Why is Social Media One of the Best Ways to Promote Your Event?
First question is why not? In a world where globalization has become the first and last thing, engulfing your private and professional life, Social Media is one of the easiest and most affordable ways of promoting your business or any life event.
With almost every person around walking with a smartphone, and spending time on the phone to do much more than a simple call/text, one should take advantage of social media for reaching out to millions and millions can reach you with a simple click. Although there is television, radio and print media, but today more and more people, especially SMBs prefer going all out on the Internet through Campaigns, Videos, Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram etc. And don’t just mistake social media for event promotion, even the RSVP rates are higher since its so easy for the audience.
So now that we are clear on Why, let us understand ‘how’ we can utilize Social Media for event promotion.
Let us begin. So, once you have gathered all the RSVPs, connected with vendors, finalized the food, venue, photographers and the speakers it is time for the first step.
Step 1
Prepare a rock solid set of content for sharing. Catchy Images, catchy Videos for your upcoming events. Nothing speaks better than a relevant picture or an enticing Video. Remember sharing short videos is a great way to build the excitement before an event. Also, create Campaigns/Newsletters with a brief content and call for action (Keep button for subscribing/ RSVP).
Step2
Tell everyone and welcome all!
Create a Facebook Event in addition to your organization page- Describe your event, invite people to RSVP, try to motivate people who are registering on your website for the event, to visit the Facebook event page as well. That way, once a user shares he/she is attending your event on their wall, chances of attracting more audience to your page and RSVP rate automatically increases. To know more visit ‘Creating & Editing Events’ help page. Similarly showcase your upcoming event on Linkedin, Pinterest, Foursqaure, Youtube/Vimeo and of course Twitter (& any other social profiles that you may have).
Make sure on Twitter you create a unique Hashtag# specific for your Event.Remember #Shareacoke? #OreoHorrorstories ?
That adds value to your posts as well as makes it easier for you to monitor how well your Tweets are doing.
If you are creating a Video or sending out Email Campaigns, make sure you promote your Hashtag as well.
Step 3
Things you can do during/after the live Event
Announce giveaways and prizes. This helps even more if the event lasts more than a day. Share the Event Outcomes on your blog, on youtube, on your social profiles. Monitor the social media buzz. This is actually the best time to request for feedback since the memory of the event is still fresh. Review and analyze what people liked & disliked on Twitter, Facebook etc. That should definitely give you plenty of food for thought and an immense scope of making your future event much much better.
That’s it! 1, 2, 3- three steps are all it takes to infuse a little magic of social media in your events. So, Event Managers, have you experimented with Social Media yet?