How To Promote An Event On Facebook

Create A Poll On Facebook To Engage With Followers

You want your event to be wildly successful, so you need to make sure its just what your participants are looking for. Why not make them feel directly involved in the planning process by creating a poll on Facebook?

You can ask about what exactly theyd be interested in seeing at the event or their goals for the event to help you shape the content. Or, as in the example below, you can ask about a topic relevant to the event content to get them interested in what they can gain by attending.

Create An Event Hashtag

Hashtags are a great way for people to follow along with a certain event through a simple search on their social media networks. Hashtags can be used on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, so your participants can follow you wherever they hang out in the cyberworld.

Engage with people who use your hashtag and take the time to tell them how happy you are theyll be attending your event. This personal connection is a priceless asset, as many people love to get special attention from companies they follow.

Using a template like the one below, you can create an image with the essential information and encourage followers to use your hashtag to connect.

Edit this design in Canva

Craft Your Content Carefully

Engagement with your posts determines how many potential event-goers see your promotions, so you need to make every post count.

For maximum engagement, youll want to include images and space out your ticket sale posts with more general industry news or lifestyle info. Make the content engaging, conversational, and not overly salesy. Also:

• Tailor content for each social network: You want to keep in mind the different styles and audiences on each platform. On Twitter, its short, sweet, and sometimes quirky, whereas on LinkedIn, you should steer toward a more professional tone. The demographics of each social media channel are also something to take into account. If youre aware of who enjoys your content on certain channels, focus your marketing efforts to give them more of what they want.
• Incorporate images into your posts: Image and video-driven posts are more engaging than plain copy. If youve had past events, include photos of happy attendees having a great time. Or, if you have well-known speakers, partners, or vendors for your upcoming event, you can share photos of those people to build excitement. You can even create silly memes or add animated gifs for some lighthearted fun.

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Add The Events To Local Event Calendars

Get the event added to local event calendars both online and on traditional media. There are a ton of local news websites, Facebook event listings, Facebook groups, and local area happenings websites that are all looking for local event listings. Take advantage of these opportunities by listing your event on every one of these sites that are relevant to the area which you want to promote the event in.

In terms of traditional media outlets, local cable stations usually run a listing of community events within their news broadcast, but can also provide advertising for local events thats usually cost effective.

Use Live Video On Event Day

You dont have to livestream your entire event to make a splash with live video. Instead, use short, live clips from your event like behind-the-scenes peeks or interviews with performers to engage viewers. There are plenty of options for livestreaming where you can grow your audience fairly quickly.

This light effort can pay off seriously down the road. Here are a few reasons why, from Amber van Moessner of Livestream:

• Live video is extremely engaging: According to Facebook Live, users spend more than 3x more time and comment 10x more when the video is live.
• Live video grows attendance: 30% of people who watch a livestream of an event will attend the same event the following year.
• Live video is cost-effective: Its a common misconception that live video is costly. Thanks to tools like Facebook Live, anyone can leverage the technology and see a positive return on investment.

In addition to Facebook Live, Instagram, Twitch and YouTube are also viable livestreaming platforms where you can find many viewers. To ensure your streams work well to find an audience, be sure they are longer than 10 minutes so youre live long enough to attract as many users as possible.

Not sure where to host your livestream? Heres how you can stream with or YouTube.

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Choose Your Event Hashtag

Come up with a hashtag thats short, unique, and easy to understand. Once you land on an idea, stick with it! Consistency is key.

If you post anything relevant to your upcoming event, include your hashtag. Add it to all of your social account bios as well. And dont stop there promote your hashtag on all your other communication channels. These include your event website, promotional emails, print materials, and more. Videos are getting more attention than ever, so include the hashtag where viewers can easily notice it, such as a footer or in a corner.

During the event, make sure your hashtag is visible so your guests know to use it. Include it in handouts and display it on screens throughout your venue. Better yet? Give people incentive to use your hashtag and . This could mean setting up a photo booth branded with your hashtag or creating a photo competition where the best photo using your hashtag wins a prize. Keep in mind that contests have legal requirements, so make sure you consult a lawyer prior to running one.

Run A Social Media Contest

Wish your followers shared your posts more? Make it happen with social media contests . Social media is vital for event promotion, but you cant just rely on your own accounts to spread the word you have to get event-goers to share it as well. Contests are the perfect way to motivate word-of-mouth promotion without a huge investment.

