Most businesses understand that they should be doing something on social media for their upcoming event…but they aren’t quite sure what. To help out, here are several of the latest and most effective ways companies are using social platforms for their event marketing – and succeeding at it!
1. LinkedIn Contacts
This is often the first go-to for businesses and social media – and that’s not a bad thing. Typically LinkedIn is an excellent method to let professionals know about your upcoming event and what makes it worthwhile. If you are looking for specific caterers or sponsors, it’s also a good spot to reach out and develop contacts that can help you. We suggest that you send out invites via a number of social platforms and email, and LinkedIn also includes this feature. Plus, you can even create discussions for some of the most interesting event topics to stir up interest!
2. Facebook Marketing – and Polling
Facebook retains its hold on a significant number of peers and employees who religiously check it every day, making it an ideal platform to announce event updates and plans. Smaller events can be created as a literal Facebook Event. Larger events may deserve their own page. For some large events, you may even want to consider creating targeted ads on Facebook to single out the type of audience you want. Facebook is also an ideal place for more ambitious work, such as conducting polls or contests to decide event topics and speakers – something that several corporations have used to great effect.
3. Instagramming
Instagram is no longer just for millennials – it has become a powerful business tool for all companies who learn how to use it right. Now that Instagram is owned by Facebook, the two are highly integrated, which yields good event marketing synergies. Also, Instagram is unparalleled when it comes to using images and photos to provide an up-close experience: Images, more than anything, tend to resonate with social media users and create more engagement. Pepper your event planning with images to whet the appetite of those you want to attend.
4. Twitter Updates
Twitter has more limited usefulness when it comes to content, but the site has a very long reach (especially if you’ve spent some time developing your follower list). Here, it’s best to focus more on quick updates about the event and during the event. It’s also smart to retweet a link to your event page occasionally to help build momentum.
5. In-Depth Blogs
Sometimes, you want to stir a different type of interest for your event marketing: If you have important news, complex topics, particular notable speaker, and so on, then you should work on creating a more longform blog post that you can direct people to. This helps show that your event is serious, professional, and has enough thought leadership to warrant paying attention – and it provides more content for social media.
6. Livestreaming
Look into livestreaming options offer by Facebook and other sites! This can be an effective way of reaching the audience that cannot attend events in person and is often low cost. However, you’ll need to work to make sure that quality is not a problem and that your team knows how to livestream and switch to different streams on a variety of equipment.
For more information on using social media in more specific ways for your next event, contact us at McVeigh Global Meetings and Events!