Social Media Event Promotion: The Top 10 Strategies

To increase awareness of your events and boost ticket sales, businesses should consider investing their time and effort into social media event promotion and marketing. Planning ahead and developing a cohesive marketing strategy can unlock social media’s full marketing potential.

While most of your social media marketing and event promotion occurs before an event starts, it shouldn’t stop there. Promoting your event on social media while it’s happening and even after it’s over is just as important as creating initial hype.

When you think about connecting with your followers at every possible touchpoint, including social media marketing, you’re more likely to convert them into customers. With that in mind, here are some easy tips to incorporate into your social media event promotion strategy before, during, and after your next event.

Choosing the right social media platforms for event promotion is crucial to reaching your target audience effectively. Each social media platform caters to different demographics and has unique features that can enhance your event marketing strategy. Here’s an overview of some popular social media platforms and their potential benefits for promoting events:

With over 2.8 billion monthly active users, Facebook is a versatile platform suitable for various types of events. It offers event creation features, allowing you to create dedicated pages, share event details, and engage with attendees.

Benefits: Extensive reach, event analytics, and the ability to create a community around your event.

Known for its visually appealing content, Instagram is perfect for events that can be showcased through images and short videos. The platform’s Stories and IGTV features are valuable for sharing behind-the-scenes content and event highlights.

Benefits: Visual engagement, hashtag usage for event discoverability, and influencer partnerships.

Twitter is a real-time platform that excels in quick updates and conversations. It’s suitable for events where frequent updates, live-tweeting, and audience engagement are essential.

Benefits: Hashtag trends, real-time updates, and direct interaction with attendees and influencers.

Ideal for professional and B2B events, LinkedIn allows you to target a more business-oriented audience. It’s effective for sharing detailed event information, industry insights, and networking opportunities.

Benefits: Professional networking, targeted advertising, and thought leadership.

For events with rich visual content or video highlights, YouTube provides a platform for sharing longer videos and live streaming. It’s suitable for conferences, performances, and product launches.

Benefits: Video content, live streaming, and a dedicated channel for event archives.

Primarily used by a younger demographic, Snapchat is perfect for creating ephemeral content that encourages FOMO (fear of missing out). It’s great for events with a sense of urgency and exclusivity.

Benefits: FOMO marketing, geofilters, and interactive content.

When choosing the right social media platforms, consider your target audience, the nature of your event, and the type of content you plan to share. A well-rounded approach that combines multiple platforms strategically can maximize your event promotion efforts.

TikTok has rapidly gained popularity for its short-form video content. With a focus on creativity and trends, TikTok is suitable for events that can leverage engaging and entertaining video content.

Benefits: Influencer collaborations, hashtag challenges, live streams.

Build hype around an upcoming event by showing a little of what’s going on behind the scenes. You can “tease” the event by introducing your followers to important guests, such as hosts or panelists, and sharing photos and videos of the event venue, program, or agenda.

The goal here is to give potential event attendees just enough information to entice them and encourage them to register for your event without spoiling the entire experience.

Creating a branded event hashtag will help you organize all event-related content across your social media channels. 

Make it unique, short, and easy to spell so it’s recognizable and easy for attendees to use. 

To ensure that people see and engage with the hashtag, use it on all event-related social media content and marketing materials. You can even email attendees ahead of time, encouraging them to use the hashtag themselves on their social media pages when they talk about the event.

Utilizing an event hashtag curates a collection of user-generated content that you can re-share to your audience to show the event from an attendee’s point of view. Sharing user-generated content excites attendees about posting more in hopes that their posts get picked next. 

Create a countdown to get your social media followers excited about your upcoming event.

Instagram makes this easy with its countdown sticker feature on Instagram Stories. Simply set an end date and time, and you’re ready! 

To customize your countdown further, edit its name and color to reflect your event’s branding. In their article about marketing ideas, Getting Attention explains that cohesiveness among your marketing materials is key to brand recognition.

When people view your countdown, they can subscribe to receive a notification when the countdown is over and share the countdown on their own Instagram Story.

While you can certainly use this feature to remind your followers of the event, it’s potentially even more useful for calling attention to ticket sale deadlines to drive sales.