But not every social media contest is as successful as it could be and if you dont follow legal requirements, contests could even land you in legal trouble. Make sure to consult with a lawyer and post contest rules that reflect your local and state legal requirements. You dont want to risk your event brand during promotion.

Use this blog post to learn how to use contests to level up your social media strategy.

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Choose Your Social Networks

Depending on your industry and target audience, some social platforms may be more effective than others. Typically, if you can do some promotion on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you should be well covered. Heres a quick overview:

• : You can share event updates, engage followers, and create event pages. You can also target your messaging to specific groups using paid promotion.
• : Brands get the most engagement on this image-laden social platform.
• TikTok: This short-form video platform has taken the world by storm. With its quickly evolving landscape, you can experiment with many new features for businesses.
• Twitch: The entertainment industry is taking full advantage of this livestreaming platform.
• : A legacy video platform that is becoming even friendlier to advertisers and musicians.
• : Great for B2B and industry networking, this professional social media platform is a good choice for company news and event announcements.
• : Use posts and an event hashtag to build excitement before and during your event.
• Snapchat: Appeal to young audiences by building a presence on Snapchat.
• Spotify: How popular and up-and-coming musical acts promote shows and tours to fans.

Coordinating Your Marketing Campaign

People remember logos and slogans. Coordinate the theme of your marketing campaign with coordinating colors, a catchy campaign slogan, and an attractive logo. All of these elements should appear in all your advertising, including flyers, posters, and newspaper ads. Take advantage of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They reach a massive audience.

When youre promoting events, you can take advantage of online and offline ideas to ensure the success of your event. The good news is that your event can be successfully marketed even if youre operating on a small budget. Use your imagination, be creative, and try different trade show promotion techniques.

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Event Marketing: How To Successfully Promote An Event

In this event marketing guide, we reveal the strategies we used to promote our first conference and outline how you can use these techniques for your event.

Event marketing can be a daunting task. It encompasses a wide variety of disciplines, which in turn requires a lot of work across multiple teams within an organization.

Promoting a large event or conference can sometimes feel like youre scaling Mount Everest on a Unicycle sans oxygen, but with the right tools and strategy, youll be guaranteed success.

Read on to learn some of the top event marketing strategies and tools you can use to create buzz and increase attendance at your next industry event.

This framework is based on three years of successful promotion for our annual user event, The Now You Know Conference, or NYK for short.

Launch Paid Social Media Ads

According to Adweek, an average of only about 2-6% of your Facebook followers will see posts you make on your event page.

If you want to get your content in front of the right people, its a pay-to-play environment, says Ali Shakeri, of Eventbrite Boost. That means supplementing organic posts with paid social ads.

To craft , be sure to include:

• An eye-catching image or video
• Short and sweet post text
• An even shorter headline thats still engaging
• A direct call to action
• An accurate link description

Learn more about launching and measuring social media ad campaigns in The Event Organizers Guide to Paid Social Media Advertising.

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Host A Contest Or Giveaway For A Free Event Registration

If there is one universal truth, its that people love free things. Especially free things that are extremely valuable, like a registration for a highly sought-after event.

Host a contest on Instagram or Facebook for the person who has the most likes or shares on a repost of your event image. Or, let the fates decide and host a giveaway for a randomly selected person who shares your image and tags a friend.

Promotions like these can be extremely successful at cultivating interest in an event and have the potential to reach a large audience.

Design an enticing image like the one below to encourage followers to participate. By asking them to comment you get them invested in the event, so they are more likely to register afterwards, even if they dont win.

Edit this design in Canva

Invest In Tools To Streamline Your Process

If youre not careful, developing and scaling a strong social media strategy can be a drain on your resources. Eventbrite Boost puts all those tools in one place.

With other social media tools, its hard to know what to choose and how to measure ROI. Eventbrite Boost can help you save time and make your social media management less manual and more effective:

• Plan and schedule more efficiently: You cant be online 24 hours a day, so use tools that can help you plan, organize, and schedule your posts.
• Create and curate diverse content: Content curation platforms help you find interesting content. Bookmark a blog post or a video that relates to your topic.

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Design A Geofilter To Use On Snapchat

Snapchat is a booming social media platform for teenagers. Tons of businesses are using it to communicate with customers, show them behind-the-scenes preparations, and have one-on-one interactions that create personal connections.

