Zen question: If you gave an event and nobody came, did it really happen? Of course it did, but if no one showed up, it might as well not have!

The social media marketing experts at 101 Management, Inc., want to show you not only how to effectively promote your event on social media to ensure big crowds, but how to capitalize on it to reach even more people afterward.

To maximize your marketing results, you’ll want to:

  • build buzz and anticipation in advance;
  • engage fans during; and,
  • keep them interested afterward.

All this requires a solid marketing plan, for all three phases.

Before the event

Before you even get to social media, you must:

  • define your goals;
  • identify your customers; and,
  • decide on social media platforms.

Good up-front planning prevents wasting time and effort. Once you establish your goals for the event, it makes it easier to pinpoint who your ideal attendees are, and helps you decide which social media platforms to focus on. Unless you have an unlimited budget that you can use to pay a huge staff, you’ll want to concentrate your social media activity on the two or three that your prospective attendees are most likely to use.

  1. Once you’ve selected your platforms, create a short, simple, hashtag that you and followers can use across all of them. It should be unique to the event, and easy to remember and spell. Be sure to include it on all your promotional material including flyers, feature it prominently on your website, and add it on all forms of communication, including posts, blogs, and emails.
  2. If your event is large enough, and is likely to attract big crowds, consider creating at least one dedicated social media event page, depending on where your fans spend most of their time. If they are most likely to use Facebook, for example, create an event page there that details all the particulars: event, time, guests and speakers, costs, registration, early-bird promos, etc. A bonus: When attendees take actions like registering through your event page, they can share it on their News Feed, thus expanding your marketing reach.

During the event

Remember that the event is taking place not just in real time, but on your selected social media sites, as well. Your attendees are likely be tweeting, Instagramming, Snapchatting, etc., throughout the day/weekend, and you should, too. For those who wanted to attend and for whatever reason weren’t able to, you want to make them feel as if they are part of the action (and maybe make them more likely to attend your next event).

There are many ways to do this:

  • livestream your entire event;
  • post interviews of speakers and attendees on Instagram Stories; or,
  • live-tweet memorable moments and behind-the-scenes action.

Other ways to engage people during the event include setting up a photo booth or displaying social media posts from attendees (use your event hashtag to find them).

After the event

We’re sure your event was highly successful! And you can leverage that success—and your attendees enthusiasm about it—to market your product or service after the fact.

The easiest way to capitalize on your success is, of course, through social media.

You can:

  • create a highlight reel and post it on your Instagram Stories Highlights;
  • solicit feedback from attendees on the event: likes, dislikes, etc., and be sure to respond to them; and, most important:
  • post your attendees’ and speakers’ content (which you can find through your unique event hashtag).

We have dozens more ways to make your event successful, memorable, and profitable, so be sure to let us help.