How to Market Your Conference or Party Using Social Media
Conferences, parties, exhibitions and other kinds of public events are an excellent way to give your business a jolt, get more people to find out about it, launch a new product.
A lot is said about how to organize and carry out an awesome event, how to choose a venue (click here to get excellent tips for this job), how to hire an engaging speaker, when and where it is better to do it.
But how to make sure that people find out about it?
The answer is simple: use social media. And here is how.
1. Non-Generic Visual Countdown
We live in the epoch of informational overflow: there is too much information fighting for our attention for us to pay much of this attention to every particular bit of data. As a result we have a shortening attention span – “TL;DR” turned into a real Internet epidemic. People find it hard to concentrate on texts longer than a couple of sentences, and prefer graphic information to textual one. Studies show that photos get 53% more likes than average posts on Facebook – because people don’t have to strain their brains to understand them.
Thus, if you want to immediately arrest the attention of your visitors, create a custom countdown timer to your event and place it where everybody can see it.
2. Your Own Hashtag
People seem to be creating hashtags for pretty much everything, so why not do the same? Think about original, catchy and preferably witty hashtag for your event and spread via all possible channels. Just remember to make it 8 characters or less, and do some research beforehand – you don’t want to find out at the last moment that your genius hashtag has already been used for something completely unrelated.
3. Engage Potential Visitors
For your conference to become a truly buzz-worthy event, you have to start engaging people before it even starts and keep them on their toes for the entire period of preparation. Start a Twitter contest, either purely for entertainment reasons or offering freebies to the winners, for example, free conference registration for a limited amount of people who will answer the quiz correctly.
4. Start Early
Social media marketing relies on word-of-mouth spread of information and, with very few exceptions, these strategies take time to kick in. Don’t hurry – at least a month should pass between you start selling tickets and the actual event – this will allow people to talk about it, spread the information and attract new visitors.
5. Reach Out
Social media make this easier than ever before: you can strike up a conversation with anyone, anywhere, without even the necessity to be acquainted with them. Address potential attendees, people from thematic groups and so on. Check to see where you hashtag is used and talk to those who mention it to show that you care about every potential visitor.
6. Encourage Your Speakers to Promote Your Event
Ask your speakers to record teaser videos, giving a hint of all the awesomeness they are going to impart to your visitors. Encourage them to spread information about their participation via their blogs or social media accounts. Create a separate website, Facebook account and a blog for your event where you will keep all these promotional materials, as well as interesting content giving the attendees a taste of what they are going to see.
All in all, the possibilities of social media in terms of marketing are almost unlimited – and no businessman can afford to ignore this tool now. Learn how to use it, and your next conference is sure to become a hit!
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