Social Media as a Critical Part of Your Event Marketing Strategy

Social media is an undeniable and powerful thread woven throughout the fabric of contemporary life. It’s just part of how we experience things now. And that’s especially true for events. Social sharing before, during, and after your event can provide a level of impact unmatched by any other strategy for engagement and amplification.

There are various social media channels that you can take advantage of in order to leverage your event promotion. Each provides a number of different benefits and ways to engage with your target audience. Regardless of which social channel or channels you choose, social media should become an integral part of your marketing promotion efforts. 

Let’s take a deeper dive into why social media should be the foundation of any effective event strategy.

The Case For Social Media Marketing

Look around any coffee shop and you’ll see just about everyone--- sometimes even the baristas --scrolling through social media feeds. The latest statistics are in and they tell us Facebook has over 2.23 billion active users worldwide while Twitter boasts 68 million active users in the U.S. alone (with 336 million worldwide, just by the way). Other social media platforms like YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram have equally impressive figures.

Okay yeah, so what? We’ve all heard similar statistics a thousand times before. But just take a second to actually ponder those numbers. Millions and billions of social media users are accessing experiences every single day through their screens.

Let’s not mince words: if social media isn’t part of your event strategy, you’ve got no strategy.

Using Video on Social Media to Amplify and Energize

Two of the most precious resources these days are time and mental bandwidth. So, it really shouldn’t come as any surprise that video content on social media is so ubiquitous. 

Video allows the creator to express in sixty seconds what it might take twenty minutes to read. And the viewer retains far more information after watching a video than they do just reading text. Video allows you to quickly showcase all of the benefits of your event, hype it and deliver social proof to your audience about why your target audience should join all the fun.

Savvy marketers are increasingly using things like 3D motion graphics, drone footage, time lapse and interactive videos to tell their story in a succinct yet compelling way.And they’re uploading their video stories to social media. In fact, Instagram stories are one of the fastest-growing features across all social media platforms.

The End Goal

But let’s not lose sight of the end goal. The most clever event strategy in the world isn’t worth a hill of beans if it doesn’t result in visitor conversions (see also: event registrations). If you’ve planned an epic event, you’d better be sure you’ve got the attendance to support it.

So if you’ve got people interested, but they’re not buying, you’ve got a problem. In the realm of social media, one thing converts viewers to engaged participants better than any other: video content.

According to Forbes, 90% of customers say watching a video helps them make buying decisions, and 64% say just seeing a video makes them more likely to buy. Say a friend posts a bland call to action: “who wants to buy concert tickets for this Saturday?” How likely are you to respond? Now picture a video post of Bruno Mars 24K Magic with the text, “THIS. SATURDAY. PM me.” emblazoned over the top. Is there really any comparison? Same rules apply for your event’s social media posts.

Video can help drive ticket sales, especially when they are posted on event pages like Facebook events. Don’t forget to include your event hashtag to boost sales even more!

Live Is Better

Today, live events are all the rage. Nothing promotes your event better than showing everyone having a blast. This makes people get FOMO real bad. Photos and videos that are sent out contemporaneously with your event can really showcase your event. 

However, you don’t want to wait too long to get people interested in your event. Make sure your social media event marketing strategy includes some live video in anticipation of the main event. Get people hyped up about the event by adding a countdown and periodic videos posted in real-time leading up to the event. 

Don’t Forget to Promote Your Event

Social media networks are the perfect place to promote your event. You can add video promotions to your social media channels like:

• Including a highlight reel of past events
• Having guest speakers, current participants, or past guests give video testimonials
• Sharing behind-the-scenes video content and updates
• Creating a Facebook event page and posting photos and videos to it
• Sending video invitations to people
• Creating shareable hashtags across all of your social media channels

When you send any digital communication out to potential guests, be sure you link your event page.  Each time you mention your event, this is an opportunity to link to your social media pages that provide more information people want about your event. So, give them what they want by including links to your pages and frequent updates to energize your audience about the upcoming event.

Sharing is Caring

Creating and posting a social media video that captures eyeballs, evokes strong emotion, and delivers a laser-focused message makes it likely to get shared. And that, friends, is marketing goals. Because sharing is exponential.

If your event video gets your community engaged and energized, they’ll share it because they believe in what you’re trying to do, and you’ll have earned their buy-in (literally and figuratively). They’ll take ownership, which lends credibility when they post on various social networks. And guess what? Their community will share your video too, for the same exact reasons.

In fact, Facebook video posts are shared 135 times more than posts that rely on photos alone. With 55% of people watching videos online every day, it’s no wonder Facebook reports an average of 8 billion video views each day. Here’s another staggering statistic: videos on social media in general generate 1,200% more shares than both text and image posts combined.

Be sure that you give your event goers ample opportunity to share your posts. Provide them with shareable moments, including:

• Photo booths
• Public relations backdrops
• Links to event pages
• Hashtags specific to your event

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Not only should social media play a role in your event strategy, it should be the headliner.

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Create Your Next Level Social Media Event Strategy

Not only should social media play a role in your event strategy - it should be the headliner.

With the right planning and partners, social media video is your gateway to a worldwide audience. It can help you spread a consistent message across a multitude of platforms and result in attendance numbers that break all the records. 

If you’re ready to launch your next event into the stratosphere with an irresistible social media campaign, contact Next Thought Studios. We’re known for our attention to detail, professional approach to every job, and high-quality video production that can be used on every social media platform. Call us today for a free quote and to learn how we can help you build a successful event promotion strategy by using social media and video.