Guest Post: How to Effectively Use Social Media to Promote Your Event

In recent years, social media has become a very important tool for digital marketing. The number of people using social networks keeps rising as the number of internet users increases. The number of people who use social platforms is estimated at 4.89 billion as of 2023.

So, if you are sponsoring an event and would like to promote it and get visibility, where else can you easily find your target audience than on social media! However, to obtain the best results out of the promotion efforts, you should use some particular strategies. Here is how to effectively use social media to promote your event.

Choose the Right Platform

The first step in event marketing is determining which social platform is most suitable for you. You should define the event’s nature, and then target the right audience. Every social platform has its audience, tone, and atmosphere. For instance, Instagram would be most suitable if you want to communicate with your followers using pictures. Facebook would be ideal for creating or sharing updates on the upcoming event. Every event is held to accomplish a particular goal. If yours is for networking, then LinkedIn would be the best place to promote it to other businesses.

Use Videos

People remember more of what they have seen or listened to than what they read. Don’t use only a text or images to market your event. Create a video to show and tell what your event is about, instead. According to Eventbrite Pulse Report Survey of 2019, 94% of businesses that used videos as a way of marketing their events in 2018 admitted to their effectiveness. Getting started might feel like a challenge. However, it is all worth the efforts when you consider the benefits you will reap from it. Although videos, might be expensive to produce, time-consuming, or you might think you are not professional at it, the ROI is quite attractive. 88% of the marketers using videos for marketing state that they are satisfied with the returns they get from this strategy. Create your first event video today.

Remarketing

It is a strategy used to promote custom ads to your website visitors on social media. When used in event marketing, this tactic allows you to send custom ads to those who left your web page before purchasing a ticket or taking the desired action. People rarely take action the first time they learn about something. Statista states that about 97% of the people who visit your website abandon it without taking any action. Thus, retargeting is quite effective because the ads act as a reminder to prospective attendees. You can remarket to various types of audiences using the various social media platforms. For instance,

• Facebook remarketing to custom audiences generated from your CRM contact list or visitors to your site.
• Twitter remarketing to tailored audiences that you get from the website visitors and those who use the application to sign up or follow your page.
• LinkedIn remarketing by targeting your audience depending on the pages they visited while on your site. You will help them complete the buyer journey and convert into sales.

Create an Event Hashtag

No matter which platform you choose, creating a unique hashtag is paramount. Hashtags are valuable and are a way to encourage people to share information on the upcoming event. Furthermore, you can easily track the engagement of the audience on all platforms. The event hashtag you choose must be short, relevant, and memorable. Studies indicate that hashtags improve engagement on your Instagram posts by around 12.6%.

Gamification

Use your creative side when promoting your event on social media. Starting a game or running a contest will encourage more engagement on your posts. Offer prizes to the winners to motivate more people to participate. Who doesn’t love free things! Some ideas for your contest include; giveaways, fan photos, or holding a trivia. Gamification has become a popular way of keeping prospective attendees engaged. According to a study, 70% of Forbes 2000 companies are adopting gamification in some way.

You can start a game to help people network and be entertained. The game should not consume too much time or be complicated. You can try something as simple as a photo contest where people take photos, share on your page, and others get to like what they see.

However, before starting a contest you must determine what you want to achieve, the prizes to give as well as the budget. Games and contests have many benefits for your brand; you get to know your audience better, interact with your customers, they increase word of mouth promotion, and drive traffic to your website and social media platforms.

Report about a Similar Previous Event

Regular promotion methods are not the only ones required to increase the number of attendees to your event. Similar to how 84% of customers rely on recommendations from others to make a decision to purchase, customers also depend on other’s experience to decide whether to attend an event or not. Build excitement about the event by sharing videos or pictures of previous events. State clearly what the attendees are getting into, the benefits of attending, and encourage sharing with friends. You will witness more engagement on the event posts.

Make Your Event Stand Out

How do you convince people to attend your event? It is not going to be easy. Thousands of other businesses are also posting about their events. How do you make people choose yours? When you post about it, you must make the event stand out. To begin, give your event a unique but interesting title. Second, invite the right people. For instance, when you are promoting it on Facebook, create sponsored posts that are targeted to the right audience. Engage your audience by responding to their queries in a timely manner.

Conclusion

It is easy for you to want to host an event. The challenging part is getting people to attend it. However, when using social media platforms, you can reach your target audience easily and convince them to attend. 88% of companies state that they use social media to raise awareness of their events. Do not be left behind and embrace this opportunity. With the above tips, you can effectively use social media to promote your event. It might take time and require your efforts, but they will be worth it.

Author: Randolph Bunnell