While dealing with social media can be daunting sometimes, you’ll probably agree that it’s a necessary evil when it comes to planning an event. To connect with the largest amount of your potential audience within the shortest period of time, there’s no doubt that marketing your event through social media is a must. Not only does it help with increasing your guestlist, but it can also create a buzz online, which can help in future events or campaigns run by the business behind the event. Having more people interested in future promotions is never a bad thing, right?
However, promoting your event isn’t as easy as you might think. You can’t just post a link to the website promoting your event and hope things go viral, because in the vast majority of cases, that just isn’t going to happen. Instead, making sure your social media marketing plan is working in such a way that you receive the most amount of traction towards your event page as possible will really help the success of the event overall.
To make sure that you’re doing everything that you can to promote your event meaningfully on social media, here are a list of some of the things you should be doing.
Create a Hashtag… And Make Sure People Know What It Is!
A hashtag is a short, simple word or phrase that reminds people of your event and keeps it current in the world of social media. These are most popular on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, sites commonly used to share short thoughts about things people have enjoyed. Some people will look at what others are tweeting to find out more about something, which is why your hashtag may entice someone that hasn’t heard of your event to check it out! It’s basically free promotion whenever someone else tweets it, so you’d be crazy not to use it!
However, if nobody knows about the hashtag, there’s no point in having one. You might have decided that #marcosmondaymadness works perfectly and fits in with the theme of your event, but if people don’t know that you’ve decided this, the chances of anyone else using it are slim. Ours is #funcasinofun
But how am I supposed to do that if I am just one person, in charge of a large-scale event?
Post it on your event website: If people are planning to attend your event, they’re likely to visit your website at some point to confirm the times, dates, or any other important information. By leaving your hashtag on the website, people might decide to use it to let others know they’re coming because they have been prompted to do so! Like this….funcasinofun.co.uk Leave it at the bottom of emails dedicated to the event: Is someone enquiring about the open times, or other specifics about the event? Make sure you’re leaving the hashtag at the bottom of your email to let them know that they can use it at any point before or during the event to show that they’re attending and/or are enjoying the event. Something as simple as leaving the hashtag after you sign out of your email will suffice. On social networks: Despite what you might think about social media, people are sheep, and will often follow what’s popular, or what they see already on their newsfeed. That way, by keeping your followers updated and using the hashtag, or letting them know the hashtag is the official hashtag of the event, you are keeping it current and active! On promotional content for your event: A lot of businesses utilise photo boards at their event, where their hashtag shows itself at the bottom so that people can be reminded, even after the event, of where they can post their photos or testimonials afterward. However, you could do this with pretty much any form of promotional merch!
Create an Events Page on Facebook
One way to keep people updated with the latest updates about your event is to create an events page on Facebook. For example, if you’re running a music festival, you can use this page to alert people of the headline acts as soon as they are confirmed. This is also a way of enticing new people to viewing your event, as Facebook will alert other friends to the things someone is planning to attend, which may encourage them to find out more about the event and think about going themselves. This is also a good way to gauge how many people will definitely be coming to your event so that you can plan accordingly, although you should give a few people either side as sometimes emergencies and other situations may prevent someone from attending after all.
Use Facebook and Instagram Ads to Market Your Event
When it comes to social media, Facebook and Instagram have the best conversion rates when it comes to their adverts. This means that you have the biggest chance of selling tickets to your event when posting ads on these platforms. You can also personalise these ads so that you exclude people who have already purchased tickets, if applicable, and anyone outside of your target audience who you feel wouldn’t benefit from attending your event. This also means that you can target people within your local area, so that you aren’t wasting your money on appealing to people who will be unable to attend your event anyway.
Pro tip: Use words and phrases that promote a sense of urgency. People are less likely to buy a ticket if they feel that they have more time to buy it, increasing the likelihood of them forgetting altogether. Phrases like ‘last chance’ and ‘ending soon’ will encourage potential buyers to click through and buy the tickets there and then.
Run a Giveaway for Free Tickets to Your Event
Is there anything people love more than being in with a chance to win free stuff? The truth is, we’re all human, and when we see the opportunity of getting something for nothing, we jump on the bandwagon. Even if it’s not something someone may have considered attending before, seeing an event offering tickets for free is enough to pipe people’s interests and have them searching for more information about an event.
This might not seem like a very productive way of promoting the event when you consider the costs of giving away a couple of tickets, however, this will be far outweighed by the number you bring in through the giveaway. People like those I mentioned above won’t be able to stop themselves from purchasing a ticket if they haven’t won the prize because you have already piped their interest in attending the event and they’re too excited to let paying for the event stop them.
Engage with People Attending Your Event
One of the best ways to create a buzz around an event is to reply to those who have already said they’re attending. Many people will use social media platforms to ask questions, and by answering them, you will seem friendly and approachable as a business overall. Even if you can only recommend that they get in contact with another department within the business the event is being completed by, you are giving them your time and attention, which may make them want to sing your praises to their friends, increasing recommendations to attend your event. This also gives you the opportunity to deal with complaints efficiently, as if you see people complaining, you can handle their complaints in a professional manner through private messages, which may prompt them to delete their complaint message once it has been dealt with. This helps as it destroys the negative image of your event before it has had the chance to succeed.
Friends Socializing Together
Here are our top ways of promoting your next event on social media. We hope you take this advice on board so that you can become successful with any future ventures! Of course, having a Fun Casino can really help with your event. Especially if you the classic combination of a Roulette and Blackjack Table.
