Social media is the go-to tool for event promotion, providing a cost-effective and efficient way to reach new audiences and create buzz around your event. But in the ever-changing digital landscape, it can be hard to keep up with which activities and tactics are working best when it comes to using social media to promote your event. In this blog post, we'll explore 5 creative ways to use social media to promote your next event and provide tips and best practices for implementing them in your event promotion strategy

Use Instagram and Facebook Stories to create a sense of urgency and excitement

Instagram and Facebook Stories are a great way to create excitement and a sense of urgency around your event. Stories are a great engagement tool for connecting with your existing followers, so remember you’ll mostly be communicating with people who already know, like and follow you when creating content for these placements. There are many great features and stickers that you can use when creating stories, such as countdowns, quizzes, polls, questions and photo shares. Incorporate these to get your community engaging with you, foster a connection with your followers and encourage two-way communication. Sharing behind-the-scenes footage, sneak peeks, and other exclusive content through your stories can create a sense of exclusivity and make your event feel more desirable. Additionally, by using Instagram and Facebook Stories, you can create a sense of urgency by sharing up-to-date news on the number of tickets left or the time remaining before the event.

Set up Facebook events and Instagram event reminders to remain top-of-mind with your audience

Allow your audience to save the date and receive reminders about your upcoming event by tapping into the tools available directly via Facebook and Instagram. Facebook events and Instagram event reminders are great ways of engaging your audience and gauging event interest even if customers are slow to purchase tickets. Audience behaviour has certainly changed since the pandemic, and trends in early 2023 are showing that people are waiting until much later to buy tickets to events that they want to attend. This can prove challenging for event organizers who rely on hitting ticket sales targets for their events to go ahead. Using Facebook and Instagram events features in your marketing allows you to get a sense for the interest in your event early in your promotional activity, re-engage with people who have expressed interest in your event by posting unique content to them, create audiences to target your advertising towards, and send reminders of the upcoming event so that interested people remember to buy their tickets. 

Use social media ads on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to reach new audiences

Facebook, Instagram and TikTok ads are a great way to reach new audiences and promote your event. By targeting specific demographics and interests, you can increase visibility and drive ticket sales. Additionally, by using social media ads, you can also retarget users who have shown an interest in your event or have visited your event website.

Tap into user-generated content to create a sense of community and excitement

User-generated content is content that is produced by your audience, and is a great way to create a sense of community and excitement around your event. By encouraging attendees and followers to share photos, videos, and other content related to your event, you can leverage a wide variety of content types, and showcase your event through your attendees eyes. Because user-generated content comes directly from your attendees, it is often perceived as highly trustworthy by other followers and can perform very well in promoting your event and encouraging your followers to buy tickets.  Additionally, by reposting and sharing user-generated content, you can increase visibility to new audiences, expanding your community and driving ticket sales.

Incorporate live streaming to give a sneak peek of your event

Live streaming is a great way to give your future audience a sneak peek of your event and create excitement. By live streaming key moments from your event, such as a performance or keynote speech, you can give future audiences a taste of what they can expect and encourage them to purchase tickets to your next event. Live streaming can also be used to give your audience exclusive access to behind-the-scenes moments and other unique experiences, and many event organizers are using live streaming to offer a virtual ticket for people who can’t attend their events in-person. 

It's important to note that when implementing these social media strategies for your event promotion, consistency is key. You should maintain a consistent brand voice and message across all platforms and make sure that the visuals and the message are aligned with the theme and message of your event. Also, make sure to track and measure the success of your social media efforts by using tools such as social media analytics, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your efforts for maximum impact.

Social media is a powerful tool for event promotion, providing a cost-effective and efficient way to reach new audiences and create buzz around your event. If you need help leveraging social media to promote your event or business get in touch with our team by hitting the Work With Us button and let's see what we can do together!

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