The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Strategy for Event Promotion

In the current age of technology, utilizing social media has become essential rather than optional. When executed appropriately, social media strategy for event promotion can significantly increase attendance and provide attendees with memorable experiences.

According to a study conducted by Statista, Daily time spent on social networking by internet users worldwide is increasing year by year. So it is very important to promote your event on social media for more reach.

Social media event promotion requires a carefully crafted plan designed specifically for social media platforms. Utilizing the influence of these platforms can be the determining factor between having only a partially occupied venue and achieving a sold-out event.

The best case study of social media strategy for event promotion is Mr Beast. Mr Beast has used different social media platforms with different strategies to promote his events. He interacts with his audience on every platform in different ways like going live on Instagram, retweeting, or giving feedback on Twitter. He also hosts giveaways and contests for his fans.

A social media plan for event promotion can be really helpful in spreading awareness about your event so that you can increase engagement and grow your brand.  Now, let's explore in detail how you can plan a social media strategy for event promotion!

What is the Role of Social Media in Social Media Event Promotion?

Social media platforms have become an essential aspect of our daily lives, completely changing how we communicate, exchange information, and establish connections with others. It is not only limited to personal interactions, social media also brought a significant transformation in social media marketing for event promotion.

Building Awareness with Social Media Event Promotion

Social media offers event organizers a powerful tool for promoting events to a wide audience in real-time. 19% of companies host virtual events to increase their brand awareness. On social media, they can easily create dedicated pages, and groups to effectively spread the word about upcoming events. Organizers can schedule event posts using a scheduling tool to create brand growth & awareness.

Social Media Event Promotion Promote Targeted Marketing

Social media offers an effective strategy for social media event promotion by targeting specific demographics, and geographical locations. By utilizing this social media strategy for event promotion, event organizers can effectively reach their desired audience. This approach ensures promotional efforts maximize success.

Real-Time Engagement Using Social Media Event Promotion

Social media play a crucial role in providing instantaneous updates and fostering interaction. Participants can utilize event-specific hashtags to share their experiences, photos, and videos, thereby generating user-generated content which is helpful in social media event promotion. 61% of marketers use videos as an interactive element to keep people engaged.

Social Media Event Promotion Allows Influencer Collaboration

Collaborating with social media influencers who are relevant to the theme or target audience of an event can have a powerful influence. This collaboration has the potential to enhance social media event promotion greatly. Influencers can generate buzz for an event by sharing their excitement & encouraging their followers.

Social Media Event Promotion Provides Post-Event Feedback

Social media marketing for event promotion plays an important role even after the event ends. 82% of people trust the voice of customers more than messages that come from the brand. Social media allows participants to share their experiences & give feedback. Organizers can actively engage with these interactions, showing appreciation & addressing any issues that may arise.

Steps of Social Media Plan for Event Promotion

Social media strategy for event promotion demands a blend of originality, planning, and regularity. To make sure you maximize the potential of various platforms, here's a detailed roadmap for successful social media event promotion:

Understand the Target Audience for Social Media Event Promotion

The first step of a social media plan for event promotion is identifying your target audience and determining where they spend their time online. For example, if you're targeting professionals, LinkedIn could be a good platform to reach them.

Set a Clear Objective For Social Media Strategy for Event Promotion

Defining what you want to achieve is very important in social media marketing for event promotion. This could be if you want to increase ticket sales, drive more traffic to your website, or simply raise awareness about your event.

Create a Content Calendar as a Social Media Strategy for Event Promotion

Prepare your posts ahead of time. Determine how often you will post, the kinds of content you will share, and the platforms you intend to use. To plan your calendar ahead of time, you can use a post-scheduler provided by Ceratosaurus called Cache.

Promote the Event on Social Media

Now it is time for the final step in the social media plan for event promotion which is event promotion. For that, you can hold Q&A sessions. Use polls or contests to increase interaction. 71% of marketers use polling to make sure that their audience doesn’t lose attention. Go live to directly engage with your potential customers.

The 3 Stages of Social Media Marketing for Event Promotion

Social media strategy for event promotion has 3 stages - social media event promotion before the event, during the event, and after the event.

