Article

Kimberly Clark
Kimberly Clark 15 July 2019
Categories Social Media

9 Ways You Can Make Your Social Media Shine at Your next Event

Event marketing is such a popular practice, bringing together new revenue streams, marketing methods, and even project management styles. Here's a look at nine ways that you can make your social media shine at your next event. With our advice, you can look forward to better reach, engagement, and long-term growth. 

Social media relies on innovation and current interest to propel a business's growth and exposure like never before. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even localized message boards are a largely untapped source of customer interest. No matter how well-marketed your business is, there is always a need for growth.

#1 - Start early

The Hype is a force that needs to build gradually as its effects culminate exponentially when you successfully launch a well-prepared campaign. The earlier you begin drip-feeding hype about your next in-person or virtual event, the more reach you have. 

Starting early affords you the opportunity of split-testing multiple marketing channels while refining your content creation strategy to something that couldn't be better by the time that launch day arrives. Your audience is far more likely to take notice of your advertising if the message is familiar. With the right amount of hype thanks to early preparation, turnouts will be better than ever. 

#2 - Develop a shared public timeline

Schedule your marketing efforts around the fixed date and times of your events. There is no better time to set a timeline in place. The dates that you set up for your major milestones are core points to plan around. No one needs to know your strategy, nor will they be able to figure it out. Setting one in place and sharing it is a sure-fire way to generate hype. 

You are free to pick your schedule and lineup of major social media events based on any criteria you prefer ranging from when costs are at their lowest, to seasonal holidays and the like. Make sure to fortify your event with multiple social media promotions over an extended period to cement interest in place around your marketing. 

#3 - Keep your focus on interactive media

The more you get your audience involved, the more memorable your brand is. Create an interactive video that immerses the viewer and seals your brand in their memory as a primary association. Just think of a movie trailer. Before you have had time to consider the details, you're immersed in the story and want to know more. Your marketing must immerse potential customers as this by itself builds an association with your brand. There are tons of ways to engage the audience interactively. 

From simple questionnaires and polls to competitions via live-stream and video marketing which puts the viewer in charge of what they see - after all, you're shaping the whole journey. The more interactive the experience is, the better it would be. Live events are a great place to showcase interactive technologies like virtual reality showrooms and other high-tech innovation that'll be sure to make an impact. 

#4 - Create a branded hashtag for your event

Hashtags unify multiple marketing channels into a singular point of interest that is easy to advertise. It's just as easy for your audience to keep track of. Time plays a major factor in hashtag branding, but its near-essential to establish a hashtag for your event. This is not an overnight process. 

You'll need to start early,  posting to other audiences while making your hashtag the focus on the share. Branding a hashtag is about associating a word or catchphrase to your brand. The more ways that you can introduce the association, the better - another reason to start early. 

#5 - Collaborate with other influencers or businesses

The more exposure that can bolster up for your event, the better. Research your industry and find influencers and businesses whose vision aligns with your strategy. Make sure to include any non-competitive collaborators as possible. Your interactions with them are each an opportunity to engage a new audience. Every time that you have a joint involvement in any way, your event holds the potential for further promotion. There are many websites that provide link building services

The number of opportunities quickly add up as you drive engagement through the mutual interests of others. Collaboration is integral to the success of any event. Interact with your collaborators, peers, and influencers via social media, especially on the day of the event. Real-time messaging on Twitter or Facebook is the key to capitalizing on your event. 

#6 - Take advantage of real-time engagement

Every minute of your event is the time that should be milked for further opportunities. The happenings of a live event should all be live streamed. Real-time social media posting is highly advantageous to the long-term benefits of one-off events. Your Tweets don't go away and posts that work pick up tons of new followers thanks to hashtags that you'd normally never use. 

An event brings many different types of people to your page, channel, or any point of your sales and marketing funnel. Think about the lateral connections between all facets of the event you're attending and come up with innovative ways to share the day's activity.

#7 - Plan your post-event marketing

Building hype, managing strategies and components of your event's marketing, and handling negative feedback is important but never overlook just how vital the next few days and weeks are after your event. This period gives you a window where you can thank everyone involved across the platform where their fans are best engaged. 

Collaborators come with similar benefits, but now you've got a springboard for upselling like no other - everyone knows that you work together and products/services are better-known instead of being discovered for the first time. 

#8 - Put a negative feedback strategy in place

No matter how well your event goes, you'll always have haters, and no matter how well executed there will always be problems. There is no way to stop criticism, whether it's constructive or not. There will always be ways to improve. Don't let negativity bring down your event and position promotion that it generates. 

The only way that this can happen is if you respond incorrectly, acting out of self-justified retribution or a strategy which may even seem sensible (although in truth nonsensical) at the time. Decide how you're going to handle an outburst during a speech, an irritated customer at your booth, angry online audiences, and negative feedback on social media. Putting together a strategy beforehand gives you the advantage of being logical. 

It also allows your peers to present their ideas so that you have the optimal solution to every problem before the event. Leverage negative feedback as a platform to show that you are sincere about providing good customer service, and it will bolster your brand instead of hindering your event. 

#9 - Promote with print and paid advertising

Print advertising has a fixed scope of reach, paid advertising has the direct reach, letting you isolate a precise audience. Use both to guarantee yourself the highest chances of an event that everyone will remember. Facebook Ads, Google Ads, YouTube Ads, and even Twitter advertising are all lucrative when you find the right angle of approach for your campaign. 

Always test with a small budget before committing to any widespread marketing. The earlier you start, the more platforms you can test, and the more people you can reach. Print advertising and in-person guerilla marketing can make your event go viral if you combine multiple marketing channels into a single impactful strategy. 

Don’t stop sharing

As you can see, social media marketing of an event is a practice that will not only benefit you at the immediate time of promotion, but the event itself rather structures a framework from which to reward all areas of business. 

Your marketing endeavors receive a boost and a logical funnel of progression, which at the same time is resources directly invested in the promotion of an event with a relative degree of predictable success. The effort you put into multichannel marketing is an effort that will pay off for the whole fiscal year and longer if you plan your presence correctly. 

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