Almost everybody is into social media these days and majority of Internet users have at least one Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn account. Thus, it is not a surprise that it is a major channel that event planners consider for disseminating information and announcing promotions. Whether it’s a corporate conference, a trade show, a family affair, a flea market gathering, or a grand concert, social media marketing has proven itself indispensable and effective.
It’s not just any social media campaign, however. If you promote on social media the way you do your personal posts, you won’t likely get far. Aside from the paid tools and services that social media channels offer, there are creative ways to drive engagement and maximize your event’s reach — and some of them don’t even cost a thing. Here are some ideas we have.
- Identify your goal and build a social media strategy
Before promoting your event online, decide first what you want to achieve out of the effort. That would mean identifying who your target audience is, the type of content that would attract this market, the images and videos that would most likely want to click on. Once you have laid this out, you can identify the best social media platform where this market is prominent.
For maximum impact and reach, you can include in your goal-setting the market that is not really your exact target but would also benefit from your offering. For example, if you are selling wild honey, your main target market will be the bakers and chefs, but your secondary market would be those who use honey for skincare.
- Create a fun and unique hashtag
Part of any social media strategy is a hashtag that makes people relate to your event in a unified way. The hashtag should be memorable and something that your target market will actually enjoy sharing to their own networks. The key element of hashtag creation is to encourage people to tell everybody else about it.
- Partner with social media influencers
Social media influencers have some of the highest follower counts online, so it makes sense that you collaborate with them to help promote your event. Some influencers ask a fee or a exchange deal, but others would gladly do it for free especially if they are huge fans of your event or are very impressed with it.
- Build a content calendar
Unless you have a hired somebody who will focus only on your social media campaign, you will need to create a social media calendar. This schedules your posts in a way that helps build excitement for the big day. It can involve interviews, videos, images, contests, and other teasers that will get people talking about your event weeks or months before the actual day.
- Invest in social media ads
As mentioned earlier, there are tools on social media platforms that will help boost your post and reach the most number of people possible. Depending on your budget, your sponsored post could reach 1,000 to 100,000 eyes or more. The fee is usually minimal and well worth investment. Social media ads are also sent to a pre-set target audience as part of the many unique capabilities of a tool, so you are sure that the people whom you want to attend your event will see it.
