Do you have a future event on the horizon that needs to be promoted? Are you not sure where to start? Well, you are in the right place to learn some tips and tricks about promoting an event using various social media platforms.
To start, we recommend promoting events on places that are not your direct social media profiles, like via email or on your website’s event calendar. When you send an email, you could direct it to the website’s event calendar with registration information or to a separate registration page. Be sure to keep a consistent registration page across all platforms. Some virtual event software, like BigMarker, even lets you generate unique links to track where registrants found the event - via the website, email, or social media.
Now, onto specific social media platforms. There are unique ways to promote an event based on the platform and its features.
Event Countdown
Take a look at the Instagram story features and you will find the “Event Countdown” feature that allows you to create a ticking countdown leading up to the event. This countdown lives in your stories, but can be set for days in advance and reposted once previous stories expire.
To create an event countdown, you will first need a photo or story image to post the countdown on, so think of an image that would fit this criterion. This may be a photo with the event name, time, and date on a plain background. Once you have this image as the base for the story, click on the clipboard icon and scroll to the COUNTDOWN button. Then, give a countdown name, end date, and end time. Once the countdown is created, drag the button to wherever it looks best on the story and post! After the story is posted with the countdown, users can click on the countdown button to send them a reminder about the event happening when the countdown reaches zero. This is a great way to generate excitement for your event to your Instagram followers, and give them the opportunity to opt into a reminder so they do not forget.
Link in Bio
Take advantage of the “Link in Bio” feature that Instagram provides to all accounts. Any IG account can host one link in their profile’s bio, but a small trick around this is to create a “link tree” or “smart bio” that is one link in the bio, but then leads to multiple other CTAs that a viewer can click. When it comes to promoting your event, you could simply use the link to the registration page as the single link in your bio and direct users there in the form of feed posts and stories. If you have other important links in your bio already, then try adding the event link as a CTA in the smart bio. This means that the link to the event registration page will be one of multiple CTAs when someone heads to the bio. Either method can work well, it all depends if you currently have a link in the bio or not.
Facebook Events
Generate a buzz for a future event by creating a Facebook event page. Whether it be an in-person event or a virtual event, creating a Facebook event page that is linked to your business’s Facebook account is a way to promote on Facebook. It can attract those who follow your Facebook page and those who follow the people that interact with your page.
To create an event, head over to the event tab on Facebook and click “New Event”. Then, you can fill out the specific event date and time, details, location, and guest list. Start by inviting those who directly associate with your business or who may be interested in the event topics planned. Then, encourage them to invite others who may be interested in the event. Make it clear that while people can RSVP to the Facebook event, they still must register on the event page, with the link provided in the Facebook event description. If you set up tracking on your event links, you will be able to tell who is finding the event from Facebook vs. Instagram and so on.
Promotional video or image
This could work on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn in order to promote an event. Create a promotional video that is about one minute long to describe what people can expect from the event and to get them hyped up for what is to come. If it is a conference, promote a quick glimpse into some speakers, classes, or surprises. Add music, video effects, and transitions to make the video stand out and excite registrants.
If you don’t have a video expert on your team, a promotional image does the trick as well. By using a tool like Canva, it is very easy to create professional-looking images that can be shared across social media platforms. Canva even has some animation features that allow parts of an image to move as another way to engage!
Event hashtag
While hashtags can be used across many social media platforms, Twitter is the platform that many associates with hashtags so we can discuss it here. Create a unique hashtag for your event to use while promoting it across social media. Learn more about how to choose an event hashtag in this blog post. By using a unique event hashtag in promotions, you can see who else may be using the same hashtag to get excited about the event.
Retweeting
Twitter is a platform to post text and photos in the form of a more casual “tweet”. Retweeting, or reposting a tweet is a way to get tweets in front of different audiences. If you have access to multiple Twitter accounts across your personal and business accounts, then retweet each other! You may follow other event professionals on Twitter who do not see your restaurant’s tweet about a special event happening. Retweeting will promote to new audiences and could be a strategy for finding new interested participants.
Now that you have some tips for promoting your event on social media, get to it! If you have other strategies that help you to promote events on social media, comment below to let us know.
