How to Use Social Media to Promote Your Event

Unless your event is known worldwide, chances are you're going to need some form of marketing to spread the word. Promoting your event doesn't need to be complicated, nor are you required to spend ludicrous amounts on advertising. Social media provides many methods you can use to increase exposure and in turn, make more sales. We have put together a list of ways you can use social media to your advantage.

Social Media

The main benefit to social media that we're all aware of is that it's free. This provides event organisers multiple large & flexible platforms to market on. Whether your event is B2C or B2B, your target audience is highly likely to be on one, if not more social media platforms.

Content

The most efficient way to get seen on social media is to make yourself visible. This means posting regularly & creating content that is engaging, valuable and shareable. Focus on engaging with your audience first & self-promotion second. If you're only posting promotional material 24/7 then your audience will begin to dislike you and label you as spam. When promoting your event make sure you take extra time ensuring that your content will be represented in line with your objectives. For example; If you're promoting an event poster, make sure all relevant information for that event is readable, clearly visible and that the poster is eye-catching and will stand out in your users feed. Make sure to take image resolutions into account when posting to different platforms.

Call to action (CTA)

Call to actions are one of the most powerful tools to go unused. These are more predominantly used on websites & emails, typically featuring “buy now” buttons but they can also (and should be) used in social. Don't underestimate the power of suggestion! If your audience read a piece of content they enjoy, like a blog post, they are more likely to follow up with you, or better yet; buy from you. Using the previous example, if you post an eye-catching event poster & it sparks interest, adding "purchase your tickets here _" or "Visit www.Priorbooking.com now to book" for example, could be the incentive the customer needs to follow through with the purchase. It can be difficult to implement CTA's on physical print as there's no immediate access for the user (like a link or email) unless you have a featured QR code for that event. Digital media provides an opportunity to have a bigger impact as CTA's can be interactive. For example; Create your account now! You are able to hyperlink text on your blogs and web pages, allowing your customers to be redirected with virtually no effort. It's important to use CTA's on your website & event pages as this will most likely be your audiences first point of contact with yourself or your event. 

We recommend using:

• Buy your tickets now!
• Visit here _ to book your spot!
• Order online here _ whilst tickets last!

For printed media or social media content:

• Ring _ to book your spot!
• Get your tickets at www.Priorbooking.com
• Visit www.Priorbooking.com for ticket info

Ensure that you are providing a link to your event in the body of text when writing social media posts. With many people leaving web pages after only a few seconds, you need to ensure that you direct your audience to the purchase as best you can. 

Hashtags #

Hashtags are becoming ever more prevalent & much more widely used. They can be a great boon to event organisers if used wisely & placed appropriately. When creating promotional content, consider adding your own unique hashtag onto the end of the post. Make this unique to the event itself & try to use something that isn't currently being used, or isn't being used often. We use #Eventtips for our helpful event tips we deliver every other day on Twitter, this is currently being used but not frequently enough to bury any of our posts (we're still the majority.) The benefit to using one unique hashtag is that it creates your own area in which your audience can find all relevant information about your event with one search. For your audience, it alleviates all the hardship that comes with finding important updates.

Facebook events page

Utilising a Facebook events page can be a great method to create hype for the event. Similar to hashtags, all of your content is available to your audience in one search. Your event page is the hub for all marketing material & information. This allows you to post images, videos & blog posts directly to the page which will then appear on your audiences timeline. If your content is engaging enough & receives shares then there's potential for your events reach to expand and market a wider audience. Since your audience follows your event, they are easily able to see any updates/important information, this keeps them up to date on any changes; ensuring they aren't left in the dark.

Facebook ads

This is the section where cost applies but that doesn't mean it has to be expensive. Facebook ads can be used in multiple ways depending both on importance and timescale. You can decide to run a campaign for your event by creating new content and delivering it over a predetermined period of time, we've all seen the random ads that pop up in our news feed from time to time. These serve as extra sale points that you can use to target a specific audience of your choice. If as a brand you are less well known, or your event is the first of its kind, then this could be more beneficial to use as an act of promotional brand awareness. The only downside to this is that if you want to reach a substantial amount of people then you can expect to pay a fair bit. Facebook ads are still cheap compared to some alternatives, £35 a month achieves an extra reach of 1k-5k depending on your audience criteria, which is cost effective if you're selling a product, but with an event, you will need to take consideration as to whether it will be justifiable. Another option is to “Boost” a piece of content you already have posted. Facebook will recommend that you do this everytime a certain post has over-performed in comparison to its counterparts. This is essentially the same as Facebook ads, but using different media, it enables you to take advantage of a post that you didn't necessarily think would overperform at the time of issuing it. As with anything that costs money, you need to consider your budget and decide whether ads would be a worthwhile investment. 

Social media can have a dramatic influence on the amount of feedback and engagement you receive. Selling online provides a one-way purchase from social. Learn the benefits to selling tickets online.