Theres a certain exclusivity about geofilters that make them desirable. Users can only use the filter if theyre in a certain place at a certain time. People snapping geofiltered videos and photos of the event to their friends generates buzz, which can be especially useful if your event happens on a regular basis.

Reebok is one example of a company that used a geofilter for their event, but anyone can easily purchase a geofilter through Snapchats website.

Reebok

When youre finished designing, make sure to using your Canva Pro account. Now, go get creative!

Edit this design in Canva

Post A Short Video With Highlights From Similar Previous Events

People cant get enough of videos these days, which you can use to your advantage. Show your customers what they can expect from an event hosted by you by creating a video of highlights from last years event. Then, post the video on your YouTube channel and on your Facebook page to share it with your friends and followers.

Edit this design in Canva

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If Its A Repeat Event Share Photos Of Attendees Having Fun At Last Years Event

People want to see what theyre signing up for, and a great way to do this is to show them images from a previous event! Add your companys logo and the event name to the image and tweet the photo to encourage new participants to participate.

Autism Speaks did an excellent job of using this strategy to encourage followers to sign up for a walk whose proceeds benefit the organization.

Autism Speaks

Try it yourself! Create a Tweetable image like the one below by using last years photos to show followers what they could be a part of.

Edit this design in Canva

Audience For The Event

The objective of your event should be to reach a targeted audience. For example, if your event is a music festival, you can reach out to people that have attended similar events, and may be able to contact them through a database. Contacting website owners that promote this type of event are a good starting point. They can advertise your event on their site.

This can be a big plus if the site ranks high in the search engines and has thousands of visitors each month. A beading or jewelry show could benefit from flyers or posters in stores that sell beading supplies. Advertising on forums online can also reach a large number of potential attendees.

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The Goal Of Event Marketing

The goal of any special event is to get a return on your investment thats reflected in your monetary return and the amount of leads captured at the event. Although the initial planning stages, including finding sponsors and planning the event schedule, should take place up to 10 months prior to the date of the event, most event planners agree that the next big key to successfully promoting an event is targeting the right audience.

Event Marketing With Local Media

One tried-and-true event marketing tactic is to use local media. Whether its running an ad in the local newspaper or finding local happenings websites that talk about things to do in the local area, local media can be a great tool for promoting an event. People are always looking for fun things to do in their local community, so community oriented media is a great place to get your event details in front of your target audience.

Remember to keep your audience in mind and choose the right local media platforms to fit that audience. For example, older audiences might be more apt to read a newspapers event section, whereas a younger more tech savvy audience may find things to do by browsing local happenings websites. Be sure to find the right local mix for your event.

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Create Individual Images Featuring Each Guest Speaker

Having multiple images to promote your event is never a bad idea. Variety keeps things interesting, and with guest speakers, its easy to create images featuring each person to share with your networks.

Be sure to include the key event info on the image or in the post, and dont forget to feature the achievements of your guest speaker to really shine the spotlight on him, like in the example below. Plus, its free publicity if your guest speaker decides to share the image with his audience, too!

Yusuf Salaam

Create An Infographic That Will Pique Your Audiences Interest In What The Event Has To Offer

Bite-sized information is essential on social media networks, and infographics are a genius way to condense facts into one easily-digestible piece of art.

Once youve got their attention with the infographic, theyre likely to want more when they reach the end. Thats where you reel them in and tell them how they can find out more by attending your event.

This technique works because it gives your followers something of value and makes them more likely to trust that your event will be worth their time.

Infographics can be labor intensive, but our infographic maker tool makes light work of creating beautiful infographics, and weve also created some easy-to-edit templates that are a breeze to tweak, like the one below.

Edit this design in Canva

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Promotion During The Event

The big day is here and your event marketing has worked youve got a venue full of eager attendees, but your work doesnt stop here.

Its crucial you continue promoting the event throughout its duration if you want to maintain buzz.

Keep it live, keep it relevant

For as many people you have attending your event, you have just as many who likely couldnt make it but are still interested in whats happening, and its important to keep them engaged.If you engage them now, theyll be more inclined to attend the next conference.

There are a number of ways to do this.

• Live tweet: Have community managers dedicated to tweeting the goings on of the event on a continual basis. They should act as the eyes and ears on the ground and report back using social media. Use pictures and videos of the event to amplify your presence even further and engage your audience by encouraging them to share on their social channels using the dedicated hashtag. At the NYK Conference, we hold a Twitter contest awarded the top tweets at the event with trophies.

• Live blog:

• Live stream: