Your sole aim as an event organizer is to get as many people as possible to attend the event. To achieve this, you have to figure which medium will amplify your announcement to as many people as possible.
If used correctly, social media will help you cut the costs of promoting an event. You can reach out to many people at short notice and ensure your event is sold out.
To effectively promote on any platform, you have to understand its cons and pros. Otherwise, you could end up spending a lot of time, energy, and even money on social media promotion, only to end up with just a handful of attendees.
Which of the platforms does your target audience usually use? Keep in mind that different platforms work best for different types of content.
In any case, you should know your audience so well that whichever campaign method you choose will not go to waste.
The following are the strategies to promote an online event on social media:
Use Facebook Ads
You will need to set aside a budget for ads for this strategy to work. Almost everyone is on Facebook these days, so you can reach a vast audience through Facebook Ads.
One advantage of this form of advertising is that you can program it to target only a particular customer profile in a given location.
Design an attractive, visually stimulating image for better results. You should aim to create a strong first impression, which you can only achieve with a shiny, hard-to-ignore image.
Post Preparations Images on Instagram to Show Behind-the-Scenes
People want to feel or imagine they are part of the event planning process. If you keep them up to date with the preparations going on, they are more likely to attend because they will already be invested.
Give them something to talk about, show them how many tents have been erected, and so on.
Instagram is one platform where you can post hard-to-ignore photos that will make your followers believe they are part of the action.
Social media activity also creates considerable excitement that you need for your event.
Post a Short Video That Highlights Similar Past Events
Who doesn’t like to watch short, amusing, witty, encouraging, or informative videos these days? Videos have become part of life; everyone eagerly waits to ‘skip ads’ to continue watching clips on YouTube.
You can expand your reach by creating a short, engaging video about the previous event you organized so that they get a good idea of what to expect at the upcoming one.
The best platforms to post such videos are your business Facebook page and YouTube channel. Then, share it with your followers or the friends you would want to attend.
There are two main reasons why posting on your Facebook business page is helpful.
Your followers looking for something else on the page will get to see the event and become part of it.
Secondly, they can go ahead and invite their friends who are not your Facebook friends, but whom you want to attend.
Of course, the video has to be worth watching. People can tell what a video is going to be like by the look of its thumbnail, so ensure it stands out. Judging a book by the cover is real.
Most importantly, know your audience and the social media platform they hang out often.
Choosing the right platform for your campaigns and creating relevant videos will help you increase the visibility of your event for your target audience.
Create a Geofilter for Snapchat
A geofilter is customized information that is limited to a given geographic location at a given time. Your audience will snap the geofilter photo or video of the event to their Snapchat friends, thus generating buzz.
A geofilter is not free, so be prepared to part with some digits, but it is worth it if part of the audience you expect to attend the event is on Snapchat.
Note that if the event targets younger people, Snapchat is one place where you can attract them in large numbers. Make them aware of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming event.
Create a Hashtag
You can create a hashtag to help the targeted audience quickly search and get new developments about the event. Social media networks are all search engines; specific keywords would direct you to related information.
Ensure the hashtag you come up with is unique enough to be searched by only the audience you target.
On social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, search results show trending hashtags.
People interested in a particular hashtag can then retweet or share the post.
This helps to create some excitement about the event. If many people reshare it, it can even go viral. The moment many people online start talking about the event, it is said to be trending.
The hashtag should be catchy and memorable enough to achieve this.
Highlight Spot-on Quotes From the Guests
Some people find quotes more impressive than anything else. Quotes help set the mood of the event, giving the audience a taste of what to come.
Create a shareable image with the quote, so the audience can share it widely.
Pinterest is a social media platform that works well for quotes. Pin your image there to show up when the potential attendees search for information about the event.
Try to be creative; avoid using dull, uninspiring quotes or images.
Leverage WhatsApp
One other strategy that has become popular for promoting your event is creating a WhatsApp group, especially for weddings, fundraisings, or funerals.
The downside of this strategy is that you’ll need the cell phone contact of each member you want to add to the group, which may be limiting.
However, creating such a group allows you to nurture a community even after a particular event has passed, helping you promote similar future offerings.
Create a WhatsApp group with the event’s name as the subject, and you can change it later.
Wrap Up
Online platforms offer you a wide variety of options for promoting your events.
Depending on the kinds of online spaces where your target audience usually hangs out, you can use different types of content to get them interested in the event, make them feel included in the preparation process, and encourage them to create buzz around what you offer.
Choosing the right strategy will not only contribute to the event you’re promoting but also potentially enable you to build a community around such offerings. This will make your job easier in the future.
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Jasmine Williams covers the good and the bad of today’s business and marketing. When she’s not being all serious and busy, she’s usually hunched over a book or dancing in the kitchen, trying hard to maintain rhythm, and delivering some fine cooking (her family says so).
