Social media has become one of the most effective ways to promote corporate events. It is also one of the easiest ways to share updates, answer questions and engage with your audience.
Whether you are organising a conference, exhibition, networking event or product launch, social media marketing can turn things around for your corporate event. With that said, social media event promotion involves much more than posting a few updates in the days or weeks leading up to the event. It requires a well-planned social media strategy.
In this guide, we explore some of the best strategies for using social media effectively, throughout the corporate event lifecycle. We will share practical insights on its various aspects, from choosing the right platforms to creating engaging content. But first, let’s understand why it is important to use social media for promoting your event.
Why Social Media Is Important for Event Promotion
1. Reaching a Wider Audience
Social media allows you to promote your event to a far bigger audience, than what’s achievable with traditional marketing alone. A single post can instantly reach your existing followers, and also begin to gain traction with newer audiences, as time passes. Your target audience may also come across posts shared by speakers, sponsors or previous attendees of your event. This wider reach makes social media an effective way to increase awareness about the event and attract potential attendees.
2. Building Buzz Around the Event
Regular social media updates create anticipation and give people something to look forward to, in the days or weeks leading up to the event. Announcing keynote speakers, sharing venue previews, offering sneak peeks behind the scenes, revealing parts of the event programme or posting countdown updates, can all help build and maintain interest. Instead of asking people to remember a single announcement, regular content keeps the event visible and reminds attendees why they decided to register.
3. Increasing Audience Engagement
Social media helps increase audience engagement. It’s often the early conversations around the event that help build a sense of involvement in your attendees and make them more likely to attend the event.
4. Supporting Communication
Connecting on social media can make it easier for the attendees to reach your team and request the information they are looking for. Not only that, they would also be willing to offer insights into what they are looking forward to when thinking of attending the event, which can help further fine-tune your event strategy. This two-way communication can help make your event a far bigger success than when you would have ignored your social media presence.
Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms
1. LinkedIn for Professional Audiences
LinkedIn is one the best platforms for promoting corporate events. It allows businesses to reach professionals, decision makers and industry experts who are already interested in niche, business-related content and look forward to potential networking opportunities. This is why sharing event announcements works particularly well on LinkedIn. To get better results, you may encourage speakers, sponsors and employees to share these posts with their LinkedIn networks, so it can help extend your reach beyond your own audience.
2. Instagram for Video Content
Instagram is ideal for showcasing the theme and design of your event. Photos, short-form videos and stories allow potential attendees to see what they can expect at the event and help make it feel more real. “Behind the scenes” clips, venue tours, speaker introductions and highlights from previous events often perform well on Instagram, because they give people a glimpse of the overall event experience, rather than simply reading about it online.
3. Facebook for Event-related Communities
Facebook remains a useful platform for promoting corporate events, particularly when building communities around an event. Creating an event page gives attendees a common place to find all the event-related updates, ask questions and interact with other people who are planning to attend. It also makes it easier for attendees to invite colleagues and share the event with their own network of friends.
4. X for Live Event Updates and Conversations
X can work particularly well for sharing quick updates, before and during an event. Important announcements, reminders, speaker quotes and live event highlights can all be shared as they happen, which can help keep both attendees and those following the event remotely in the loop. Using a dedicated event hashtag also makes it easier for people to follow the ongoing conversations and discussions related to the event.
Tips for Creating a Social Media Event Promotion Plan
1. Start Early
One of the biggest mistakes organisers make is waiting until the final few days before the event. This often fails to generate the best results. Starting early with the promotional campaigns can help build awareness gradually over several weeks and reach maximum audience. It also gives attendees more time to plan their schedules, register in advance and signal their attendance.
2. Create a Content Calendar
Instead of trying to come up with what to post each day, create a content schedule that covers the weeks leading up to the event. Your content calendar could include registration related announcements, introduction to speakers, regular countdown posts, event reminders, behind the scenes clips, and important information for attendees.
3. Keep Your Branding Consistent
Using the same colours, fonts, logos and tone of voice across your social media channels helps create a stronger brand identity and makes your content easier to recognise and your promotional campaigns look more professional.
4. Use a Clear Call to Action
Unless your posts are specifically designed to share important information, they should carry a call to action (CTA) and encourage people to take the next step. Whether you want people to register, visit your event page or learn more about the programme, make it clear what they should do next. Use a simple, short and clear CTA, like “Register Today”, “Reserve Your Seat” or “Find Out More”, for example.
