BEST PRACTICES IN PR: 10 TIPS TO BETTER “SOCIALIZE” YOUR EVENT
By Kayla Roofe, chair, PRSA Colorado Communications Committee and 2018 Joe Fuentes Rookie of the Year
Does your business put on events? Do you wonder how you can optimize social media to gain exposure? Whether you’re hosting a physical conference or an online event, social media is a great way to not only inform your audiences about the details of an event, but social media also allows you to further brand your campaign and tell your story.
As part of the team that helps inform, engage and connect members through social media platforms, I also help drive PRSA Colorado’s narrative through social media about our events and membership. From targeted group events such as the Young Pros Happy Hour Series and the Master Practitioner meet-ups to more formal gatherings including the luncheons and our annual Gold Pick Awards — social media plays a crucial role in driving registration, informing attendees of upcoming initiatives and encouraging new membership to the chapter.
Here are 10 social media tips to better promote your event, articulate your brand and tell your story:
- Create a Highlight Reel
Video provides pros a great opportunity to convey the energy and excitement of a live event. Unique visuals combined with catchy audio drive registration. Research shows video (and audio) create more engagement because people tend to share what they hear and what they “experience,” allowing you more opportunities to tell you story to more people. - Utilize Visual Testimonials
Comments from exit surveys of previous events provide authenticity and credibility to your marketing. Maybe you’ve interviewed attendees or speakers and captured statements of excitement about specific sessions, speakers or your event in general. Don’t let that content go to waste. Create simple graphic images with these quotes and comments. Then, share the visuals in your email marketing campaign, social platforms, blog posts and email signatures.
Bonus Tip: Create a testimonial video. Video is an extremely effective medium to showcase the passion and enthusiasm your event inspires. A quality testimonial video builds trust by allowing viewers to see and hear words of praise rather than simply read them. - Empower Your Network with Shareable Assets
Make it easy to share your event. Provide a webpage with branded, downloadable resources that fit any platform. Capitalize on attendees’ excitement to attend your event and provide them with a button to immediately share a post or retweet a visual from your registration thank-you page. - Create an Event Hashtag
Hashtags have not only become universal as a marketing feature, they’ve become standard as a branding practice. When marketing an event, create, use and market your event-specific hashtag. Use the hashtag well in advance of your event and use it prominently in your traditional and digital marketing material. A hashtag is a simple, repeatable brand element that can be shared, tweeted, posted and snapped in advance of your event, during your event and post-event for sharable stories.
Bonus Tip: If you have a long event name or if your event is “hard” for the average person to spell, consider using abbreviations and the date of the event in the hashtag instead. Ex. #WDC2018 - Use Photos of Attendees in Social Updates
If you have a repeat event, take advantage of those old photos and share them again. Even better, share User Generated Content (UGC) on your social accounts. Take a flattering, engaging picture of some of your attendees and create a status update. Identify the people in the picture and be sure to “tag” them if you can. Tagging gives people an opportunity to comment and talk about what they’ve learned, what insights they’ve gained and what they’re looking forward to from attending again. - Share Graphics of Speakers with Quote Overlays
It’s hard to overstate the importance of using visuals in your marketing. While a headshot of a speaker might be reasonable, on its own, the photo may fall flat. Rather, think about including content from the speaker’s presentation along with a headshot. This approach gives your audience something tangible to tie to that speaker — a glimpse into his or her personality or presentation. - Create a Facebook Event Page
According to one recent survey, more than 1.4 billion people log into Facebook daily. * Make it easy for them to keep up with event news by creating an event page listing. Your event page is also a great place to encourage networking before the event. The convenience of an event page also encourages sharing by attendees. As the big day approaches, don’t forget to send reminders to encourage people to RSVP on your event page.
Bonus Tip: If you have a lot of content to share about your event and don’t want to crowd your main Facebook page with too many reminders, use the event page to post specific updates on the events that current attendees or those interested in the event can see. Even better, host giveaways in the event page to continue to draw traffic to your registration page and boost the event itself with targeted audiences. - Take Advantage of Facebook’s Call to Action
Now that you have updated your cover photo to showcase your event, take it a step further by adding a Call to Action (CTA) button. According to Facebook, the CTA button “brings a business’s most important objective to the forefront of its Facebook presence.” What could be more important than generating event revenue for your business? - Use Facebook Ads to Target Prospects
Facebook Custom Audience allows you to target your advertising to prospects by interest, demographic or personality type. As a result, Facebook users who have similar interests are more likely to attend your event.
Bonus Tip: Maximize your advertising dollar by including a specific event location. This ensures that you will target those individuals who can reasonably travel to your event. - Diversify and Document
When starting out, you may need to try a number of social media promotional tactics to underscore your overall event marketing. Find out what best resonates with your audiences and document it. This will help you become more than just a social media tactician and provide your PR team more opportunities for strategic communication.
Do you have another best practice in PR you would like to share? Email us at [email protected] to be featured in an upcoming blog!
