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7 Tips on Using Social Media to Plan an Event

July 2, 2015
Event Marketing

Social Media cannot be ignored these days when it comes to creating a marketing strategy. It is everywhere, so why not use it to your advantage next time you host an event. With these simple tips, you can get the most out of Social Media and make it work for you.

1) Strategy Planning

Why is it that you are holding the event?
What are you hoping to achieve from it?
Is it to create brand awareness, promote your company, sell a product or to drive traffic to your website?

2) Target Audience

Who is your target audience?
What social media platforms do they use?
What time of day do they use social media?

If you know who you are targeting, then you can research their social media patterns and understand which is the best way to reach them. And what times during the day.

3) Create Pre-event hype

In the lead up to your event you can create some hype around it to get people excited before the big day. Examples of this can include sending out lists of key speakers, posting pictures of them or snippets of videos. If you are building the stand or stage for the event you can evoke excitement by posting progress pictures of everything coming together. You can also post pictures of the food that will be served or of chefs preparing the dishes in the kitchen.

Think about why people are coming to your event, what is it that they will be consuming there, is it food, information, entertainment, or to network, then use this to build hype and encourage interest.

4) Create a Hashtag for your event

Create a hashtag for your event and use it every time you post something to social media, this will make it easy for your guests and clients to follow. Encourage others to use your hashtag, which will allow details of your event to spread even further.

If you don’t already have one, create a hashtag for your company as well, that way, once the event is over, people can still tag you in posted content that relates to your company making it easier for you to track and monitor.

5) Monitor and Interact with your Hashtags and mentions

It is also very important to monitor social media for any mentions of your company or hashtags used. One thing most company’s lack in doing is to interact with the community. Anytime someone mentions you in a post, it’s a great way for a company to show how much they value their attribution by simply leaving a small gratitude message in response. This brings you closer to your customers and clients and adds a personal touch.

6) Encourage guests to ‘Check in’ and Tag your event

On the day of your event, encourage guests to ‘check-in’ on social media as well as using your hashtag for any posts that they make while at the event. Maybe even set up an area for guests to take a photo of themselves with a banner behind containing your logo and logos of other companies involved with your event. Another great idea is to have your own photographer available to take pictures of each guest as they arrive as well as throughout the event. If you take down the names of the quests in each photo, after the event you can upload these pictures to your company’s social media pages and tag guests in each. This creates excitement amongst your guests as you have added a personal touch by mentioning them in your own posts.

7) Post event

As mentioned, after the event you can upload pictures from the event to your own social media pages and tag guests that attended. Another good mention is to thank everyone for attending publicly, in a post. You can also email guests thanking them for their attendance. Here you can also ask for feedback on the event if you need some for future events.

Image sourced via Wikimedia Commons by Messe Luzern AG (Messe Luzern)