When it comes to social media marketing, the tasks can feel a bit daunting, especially if you have never used the various platforms. You may have questions like “Where do I begin?” “When do I post?” “How do I collaborate with others?” and more.

We have successfully broken down the steps for you to follow for the perfect event marketing strategy for social media. By following these, you should have great luck in getting more people to sign up for your event.

1. Choosing the right platform

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. are some of the Social Media Marketing platforms that are most frequently used. There are many more social media platforms, but they are not all suitable for marketing an event. Each of them requires a special strategy, since the audience can be very different for each one.

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter would be the best places to promote a business event with huge support from YouTube. You can utilize YouTube for marketing all the video content and video-embedded ads.The first step to take as an event marketing strategy for promoting on Facebook is to create an events page. It will not only help you in spreading the word about the event, but it also provides the audience with all the necessary information they need. They’ll also be able to interact and respond to the comments, which will allow you to analyze your social presence on the platform

The next best platform is LinkedIn. On LinkedIn, you can connect with industry peers and industry veterans to spread the word about the event.

There will be a huge number of audience types that you must consider in promoting your event. Once you add guest speakers on all chosen platforms, they can also share the details on their social handles.

2. Plan and strategize

The main idea of social media event promotion is to attract new and potential attendees to your event. If they join a few hours before the event, this means they anticipate that there is something valuable to gain from your event.
Create teasers and announcements to post on social media to lure your potential audience to the event. Design posts innovatively to create intrigue and wonder with the information. Share relevant and necessary information on your handles such as the event schedule, speakers, event topics, presentations and more.

Design your social media calendar months in advance, so there isn’t any confusion about what content to post on which day. It all ultimately comes down to proper event planning.

3. Create Hashtags

Hashtags are a way to create communities among your attendees. A branded hashtag for your event will be the perfect way to boost your event. Keep it relevant to your event, crisp and creative to make it fun for your audience. Once it sticks with them, and they start using it, the hashtag will generate online conversations and excitement around your event. It gives you free publicity and has a chance of going viral. The more people use it; the more hype it creates which may result in more people attending your event.

Your hashtag also becomes an engagement metric that you can track online with the help of social media tools. Follow the hashtag online. This will give you an idea of how people are reacting to your event. If there is something people like or don’t like, or if they just have something nice to say about you, you can respond to it on the spot.

Along with your branded event hashtag, also use similar hashtags to gain more reach. You could try #conference2021 or #networkingwomen to reach new potential audiences.

4. Start Early

The best example of an early event marketing strategy would be movie marketing. Big studios start promoting their films a year in advance by releasing a teaser, trailer, dialog promo, and such. This generates hype and anticipation for the films before they release.

Similarly, when you start event planning, post a teaser or post an update on your handles that you have something exciting planned for the future. Ask people to comment and guess what you have planned. For example, “Something exciting is coming this August. Add your best guesses below in the comments.” This can generate a lot of curiosity and intrigue on your page months before the actual event.

Once the event is more fleshed out, start updating the page with more relevant information like a schedule, speakers, location, timings, and more. It will make it easier for your attendees to book their dates. Posting in advance can help you leverage each platform to the fullest. You can start pushing your hashtags on Twitter and Instagram, creating event pages on LinkedIn and Facebook with concrete information, and sharing videos on YouTube of the previous year’s event.

5. Schedule posts

Once your event planning is in full swing, it will become stressful in no time. This makes it possible for a few things to slip through the cracks. If something irrelevant is posted on your account, you could see a decrease in the followers and attendance, which you definitely don’t want.

To avoid these mistakes, schedule your posts well in advance, so you can be more hands-on with other tasks. You can design essential posts in advance and schedule them on multiple platforms at the same time. Scheduling these posts will also ensure that your followers gradually get all the information they need, and that nothing is missed out on.

Once the event begins, you can post behind-the-scenes snippets as you go along through the day.

6. Paid promotions

If you want fresh eyes to see your posts, do consider paid promotions. Paid marketing will always give you increased visibility, while boosting engagement and attendance. Paid ads are always targeted towards users according to their online preferences and behavior.

Facebook is the top contender when it comes to paid promotions. Make proper use of it, as it doesn’t cost much, and it yields valuable results for your event.

However, it must be pointed out that you should never start your promotions directly with paid ads. Begin with organic promotions first and slowly move over to paid ads. Keep track of your ads online through available metrics. See what works and what doesn’t. Give it a few days. If something doesn’t work, go back to the drawing board and tweak your campaign to start fresh.

7. Cross-promote

Social media is a great platform for promoting your events because there is always opportunity to reach wider audiences by cross-promoting through other credible media avenues within your industry. What better way than a website toa share with an audience?

Choose significant websites your target audience may visit frequently. Post your updates and any press releases that highlight your event, its benefits, and more.

You can backlink this website to your event’s website. This is important for SEO.

Link these websites on your social media pages, and vice versa, to gain more traction.

FAQs

1. Which social platform is best to promote your event?

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram are the best social platforms to promote your event. You can create events and dedicated pages on LinkedIn and Facebook to provide all relevant information. Twitter and Instagram are better for audience interaction.

2. How do I promote an event on a social media platform?

The first step to promote any event is to choose a relevant platform based on where your audience will be. Post “teasers” and announce your event by posting about it on social media to gain a steady following. Boost event attendance with social media by posting frequently, using relevant hashtags, scheduling posts and by cross-promoting with attendees, guests, speakers, etc.

3. What are the benefits to promote an event on social media?

A spot-on strategy will go a long way to promote event attendance with social media. consistent posting of good quality content will lead to increased traffic, better SEO, high conversion and click-through rates, improved brand loyalty, and more.
It will also help to improve engagement and participation with the attendees.

4. Why is social media best for the event announcement?

Social media facilitates engagement and adds value to event promotion. Once you gain a significant number of followers, you can directly post updates on the page in order to communicate with your attendees. It also helps in brand building and exposure. You can upload stories and announcement posts on your handles, as it is less of a hassle than updating a website.

Conclusion

Adequate planning on social media will help you take your event to new heights. You will attract prospective leads, communicate better with your audience and gain follower and organic influencers for your event.
Some methods may require you to have a dedicated budget, but it will all be worth it if your content is in tip-top shape. It is important to remember that content is king. Even the best of the best marketing strategies will not work if there is no value offered to your audiences through your content. Ultimately, you must make smart choices when it comes to promoting your event online.