Social Media for Events: The 5 “Don’ts” Holding You Back
When it comes to the marketing channels that drive attendance, hype, and engagement, social media is right at the top. Social media can help get you get packed events and to generate buzz. However, you won’t achieve much if you’re guilty of the following “don’ts” when it comes to marketing your event on social media.
Don’t Forget to Look at The Stats.
Statistics and analyzing your social media strategy and posts has got to be one of the most important aspects when it comes to being successful in growing following base and engagements. If you don’t analyze your statistics you could potentially sabotage your own social platforms. Meaning, if you’re continuing to post irrelevant content that doesn’t resonate with your target audience, you won’t know it since you aren’t looking at the stats (face palm) and therefore lose your followers or not gain any at all. Even before you start planning your social media strategy you need to look into who exactly your target audience is by analyzing past statistics such as demographics, interests, where they live, and the list goes on! The great thing about social media is that its fluid, therefore it is imperative you look at the stats throughout your campaign to monitor tangible results. If none are produced then you can act and switch up your strategy!
Don’t Wing it – Have a Well Thought Out Plan.
You cannot rely on the notion that you can keep up with weekly postings, especially when doing social media for an event planning company without having a content calendar or plan. As an event marketer your “to-do list” is full without adding social media to it. All your responsibilities on your to do list will catch up to you and before you know it, you’ve missed a full two weeks of posting without a social media plan. There are various ways you can organize your content and plan ahead such as, an excel matrix, word doc, power point, online software such as Hootsuite and more. Strategize your well in advance plan so you aren’t letting your social media bite you in the behind before you realize “oopss I do not have a social post scheduled!!”
Don’t Just Post – Actively Be Involved.
So, you’ve analyzed your stats and have a content calendar with posts for the months ahead, but you’re not done yet! If you want to see the number on your “followers” section continue to increase, then you can’t just dust off your hands once you’ve posted to your social channels. You need to go back and respond thoughtfully to comments and messages. Your social channel isn’t just a channel, it’s a place for you to talk to your followers and create a bond between the event at hand and those who are constantly seeing your content. Another way to increase your presence is to engage with your community partners like local businesses, your cities social media page, event sponsors and more! Having ongoing conversations with your following base should be a major component in your social media strategy.
Don’t Be a Robot. BE YOURSELF!
We can all agree that if you see an Instagram account littered with salesy content, we don’t want to follow it or even spend any time engaging with it. That’s because that type of content is not genuine. You want to be yourself and let your voice shine through your social posts, but still maintain relevancy to your event. It’s better to be witty, funny, and personable than robotic and salesy. It is important to sell tickets for your event and present your event’s information, but you’ll find that you actually won’t sell very many tickets if every post you publish is just pushing for ticket sales. Think about what great aspects of your event you want to highlight like fun activities or an amazing headliner and focus on those to sell your event! Take the post in the image below for example from @LaJollaConcours. The copy still mentions the event dates, but features a relevant component of the event that resonates with their followers and gets them to think “Oh boy, I sure do want to see that beauty in person! Time to purchase my tickets 😊,” without just saying “purchase your tickets today for the La Jolla Concours d’Elegance at www.LaJollaConcours.com.”
Don’t Stop Posting After Your Event Has Passed.
This “don’t” is one I can relate to all too well and have definitely learned my lesson from. With events coming one after the other it can be hard to keep up with social media strategy of a specific event, but it is so important to take the time to thoughtfully plan out content after an event has passed. Even if it is just posting once per week, you should continue posting relevant content, throwbacks, and more to make sure you don’t lose any followers, but gain them! Building your following and engagement back up once an event comes back around can be a nightmare, so it’s best to just keep swimming (posting) as our favorite Disney fish, Dory, says! A tip would be to focus on pre drafting and scheduling at least 3 posts per day and before you know it, you’ll find yourself creating content for September in June!
Half the battle of organizing an event is marketing it and you’re going to need more than just regular promotional methods to increase attendance at your events. That is where social media plays a major role, because you can build up what your page looks like, what content you post, and who you target. Social media is all about testing different strategies until you get it right and that means you may make some mistakes along the way or even commit one of the “don’ts” highlighted in this blog, but at least now you know the “don’ts” I’ve learned to stay away from and hope you do the same! Peace and love to all my event social media marketers out there!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Estefania Cerda
Estefania (or Steff for short) is a sassy senorita who loves a good meme. Catch this beach bunny tanning or binging on juicy murder mysteries or dramatic documentaries. Give her an iced coffee or yummy smoothie and she's a happy gal!
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