With the change in times, the ways of hosting events have been changed completely. The recent outbreak of the global pandemic has changed the complete dynamics of the event industry. Major shifts have been witnessed in marketing strategies to keep the business going even in the time of crisis. Virtual events took control and hosting virtual events have become the talk of the down.
Today, the internet is full of virtual event platforms that offer comprehensive engagement features to host a virtual event. The year 2020 has created a massive change in the event industry. It has resulted in moving events online on an interactive virtual event platform. Many companies who were in the past have never thought about moving their events online are heavily relying on the same.
The change in the event format has resulted in the change in promoting efforts too. As promotion is the key, the same as promoting physical events, now digital marketers have to plan out ways to promote virtual events. Promoting virtual events help them to reach wider audiences and amplify attendance and participation.
Nowadays, hosting a virtual conference or meeting has become a crucial part of organizations that hold a presence in remote locations. Digital marketers and event planners have quickly adapted the change in the event industry and started planning out the virtual event strategy. It’s not wrong to say, hosting a hybrid event or a virtual event has become a new trend. Ample platforms available today offer the best in class virtual hybrid event solutions to make your event successful.
But, nothing works out well without promotion. Social media marketing is one of the effective tools for promoting any type of virtual event. Digital marketers around the world are tapping on this powerful tool to reach a wide spectrum of audiences seamlessly.
In this article, we have listed some of the effective social media marketing strategies that help in creating a buzz for your virtual events. Let’s get started!
Effective Social media marketing strategies to create buzz:
Virtual events help in increasing the participation, reach, spread brand awareness, revenues, profits & helps in building connections. Whether you are planning to host a virtual music concert or an educational virtual conference, promoting the event is vital.
Social media has proved itself as a powerful tool for promotions and increasing attendance for any type of event. The events promoted on social media channels have received phenomenal response from the audience with increased attendance. Let’s have a look at some social media marketing strategies to create a buzz for your virtual event.
1. Leverage organic social media features
Even if your event is very good with the best speakers if your audience is not aware it is of no use. Promoting upcoming virtual events on social media is the key strategy to make your event successful. It helps in making your audience aware of your event thus boosting attendance. Look out for the interactive and engaging features on a platform to make your virtual event stand apart from others.
You can use various social media features to promote your event via social media marketing. Some effective features are:
- Social media stories: The social media story feature of Instagram is growing exponentially well. It can be used by digital marketers to give a teaser of the upcoming virtual event to the audience. A direct link to registration shared in stories helps in increasing awareness and attendance at the event.
- Facebook Events: Once you decide to host a virtual event, you can create Facebook events that notify the target audience with what, where, and when. Attendees can mark it as interested, the platform will send reminder notifications before the event date automatically. It helps in giving your upcoming virtual event the much-desired exposure. Organizations can even opt for Facebook paid advertising to promote their event.
- Social media countdowns: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are some of the social media marketing channels that are utilized by companies for promoting and marketing their events. It helps in boosting the virtual footfall of the event. Creative engaging tools offered by such platforms help in creating countdown for the event thus boosting excitement among audiences.
- Live streaming: While hosting a virtual event, companies can opt for a variety of formats to boost engagements. Live streaming features offered by social media platforms help in increasing attendance at the event.
2. Work closely on messaging about your event
As virtual events have gained a sudden spike in 2020, delivering clear messages to the audience plays a vital role. The target audience must be clear why they need to attend an event? What benefit will they achieve out of the same? How attending an event holds value to them? And so on. Digital marketers should be aware of the requirements of the target audience and why is it important for them to attend an event.
Posts on social media that outlines the elements of the upcoming event should be precise and clearly convey the messages. It should show the audience the importance of their attendance and participation at the event, thus making them feel valued. Post an engaging message that showcases your events as well as the value of target audience attendance.
3. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is trending today. Instead of spending large amounts of money on celebrity brand ambassadors, big brands are taking advantage of influencer marketing. It is a great social media marketing strategy to create a buzz about the upcoming virtual event. Connect with the industry influencers to promote your event thus resulting in increased reach and visibility.
4. Paid social media advertising
Apart from promoting your virtual hybrid events by utilizing organic social media features, invest some amount in paid advertising too. Even if the event is virtual, paid social media advertising always works well. It helps in enhancing the visibility of your upcoming virtual event. Paid advertising helps in reaching an ample number of audiences on the platform apart from followers thus resulting in increased attendance.
5. Strategize post-event promotion
Do not restrict yourself only to the pre-promotion of the virtual event. As these events are hosted on an interactive virtual event platform measuring the success of the event becomes easy. The platform offers complete data of the event right from registration to till the event ends. It helps in measuring the performance metrics of the event. But, do not let the promotion stop once the event ends. Strategize on post-event promotion strategy. Follow up attendees to convert it into leads. Apart from it, distribute the content delivered during the event on various channels to make new audiences aware of who was not part of the event. Keep them engaged with blogs, social media effects, and so on even after the event gets over.
Final Word
As virtual has become the new normal, virtual events are on the peak and are here to stay. Social media marketing is an effective promotional tool to increase reach, boost registrations, amplify attendance, magnify participation, and ultimately make your virtual event a big hit.
The above-mentioned social media strategies help in creating the buzz about your upcoming virtual event thus increasing visibility.
Increase your virtual event attendance and engagements by incorporating social media marketing strategy in your plan!