Social media is a relatively affordable way to spread the word about an upcoming event. It shouldn’t replace physical, real-world marketing, but event organisers simply can’t ignore the many opportunities and enormous reach of these social platforms.
Here are just a handful of tips to get you started with social media promotion of your event:
- Think local. It takes time, but rooting out all of those local forums, Facebook groups, apps and other platforms on which to promote your event is well worth doing. You need to take a targeted approach if you want to attract as many people from the local area as possible to your event.
- Be everywhere. The key to successful event marketing is awareness, especially if you’re trying to capture a local market. The last thing you want after an event is over is people saying “I didn’t know this was on”. To avoid this, you need to cover all bases and raise awareness everywhere you can. Find out what platforms your target group of attendees uses and plan plenty of activity.
- Make use of user-generated content. You can harness the power of influencer marketing both before and during the event. You can have influencers onsite creating and sharing content live from the event. In fact, research from Buffer shows that live content makes up 36% of all social media updates posted by event organisers. If you took the same live sharing approach last year, you can use this content to promote the latest event in the weeks or months before – to give potential attendees a taste of what to expect.
- Release teasers. So many event organisers create all the initial posts and event pages for a bash, then do nothing until a week or so before the event. This is the wrong approach. You need to plan a regular schedule of updates and teasers, from the line-up and new events to details of the food on offer. Each update should be billed as big news, all with the aim of keeping anticipation and excitement levels high. They also act as a reminder of the event, but without you having to post the same ‘remember- this event is on!’ content again and again.
- Update your profiles with event information. Don’t just create an event page, update all your headers and other social profile details with promotional material for the event – this makes it unmissable.
- Take advantage of FOMO. The ‘fear of missing out’ phenomenon is an event organiser’s secret weapon. Harness this by giving the impression that tickets are limited or selling out, and then offer competitions and giveaway to create extra opportunities to eliminate that FOMO feeling.
- Consider paid Facebook ads. Create an event on Facebook, promote it through your business page and then give the marketing an extra boost through paid ads. This is a great way to make both your time and money go further, as Facebook offers targeting tools to ensure that your ad is in front of more of the right people at the right time.
What’s your secret weapon when it comes to marketing events through social media? Please feel free to share your thoughts.
