How to Market Your Event on Social Media, Part 2

Welcome to part two of our social media series! It’s hard to believe, but social media is still just a kid. Though its beginnings are rooted in the late 90s, it wasn’t until the advent of MySpace in 2003 that anyone really took notice. While that social site has seen better days, new sites have stepped up and given rise to a social media phenomenon, with Americans now spending more than 215 weekly minutes on social media via smartphone and an additional 110 minutes on laptops, desktops, and tablets. In part one of this series, we covered Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, and discussed how you can use them to promote your next event. Now, let’s take a look at three more social media giants: Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat.

Instagram

Hosting over 1 billion active users, Instagram is the preferred social network of Millennials (1981-1995) and Gen Z (1996-2010), beating out even Facebook and Twitter. Instagram is a very visual medium and is largely used for posting photos and short videos up to one minute in length; keep this in mind when deciding how to promote your event (and check out these photo-taking tips). Also, you should know that Instagram is owned by Facebook, so you’ll need to have an account there as well. If you don’t already have an account, kill two birds with one stone and sign up for both today! Three ways to best utilize Instagram for events include:

• Showing off your venue and attendees. Because Instagram is a visual space, highlight the location in advance. This may get Instagrammers excited about it and lead to sharing, increasing your visibility within the community. If you’re unsure of which venue you’re going to use, you might consider posting shots of each potential location and asking followers to vote on their favorite. This makes things interactive and helps you by narrowing down your choices. If your event will feature a well-known professional speaker or celebrity, you’ll always want to post a quick clip of a previous engagement they’ve spoken or performed at.
• Posting when the timing is right. The latest algorithms show that the best time to post and get viewed on Instagram is 5 pm EST (catching those winding down from work) and 2 am EST (catching insomniacs and those just getting home from a late night out!)
• Using Instagram Stories. Instagram Stories lets you put as many photos and videos as you want into a slideshow format that plays in sequence. Stories are live for just 24 hours, which creates a sense of urgency with Instagrammers, making them more likely to view them. Instagram Stories also post to your followers’ timelines in the sweet spot, right at the top of their page. Don’t forget to add some face filters, text, or stickers to your photos if you’re hosting a playful event.

If your event spans multiple days, don’t forget to post fun photos frequently during the event. This can tap into people’s FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and may have them signing up or buying tickets for the next day.

YouTube

YouTube is the second most-visited website in the world, with more than 300 hours of video being uploaded every minute. And, they’re not all just goofy goat videos; the Content Marketing Institute reveals that a majority of marketers identify video as a big part of their strategy. For event planners, YouTube can be used to post video promos about the event. If it’s a smaller event with no produced spots, you may want to post teasers that highlight a well-known professional speaker or celebrity that may be in attendance. If you’re putting on an annual event, YouTube is also the perfect place to post video of the previous year’s event, and try to include interviews with past attendees talking it up. Of course, you want your event to be a knockout, so your YouTube page should be one too. A few tips to consider:

• Customize your channel with imagery, colors, links, and information. Customizing player thumbnails can also encourage plays, click-throughs, and shares.  
• Create a descriptive video title to encourage clicks. In your description, highlight topics, takeaways, sponsors, and speakers if it’s a corporate event, or featured guests and celebrities if it’s a social affair. This text will help the video get recognized by Google and YouTube, which can’t view the video—yet. You should also include a link to your event website.
• Include tags to come up in searches. YouTube has 15 to choose from that can help your video be discovered. You can learn how tags work in this YouTube video.

Finally, don’t forget to interact with fellow YouTubers. When they leave a comment on your video, respond as quickly as possible. Personalizing the response is great if you can, and if it’s negative, respond positively or simply ignore it so there are no regrets later.

Snapchat

Snapchat has more than 300 million users, with about 70% of users identifying as female and under 34 years old. If that’s your target audience, this is where you need to be promoting your next event. So how is Snapchat different from other social media sites? First off, it’s entirely mobile. And unlike most sites where content lives forever (or until it’s deleted), Snapchat posts are only available for a short period of time before they become inaccessible. Most “snaps” disappear as soon as a recipient opens them. This may seem counterintuitive for event promotion, which you want people to be able to share. That’s why Snapchat has introduced the “story” feature. This feature allows you to create a series of photos or videos to build excitement for your upcoming event. Unlike regular snaps that disappear immediately, these are available for 24 hours and shareable. Because viewability is limited, these posts create FOMO similar to Instagram Stories, helping to ensure users view them before they’re gone for good. A 24-hour window may be especially beneficial for pop-up events looking to create in-the-moment hype. To make Snapchat stories more engaging, you’ll want to consider geofilters which allows event followers to layer your logo or event-branded text over their snaps. Creating a contest around it, such as “best snap,” will encourage more people to use the filter. Because geofilters are likely to draw more attention to your event, it comes at a price which you can learn more about here.

Ready to Get Social?

These three social media giants are a great way to get the word out about your next event. Used individually or in conjunction with one another, they can have a tremendous impact on turnout and the talk around town. Be sure to check out part one in our series to learn more about Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, and then get out there and be that social butterfly! Of course, you don’t want to draw hundreds or thousands of people to an event with subpar audio and visual, right? One Way Event Productions can make your next event look and sound great. To learn more, contact us today.