How to do successful social media marketing for an event?
The Essential Guide – Social media for events article gives advice on how to create appropriate and successful social media marketing for an event. What social media platforms are the best for different kinds of events? How often, when, and what kinds of posts are the most effective in order to gain a broader audience?
Which platforms should I use?
According to the article, the first step to find the most relevant platforms is to familiarise yourself with the different social media platforms. Who is your target group and what kind of platforms do they use?
The article came out in 2017, so some of the data has expired since then. For example, the most commonly used social media platforms are slightly different now. The article states that the most popular platform is Facebook, so being present on this website is a must. However, according to Datareportal, nowadays Instagram is more common, especially among young people. It is still true, though, that you should only create an Instagram account for your event if you can share visually interesting photos or videos.
However, Facebook is still on the top, and unlike some other platforms, it is also common amongst millennials. Therefore, it is still a useful platform to be present, especially if your target group actively uses Facebook.
Another platform that was deemed to be important to be present, is Twitter. Twitter indeed, has a high number of users, however, it is mainly commonly used in the USA and in Japan. Therefore, in my opinion, if your target group includes other nationalities, it might not be such an important platform as the article states.
There is a platform that was completely missing from the article and is the world’s most downloaded mobile app: TikTok. It is also more common amongst younger users, so you should probably be present on TikTok if these users are partly your target group and you can share short but captivating videos about your event.
Youtube is a great platform to share videos, so if you can create informative and professional videos for your event, you could gain a lot of viewers.
LinkedIn is useful if your event appeals to businesses, and Snapchat is useful if your target group is teenagers. Pinterest is a good platform to create infographics and visually appealing mood boards about your topic.
What kind of content should I share?
According to the article, one strategy to achieve balance with the posts is the „4:1:1” rule. This means that for every promotional post, you should retweet one relevant post, and share four new relevant content. Promotional posts can be a countdown to the next event, discounts, early bird tickets, etc. Relevant posts are more about sharing news, using surveys, polls, giving insight into behind-the-scenes actions, etc.
The article points out the importance of good quality and appropriate size images. In my opinion, this can indeed add a lot to the quality of the social media platform. For example, people mainly see Instagram stories on their phone, so sharing images and videos in a vertical shape look better than horizontally.
Also, the article has not mentioned, but the types of fonts in infographics tell a lot about the event. When advertising a formal event, regular, classic fonts are more appropriate to use. Playful, more interesting-looking fonts tend to look informal, and using too many different fonts can be chaotic.
How often and when should I post?
The article states that the best time to post is when most of your audience is online. Some of the best times are mornings and evenings during commute time, lunch break, etc.
I would also add that posting something at another time of the day than when the picture or video was taken can look strange. So, for example, images that were clearly taken in the evening shouldn’t be posted in the morning, but in the evening.
Also, as the event gets closer, the frequency of the posts can raise, and it is okay to post more promotional posts.
Overall, I mainly found the points of the article useful, as it helps to improve social media marketing. On the other hand, even in the past few years, the world has changed a lot, and some of the points are getting outdated. But the main message remains the same: find your target group, analyze them, and create content that can reach them.
Do you agree with my points? Is there something that you would like to add? Write your opinion in the comments:)
References:
Article: EventBrite: Essential Guide. Social Media for Events
Digital 2022: The World’s Favourite Social Media Platforms
Leading countries based on number of Twitter users as of October 2021