5 Tips for a Social Media Event Marketing campaign

Planning a conference, function or event? Are you contemplating using Social Media to help spread the word? There are many things to consider when implementing a full Social Media event marketing campaign and it is not as simple as purely creating a Facebook Page or Twitter Account.

Read on to learn 5 easy tips you should remember when executing a successful Social Media event marketing strategy.

When preparing to market your event online it is important to research where and how your target audience uses social media. There’s no point in utilising 6 different platforms when the majority of your audience engages with one or two particular networks. Trying to have a hand in every circle will only limit your resources and potentially affect the outcome of the entire campaign. You might as well succeed with 2 great social media platforms then accomplishing 6 moderate ones.

Hashtags allow users to find and engage with particular content across most social media platforms. Creating a unique hashtag and implementing it as part of your social media event marketing strategy from the very early stages will create an online momentum that your audience can easily interact with. Try to implement an ‘evergreen hashtag’ – that is don’t limit yourself with a time specific hashtag, especially if it is an ongoing annual event. You could spend months developing a strong following for a hashtag that somehow utilises the year ‘2014’ but when it comes to 2015 you have to completely start building a new audience from scratch.

The event hashtag should be across all posters, flyers, social media photos, websites and commercials to guarantee its reach and success. Your audience needs to see what the hashtag is outside of its use in social media.

Encourage VIP guests of the event to use the hashtag across their own social media networks to organically bring awareness to a wider audience. The ultimate goal is to empower the public to make use of the hashtag themselves, spreading your events reach.

Social Media event marketing does not stop once the event commences but rather it should intensify. The interaction with social media platforms during an event is going to dramatically rise, as social media users are very present-day orientated. Whether it is answering questions, engaging reactions, sharing photos or retweeting significant tweets – there needs to be a strong social media team harnessing all this extra engagement

Everyone loves to feel like a celebrity. They also love to take photos and upload them across their own social media networks. Creating a space to facilitate these photo ops with a brand orientated backdrop results in any participants instantly becoming an event promoter within their own social media circles. Encourage people to use the hashtag and ‘check-in’ to the event and/or location to continually grow your reach.

Social media event marketing should not stop after the conclusion of the event but instead it is wise to continue riding the social media wave you have created.  An event wrap up or highlights will reengage audiences that partook in the event while also showcasing the success and fun to anyone who did not attend. Alluding to next year’s event, if it is an annual occurrence, will help build loyal followers. Depending how engaging you networks are, frequent updates about relevant content will make sure that you are not easily forgotten.

These are only some of the important tips to remember when concentrating on a Social Media event marketing campaign and we would love to know what you think. Comment below on any other vital tips you may believe would be useful to event coordinators!