Event Planning + Social Media: 5 Crucial Event Marketing Tips
Businesses are increasingly turning to event marketing as a way to grow their audience. Everyone from venture capitalists to technology publications are getting into the events space as a means of building their company. But you can’t just plan an event and hope your audience magically appears. Social media marketing needs to be an integral part of your event-planning efforts. To make sure your social marketing is as strong as possible, keep the following five tips in mind the next time your team is contemplating hosting an event.
1) Social media marketing doesn’t just happen while your event is in progress. You need to develop a social media strategy long before your event occurs and start your outreach efforts early. For maximum social media ROI, your marketing should happen before, during, and after an event.
2) Decide in advance which platforms you will use for marketing (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and which social listening platforms your team will use (Social Mention, BrandWatch, etc.).
3) Event planners should identify their target audience in advance and understand the type of social outreach their target audience will respond to. “Spray and pray” doesn’t work when it comes to event marketing on social media.
4) Set a social media marketing budget for your event outreach and determine which departments/individuals will be responsible for social posts/tracking/reporting. Events can be harried; it is too easy to assume someone else is taking care of social marketing and end up with slipshod coverage at best.
5) Blog posts are a great way to get extra mileage out of your event. Make sure someone on your event team writes a post on the company blog detailing your event. Not only does a blog post give an insider’s peek at your event (for those who didn’t attend), but a blog post is excellent for SEO too.
These are just five of many tips to remember about marketing your events on social media. The more attention you pay to the details, the better your event marketing will be and the stronger your event ROI. Will you be incorporating these tips into your next event planning strategy?