- Event Promotion Tips
10 ways to make the most of social media at your events
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By Ryan Moss
- 01 Aug 2023
- 11 min read
Social media can be a bit of a minefield.
Each platform has its own algorithms, there are debates over the best time to post content and websites are trying their best to keep visitors on their page. Your post that links away to your event listing? It can sink into the digital ether.
Unfortunately, we can’t solve the problems above; they plague us at the best of times, too. But we can give you something: 10 ways to make the most of social media at your events.
You can use social media to generate excitement and document your event. Then, when your event has finished, you can gain insights, feedback and build relationships with your attendees.
With that in mind, we’ve split the article into three parts. Scroll down to get the lowdown on using social media at your events.
Before the event
Utilise footage from past events
Pre-event trailers are all about whetting the appetite.
Your trailer may accompany your initial announcement before you share sign-up links and early bird tickets. So, you want to build anticipation. You can do this by giving away just enough details and using footage from previous events.
Your potential attendees get a sneak peek of what’s in store, and returning customers can be reminded of last year’s event. Then, you can repurpose the trailer across other platforms. We’ll cover that later.
A trailer can work for any event type, but the content might change depending on what you’re promoting. Think about your target audience and go from there.
Cross-post the trailer across social media platforms
We mentioned earlier that you can cross-post your trailer.
So, if the trailer goes up on Instagram first, you can post it on YouTube and TikTok without having to create a brand-new asset. Think of it as a time-saving exercise.
You’ll likely have followers across social media platforms, so cross-posting can help you reach them all. Plus, there are lots of users on each platform, so you might find new attendees.
Make sure you think logically, though. For example, a trailer will work well across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok because they’re either video-based or have the capabilities for video. It might not be best to post a trailer on Twitter due to it being a text-based platform.
Generate urgency with clever presentation
Want to keep the stream of sales flowing?
Urgency is your friend.
We tend to make quicker decisions with a deadline looming over us.
First, create an eye-catching asset with the percentage of tickets left for the event. Then, post that on your Instagram Story, as a regular post or both. If you like, you can add a countdown to the event on your story post.
Festivals, club nights, gigs, conferences and summits can all benefit from showing potential attendees how many tickets are left. But like the points we mentioned in the trailer section, edit the presentation of your asset to suit the mood of the event you’re promoting.
Showing the percentage lets people visualise how many (or few) tickets there are left. Rather than a heavy sales ‘push’, you’re reminding people to make that purchase on paydays.
Hold a ticket giveaway
Let’s say you’re using Instagram. You’ve put four tickets away, posted an eye-catching asset and told people to follow, tag three mates and share the post to their story to be in with a chance to win.
If all goes to plan, your follower count should go up, which means more eyes on this event and any in the future. You’re showing your brand to entrants’ friends, as they’ve been tagged. And your brand is being shown to their friends, thanks to the story posts.
So, it’s simple to set up and the potential for increased brand awareness is high. Normally, you’d have to spend a lot of money to achieve that. Plus, once you’ve run a few of them over the years, you can use the strategy to engage new and existing customers. It’s a no-brainer.
During the event
Combine Meta’s features for promotion
Meta – Facebook and Instagram’s parent company – has a few tools that you can use during your event.
First up? Custom Locations. This feature allows you to tag any pictures you post to Instagram with the venue your event is at. You might have to create a location on Facebook beforehand, but if the venue is known, it’s likely to be available to use as a location.
Any time you post images or video footage over the weekend of your event, tag the location. Encourage your attendees to use the location when they post content, too. By the end of the event, you should have lots of UGC (user-generated content) when you click on the location.
We’ll cover what you can do with this content further down.
Use Hashtags
If you’ve got an engaged Twitter following, hashtags can help you with promotion.
At a conference, summit or talk, it’s common for attendees to live-tweet the sessions to their followers. Before the event, think of a hashtag for the event and encourage attendees to use it when tweeting about any part of the event.
You’ll be able to easily retweet comments, feedback and media posted by attendees. Additionally, people at the event will be able to connect. Any content they post can be boosted by you and used to promote your event.
It goes back to brand awareness. If the people in your industry can see your event is all over their timeline, the reputation of your event will go up. More people will know that you’re doing something, which can result in ticket sales for other events down the line.
Go live with artists and presenters
The people who aren’t attending your event will likely be browsing socials throughout the weekend.
So, if you’re running a festival, why not go live with artists? You could schedule interviews via Instagram Live, and if you have the equipment, live-stream special performances for the people at home.
Similarly, you could go live with presenters. The presenters could take over your Instagram on a specific day, giving viewers a glimpse into what is going on at the event.
You’ll be creating informative and entertaining content, which people could tune into without even knowing about your festival. For the people who missed out, this could be something that sticks in their minds for the year after.
After the event
Review the content from your location and post to your story
Remember Meta’s location feature from earlier?
Well, once you’ve clicked on the location, you’ll have a bank of content stored up. Then, you can repost the content from your attendees to your story.
Putting the focus on your attendees and their experience still promotes your event but from a different perspective. People tend to zone out when they see too much self-promotion from brands.
Once you’ve created the story post, use Instagram’s Highlights feature to save it to your page. Then, you’ll have a permanent place for people to view footage from your event. It will give people who aren’t aware of what you’re doing some context to what your event is all about.
Encourage people to have their say
Analysis is a powerful tool.
You’ll look over the data behind attendance figures and ticket sales later on in the cycle of the event. However, you can use social media to get some early feedback.
Instagram’s stories feature allows you to ask your audience questions. So, you can use this to find out what event attendees thought of their experience.
You could be general or specific. For example, you might want to ask your attendees about their favourite part of the event; or if they enjoyed a specific talk or set you organised. You can be light-hearted here, too. It all depends on your goals.
While this feedback won’t be all the analysis you do, it’ll help. Especially if you took a risk on a certain booking and want to get a general idea of how it was received.
Create a recap video
We’re ending as we started.
You can sign off the promotion cycle of your event with a recap video.
It’s a straightforward concept. Instead of using footage to show what’s in store, you’ll be using footage to show off what happened.
You can show a bit more of your event with a recap video. The idea here is to create a feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out). If you’re promoting a festival, club night or gig, get the footage of the best crowd reactions and show the people what they’ve been missing.
The same cross-posting idea applies to the event recap, too. Plus, you can use parts of this video for your next event.
Got a question you need an answer to? Give us a call on 03333010301 or ask us a question over on the Skiddle Promoter Twitter account by clicking or tapping on the button below. Alternatively, you can also find a list of our most frequently asked questions over at https://help.promotioncentre.co.uk/
