In order to increase awareness of your events and boost ticket sales, it’s important to invest time and effort into social media marketing. But with so many social media channels available—and new ones appearing all the time—how should you take advantage of each of them while being relevant?
Today we’ll cover how to use Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok to promote your events in the new year.
By posting on these platforms and making sure your followers are made aware of your event updates, it becomes easier to engage with them and potentially convert them into attendees. 👍
It all begins with understanding your target audience. Knowing who you’re speaking to helps you select the right social platforms to launch your promotional campaigns.
For example, if your event targets Gen Z, then Instagram and TikTok are great channels for promoting your event.
Here are some easy tips on how to get started with social media marketing to promote your events!
How to Promote an Event on Facebook
Not sure where to begin with promoting your event on socials? Facebook is your safest bet.
That’s because Facebook has over 2 billion daily active users as of 2024, making it the largest social media platform in the world. This means the platform has users spanning most demographics—including your target audience.
When it comes to making the most of Facebook, it’s important to share event updates, communicate with followers, and create pages that are dedicated to posting about your event on a consistent basis.You can even target your messaging to specific groups by investing in Facebook’s paid promotion tools, including Meta ads.
Here’s what you need to know about creating a Facebook event:
- Use high-quality, eye-catching photos and videos that capture the essence of your event so potential attendees get a sense of what to expect. Visual content is crucial for grabbing people’s attention in the feed.
- Clearly list the date, time, location, and any important details like pricing or dress code in the description, which eliminates potential confusion. Choose the correct event category so Facebook’s algorithm promotes your event to the right audience.
- Craft an engaging description that builds excitement and gives potential attendees a clear understanding of what to expect.
- Prominently feature a link to purchase tickets or register, and reiterate this call-to-action throughout the event page.
- A verified page lends credibility and ensures your event shows up in relevant search results.
- Cross-promote with any event sponsors, speakers, venues, or influencers involved by co-hosting the Facebook event and cross-posting. Teaming up with influential brands and personalities helps with generating buzz on Facebook, increasing the chances of registrations!
- Boost successful promotional posts as ads to reach wider, specific target audiences outside your current following. Incentivize attendees to share the event by offering giveaways or promoting user-generated content (UGC). This is a great way to create buzz.
- Keep your event top-of-mind by sharing updates, behind-the-scenes looks, and engaging your audience frequently on the event page.
- Review data like reach, engagement, ticket purchases, etc. to understand what’s resonating and refine your strategy.
Nearly 82% of all daily Facebook users log into the platform using mobile devices. To maximize promotional efforts, designing ad campaigns for mobile devices needs to be a priority. Use “tap-able” images and copy.
Make selling tickets directly on Facebook easier with EventUp Planner! Our platform allows event planners to use global fields to track and assess information across multiple events.
How to Promote an Event on X (formerly Twitter)
X (formerly Twitter) is still a powerful platform for event promotion in 2024 leading into 2025. That’s because it thrives on real-time updates and has an extremely engaged user base.
The platform excels at sparking conversations, sharing exclusive BTS content, and providing a direct line of communication with attendees before, during, and after events. Perfect for savvy event planners looking to increase awareness of their events program!
X is the best place to be short, succinct, and innovative.
Here are the fundamental steps behind a successful promotional campaign on X:
- Create a posting schedule or designate a team member to consistently post event updates and engage with the community.
- Create a catchy, branded hashtag that’s easy to remember and incorporates your event name or theme. Find all the potential attendees listed to attend your event and encourage them to post your hashtag!
- Research and follow relevant accounts in your event’s industry, then engage with their posts to increase visibility.
- Provide value through your posts — share insider tips, behind-the-scenes glimpses, speaker spotlights, statistics, or other compelling content related to your event or industry. Informing is much more likely to gain attention, followers, and engagement as opposed to mere promoting.
- Craft posts that spark curiosity, excitement, or encourage discussion by asking questions and soliciting opinions.
- Use a custom URL shortener like Rebrandly or Bitly to brand and track your short links. In doing this, you can analyze click activity on links you’re sharing on X helping you to quickly spot which images, copy variations, or CTAs are most effective.
- Be responsive — like, comment, and repost user-generated content showcasing your event to foster a sense of community. Even a like/repost can convince users to follow and engage!
- Incorporate visuals whenever possible — posts with images, GIFs, or videos tend to get higher engagement.
- Partner with influencers or individuals with large followings in your space to expand your reach through guest posting opportunities.
- Schedule a consistent cadence of posts to maintain an active presence. Hourly posts are very important; avid users refresh their timeline every 1-2 hours on average. Make sure your post is on their timeline every time they open their account.
- Leverage location tagging and local trends to boost visibility among users in the event’s geographic area.
Backing your promo campaign with a solid event marketing tool like EventUp Planner will boost instant engagement and ticket sales directly on X. Our platform allows event planners to create a customized platform to monitor and control all aspects of your events — pass types, promo codes, prices, etc.