Social Media Event Promotion Before the Event

Leading up to your event, make sure to spread the word through various channels so that it captures the attention of all potential attendees. 60% of virtual event organizers use social media to drive significant registrations. Successful social media marketing for event promotion can result in increased registrations, ticket sales, donations, and sign-ups.

Social Media Event Promotion While the Event is Live

On the day of the event, your social media plan for event promotion should ensure a delightful experience for attendees. Engaging those who couldn't attend by sharing posts on your social media channels. Gathering content from the event for future promotional purposes.

Social Media Event Promotion After the Event

After your event, the last step in successful social media marketing for event promotion is to express gratitude to attendees & take time to evaluate the event. Additionally, sending out a post-event survey can provide valuable feedback for future improvements. As 90% of virtual event organizers use surveys to measure attendee satisfaction.

15 Best Social Media Strategy for Event Promotion

In January 2018, a study conducted related to the effectiveness of social media in attracting event attendees in the United States revealed that social media played a significant role in attracting event attendees. According to the survey, 30% of acquisition/attendee marketers found social media to be highly effective in attracting new participants.

Here's our list to get the most out of your social media strategy for event promotion:

Create a Countdown

Create a countdown to your event using Instagram Stories. Personalize the sticker with your event's name, date, time, and your brand's colors. You can personalize stickers with Creatosaurus’ CC0 asset app called Noice.

Personalizing elements in your posts or stories is very important to a social media plan for event promotion. You can also add a ‘Remind me’ button to your stories to make them more interactive with the audience. Make your stories and posts sharable so that viewers can choose to 'share' the countdown with their social media networks.

Keep your posting schedule slow and steady

It's important to keep your posting schedule slow and steady according to social media strategy for event promotion. Bombarding your followers with sales messages will only cause them to tune you out. So to keep your scheduler consistent you can use post scheduler by Creatosaurus.

Instead, focus on providing content that interests and excites them, while also occasionally marketing to them. Remember that reaching your end goal, such as a certain number of ticket sales, requires a thoughtful strategy rather than a hurried approach.

Create an Event Hashtag

Using hashtags is a modern way of exchanging contact details. They must be concise, easy to spell, and unique so that unrelated content doesn't get mixed in. Hashtags also help to continue the conversation long after the event.

Here is an example of a branded hashtag: #SXSW, used by the South by Southwest festival, is an iconic and easy-to-remember hashtag. To find trending #Tags or generate relevant #Tags you can use hashtag tools.

Host a Giveaway or Contest

One effective method to attract attendees to your event, along with a social media event promotion strategy, is to hold a giveaway or contest. It's a fact that everyone enjoys receiving free items. 30% of virtual event hosts use giveaways to engage their audience.

For instance, if your target audience consists of small business owners, offering a free trial of your product will generate more qualified leads than offering a random free cooking class. You can also encourage participants to tag their friends in the comments, repost your event, or follow your account to participate in the giveaway.

Share Behind-the-Scenes Pics Way Before The Event Starts

It's always interesting to get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes, especially before a stage is even built. Sharing behind-the-scenes pictures and stories well in advance of an event can be a great way to spark conversation and engagement.

In social media event promotion strategies it is important to keep your social media pages up to date. You can schedule behind the scenes in advance so that you can engage with your audience at the right time efficiently. For scheduling and managing your social media you can use social media management tools.

Invite the Audience to Engage with Social Media During the Event

Encouraging attendees to share their event-related content on their social media accounts is a very beneficial social media strategy for event promotion. This is referred to as user-generated content (UGC), which is believed to be more genuine and compelling than direct brand marketing since it comes from a reliable influencer or personal source.

To encourage UGC, provide opportunities for attendees to take photos, share hashtags, and interact with posts, shares, and comments online. It's also important to schedule breaks between speakers or segments to allow attendees to share content without being distracted from the event.

Live Stream Your Event

One way to broaden your audience in real-time is by utilizing social media platforms such as YouTube Live, Facebook Live, or Instagram Live. Only 20.1% of marketers live-stream their events on social media. This particular social media event promotion strategy is helpful for those who weren't able to register for your event but still want to attend.

Furthermore, livestreaming your event can encourage other attendees to participate, even if they hadn't planned on it before. Additionally, by using video engagement metrics, you can monitor audience engagement during your livestream.

Interview Attendees on Instagram Stories

A social media strategy for event promotion to engage the audience during breaks between speakers or segments at your virtual event is you interview a few attendees to gain insights into their experience. And posting it on your social media.

By doing this, you can tap into your attendees' networks, foster a greater sense of involvement in them, and increase the likelihood that they will repost your content. It's like being on the red carpet!

Repost User-Generated Content

One of the post-event social media event promotion strategies is collecting all user-generated content (UGC) from the event to demonstrate its success. Encourage attendees to use your hashtag in their posts, which will make it simple to locate, reply to, and repost them.

This will also provide you with an idea of which platforms your audience is most involved in. If you discover that a large number of participants have posted on Instagram, you may concentrate on Instagram engagement for upcoming events.

Save Event Highlights to Your Instagram Highlights

The social media strategy for event promotion to prevent your Instagram content from getting lost in the feed is creating Instagram highlights. Highlights are permanently displayed on your page, allowing your Stories to remain visible beyond the typical 24-hour timeframe.

There are various ways to organize your Stories into Highlights, such as categorizing them by theme to showcase what your page is all about, highlighting speakers and sponsors who participated in an event, or featuring attendee engagement through interesting polls, Q&A sessions, or virtual networking highlights.

Conduct a Post-Event Survey

To improve your social media event promotion strategy to make future events flawless it is important to ask your attendees for feedback. 81.8% of virtual event organizers use event polling to improve interaction. Polls are a great way to gather their thoughts and opinions.

You could even post polls on Instagram Stories to get ratings on the event, speakers, and activities. You can also ask open-ended questions like "What did you enjoy most about the event?" or "What can we do better next time?". To generate content or questions for your stories you can use AI content writing tools.

Create and Share On-Demand Videos

Consider making your event video available on-demand as a good social media strategy for event promotion. This will allow people with different time zones or busy schedules to attend your event virtually.

You can share the event through email or embed it on your website. You can also repurpose the short videos, and snippets and share them on social media. To generate leads you can ask people to sign up before giving them asses to videos. 68% of B2B marketers say that most lead generation comes from virtual events.

Use Social Media to Continue the Conversation

Providing a platform for your attendees to continue the discussion about an event after it ends is very effective social media marketing for event promotion. You can inform your audience that they can share their thoughts and criticisms in an open forum.

Additionally, you can use social media listening tools to monitor what people are saying about your event outside of the group. It's important to be receptive to all feedback forms to encourage an open dialogue.

Turn Event Highlights Into a Meme/GIF

One of the best social media event promotion strategies is transforming amusing or unforgettable moments into memes and GIFs that your audience can easily connect with. Make your content more shareable, so it reaches more people and spreads your message effectively.

For instance, if a speaker made a witty remark, you could transform it into a meme with a fitting caption. Alternatively, if all attendees were in sync at a certain moment, you can create a GIF with a caption such as "When everyone's on the same page."

Ask for Feedback on The Event

The most important social media strategy for event promotion after the event is to take note of both positive and negative feedback. 64% of event organizers use the feedback received from their sales team to determine attendee satisfaction. It's important to celebrate the positive feedback but don't ignore the negative. Instead, show appreciation to those who offered criticism and take their feedback into account for future events.

To make the feedback more actionable, consider sending out a post-event survey to gather more information on how to improve. Share with your followers how you've taken their feedback into account and implemented changes for future events. This will encourage them to attend your next event.

What are the Benefits of Social Media Strategy for Event Promotion?

Utilizing a well-crafted social media strategy for event promotion offers numerous advantages. Here are some of the most compelling benefits:

Extensive Reach as a Social Media Strategy for Event Promotion

Social media platforms have an extensive user base, with billions of active users. More than 80% of event organizers have reached a wider audience with virtual events. This wide reach enables your event to reach a global audience, increasing awareness and attendance potentially.

Targeted Marketing with Social Media Event Promotion

Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram provide advanced targeting options, allowing you to reach specific demographics, interests, behaviors, and more. This ensures that social media event promotion reaches the most relevant audience.

