10 steps to create a successful social media campaign for your event
Social media is one of the most effective and promising ways to promote an event. With unlimited possibilities for creative content and opportunities to spread the word on a national, international, or global scale, social media promotion is the best way to grow awareness and attract potential attendees to an event.
To ensure that your event is a huge success, every aspect needs to be planned and communicated to potential attendees. To do this, we have outlined 10 steps to promoting an event on social media from the ground up, broken down into 3 categories: Pre-Event Activity, During Event Activity and Post Event Activity.
Before you start promoting an event on social media, the first thing to do is to identify the target audience. Hubspot define a target audience as a group of people characterised by behaviours and specific demographics. Target audiences can be dictated by age, gender, location, interests, income or purchasing behaviour. The best way to identify your target audience is outlining 3 different buyer personas, which Shopify describes as fictional characterisations of your best customers. By doing so, you will be able to fully understand the type of person that would attend the event and market accordingly.
After you have identified your target audience, it’s now time to choose your social media platforms! The Digital Marketing Institute advise choosing a social media platform where your audience is most active in order to run a successful social media campaign. For instance, if you’re hosting a B2B seminar for a particular industry, LinkedIn is the platform for you. Or if you want to target women with young kids for a family event, Instagram and Facebook are your best bet.
When your audience comes across your social media profiles, you want them to be able to identify the event and find the right information they are looking for. Streamlining your social media profiles involves being consistent in the following:
It is also important to ensure that the key messages are evident at the top of the profile. You can do this by pinning posts to the top of the page or creating highlights on Instagram stories. Key messages for an event could include:
As we already know, there are endless possibilities for creative content on social media platforms, from carousels, Reels, stories, polls, links, the list goes on! But the most important thing to consider when creating content is to ensure that you are providing all the information about the event, answering the questions and needs of your audience. By doing so, you will reduce the number of queries coming into your social media inbox or comments section and provide a seamless customer journey for potential attendees.
An important step to consider is investing in social media advertising. Eventbrite say that visibility of your posts is a crucial metric. Ads are a great way to reach a wider audience outside of your social media followers. And the more people that see your content, the more tickets you’re likely to sell. You can also target specific groups (i.e., your target audience) so that your event content will be shown to people that will be interested in attending your event. When creating content for your social media ads, make sure to keep the following tips in mind:
Event promotion doesn’t only involve the promotion in the lead up to the event. Create a buzz around the event and show your online audience everything that’s going on at the event by live posting. Live posting can involve live streaming certain aspects of the event or sharing videos and/or photos to your social media feed and stories.
The best way to increase online engagement during the event is to utilise interactive content. Write copy that motivates people to engage with the content, like asking questions in the caption or create a poll. Not only does this deepen engagement with your event/brand, the Content Marketing Institute say that it also drives greater customer satisfaction.
During the event, there will be more than just posting live and creating content happening on your social media channels. You will notice a lot of messages and comments coming in on the day of the event. Ensure that you have at least 2 people on your social media team during the event: one person at the actual event live posting and another person monitoring the social media channels to respond to any queries or comments.
After the event is complete, you may notice the comments section and messages skyrocket as people take to social media to share their thoughts & feedback about the event. Share tagged posts to your feed or stories and respond to all comments to create a buzz about the event and show positive feedback.
A great way to capture the key moments of your event is sharing a recap video on your social media channels. The three main benefits to using recap videos are to:
A great way to capture the key moments of your event is sharing a recap video on your social media channels. The three main benefits to using recap videos are to:
We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along to the Howth Maritime & Seafood Festival🐟⛵️🍤
— Howth Maritime and Seafood Festival (@HowthMaritime) September 21, 2022
From the traders, entertainers, local restaurants and the public, thank you for making this festival a super day out for all the family🥰 #HowthMaritimeAndSeafoodFestival pic.twitter.com/DFaEa3m2hu
Now it’s time to promote your event on social media!
You have all the tips, now it’s time to start planning! Remember to break down your social media strategy into three sections, pre-event, during event and post-event and always keep your target audience in mind when choosing your social media platforms and the type of content you create. It’s always best to have at least two people on your team to manage the event activity such as live posting and engagement management.
If you think you may need a hand in promoting your event on social media, our team can help you with that. The Ripple digital team are experts in all of the above. Get in touch with us today!
Written by Thiago Feliciano
Written by Ciara McGuinness