How to Promote an Event on Instagram
Instagram is a visual-first platform that’s perfectly suited for creating buzz around upcoming events. Plus, 200 million users visit business profiles every day on Instagram, making it extremely lucrative.
With Reels, event organizers can share engaging, short-form video teasers and behind-the-scenes glimpses to captivate their audience. Plus, in-app shopping features make it easy to sell tickets directly within the app!
IG Stories provide an avenue for sharing real-time updates and countdown content leading up to the event date. The ability to go live, use A/R filters, and incorporate music also opens up creative avenues for promotion.
Here’s how to get started with successful event promotion on Instagram:
- Use a recognizable profile picture, compelling bio, and include clear calls-to-action like “Link in bio” to drive to your event website or ticketing page.
- Create branded, event-specific hashtags and research relevant hashtags in your industry to maximize discoverability.
- Collaborate with influencers, sponsors, speakers, and vendors by having them post about your event to extend your reach.
- Maintain a consistent cadence of posts highlighting different aspects of your event like speakers, venues, schedules, etc. This helps your followers get used to seeing your page name on their feed on a regular basis (hello, algorithm!)
- Use high-quality photos and videos that capture the energy and experience you’re promising attendees.
- Leverage Stories to share behind-the-scenes glimpses, countdowns, live moments, and incorporate interactive stickers and effects.
- Include direct links to your event registration in your bio and use Instagram’s product tagging for easy ticket purchases.
– Offer free tickets or swag to amplify awareness and incentivize engagement like comments, shares, etc.
– Build excitement by broadcasting live Q&As, sneak peeks, and sharing real-time event highlights.
– Repost attendee photos and stories using your official hashtag to showcase your event’s community.
– Add location stickers and geotag posts to increase local visibility and awareness for your event’s venue(s).
Alongside Instagram’s analytics, use a platform that provides a single source of truth for your event data. With EventUp Planner, you’re able to create an unlimited amount of campaign prototypes, promo codes, content, price levels, etc. — all tracked through an intuitive visual analytics dashboard.
How to Promote an Event on TikTok
Promoting your event to a younger audience? You need to add TikTok to your list.
The platform is known for entertaining, bite-sized video content—which particularly resonates with Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Features like viral trends, branded effects, creator partnerships, and easy shareability mean you can showcase your event’s energy in an authentic, engaging way. Plus, the TikTok algorithm excels at amplifying content tailored to niche interests.
Oh, and did we mention that the platform has over 1 billion monthly active users, with 150 million in the United States alone? TikTok’s influence is undeniable.
Here are some best practices for using TikTok to effectively promote events in 2024:
- Optimize your event’s TikTok account. Use a recognizable profile picture, compelling bio description, branded hashtags, and link to your event website/ticketing page.
- Research trending sounds, effects, and challenges. Pay attention to what’s resonating on the platform and get creative by putting your event’s spin on popular trends.
- Partner with influential TikTokers in your event’s niche/industry to expand reach through sponsored content, Cross-promotions, or having them attend as correspondents.
- Embrace the platform’s authentic, behind-the-scenes style. Share glimpses into event preparation, speaker previews, venue walkthroughs, etc. in an unpolished way that resonates with TikTok’s audiences.
- Run contests, ask questions, enable stitching/duetting to encourage user-generated content featuring your event.
– Experiment with TikTok ads and boosted posts. Use targeting parameters to put your best-performing videos in front of precise audience segments.
– Offer giveaways, discounts, or exclusive access for users who create videos promoting your event using branded hashtags.
– Build excitement by broadcasting live, exclusive footage, and letting attendees take over your stream.
– Create TikTok-friendly short video teasers. Edit together compelling highlights set to music/sounds tailored for TikTok’s watch experience.
– Seek out cross-promotional opportunities by having other relevant creators make guest videos on your account.
– Regularly repurpose, highlight, and engage with the best attendee videos showcasing your event.
– Review data on your videos’ viewcounts, engagement, audio traits, etc. to continuously refine your approach.
While TikTok was once an emerging platform where minimal ad spend could generate big returns, its immense popularity in 2024 means event marketers need to allocate more substantial budgets. However, TikTok still offers great opportunities to reach and engage massive audiences in authentic, creative ways.
The potential to go viral organically still exists, but TikTok’s feed algorithms now prioritize videos from accounts willing to invest in promotion. Pairing compelling, trend-tailored creative with advertising dollars is key to cutting through the noise and reaching TikTok’s billions of highly-engaged users worldwide.
Make Event Promotion Easier with Leading Event Planning Software
Social media marketing for event planning is a great way to boost your ticket sales and draw attention to your event. Tapping into the massive user bases on platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok can seriously help you take your event to the next level.
Need professional help with planning your 2025 events? Check out EventUp Planner.
Offering all the key features needed to stay relevant this year and beyond, EventUp Planner gives you an intuitive, seamlessly branded and a convenient digital experience that goes hand-in-hand with the in-person experience.