Are you planning an event and need to find ways to promote it and generate audience engagement on social media?
We’ve put together a list of the top social media event promotion tips to help you build your brand, boost revenue and attendance, spread awareness, and engage in meaningful connections with your ideal audience.
Social Media Tip #1) Use Social Media Contests and Giveaways To Encourage Event Promotion
Social media contests and giveaways are great ways to get the word out about your event.
Offer discounts or free tickets to your event with a “like/share/comment” contest where each like + share, or comment + share counting as a single contest entry. With this tactic, you’ll be able reach more people than picking a winner from your current follower list.
Contests are also a great way to pick up new followers while increasing event attendance.
If choosing prizes outside of free tickets, be sure that they align with your event and will contribute to the overall hype. You want to make sure you are attracting people who will still want to buy tickets and attend.
Social Media Tip #2) Don’t Just Use Your Brand, Use Your Staff Personalities (Twitter and LinkedIn)
Don’t stick to only using your official brand account. Branch out and encourage your staff to get involved using their personal social accounts.
This is not only a fantastic way to extend your marketing reach, but it also helps to humanize your brand. You’ll increase engagement when audiences can relate to the people behind the brand.
Social Media Tip #3) Utilize Social Media Widgets and Walls on Your Event Website
Including social media widgets and walls on your event site makes it easy for event attendees to share key moments or sessions to their social media following and to see what others are sharing.
Make the most of these features with fun engagement ideas that encourage users to share content. For example, run a hashtag competition giving attendees a chance to win a more expensive tier for free when using a unique, branded hashtag.
Social Media Tip #4) Take Advantage Of Stories And Try Out Live Event Promotions On Social Media
Instagram and Facebook stories are more effective when it comes to connecting with audiences because they give event organizers the chance to give behind-the-scenes glimpses of what’s happening at your event and allow you to share simple and frequent updates.
Live stories can tease the event with cameos from prominent speakers, encouraging new registrations and attendees. Posting regular stories and going live helps to create buzz among your followers and the followers of others who share the content.
Social Media Tip #5) Video Content is King
According to Google, 60% of Americans would rather watch videos than TV.
HubSpot found that 78% of people watched videos daily, and a further 92% of users will share videos with others, according to Wordstream.
It’s simple: people love video content. Video makes it easy for people to digest the details or your event and gives them a better picture of what they can expect, increasing their buy-in.
Social Media Tip #6) Utilize Strategic Tags, Hashtags, Keywords
Reach out to brands and influencers you’re already closely connected to, use popular and trending hashtags, create an event hashtag, geo-hashtags, and even take advantage of Instagram and Pinterest keywords for maximum reach.
Social Media Tip #7) Create Social Media Event Pages
In addition to your main event page, create individual event pages on each social media channel so that users can easily find the info they need, on the channel they’re already using.
Use Facebook Events, and niche channels like Facebook Groups, Reddit, or Discord for easy ways to generate hype for your event.
Social Media Tip #8) Tease Sneak Peeks, Planning Specs, Speaker Lists
Rather than releasing all of your event information at one time — which can result in much of it being lost or overlooked — do it in phases. Release details as they get confirmed, instead of waiting for a full package. Waiting for all of the details can delay your timeline for event promotion opportunities.
Release planning specifics, speaker lists, and other sneak peeks of your event in snippets. This also helps to build intrigue and cultivate curiosity in your audience. No one wants FOMO, after all.
Social Media Tip #9) Interview Your Speakers And Share on Social Media Prior to The Event to Generate Excitement (Videos and Image Quotes)
Short interviews with speakers from your event add excitement around what attendees can expect to experience at your event. Use snippets from interviews to create short videos or images with quotes to grab viewers’ attention while they scroll through social media.
Share the content, encourage followers to share with their network, or combine with contests (see #1 above) for further impact.
Above all, make sure the event you’re promoting is set up for success.
Recommended reading: 14 Best Practices for Hosting Virtual Events
Social Media Tip #10) Display Social Media Attention and Conversation Before, During, and After Your Event
Include surprising social media stats relating to follows, views, and engagement to demonstrate event popularity and hype on other event communications.
Do a little social listening and grab snippets of conversations to include them as testimonials on promotional materials before, during, and after the event.
Social Media Tip #11) Collect User-Generated Content After the Event
Collect photos, videos, and other user-generated content from social media to use as powerful tools to promote future events and build out your brand after the event.
User-generated content helps you strengthen brand authority, provide social proof of your event’s success, and grow your social media following.
Social Media Tip #12) Utilize Paid Media Ads To Target Your Audience
A handful of paid ads can dramatically boost event visibility, and increase engagement and attendance. The ability to target users so specifically ensures that these ads are cost effective.
Facebook and Instagram are popular choices but don’t overlook Twitter, or LinkedIn Ads, especially for business-centric events.
Recommended Reading: 12 Event Promotion Strategies To Attract The Right Audience And Grow Your Business
Social Media Tip #13) Utilize Copy and Images To Increase Curiosity
Break up your content into short digestible pieces for social media event promotion that increase curiosity.
Post an image of a numbered list piece of content that highlights three of the 10 list items, for example. Curious users will click on the content and event website to read more.
Social Media Tip #14) People Love Shareable Infographics
Sharing quality information in an engaging, visual way is compelling.
Use a concise title for maximum impact, easy-to-read text, clean graphics, and don’t forget to include your event details and branding.
Everyone who sees and shares your infographic will also see your event specifics.
Social Media Tip #15) Share and Discount Campaigns
Run campaigns on social media that offer discounts for attendees who register for your event through specific campaigns.
For example, Facebook users can get an extra 5% off the ticket price. This encourages people to stay up to date with your posts so that they don’t miss an offer.
Social Media Tip #16) Utilize Gamification With Simple, Yet Informative Polls
Gamification through engagement tools like polls is another effective method to create buzz while promoting your event on social media.
Use simple, short polls (two or three questions max) that provide usable information that also sparks people’s interest to share the poll across social media.
Social Media Tip #17) Create Useful Content
Make the most out of content you create to supplement your event by sharing it on social media.
This could include templates, RFPs, and other tools that can enhance user experience for your event and give attendees something to keep, reference, and share.
Social Media Tip #18) Include Relevant Data
Include data about this year and last year’s event, such as attendance metrics, number of countries or states attending, last year’s numbers, etc.
This can be especially important if you’ve experienced a significant milestone or another benchmark, and it provides proof of your event’s success.
Social Media Tip #19) Share Valuable Slideshows from Last Year’s Event
There are two ideas here. Share beneficial slides from speaker’s presentations from last year’s event. This shows concrete and valuable insights that can be gained through attending your event.
You could also create slideshows of images from past events to show potential new attendees what they can expect and to re-engage past attendees.
Ready to take your virtual event success one step further? Check out our guide for generating leads at events: Your Marketing Team’s Guide To Generating Leads With Virtual Events.
