Event management is now completely automated, at least when it comes to event promotion in which social networks have a huge role. In this article we tried to sum up all the benefits social networks provide to event managers and to discover new ways in which websites like: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can be used for increasing event attendances and ensuring that every attendee goes home satisfied.
What are the main goals for using social networks in event management?
Huge popularity of social networks, made event managers to quickly recognize their potential. These are the main goals for using social media in event management:
- Event awareness- Many people use different social networks for planning their day and receiving information about nearby events. That’s why social media is the main tool organizers use for popularizing their events.
- Brand awareness- Most commercial events are used for brand promotion. Social networks offer great possibilities for brand advertising, especially after networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram included smart ad platforms into their business model. Of course when using social networks for this purpose, organizers should focus on event itself, without flooding attendees with too many commercial offers.
- Creating new communication channels- Event pages created for popularizing certain events, can later be used as channels for personal and commercial communication.
Which social media websites you should use?
Statistics say that Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the most commonly used social networks in event-management. Facebook is by far the most popular social media channel, and it leads with 78%, when it comes to usage for purposes of event-management. It can be used for both business and leisure events.
Twitter is also very popular, and it is mostly used for announcing leisure or business events that will be attended by predominantly young crowd. Twitter comes with a few more aces in its sleeve when it comes to event management. Since it runs in real-time it can also be used as communication channel between event attendees. This can be done by projecting Tweets with event’s hashtag on screen installed on the stage, so all attendees can see them.
LinkedIn is mainly used for business events, and it can be a great tool for promoting events among company’s employees or people who work in specific niche or job post.
Use of social media in different event stages
Although most people think that social media is only used for pre-event promotion, these websites can be used effectively in various event stages.
- Pre-event- event promotion is the main purpose of pre-event social media use. For conducting an effective promotion, managers should determine their targeted audience. This is very important for maximizing promotion results, because various social media ad platforms offer advanced targeting options. Before they start event promotion, managers should establish their promotional budget, create content they are going to share on event pages, brand their event and determine posting schedule. During promotional period they should post both promotional and informative content, use hashtags, ask their followers to share event information and enable them to reserve tickets. Tickets can be reserved by messaging or on organizer’s website by using a WordPress event ticketing plugin.
- During the event- Social networks can be very useful during the event. They can be used for making check-ins, streaming and making contact between event attendees. Event managers mainly use Periscope app for streaming, while Twitter is used for establishing contact between attendees. As we mentioned in previous chapter, event managers often place large screens on which attendees can post their Tweets and comment the event itself.
- Post-event- After the event various social networks can be used for exchanging ideas and posting event feedback. Many organizers decide to write a blog entry that focuses on the event or to share event photos on Facebook or Instagram. Youtube can also be very useful for pre- and post-event promotion, since this network allows organizers to post commercials and event videos.
Event organization and promotion with the use of social networks is a two way process, which is one of its main benefits. Social networks allow event organizers to be in constant contact with attendees and key speakers and to answer all of their questions.
Attendees, on the other hand, can ask questions and give comments before, during and after the event. This traditionally results in higher attendance and less problematic audience, since all attendees come well-informed. Today, when we know all the benefits of using social media for event management, it is hard to imagine how this process was done 20 or 30 years ago. In spite of this, today’s businesses spend less than 20% of their marketing budget on organizing events and only 20% of event managers use social media event monitoring tools.
Hopefully these percentages will grow in the future, as event managers realize all of the benefits that come with this concept.
Raul is a B.Sc. in Innovative entrepreneurship and has a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. While he's not enjoying football and great food, you can find him on Technivorz.com
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