Comprehensive Social Media Event Strategy to Boost Event Registration
If the phrase “social media promotion” makes you roll your eyes as you picture curated images and cliche captions, it’s time to think again.
When done well, a social media strategy for your event can be the ace in your back pocket. Social media marketing boosts event visibility and forges invaluable connections with attendees and followers.
Below are our top nine recommended ways to market your event on social media, make the most of your social media strategy, and convert your social media followers into registrants.
1. Social Media Strategies Before the Event
A successful social media marketing strategy starts well before the event day. As your event draws near, be intentional about building collective excitement. You can build anticipation through countdowns, teaser posts, sneak peeks, in-progress photos, or preview interviews with your keynote speakers.
Be so compelling, in fact, that your followers just can’t help but stop mid-scroll and stare at your story.
Encouraging a dialogue around the event's themes and activities will not only help your event marketing, but it will also engage your audience. Leverage targeted ads to reach potential attendees, and don't forget to utilize relevant hashtags to amplify your reach.
Keeping your social media accounts buzzing before your event excites your attendees and often sways the people on the fence about registering. When you pair pre-event updates with exclusive promotions, your follower engagement will soar.
2. Make Purchasing a Breeze
Want to use social media to boost event registration? Make it easy. Even if you post professional quality photos alongside excellent captions, your best event marketing efforts will stagnate if your followers have to dance through a digital obstacle course to find the registration page. Registration purchasing through social media should be a seamless process. Make the links obvious, and mention them often.
On Instagram, you can boost your event registration by providing the registration sales link in your bio, your stories, and your posts. For Facebook, create an event page with a link to your registration page.
Finally, on the confirmation page, after purchasing, include a pop-up that gives the option to share on social media. If you place your direct registration link in multiple places and remove the obstacles, both you and your followers will benefit.
3. Offer Exclusive Promotions for Your Followers
One of the quickest ways to make your social media followers feel like VIPs is to reward their choice to follow you by offering exclusive promotions. Consider adding the following steps to your social media strategy.
- + Post an image with a #giveaway that places followers in a drawing once they’ve tagged their friends.
- + Launch a “best event photo” contest on Instagram—and gift the winners with merchandise.
- + Broadcast 20% off packages to your LinkedIn followers.
Get creative, and you’ll find plenty of ways to turn followers into registrants.
4. Make the Most of Hashtags
Before you roll your eyes again, know that when we say hashtag, we don’t mean #bestlife. We’re talking about the critical event tags that help thousands of people easily find photos and people at your event.
For best results, use a consistent hashtag before, during, and after your event. When registrants catch on and post using your hashtag, be sure to like and repost. Make your tag unique but not too hard to find. For example, use #financialfreedom, not #letsbuildwealthandthrive.
In addition to the official event hashtag, use hashtags that are relevant to each post. If you post an image of an influencer meetup for finance bloggers, for example, use descriptive hashtags such as #bloggingcommunity, #financeblogger, or #financetips if you have a more specific focus. This will make you visible to people searching for specific types of images, such as outfits or recipes.
5. Keep Followers Engaged with Memes
If you’ve questioned whether memes have a place in event marketing for corporate events or professional classes… the answer is yes! Social media is filled with memes and a recent study showed that nearly one-third of all content posts are memes. This poses a great opportunity for you to engage and entertain your following with a meme related to your event.
Meme generators will let you find trending memes and then customize them to your event. Or, based on your demographic and audience, find a relevant genre of meme and make it your own.
Maybe it is an Office meme of Michael Scott celebrating, and you relate that to the feeling of scoring early bird registrations for your event. Or maybe it is someone angrily smashing something, and the caption relates to missing early bird discounts.
The humor and added personality will surely score extra engagement from your followers, bringing more attention to your event.
6. Post Often
Many people worry about posting too much on social media. And yes, if you’re showcasing the minutiae of your mundane moments each morning, it might be excessive.
When it comes to your event, however, don’t shield the world from what you have! Why? Posting often will boost your event registration numbers.
Most social feeds are based on algorithms, so you’ll need to post several times in order to get seen. Posting frequently increases engagement, attracts new followers, and develops a photo bank for your future promotions. Plus, the people who had to miss the event can still stay connected.
7. Choose the Right Platform
To boost registration on social media, you need to post to the right platforms. In many cases, where you post is almost as important as what you post. Depending on your event audience, you’ll want to target different age groups according to their primary digital platforms.
For example, Facebook is most popular with baby boomers and millennials, and TikTok is most popular with Gen Z. If you want to target professional adults, LinkedIn will be your best bet, according to recent statistics. YouTube is a fantastic way to showcase your event videos and captivate attendees with reels.
8. Social Media Strategies During the Event
While nailing your pre-event marketing strategy is important, your social media strategy doesn’t stop when the event starts. The event itself is a crucial time to use social media.
Post Live Footage
As the event unfolds, post clips of the speaker in their element and photos of the audience tuned in. Not only will the footage be invaluable next year, but it will also generate a sense of belonging (or FOMO) around this year’s event.
Tag Attendees
At large events, oftentimes, people feel like they’re just a part of the crowd. On the other hand, when an event organizer tags attendees or reposts an attendee’s post, people immediately feel special and recognized.
Of course, you won’t be able to tag every registrant, but just a handful of @mentions will go a long way. The registrant will likely repost the picture to their account; they’ll tag their friends; everyone will gain new followers and connections.
Tagging registrants is a win for all. Just be sure to ask for permission, and please, only use flattering images. No one wants to be stuck on the main event page with broccoli in their teeth.
9. Post-Event Social Media Plan
As the sun sets on your spectacular event, it's time to extend the horizon of your reach and keep the glow alive. Share recap videos, highlight reels, and event statistics to celebrate the success. Thank your attendees, sponsors, and contributors through heartfelt posts.
Encourage participants to share their memories and experiences in the week following using the dedicated hashtags. Leverage user-generated content to create a sense of continuity. Don't forget to gather feedback through polls or surveys for future improvements. Executing your post-event social media plan is the final step to ensuring your event's impact lingers in the digital realm!
Key Takeaways
At the end of the day, you want to build a social media platform that is interesting, worth following, and conducive to connection.
If you use these tips, your social media account will not only be your secret weapon in yout event marketing, but it will be a super helpful resource for your followers.
Here to help you host your most successful event ever!
— The RegFox Team