Content Ideas for Social Media Event Promotion
1. Speaker Announcements
Announcing your speaker lineup for the event is one of the best ways to generate interest in your audience before your event. However, instead of simply listing the speakers’ names and job titles, share in your posts why each speaker is worth hearing from and what attendees can expect to learn from them. Try introducing speakers gradually over the days or weeks leading to the event, instead of revealing the entire lineup at once. This gives you a steady stream of content to share and keeps your audience interested in your future announcements.
2. Behind the Scenes Content
Sharing photos and short videos of the event team at work, the venue being set up for the event, or speakers getting ready to deliver their sessions gives attendees a glimpse behind the scenes and helps build anticipation. It also shows the hard work that goes into delivering and designing an event.
3. Countdown Posts
As the day of the event gets closer, countdown posts help keep it at the top of people’s minds as a reminder that they have registered to attend it.
4. Important Information
Don’t forget to share important information for the attendees, such as travel advice, arrival times, parking details or what attendees should bring.
5. Short Videos and Reels
Short videos are one of the most engaging types of content on social media. A quick venue tour or highlights from previous events can all give potential attendees an idea of what the event is supposed to be like.
6. Attendee Testimonials
One of the most effective ways to encourage new registrations is to let previous attendees share their experiences. When potential attendees hear directly from people who have attended the event in the past, it gives them reasons why the event is worth attending and also helps set realistic expectations.
Tips for Increasing Audience Engagement on Social Media
Stage 1: Pre-event
1. Create an Event Hashtag
A dedicated event hashtag helps bring your social media content together and makes it easier for attendees to join the conversation on social media. Once you’ve decided on it, use it consistently across your social media channels, promotional materials and event signage so attendees know exactly which hashtag to use. It also encourages people to share their own posts before, during and after the event.
2. Ask Questions and Run Polls
Asking questions or running simple polls on social media encourages your audience to interact with your content before the event begins. You could ask things like which session attendees are looking forward to the most, what topics they would like discussed or what they hope to gain from attending the event. These conversations not only increase audience engagement, but can also provide useful insights into your audience’s interests and expectations.
3. Encourage Speakers and Sponsors to Share Content
Your speakers, sponsors and event partners all have their own audiences. Encourage them to share event updates and introduce your event to their audience who may not necessarily know about your brand or the event you are planning.
Stage 2: During the Event
1. Share Live Updates
Social media engagement should continue once the event begins. Sharing live updates and important announcements throughout the day keeps attendees informed and gives people who could not attend a chance to follow what is happening.
2. Post Photos and Video Highlights
Post highlights from keynote sessions and memorable moments as they happen. Images of speakers on stage, attendees networking and clips from the interactive sessions can help showcase the event as it unfolds and provide attendees with content they can like, comment on and share with their own networks.
3. Encourage User Generated Content
Some of the most valuable event content comes from attendees themselves. When people share photos, videos and their thoughts about the event, it helps extend your audience reach, create a stronger sense of community around the event and build anticipation for future events.
Stage 3: Post-Event
1. Share Event Highlights
Even when the event is over, your social media activity isn’t supposed to stop there. Sharing more highlights from the day allows attendees to look back on the event, while giving those who could not attend a chance to see what they missed.
2. Thank Attendees, Speakers and Sponsors
A simple thank you post is an effective way to acknowledge everyone who helped make the event a success. It helps show your appreciation towards the attendees, speakers, sponsors and partners and helps maintain positive relationships after the event.
3. Repurpose Event Content
An event often creates far more content than what can be shared in a single day. Speaker interviews, presentation clips, audience questions and event photos can all be reused over the following weeks. Sharing this content gradually helps keep the conversation going, gives your audience another opportunity to engage with your business and learn more about your future events.
Common Social Media Promotion Mistakes to Avoid
1. Delaying the Promotional Campaigns
Leaving your social media promotion until the final countdown begins can limit the opportunity to create sufficient awareness about the event, and may therefore lead to fewer registrations and attendance.
2. Not Having a Clear Social Media Strategy
Without a clear social media plan and strategy, your content may fail to support your event goals.
3. Focusing on Promotion Instead of Engagement
Social media is designed around interactions. So, if you stay focused on promoting your event, asking people to register, and forget to engage with your audience, they may gradually lose interest.
4. Stopping Social Media Engagement After the Event Ends
Many organisers stop posting on social media as soon as the event finishes. As a result, they miss the opportunity to keep the engagement going.
Final Thoughts
Having a clear social media strategy can help get the best results from your social media efforts. At Purple Patch, we help businesses plan, promote and deliver corporate events that keep audiences engaged at every stage. If you are planning your next corporate event and need expert assistance, get in touch with our team today!
