Events! Events! Events! Be it "Owambe", corporate, religious or any other type, gone are the days of creating awareness for them like a town crier.
Events! Events! Events! Be it "Owambe", corporate, religious or any other type, gone are the days of creating awareness for them like a town crier. Event publicity do not have to leave us with weight loss, darker complexion and tortured footwears. There are "town criers" that can do a great deal of our publicity for us, reaching more people effectively within a short period of time; they are called social media.Social media are an important and potent tool for achieving visibility and conveying a message effectively to a targeted audience. In this information Age, they can place the world at your fingertips and give you a barrier-proof voice. To plan an event nowadays without making provision for online publicity is nothing short of unseriousness about getting positive results, "but not everyone is internet savvy", I hear someone say - my mind actually. Really? Do you have to be an internet guru before you can exploit these awesome platforms? Emphatically "No". In as much as there are folks who are semi-online and semi-terrestrial beings (you know them, don't you? I am not one of them), and we hail them for their dexterity, having a basic knowledge of the modus-operandi of their tool - social media - will make them seem less of gods to us. We can learn how these things work and have them working for us. Below are few of them we should consider when planning our next event:
FACEBOOK - facebook.com
With over 2 billion active users (as at the time of writing), this is a social media tool that allows to 'evangelize' your event by creating an 'event page'. You can post updates about your event, share blog posts and video teasers, tag your guest speakers(if any), sponsors/partners and colleagues, and run facebook ads as well.
INSTAGRAM - instagram.com
Boasting of an active user of over 700 million, this is an indispensable tool in events publicity. You can upload videos and pictures related to your events there and have those connected to you, see it and react...or decide not to; it happens.
TWITTER - twitter.com
This is a unique platform with over 328 million active users; it is big enough to contain all and small enough to recognize each one. To take full advantage of twitter, here are few helpful tips:
- Create a special #hashtag for your event which you'll use in any post you make
- Monitor conversions using a conversion tracker like Hootsuite
- Be ready to give answers to questions
- Tweet things that are trending or new as far as your event is concerned
- Re-tweet tweets that are relevant to your event and encourage your followers to do same
- Post photos and videos
- Promote your guest speakers(if any), sponsors/partners and colleagues
READ - Interesting Ways to Use Social Media to Create Buzz-Worthy Events
LINKEDIN - linkedin.com
This is a platform with a membership of over 332 million. It is a vital tool when it comes to industry specific groups or professionals-targeted publicity. On LinkedIn, you can run targeted ads, register events, create groups for them and have discussions there, check attendees' profiles and include relevant professionals in your network.
WHATSAPP - whatsapp.com
With an active user of over 1.2 billion, this is useful for event publicity. By making use of the 'status' feature which allows you to upload ephemeral pictures and videos, you can publicize your events to people on your contact list. You can have multiple posts of either pictures or videos or both on your status and have your audience (contacts) view them and make comments or ask questions if they so desire.
YOUTUBE AND SNAPCHAT - youtube.com, snapchat.com
Youtube, the 2nd search engine in the world with over 1.2 billion users and Snapchat, with over 255 million active users, affords you the unique opportunity to communicate through great visuals and audio, the energy and excitement of your event in order to elicit the desired response in your targeted audience.
Now, note; by inviting people for your event on whatever social media platform(s), you are asking them for their time and resources; therefore, you need to 'blow your trumpet' by letting them know what's in it for them on the platform(s) you are using. There are other social media tools you can use for event publicity but the ones above are a good place to begin most especially if you are new in the art of using social media tools to publicize events. Avail yourself of them and make your next event gain the exposure it requires.
We have showed you the best social media platforms to use when planning an event. If you're thinking of interesting way to utilize these social media platforms to create a buzz-worthy event, then you should read this article here
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