Facebook event pages are an incredible way to store and share information about your event in one place. You can add the date, time, event category, description, and photos to really flesh out the page.

Additionally, take advantage of the event page’s discussion area to post updates and answer any questions before the event. You can also tag hosts or panelists so they can share the information as well.

Most importantly, don’t forget to add the ticketing link to your event page for easy access.

A wonderful feature of Facebook Event Pages is when someone interacts with your event pages and identifies as ‘Going’ or “interested’ Facebook then shares that information and your page with their audience, exposing your events page to a much wider audience than you have on your own individual page.  

To increase brand awareness before an event, try hosting a social media contest or giveaway.

First, create a post with the details of the giveaway. Then, ask your followers to share the post using your event hashtag to enter.

For the price of some free tickets or merchandise, you can exponentially expand your reach and encourage ticket sales, making this strategy worth the investment.

There are many different ways you can spark conversations online about your event. Live tweet important updates or information that your followers could benefit from. This play-by-play coverage style helps your followers feel immersed in the event even if they’re not actually there.

You could also take advantage of Instagram Stories by interviewing hosts and attendees or sharing pictures and videos of the event in action. Remember to use your event hashtag to keep all your event content in one place.

Just as you can incorporate your event into your social media posts, you can also incorporate social media into the event itself. Display tweets or comments about your event on a large screen to initiate a dialogue between your followers and attendees.

You can also answer questions that pop up, making the conversation more interactive between the in-person and online participants.

User-generated content is an incredible addition to your social media channels because it’s organic and shows your event from different perspectives.

After your event, go to your event hashtag and take a look at the content people have created. 43% of regular TikTok users feel that the promotional content they see on the app blends in with other content, so TikTok is a great platform for finding organic, engaging, user-generated content.

Then, respond to the creators to show you value their engagement with the event. TikTok users appreciate when businesses comment on user-generated content, with 77% agreeing that they love to see brands get excited about what other people post. Just make sure you get the creators’ permission before sharing their content. 

Finding out what people liked and disliked about your event is the best way to make future improvements. Start by thanking people for attending your event. eCardWidget recommends thanking supporters promptly and personally to make them feel appreciated. 

Add details to your thank you notes, such as attendees’ names, the specific event they attended, and any details about their participation, such as if they made user-generated content or purchased during the event.

Next, ask your attendees if they have any feedback they’d like to share. You can do this through a social media comment, a direct message, an email, or a formal survey. Then, analyze the data you receive and incorporate it into your next event’s marketing strategy.

Provide some quick summaries on your social media channels to let people in on the event who couldn’t attend. These should include your best highlights or snippets of the event, such as photos, videos, and notable quotes or information.

You can also send a recap email summarizing the event for attendees and email list subscribers. That way, attendees remember the main details, and subscribers can get excited about possibly attending the next event.

Social media enhances event promotion by providing a wide-reaching platform for targeted marketing, real-time updates, and cost-effective advertising. It fosters engagement, enables user-generated content, and offers valuable analytics, making it a powerful tool to amplify event visibility and success.

To announce an event effectively on social media, create visually appealing posts with key event details, utilize attention-grabbing visuals or videos, incorporate relevant hashtags, and schedule posts strategically to maximize reach. Engage with your audience through interactive elements, such as polls or Q&A sessions, to generate excitement and encourage social sharing for broader event promotion.

Start promoting your event on social media 8-12 weeks before the scheduled date. This time frame allows for ample anticipation and engagement and ensures that the event gains momentum leading up to the date.

For optimal event promotion, aim to post on social media consistently leading up to the event, with a frequency of 2-3 posts per week. This ensures a steady stream of updates, maintains audience engagement and avoids overwhelming followers with excessive content. Adjust the frequency based on the platform’s dynamics and audience responsiveness.

With so many different social media event promotion ideas and strategies out there, it can be difficult to figure out which ones work best. Hone your social media marketing strategy with these tips to better promote your events and engage attendees.

Looking for ways to promote your events more effectively? Use EventUp Planner event marketing software to easily launch and promote your events, interact with registrants, and track your campaigns.