8 Ways Social Media Is Used to Promote Virtual Events

Social media marketing is essential to boost registration and participation of virtual events.

If you’re a virtual event management company, you probably know how important it is to market your event on social media. In fact, because due to the COVID-19 pandemic, almost every online event platform is now creatively using social media to boost attendance at their virtual event.

To help you with your virtual event, we have listed down tips on how you can use social media to market your virtual event.

1. Use Facebook Ads to Remarket Prospects

A great strategy that a virtual event management company can use is retargeting on Facebook. This allows marketers to show event ads to Facebook audiences who abandoned the website before buying a ticket.

Retargeting is a successful tool as people don’t generally purchase the first time they get to know about an event. It is especially useful for conventions and conference management services providers as these are big-ticket items.

When you market to previous website visitors, make sure that you don’t include Facebook users who have already bought a ticket. You can easily do this by creating a tailored audience from the same page that you used to check for conversions.

2. Take Advantage of Instagram Countdowns

Online event platforms often tend to focus their social media marketing efforts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They fail to realize that Instagram is another great platform that you should use to increase web traffic and engagement.

Instagram provides several innovative tools that engage prospective attendees, such as the countdown tool for upcoming virtual events. If you are hosting a virtual conference or webinar, you can use countdowns on Instagram stories to create excitement for your upcoming event. Just make sure you link back to the events registration page when you create an Instagram countdown.

3. Upload Teasers with Important Information

Share appropriate details in the time before the event. Such teasers allow you to create hype and can even offer your target audience some useful pieces of information.

Additionally, teasers are also an excellent way to tell your audience about your guests of honor. For instance, if you’re having a major conference, you could possibly introduce your esteemed speakers one at a time in the weeks before the event.

4. Make A Highlight Reel from Past Events

Video gives you a special opportunity to convey the energy and excitement of a live event. Catchy music and high-quality visuals are an excellent combination to increase registrations. It also creates opportunities for engagement as people can share the video with friends.

Here are a couple things you need to bear in mind when making a video:

  • Be mindful of your target market. The video you make should highlight the benefits of attending your event to potential attendees.
  • Use both Vimeo and YouTube. Both platforms have different strengths, so make sure to leverage them. YouTube is the second largest global search engine and the most frequently used video platform on the Internet. On the other hand, Vimeo is smaller but gives you better control over your brand and there are no interrupting advertisements.

5. Harness the Power of Influencer Marketing

If you want your virtual event to be successful, you need to use influencer marketing to some extent to get the highest returns.

By working with influencers who are familiar with your event’s target audience, you can significantly boost the reach of your social media campaigns. Note that it’s essential to pick the right platform and influencer based on your niche, target audience, and event topic.

However, if you don’t wish to invest too much in influencer marketing for your online events, you can still use micro-influencers to market your event.

6. Choose Your Event Hashtags

Posts with hashtags receive twice as much engagement than without them. Moreover, it’s quite easy to track the buzz created around your event by seeing how often the hashtag was used.

Make sure the hashtags you create cover your event or brand name along with its topic or theme. Combining these two elements will ensure that your posts are seen by those interested in both your topic and who are part of your target audience.

Always include the hashtag when you post about your virtual event, whether that’s the announcement of a sponsor or a new speaker, or a giveaway. You can even use the hashtag in your website, social media bios, and printed marketing tools to help boost the excitement.

7. Host A Social Media Competition

Giveaways and contests are an awesome way to incentivize engagement and sharing, along with being a strong word-of-mouth promotional strategy. Contests with gifts (for example a meal voucher at a restaurant or a free ticket) will encourage followers to promote your event on their profiles.

On Instagram, something as easy as a follow and like can create a ripple effect when viewed by hundreds or thousands of followers.

8. Carry Out Post-Event Promotion

Many times, marketers miss out on the opportunity of post-event promotion of online events. While participations and registrations are necessary to gauge success, don’t stop the marketing once the event has ended. Make use of the plethora of content generated and either repurpose it for your website, blog, or social media handles or distribute it to your attendees to keep them engaged.

One way to continue marketing an event is to have social media posts or blogs containing summaries of your event that can be shared on social media profiles. This can encompass videos highlighting important discussions, quotes from the event, and testimonials from the attendees.

Final Thoughts

As virtual events become more common, social media marketing has become essential to boost registration, participation, and ultimately grow your business. Digital marketers need to use the strategies mentioned above and keep an eye out for the ever-changing industry trends when it comes to online event marketing on social media.

Author

  • Sarah Hill

    Sarah Hill is a content writer at Seven Events Ltd, a leading event management company offering conference management and venue finding services in the UK. She started her career in the events industry almost a decade ago.

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