Social Media Provides Cost-Effective Advertising

Compared to traditional forms of advertising, social media marketing is often more cost-effective even when utilizing paid ads. 84% of organizations believe virtual events are much more cost-effective than in-person events. Additionally, organic content can help expand your reach without incurring additional costs.

Instant Engagement Using Social Media

One of the key benefits of social media is its ability to facilitate real-time interaction with your target audience. This allows for immediate feedback and lets you answer questions promptly while building excitement around your event.

Enhances Brand Exposure by Social Media Event Promotion

Consistently sharing information about your event on social media ensures that your brand or organization remains at the forefront of your followers' minds, strengthening their ability to recall and recognize your brand.

Integration of Various Media Formats

Social media platforms support a wide range of content types, including videos, images, GIFs, articles, and more. This versatility allows for a dynamic and captivating promotional campaign that can engage a diverse audience. You can create captivating posts using the Creatosaurus AI design editor called Muse.

Access to Analytics & Insights of Event Promotion

Social media platforms offer comprehensive analytics and insights that provide valuable data on your audience's behavior, preferences, and engagement levels. This information enables you to make real-time adjustments to social media strategy for event promotion and evaluate the success of your event after it has concluded.

Facilitates Collaboration for Event Promotion

Social media simplifies the process of partnering with influencers, sponsors, or other organizations to expand the appeal and reach of your event. By leveraging these connections through social media channels, you can increase awareness among new audiences while also benefiting from their established networks.

Conclusion

Social media plays a crucial role in promoting events. It has drastically transformed the way events are marketed, broadening horizons and captivating audiences in unexpected ways.

Social media event promotion helps businesses increase engagement and grow worldwide.

The true power of social media lies in its ability to connect people, build a sense of community, and generate excitement around events. As social media evolves, social media strategy for event promotion is expected to continue utilizing its potential to achieve greater success, resulting in more vibrant, accessible, and unforgettable events.

Using social media platforms, event organizers can effectively raise awareness, target specific demographics, provide real-time updates, collaborate with influencers, and keep attendees engaged even after the event has ended.

Creatosaurus is a marketing platform that helps you maintain an up-to-date content calendar, which will enable you to keep your followers engaged and collaborate more efficiently with your team. Get started with a social media strategy for event promotion on all social media platforms easily using Creatosaurus. So get started with Creatosaurus now.

FAQs for Social Media Strategy for Event Promotion

1. Why do I need a social media strategy for event promotion?

A successful social media strategy for event promotion should empower you to utilize the right social media platforms and provide personalized content that not only attracts followers on these platforms but also motivates them to participate, engage, and ultimately establish a positive connection with your brand.

2. What are some ways to utilize social media for social media event promotion?

Social media offers several ways for social media event promotion: engaging content related to the event, event-oriented hashtags, and targeted ads for the event.

3. Why is social media important in social media event promotion?

Utilizing social media is a crucial strategy for event promotion. It helps in effectively reaching specific demographic targets. Social media strategy for event promotion enhances the recognition of your brand and boosts online visibility.

4. Which social media platform is best for social media event promotion?

The most effective social media platforms for social media strategy for event promotion are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The suitability of a platform depends on the target audience.

5. When should I use LinkedIn for social media event promotion?

If you're targeting working professionals for your B2B brand, LinkedIn is the ideal platform for social media strategy for event promotion.

6. When should I use Instagram for social media event promotion?

If your target audience consists of millennials, women, or both, Instagram is a great platform for social media marketing for event promotion. This is because Instagram is especially popular among users aged 16-24 and women worldwide.

7. When should I use Facebook for social media event promotion?

If you want to reach a wide range of people, utilize Facebook for a social media plan for event promotion. With its massive user base of about 2.96 billion individuals spanning various age groups, Facebook offers great potential for any marketing campaign.

8. When should I use Twitter for social media event promotion?

If your brand is in tune with current trends and is willing to respond to them, utilize Twitter for social media strategy for event promotion. Companies in the tech industry and food brands have successfully executed dynamic campaigns using Twitter as their platform for social media strategy for event promotion.