As an event planner, you know that planning the event is only half the battle. The other half is getting people to register and show up.

If you’re like a lot of our clients, you probably rely heavily on social media to market your corporate events. But are you using these channels as effectively as you could be?

Whether you’re hosting a live event, a virtual event, or a hybrid event, social media is a powerful took to gain exposure.

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Social Media Tips to Drive Event Registrations

Facebook Ads to Target Website Visitors

Facebook gives advertisers a lot of tools to help them target the exact right audience. For example, their “custom audiences” allows you to show your ads only to people who have already visited your website. These are warm prospects and it’s far easier to convince someone who already knows you to interact with you more.

I really can’t say enough about this one strategy. People rarely buy a ticket to an event the first time they hear about it. But when you remarket to them, you are far more likely to get them to bite on the second or third interaction with your brand.

Create and Use One Unified Hashtag

This is such a simple thing to do, and yet we see so many event planners not leveraging this powerful little marketing hack. For each one of your events, be sure to create and use an event-specific hashtag. You should use this hashtag well in advance of your event dates and include it on all marketing collateral, every image and your email signature. Just put it everywhere!

Why are hashtags so important when promoting your corporate event? For two reasons. One, you’ll make it really easy for people to find the content you are sharing. In addition, you’ll also help people see what others are saying about your event. This is a great way to create buzz. And if there’s one thing all event planners need to do, it’s to create buzz for their events!

Make a Highlight Reel

For decades, Hollywood studios created and released trailers for their upcoming movies. They know that before an audience is going to pay money to buy a ticket for the movie, they want to see a preview of what they’re getting.

Take a cue from Hollywood and do the same for your event by creating a highlight reel from a prior event. We have found that vivid visuals and really great audio absolutely creates engagement and drives registration.

Be sure to share this reel across your social media pages!

Lean Heavily on Visuals

According to many industry experts, images help get your social media content noticed and shared. In fact, according to Twitter, tweets with images receive an average 35% boost in retweets. Facebook posts with images also get 37% more engagement.

If you’re not relying heavily on images in your social media marketing, it’s time to get visual.

Here are some ways event planners can include more imagery in their social media posts to draw prospects’ attention:

Share images from previous events – like your highlight reel, share images from prior events on your social media updates. A great idea is to share user generated content.
Share photos of your guest speakers with quote overlays.
Use branded images with previous positive attendees’ comments taken from exit surveys. Be sure to give attribution to the commentor.
Share behind-the-scenes visual content so prospects know the depth of planning and creativity you employ when hosting an event.

Create a Facebook Event Page

Many of your attendees and prospects use Facebook on a daily basis. Make it easy for everyone to keep up with the latest event news by creating an event page listing. Not only can everyone access the latest updates, but this is a great place to encourage networking before your event. We have found attendees like this page so much they end up sharing it with their network, which often leads to more people signing up.

TIP: Be sure to monitor your event page regularly so you can facilitate conversations, answer questions, share information and delete spam.

The Wrap

These are some of the most powerful social media marketing tricks our clients use to promote their own corporate events. Do you have any social media marketing strategies you use regularly and successfully? Leave your tips in the comment section below.

And if you find you need any help planning your next corporate event, please feel free to reach out to us. We help planners with their live events, as well as virtual and hybrid events.